Governing boards must develop their capability and performance to support and drive institutional performanceIn this article, Fiona discusses how and why boards must continually be learning and developing at a rate faster than the rate of change in the external environment, to be effective.Further Education and Skills institutions have faced and continue to face considerable challenges. The sector is facing many new risks, opportunities, and challenges, and failure to rise to these challenges may well result in institutions no longer being sustainable.Since boards have the ultimate responsibility for their institutions, such challenges are not only institutional learning challenges, but board learning challenges too. Increased uncertainty and complexity is challenging the status quo of boards, and their effectiveness. For their institutions to survive, boards must continually be learning and developing, and doing so at a rate that is faster than the rate of the changes and challenges in the internal and external environments.Board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of others and so must keep learning to fulfil their duty. It is in the interests not just of our learners but of our communities and society at large that the boards of Further Education and Skills institutions continue to improve their ability to govern – making sound decisions in support of sustainable institutions.THE STATUS QUOTypically, we observe that boards are predominantly reactive in the way they learn, learning on the ‘job’ which whilst understandable, is sub-optimal. Such learning is less effective than proactive learning, as it cannot match the speed of change necessary to meet the constant risks and opportunities institutions face. There are particular hindrances to board learning that show up repeatedly. The most commonly observed and stated by board members, are listed below:- Hubris and ego- Lack of self-awareness – “I do not need to learn”- Lack of accountability- Time constraints- Poor behaviour, lack of trust, poor relationships- Lack of clarity of purpose- Lack of evaluation practicesAs part of my board consultancy work, I often encourage the Board and executive members to have a discussion to set out clearly their expectations of each other, to develop a shared set of values and behaviours. Not only does this save time and increase effectiveness as people no longer have to negotiate these in real time, but it is also a fantastic way to break down personal bias, boundaries, and hubristic behaviours that hamstring boards from learning, hindering their effectiveness.Boards that have developed a learning mindset are not sidelined by challenges, rather they increase their effectiveness, through improved capability. But boards are often lacking such a mindset, usually because board members are time-poor and unwilling to add further to the already significant workload that comes with being a responsible board member.WHAT EFFECTIVE BOARDS DOEffective boards understand that they need to develop some key characteristics to continually strive to be the best they can be, and they recognise that they are never going to be fully formed – there will always be something new to learn or that they can do better at or more of.1 They understand the fundamentals of governance – that there is collective responsibility for the direction and sustainability of the organisation and that it is on behalf of others (they do not act in their own interests), and therefore to remain effective in governing, they have to keep learning.2 They embrace learning and development as a key input to effective decision making, so are deliberate and intentional in their learning.3 They develop a board culture of learning and continuous improvement by having a development plan; a learning item on each agenda; they use the governance professional as a learning co-ordinator; share learning experiences amongst themselves; evaluate at the end of every meetin...