The Art of Directorship: Adaptive Governance

Course Format

The course is divided into seven sections, each of which addresses a central question for boards who are facing the risk of disruption:

1. What Is Disruptive Risk?

2. What Are the Hallmarks of Disruptive Risk?

3. What Disruptive Risks Do Organizations Face Today?

4. How Can the Board Build a Strong and Resilient Culture for Itself?

5. What Responsibilities Does the Board Have in Overseeing Disruptive Risk?

6. How Can the Board Navigate Through a Crisis Resulting From a Disruptive Risk?

7. How Should the Board Prepare for the Next Disruptive Risk?

Because there is nothing hypothetical about the occurrence of disruptive events and changes, the course employs a practical, not a theoretical, perspective. In each section of the course, experienced directors and other NACD experts share their ideas about recognizing and responding to disruptive risk—ideas based on our experts' personal experiences. Adding to this real-world approach, each section also offers case studies of disruptive risks that touch on timely issues, such as pivoting business models in times of change, responding to global health crises, and adjusting to climate change.

Within the course, you'll also have the chance to benchmark your own experiences against those of directors who responded to NACD's recent surveys. The course also includes several recommended strategies for adaptive governance. All of these insights—along with links to dozens of additional resources and authorities—will help you be better prepared the next time your organization faces a crisis resulting from disruptive risk.

This course was produced during the summer and fall of 2020, amid the COVID-19 crisis and a resulting economic downturn.

This course is available to all members and will be relevant to those in both publicly and privately held companies, as well as to those in nonprofit organizations.

Like NACD's other Art of Directorship courses, this course is primarily intended to give experienced directors an advanced, nuanced, in-the-trenches consideration of the board's role; however, you do not need to be a member of a risk or audit committee, nor do you need previous experience in risk management to find this course highly valuable.

This course is an up-to-date companion to two NACD publications: The Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Adaptive Governance: Board Oversight of Disruptive Risks (2018) and Adaptive Governance During COVID-19: A Practical Guide (2020). The prerequisite for taking this course is that you review those reports, and you'll get more out of this course if you have done so.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to

• Identify four practices that characterize the exercise of adaptive governance by a board of directors.

• Recall characteristics that tend to distinguish disruptive risks from more routine risks faced by organizations.

• Identify types of risk often considered to be disruptive.

• Remember common phrases used to categorize types of potentially disruptive risks.

• Recall strategies and practices that are likely to help a board more successfully confront and adapt to disruptive risks and their effects.

• Name the four elements of a risk-management framework.

At the end of the course, you will be directed to take a short exam based on these learning objectives. You must pass that exam in order to earn credit from NACD for completing the course.

It should take you about 3 hours to complete the course, although you do not need to finish the course in a single session. If you do not complete the course in a single session, the course will resume where you last left off when you return.

In the event of technical difficulties while navigating this course, please email virtual@nacdonline.org. Please read our virtual learning FAQs.