Welcome to this issue of Board Works.

The main intent of the first article in this issue is consciousness raising. Tracking and measuring performance is central to the way most boards approach their work. So central, in fact, that most boards pretty much take both the concept and the process for granted. In Performance Measures: Are They More Trouble Than They Are Worth? I  review the work of two commentators who have drawn attention - both philosophically and practically - to some of the large but mostly unacknowledged fish hooks in performance measurement. The most important issue for boards to consider is whether the way they approach performance management (both the process and measures used) might be producing a range of unintended (and negative) consequences.

I then turn to what is perhaps the most important work that any board carries out- that of policy making. In two complementary articles I look at both the importance of the policy making process - particularly the order in which things are done (Policy Making: Does Your Board Put The Cart Before The Horse?) and the various steps a board might take to ensure its policy framework stays relevant, dynamic and impacting as it should (How to Keep Your Board's Policy Framework Alive and Well! ).

Regular readers of Board Works and its predecessor hard copy publication Good Governance* will be conscious that board time management is something we refer to regularly. I would like to hope that one day that might not be necessary but, in the meantime, I am not holding my breath! The reality for most boards is that they continue to `struggle to use their time to best effect. In Why Does Your Board Need An 'Annual Agenda'? I explain the value and process of applying a longer timeframe in planning what the board will work on. Boards that have adopted a disciplined annual agenda planning process invariably report increased satisfaction with board meetings and improved board effectiveness and efficiency generally.

Good reading

Graeme Nahkies

* Many Good Governance articles are now available on the web courtesy of one of our long term clients, Sport New Zealand as a result of recent revisions to Sport NZ's Nine Steps to Effective Governance publication. The first edition was based on original research we did for Sport New Zealand's predecessor organisation, SPARC, in 2004. 'Nine Steps' has been a 'best seller' for SPARC and now Sport New Zealand. Thousands of hard copies have been distributed and many more electronic copies downloaded by readers around the world since the first edition was published in November 2004. Now fully revised and improved in association with my colleague Terry Kilmister, the third edition is available at no charge (http://www.sportnz.org.nz/en-nz/our-partners/Developing-Capabilities/Governance-Templates). It is accompanied by a great many additional resources including many of the articles Terry and I have produced over the years. Most of these were only available previously to subscribers to Good Governance but can now also be accessed and downloaded from the Sport New Zealand web-site.