Programme overview
Technical depth: Practitioner · Practical mode: Case study
Introduction
Organisations spend a large share of management time in meetings and committees, yet many end without a clear decision, repeat the previous month's discussion, or leave minutes that cannot show who agreed what. Unclear mandates and weak procedure also create governance risk when decisions are later questioned. This Core Concept course equips managers to design committee mandates, run disciplined meeting cycles and keep records that stand up to scrutiny. Working on real agendas, minutes and terms of reference, participants build a Committee Governance Toolkit for a committee in their own organisation.
Course Objectives
- Assess the committees and recurring meetings in an organisation against their mandate, cost and decision value
- Draft committee terms of reference that set purpose, membership, quorum, decision rights and reporting lines
- Plan an annual meeting cycle with agendas and meeting packs that bring decisions, not updates, to the table
- Chair meetings using procedural rules and decision models that keep discussion on the agenda and within time
- Record decisions and actions in minutes that stand as reliable governance records, and track them to closure
- Produce a Committee Governance Toolkit ready for adoption by a committee in the participant's organisation
Target Audience
- Managers who chair management, steering or operational committees
- Governance, secretariat and board-support managers responsible for meeting cycles and records
- Heads of department whose teams depend on committee decisions to proceed
- Programme and project managers running steering committees and review boards
- Executive office managers coordinating leadership meetings and their follow-up
Course Outline
Day 1: Meetings, Committees and the Governance System
- Governance Structures and Committee Mandates under ISO 37000
- Meeting Types Using Lencioni's Daily, Weekly, Strategic and Off-Site Model
- Cost of Meetings Analysis Using a Meeting Audit Template
- Delegation of Authority Matrix and Committee Decision Rights
- Current-State Assessment of Committee Structures Against a Governance Maturity Checklist
Day 2: Governance Frameworks and Procedural Rules
- G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance: Board Committee Practice
- Committee Terms of Reference: Purpose, Membership, Quorum and Reporting Lines
- Robert's Rules of Order: Motions, Voting and Points of Order
- Bain RAPID Decision Model for Committee Roles
- Conflict of Interest Declarations and Register Management
Day 3: Running the Meeting Cycle
- Annual Meeting Calendar and Forward Agenda Planning
- Agenda Design with Timed Items and Decision Labels
- Meeting Pack Assembly and Pre-Read Distribution Protocol
- Chairing Techniques: Time-Keeping, Consensus Testing and the Parking Lot
- Action Minutes Drafting: Decisions, Owners and Deadlines
Day 4: Risks, Controls and Committee Effectiveness
- Minutes as Records under ISO 15489-1 Retention and Approval Principles
- Action Tracker and Matters Arising Follow-Up Controls
- Governance Failure Patterns: Quorum Gaps, Scope Creep and Rubber-Stamping
- Virtual and Hybrid Meeting Protocols and Board Portal Security
- Committee Effectiveness Self-Assessment and Annual Review Questionnaire
Day 5: Case Work and the Committee Governance Toolkit
- Audit Committee Case Study: Tracing a Missed Escalation Through the Minutes
- Project Steering Committee Case Study: Redesigning a Stalled Meeting Cycle
- Terms of Reference Redraft for an Own Committee
- Committee Governance Toolkit Assembly: Calendar, Templates and Action Tracker
- Peer Review Panel and Toolkit Defence
Skills You Will Gain
- Committee Mandate Design
- Agenda Planning
- Meeting Chairing
- Minute Writing
- Decision Rights Allocation
- Action Tracking
- Governance Records Management
- Committee Effectiveness Review
Why Attend This Course
- Leave with a Committee Governance Toolkit, including redrafted terms of reference, for a committee you run or support
- Cut the number of meetings that end without a decision, an owner or a deadline
- Show auditors and governing bodies a clear record of what each committee decided and why
- Compare committee practice with managers from public, private and non-profit organisations
Conclusion
Well-governed committees make decisions within their mandate, record them clearly and follow them through to completion. This course moves from the structure and cost of an organisation's meetings, through governance principles, procedural rules and decision models, to the records, controls and effectiveness reviews that keep committees accountable. The final day applies that material to case documents and to each participant's own committee, producing a Committee Governance Toolkit that can be adopted at the next meeting cycle.
