Learning as a governance responsibility

Board capability is critical to a board’s ability to meet its obligations and govern well. I am yet to meet anyone who arrives around the table with every skill required. That reality underscores the personal commitment directors should make to lifelong learning. Equally important is building collective capability as a board to create synergy and enable informed, focused conversations that strengthen collective judgement.

A sobering moment in my governance journey occurred a few years ago during a general health and safety training session for directors. At the end of the session, an experienced governor thanked me and said: “I didn’t realise I was personally responsible. I thought it was like finance, and how the audit and risk committee looks after that.” I paused, thinking about what to say next.  

They were diligent and committed to the organisations they served and had sat around many governance tables over the years. They simply didn’t know what they didn’t know. While the Act had been in place for some time, until that point, they had never considered their responsibilities (clearly around finances as well). 

That conversation stayed with me. It serves as a reminder that when we sit around a board or committee table, particularly when we sit in the chair, we cannot assume a shared baseline of knowledge around governance responsibilities and core skills. Nor can we assume that experience in one domain automatically translates into confidence or competence in another.  

As chairs, our role is not just to preside. It is to create the conditions for continuous learning, for individuals and for boards, collectively.

Recently, I worked with a colleague to intentionally build a structured board education programme for 2026 that every director has signed up to.

I make the distinction deliberately: this is board education, not board and management education. This is about deliberate governance capability aligned to our strategic plan, skills matrix and the changing environment in which we operate.

Unsurprisingly, we are grounding the year with a review of the Institute of Directors’ Top 5 issues. They offer an opportunity to consider these themes in our own business context.

This will be followed by a range of activities across the year. We have some presenters bringing macro perspectives, others are sector specific. One presenter will come without adjacencies, bringing an independent perspective on how another organisation is approaching a key theme. Another will bring a perspective on what management values in a board director. All are designed to challenge and expand our thinking.

This year, too, we will work to build fluency around technology, with all directors committed to self-paced AI learning. The intention is not just to cover things like policies, data and ethics, but to foster curiosity and dialogue, especially around how we strengthen core capability before others use technology to erode our competitive advantage.

Like many boards, we do not have an endless budget. We have had to be creative, drawing on networks willing to share their thoughts with our board, and to supplement these speakers with industry papers. Heading into our second year of these brief updates, they are now a shared process. Directors help with paper framing to get the right governance altitude, while management brings it together with their specific expertise. Slotted in alongside speakers, these papers are deliberate capability-building and, with a library of them now in place, they are a great induction resource, too.

Alongside this, of course, are our standard health and safety site visits and an annual refresh on director obligations (incorporating both IoD and Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum materials), cyber workshops, budget and election briefings. Individually, some directors are working on their own competencies, and that ranges from improving understanding of te ao Māori through to advanced cybersecurity and considerations of quantum implications. Some of our governors will also look to attend industry specific training. 
Finally, education also comes from listening, and our stakeholder plan provides regular engagement, enabling us to draw learning from within our own community.

It might sound like a lot and, to be sure, it will keep us busy, but the world does not stand still and neither should we as directors. As the operating environment changes around us and complexity grows, we are taking a planned approach so we can keep evolving our strategy with confidence and know that we have people around the table who can help support the delivery.

If your next meeting is approaching and the plan for the year is yet to be set, this might be a useful agenda item to consider: “Education plan for individuals and the board for 2026.”

This article is opinion only and not intended as governance advice.