I've just been reading an interesting White Paper published by Harvard Business School - Perspectives from the Boardroom 2009.  I'll admit to having been a bit discouraged by the 20 pages of closely typewritten text - good insomnia cure at first sight, I thought.  But don't let that put you off.

Basically, the research team, led by Harvard Business School's Jay Lorsch, wanted to understand how well boards had functioned before the recession and, more importantly, what aspects of board functioning troubled board members as they looked to the future.  To do this, they interviewed 45 directors of US companies. 

What they concluded is remarkably similar to CIMA's own findings - in essence, board effectiveness has little to do with regulators and laws and everything to do with what transpires within individual boards.  Basically, boards have to work out for themselves how to oversee strategy and risk.  They also need to make sure they deal with management succession.  They have to maintain a delicate balance in their relationship with management so that they can be challenging and critical on the one hand and supportive on the other.

But what makes this report so rich and interesting are the quotes from the directors themselves.  For example, one director goes to the trouble of describing his conversations with management to demonstrate how to pull off the challenging but supportive paradox.  (In a nutshell, start with the positives by telling management what a great job they've done, explain the need for challenge and request management's patience as the board goes through the process.) 

All thought-provoking stuff for both directors and managers - but definitely not a cure for insomnia!