81. Can boards impact corporate culture?

SCRIPT: When people say that “a board’s most important job is to hire and fire the CEO,” I honestly find it a bit annoying. It’s not even that I disagree – at least not entirely – it’s just that everyone already KNOWS how important it is for boards to take the CEO position seriously in terms of hiring, firing, compensation, performance oversight, etc. So for the sake of this podcast, let’s just take all of that for granted. But one piece of the board-CEO system that doesn’t get enough attention in my opinion is the question of what, if any, role the board plays in corporate culture. Sure, a lot of boards are going to have access to regular culture-adjacent information like employee engagement surveys or the development of purpose statements – and it’s not my intention to undermine the importance of that type of oversight. But I had the cool opportunity to be a part of an initiative a few years ago that convened roundtables of board members from dozens of companies across Canada to explore the question of the board’s role in corporate culture. My main takeaway? Boards understand and appreciate the potential for culture to make or break an organization, but for the most part they have no idea how to measure, monitor, or influence it. Even site visits only give you visibility into one workplace at a time. Is that OK? If not, what do you think your board should be doing to have a positive impact on culture, or even to assess what your culture is? Should they stay out of it? Or should they dive right in?