Board Conversations

Welcome to Board Conversations. This course is designed to lead the whole board through the essential conversations to be a highly effective board. .

Exceptional boards don't come from one individual learning about governance. They come from the whole board having regular conversations about how they work, and committing together to get better at what they do. In the Board conversations programme, your board will learn and implement the best practices on governance and have a framework for ongoing improvement

The course starts with a self-assessment of your board. We give you a process and template to do this. This wellness check has two outcomes:

  • You’ll have the first benchmark of your board’s performance.
  • You’ll know what areas need improvement.

Ten core lessons cover the essential responsibilities of boards. Every lesson provides your board with crucial knowledge and conversation starters around a key governance topic. You can go through a lesson in just around 15 minutes at your board meeting.

Each lesson contains:

  • A PDF pre-reading sheet to familiarise everyone with the topic.
  • A short video (about 10 min) explaining the topic that your board can view together.
  • An action list template to help you implement the learning straight away.

After your board has completed at least 8 lessons, assess your performance again to see your progress.

The course also includes a year’s complementary access to our wider governance library, for all of your board members. A saving of $300 per person annually.


Your Instructor


Carol Scholes
Carol Scholes

Carol has over 30 years of management experience working in commercial and not-for-profit organisations both in New Zealand and Australia. Her expertise encompasses governance, finance, HR, marketing, training and administration management in Defence, the superannuation industry, and eight years in CEO roles in not for profit organisations with a focus on adult education and community service provision. Since 2006, she has run Threshold Management Ltd providing board and executive coaching, mediation, facilitation and strategic planning with corporate, government and not for profit organisations in New Zealand. For six years, Carol was also a lecturer with Unitec in not-for-profit management and governance. Her specialties are leading change, governance, financial management and conflict management.

Carol specialises in helping organisations understand their bigger vision and how they can improve their systems and build their teams to achieve success for both the organisation and the individuals within it. Much of her work involves strategic thinking and implementation with organisations to understand their current position and future growth plans. With her financial experience, human resource knowledge and her ability to work with all levels of an organisation, she is ideally placed to understand the overall impact of change in an organisation. She has excellent training experience and utilises these techniques and her expertise in her coaching sessions with individuals and groups.

Carol has a Bachelor of Business in Human Resource Management, a Graduate Diploma in Dispute Resolution (Mediation), Certificate IV in Executive Coaching and is a qualified trainer using accelerated learning techniques. In addition, Carol is a Master NLP practitioner, International Master coach, Master clinical hypnotherapist and a certified mBit coach. She is an accredited coach with the International Coach Federation, a Member of the NZ Association for Training and Development and a Chartered Member of and facilitator for the Institute of Directors of New Zealand. Carol is also a volunteer Business Mentor for Business Mentors New Zealand.


Curriculum


  Start Here
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days after you enroll
  Tools for your board. Complete these for certification
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days after you enroll

Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.
How do our board members access their individual log-in details for their subscription?
When a board subscribes, we will send you an introductory email asking for details of your board members and their emails. Upon receipt of this information, we will send the individual log-in details to each of your board members directly to their email.
What if we change our board members during the subscription period?
That's easy! Just send the name and email address for your new board member and the name of the board member that has left your board to [email protected]. We will send the log-in details to the new board member at no extra cost to you. Your departing board member will lose their subscription access but can join anytime on our individual subscription plan.

Get started now!