From Insights to Impact: Action Plans After Board Performance Reviews

In the realm of contemporary corporate governance, annual board performance evaluations serve as a critical point in time for reflection, but their true value emerges only through the diligent implementation of resulting action plans. This comprehensive exploration looks at the importance of translating evaluation insights into actionable improvements and how to ensure their implementation.

The Imperative for Action: Why Implementation is Non-Negotiable

Board evaluations - whether self-assessments, peer reviews, or external reviews - uncover strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, but without implementation, they risk becoming mere formalities. Recent Australian analyses, such as Derwent Search's October 2025 blog on the evolving boardroom landscape, highlight how regulatory pressures like mandatory climate reporting and AI governance demand proactive upskilling, composition refreshes and accountability for performance. Failure to act erodes board effectiveness, potentially leading to governance lapses as seen in many high-profile corporate scandals.

In the US, PwC's 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey (October 2025) reveals directors calling for accountability, with many identifying underperformance as a barrier to strategic alignment. The survey's roadmap emphasises cultural shifts through individual and collective actions, underscoring that unimplemented plans perpetuate complacency. Similarly, Harvard Law School's forum post (October 2025) stresses regular board composition reviews to mitigate risks, noting that effective implementation can yield 25-30% improved financial outcomes per industry benchmarks.

The importance lies in fostering resilience and continuous improvement: Action plans bridge evaluation gaps, aligning boards focus to organisational strategy and stakeholder expectations. For nonprofits, BoardEffect's September 2025 guide for not-for-profits stresses that evaluations set development priorities, but only through executed plans do boards thrive. Without follow-through, boards miss opportunities for continuous improvement, risk management, and enhanced stakeholder confidence. A board performance evaluation is a significant investment in time and resources, regardless of whether it is conducted internally and externally, failure to implement improvement actions, risks eroding performance and effectiveness of the most important governance mechanism of the organisation. It can also set a tone to the rest of the organisation that the Board has a lack of accountability.

Regulatory and Industry Context Driving Implementation

In Australia, APRA's October 2025 governance review update refines proposals for board performance reviews, mandating triennial external assessments for significant institutions and annual progress tracking. While the update focuses on proportionality, it implies robust follow-up mechanisms, such as documenting skills matrices, and integrating with renewal processes. Submissions from CPA Australia and ASFA (June 2025, but referenced in recent discussions) advocate flexibility but stress verifiable metrics for implementation.

US perspectives, like NACD's 2025 Blue Ribbon Commission (October 2025), urge disciplined reviews with strategic alignment, recommending action plans tied to measurable goals. EY's October 2025 analysis on board composition trends emphasises succession strategies incorporating evaluations, while KPMG's September 2025 report on corporate culture highlights integrating employee surveys into plans to identify and address risks.

Globally, best practices from sources like the Harvard Corporate Governance Forum advocate for action items with timelines, monitored via board agendas to ensure accountability starts within the boardroom. In our experience, delegating the overseeing of the Action Plan to a Board Subcommittee is another positive step to ensure appropriate oversight and implementation.

Multifaceted Benefits of Effective Implementation

Embedding implementation into the evaluation cycle offers substantial advantages:

• Risk Mitigation and Strategic Alignment: By addressing identified gaps, boards gain a better handle on complexities like cybersecurity, or AI ethics.

• Enhanced Accountability: Individual feedback as well as overall assessment of the group in driving change, promotes impartiality, countering tenure-related judgment erosion.

• Organisational Performance Gains: Quantitative insights suggest effective boards deliver superior outcomes; PwC advises combining self-assessments with external input for change.

• Cultural and Diversity Improvements: Implementation supports diversity targets (e.g., 40/40/20 in Australia) and culture accountability, reducing scandal risks.

  
  

A comparative table of benefits versus inaction, based on aggregated insights:

Practical Strategies for Implementation

To translate evaluations into action:

1. Craft Detailed Action Plans: Post-evaluation, develop plans with SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Ideally, prioritise between to four to six items, tying to timelines. This is important, as an overly cumbersome or long action plan risks being unachievable or unfocused. The whole Board should be given the opportunity to contribute and decide on the items included in the Action Plan.

2. Assign Accountability: Designate owners for each item with a timeline to completion. This should be monitored and reported to the Board directly, or via allocating to the agenda of a Subcommittee of the Board (this could be a Governance or People & Culture Subcommittee). The Chair of the Board should be responsible for driving the implementation of the Action Plan.

3. Leverage Technology: Use board portals (e.g., BoardEffect or OnBoard) for secure storage, automated mini-surveys, and dashboards, ensuring audit trails.

4. Monitor and Review: Conduct mid-year check-ins, adjusting in real-time and providing updates on progress. If appropriate to your organisation, consider linking compensation/succession for reinforcement.

5. Incorporate Feedback Loops: Canvas peer views discreetly and regularly and integrate with skills matrices for ongoing development. There should be a clear link to the Board's and Individual Director professional development plans

A Strategic Imperative for Resilient Boards

Implementing action plans post-evaluation is essential for governance effectiveness. Backed by recent frameworks, this practice drives accountability and innovation. Boards should prioritise structured follow-through to drive accountability and get the most out of their annual Board Performance evaluations. It's important that resources are allocated to implement the actions for improvement effectively. This may mean that an external consultant supports the work. The Chair is a key figure in championing the successful implementation of the Action Plan and should be involved in monitoring the outcomes closely. They should work closely with the CEO and Management if those actions will have impact on their workload and/or the way that information is delivered to the Board.

For example, an Action that involves changes to the reporting to the Board or the size of the Board Pack requires careful consultation and communication with the CEO, Company Secretary and members of the Executive team. This may take many iterations, continuous feedback and may require a special subcommittee to oversee the changes.

Further Board Performance evaluations can be utilised to measure the success of Action Plans with comparison of scores from previous year's review. For example, Sadhana Consulting uses the same survey questions and governance categories for clients over time (perhaps with some minor additions/changes as required) to ensure consistency from year to year when conducting the assessment. This process ensures a clear benchmarking process to identify if improvement initiatives have made an impact on the effectiveness and performance of the Board and individual Directors.

Need help with your Board Performance Evaluation and putting together an Action Plan?

Sadhana Consulting is experienced in external and independent Board and individual Directors performance assessments across Australia in a range of industries, including government and not-for-profit organisations. We tailor our independent Board Performance Evaluations based on the unique purpose, goals and current areas of focus for the organisation, using a 5 step approach consistent with any regulatory guidelines and relevant governance policies.

Contact us today for a confidential chat to discuss your organisation's needs for conducting an external Board Performance Evaluation.

Thank you for reading our article, we hope you found it interesting and able to takeaway something for your Board to consider. Want more news on Board Performance Evaluations? See our article on The Case for Integrating Individual Director Assessments into Annual Board Performance Reviews