Incompetent group of competent people

I was privileged on Thursday to speak at the Community Housing Cymru Governance Conference.  There was a large group of people with a real buzz and a passion for getting governance right.  I talked about risk appetite and the importance of good conversations and practical frameworks and hopefully inspired a few housing association Board members to go beyond thinking that their appetite for risk is 'low' or 'medium' and instead think about tolerable ranges of outcome for each strategic objective.

The title is not a put down - just me quoting Professor John Carver who said that many Boards are incompetent groups of competent people.

Engaging Boards to have good conversations about 'how much risk is too much risk' is perhaps one way that they can do important work and, through conversation about something that really matters, become more competent groups?