One Minute Governance

You know when you’re learning something new like a sport or a musical instrument or a language or game or whatever? Sometimes it just clicks right away for some reason and you’re like “UGGGGH can we please just move faster! I’m ready!” But then sometimes it feels more like “wait, stop, stop, stop…WHAT IS HAPPENING? I’m really not getting this. I need to slow down.” And if you’re learning in a grou...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

OK I know this sounds kinda dumb but I Googled “trust definition” before writing this script. So here’s my class presentation on trust. Oxford Dictionary defines trust as a “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” In other words, it’s like the opposite of doubt. And one of the things I like about that definition is that we can imagine ourselves trustin...

Building on the previous episode, a close cousin of psychological safety is conflict. One of the most obvious symptoms of a lack of psychological safety in a boardroom is a complete lack of conflict. Conflict doesn’t have to be toxic or personal. It can arise naturally and constructively from disagreement. Disagreement is pretty normal in an environment – like a boardroom – where there are complex...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

There’s a strange thing happening in some boardrooms I’ve encountered over the past few years. The first part of the strange thing is a positive: they’re talking about the importance of psychological safety. In general, I think of psychological safety as a set of conditions where everyone in a group or system feels like they can express what they think or how they feel without fear of being punish...

Before sitting down to start writing the scripts for this season, I wrote a list of the conditions I wanted to cover. Clearly, personal style is a condition that matters when we’re making decisions, but that doesn’t mean I really know how to define it. It’s not the same as personality, exactly. Or is it? It’s also obviously not about fashion sense, but maybe fashion sense is a *result* of our pers...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

It’s been a bunch of months since I realized that there’s a really strong overlap between good governance and equity, diversity & inclusion. For a refresher of what I’m talking about, listen back to episode 113. ED&I and good governance may not be identical, but maybe a good way to put it is that you can’t be intentional about cultivating effective conditions for making decisions without being int...

In the previous episode we talked about technical skills, and the potential need for expertise in a bunch of technical areas. Expertise is weird – for a good summary of exactly how weird, check out Range by David Epstein. Expertise also has a strange relationship with overconfidence, including that people with *deep* expertise tend to have way too much confidence in their ability to make predictio...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

Every organization does complicated stuff that’s hard for the rest of us to understand. Not to mention, every organization has to somehow measure whether it’s doing that complicated stuff well or not, which is even more complicated. Add on top of that the fact that every organization’s complicated stuff affects groups and individuals inside and outside the organization in complicated ways. It’s a...

I find it really interesting, strange even, that some people HATE sci-fi but LOVE fantasy, or vice versa. And lots of other people hate or love both. All this despite the fact that they are simply styles of worlds in which stories are set. I mean a magical hero *should* be just as compelling whether they’re flying a spaceship or a dragon, right? But that’s not how things work. Style matters. Bland...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

Remember that wish list from last episode about boards wanting information that’s shorter, more detailed, and sooner? What are they *really* asking for? They just want to be able to come to the table knowing as much useful stuff as possible. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? Funny thing about the content of board pre-reads is that a lot of it is stuff that nobody needs to know or wants to talk...

I sometimes remind senior executives that their board’s information wish list is that they want it shorter, more detailed, and sooner. And yeah, sometimes those wishes are mutually exclusive. We’ve all heard the famous Mark Twain quote: “sorry for the long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one.” And it’s true: creating something brief that also has substance takes time and practice…I sh...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

Let’s say you’ve decided to start a podcast to include as part of your board pre-work. You’ve got a lot of decisions to make. Will it be scripted or spontaneous? Will it be one voice – maybe your CEO – or many, like the entire executive team? Will it be short, pithy, and brilliant like OMG, or long, boring and arduous like other podcasts (sorry). Maybe it will be an interview format. Maybe those i...

There’s a quote I really like from an article called The Elements of Good Judgment by Sir Andrew Likierman in HBR back in January 2020. Also the article has a beautiful image at the top of what looks like a great gray owl with a super poofy face. Anyway, the quote reads: “As a director of a large listed company, I would get up to a million words to read ahead of a big meeting. Confronted with such...

Every Wednesday, OMG will share an audio version of a definition from the Ground-Up Governance platform. 

Finally! Season 4 of OMG. Let's start with Matt's latest definition of "good governance"   SCRIPT Welcome to season 4 of One Minute Governance! This season is gonna be a bit different. Well, I mean it’s mostly gonna be the same. 60-90 seconds or so of me talking about governance stuff a couple times a week. The different part is that there’s a season-long theme. Let me explain. My current wording...

Season 4 launches May 1st, 2023   SCRIPT I can’t believe it’s already been like 4 months since we wrapped up season 3 of OMG. I just wanted to check in for a sec to let you know that season 4 is on its way. Soon! Not only that, but it’s gonna be the first “concept” season, with a theme. Yeah, yeah, the whole podcast has a theme, I know, corporate governance, blah blah. But this goes beyond that. R...

SEASON 3 FINALE: While you're waiting for season 4, try using OMG in your boardroom.   SCRIPT We’ve reached the end of season three of OMG. 150 episodes. I’ve said before that every time I sit down to write for this podcast I’m afraid I won’t have any new ideas. And sure, it would be a fair criticism to say that I don’t really always have *new* ideas. I do revisit a lot of topics. But I do always...

Let's let go of comparing board chairs to orchestra conductors. A dinner host is a way better analogy.   SCRIPT Back in episode 91, I made an argument against comparing great board chairs to orchestra conductors. But if an orchestra conductor isn’t a good analogy, what is? I think I have something. It’s not perfect, but to me it’s a much better description of an excellent chair. Imagine you arrive...

Can a company get so big that its leaders barely matter?   SCRIPT Think of a really big company. Like, REALLY big. Especially if it does lots of things in lots of places. Even more if it makes money in lots of different ways. Maybe a big bank, for example. Let’s also imagine that the company is pretty good. Y’know, it’s making money, has good competitive positioning, and solid reputation. Let’s al...