Building on our previous post, Glenn Tecker and colleagues have written in The Will to Govern Well about four primary questions (and one “wrap around”) that help Boards govern with knowledge. Those questions help provide a framework for data gathering and analysis to be used in planning. In general, they are:

1. What do we know about the needs, wants, and preferences of our members and/or stakeholders that are relevant to this issue?
2. What do we know about the evolving external context that is relevant to this issue, and how that might impact planning?
3. What do we know about the strategic capacity (and position) of our organization that is relevant to this issue?
4. What are the ethical implications of our choices?
5. Then there is a fifth question: What do we wish we knew, but don’t?

These questions are designed to move an organization from “information and data” to “knowledge.” They are quite effective in moving Boards from operations to strategy as well. The issue then becomes, what to do with what you know in terms of action? And further, what do we do when there are 20 good ideas on the table, but we can really do only two or three of them?