Board advisory and coaching services
Clarity in complexity. Culture by design. Oversight that lifts.
Board Synergy provides bespoke, evidence-informed governance advice and coaching for boards and executive teams across Australia. Every engagement starts with your board’s specific dynamics, challenges and priorities – not an off-the-shelf product. Our services fall into five areas listed below.
Board Effectiveness Reviews
We help boards uncover what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and what needs to change to strengthen performance and remain fit for the future.
Board Synergy provides independently facilitated board effectiveness reviews for Australian boards.
Reviews are confidential, tailored to the board’s context, and run in two formats:
- In Conversation (interview-only) and
- Deep Dive Review (a purpose-built survey plus interviews).
Both include a Chair briefing, an anonymised synthesis report and a facilitated board session that agrees priority actions. Reviews are led by Dr Susan Mravlek and associates, governance advisers with doctorates in behavioural science.
At Board Synergy, we go beyond a compliance checklist. Our reviews are bespoke, human centred and independently facilitated by governance and organisational psychology specialists. Our approach is informed by best practice using structured interviews and observations to surface the dynamics that don’t show up in a standard survey.
We work with the board to turn those findings into practical, agreed change. It’s an approach built for boards across all sectors, not a generic template applied to every organisation.
We offer two review formats — (1) a conversation-based review and (2) a combined survey-and-conversation review — plus an optional add-on that turns findings into a board capability plan.
Both formats are strictly confidential and built to deliver specific and achievable outcomes for your board, not just a report.
In Conversation — an interview-based board review
In Conversation is built around confidential one-on-one discussions between each director and a senior consultant — no questionnaires, no rating scales. It suits boards that want depth over data or want to make sense of results from any earlier in-house surveys or as part of an annual health check.
Themes from the interviews are anonymised and synthesised into a report reflecting the board’s collective picture, then tested in a facilitated session where the board agrees what to do differently, based on our recommendations for actions.
What’s included:
- Confidential 1:1 interview with every director
- Anonymised synthesis report covering key themes and patterns
- Chair briefing on findings, ahead of the board session
- Facilitated conversation on findings and recommendations
- Agreed priority actions before the session closes
Deep Dive Review — full diagnostic
The Deep Dive Review combines a purpose-built board effectiveness survey with confidential one-to-one interviews, providing both a quantitative baseline and the qualitative insight a survey alone cannot capture. It suits boards undertaking a significant or triennial external review, needing to meet external governance standards, or seeking a genuine step-change in performance.
The survey is designed around your board’s governance context, strategic priorities and sector expectations. Directors complete it individually, then take part in confidential interviews to add meaning to the data and surface issues that a standard survey may not reveal. Findings from both streams are integrated into one report and brought to a facilitated session with the whole board.
What’s included:
- Board effectiveness survey tailored to your board’s priorities
- Confidential one-to-one interview with every director and senior executives
- Integrated synthesis report across both interviews and survey
- Chair briefing on findings, ahead of the board session
- Facilitated conversation on findings and recommendations
- Agreed priority actions before the session closes
Optional evaluations: for boards wanting a sharper view of contribution and impact.
We also offer Board Committee Evaluations and Individual Director Appraisals, assessing the effectiveness of committees and the specific contribution each director brings to the boardroom.
Book a no-obligation discovery call to talk through which review format fits your board.
Board Capability & Skills Matrix
Build the Board your future demands
We help boards identify the skills, experience and capabilities they need to govern effectively — now and into the futureDirector and Board Capability
Available as an add-on to either review, this service translates board review findings into a structured plan for how the board — and each director within it — will grow over the next two years. It’s commissioned after the facilitated board session and draws on both the review findings and each director’s forward-looking interview. It produces two linked deliverables:- Individual Director Development Plan — tailored for every director, based on an existing skills matrix and/or director performance reviews, prior development plans, and interview insights.
- 24-Month Board Capability Roadmap — synthesises those individual plans, sequences leadership transitions and succession priorities, identifies skills gaps and recruitment needs, and stages the work across four phases with clear milestones. It is a working governance document, not a one-off report.
Board Skills Matrix Review
A well-designed Board Skills Matrix is more than a checklist of director experience. It provides a clear, evidence-based view of the Board’s collective capability — where strengths lie, where gaps exist, and whether critical capability is concentrated in too few directors. Importantly, it also asks a forward-looking question: does the Board have the capabilities it will need to deliver the organisation’s future strategy and navigate emerging challenges?
What is a Board Skills Matrix?
A Board Skills Matrix maps the skills, experience, knowledge and capabilities required across the Board against those currently available.
Our approach goes beyond traditional technical and industry skills to consider the depth, distribution and future relevance of Board capability, including behavioural capabilities that influence how directors contribute, exercise judgement and constructively challenge.
How we help
Every organisation is different. Rather than applying a generic checklist, we develop, review or redesign your Board Skills Matrix around your organisation’s strategy, operating environment, risk profile and future direction. We offer written guidance on what each skill means and how to assess your own level of skill.
We work with Boards to:
- Define future capability – identify the capabilities the board will need to deliver strategy and govern effectively
- Develop a tailored Board Skills Matrix – with clearly defined capability areas and proficiency levels
- Assess current Board capability – identify collective and individual strengths, gaps and concentration
- Inform Board development – identify opportunities to strengthen capability within the existing board
- Support succession and renewal – translate capability gaps into recruitment and composition priorities for future
From Skills Matrix to Strategic Capability.
A Board Skills Matrix should not be a static governance document. As strategy, risk, technology, regulation and the operating environment change, the capabilities required around the Board table also evolve.
Used strategically, the matrix becomes a tool for board capability assessment, succession planning, board renewal and director recruitment. The result is more than a matrix — it is a practical roadmap for the capability the organisation needs.
Board Culture & Dynamics
Culture starts in the boardroom
We help boards understand, assess and strengthen the culture and behavioural dynamics that shape how they govern, make decisions and lead the organisation from the top.
Board culture is more than how well directors work together. The behaviours, decisions and priorities demonstrated around the board table establish the tone from the top — influencing what is valued, what is tolerated and how people behave throughout the organisation.
Effective boards don’t simply oversee organisational culture — they shape it through how they lead and govern. By strengthening culture within the boardroom, boards create the conditions for better dialogue, more effective challenge, stronger decision-making and greater collective accountability.
Board Culture Assessment & Workshops
Our board culture assessments and facilitated workshops provide boards with an independent view of how their culture is operating in practice and the opportunity to intentionally shape the culture required for effective governance.
Drawing on contemporary governance practice and behavioural science, we explore the conditions that support trust, psychological safety, constructive challenge, sound judgement, accountability and effective collective decision-making.
Our tailored approach can include:
- Board Culture Diagnostics: Assess board culture and behavioural dynamics through confidential director interviews, board meeting observation and targeted diagnostic tools.
- Culture Reflection & Alignment: Explore whether current board behaviours and ways of working align with the organisation’s purpose, values, strategy and desired culture.
- Board Culture Workshops: Facilitate structured discussion about how the board wants to operate, including constructive challenge, openness, accountability, decision-making and relationships with management.
- Behavioural Commitments: Translate insights into clear behavioural expectations, agreed ways of working and practical mechanisms for sustaining the desired board culture.
Our work helps boards become more intentional about the culture they create — ensuring the tone from the top is aligned with the culture and behaviours expected throughout the organisation.
Navigating Disruption and Uncertainty
Equipping boards to make better decisions when facing uncertainty
In an environment of accelerating technological change, geopolitical volatility, shifting regulation and interconnected risk, boards cannot rely on certainty before making consequential decisions.
Effective governance under uncertainty requires more than technical expertise.
It requires the capacity to remain thoughtful when answers are unclear, challenge assumptions, consider multiple futures and make sound decisions without prematurely closing down uncertainty.
At the heart of our approach is what the poet John Keats called negative capability — the capacity to remain reflective and psychologically steady amid uncertainty rather than rushing toward certainty simply to relieve discomfort.
Board Synergy’s Navigating Disruption & Uncertainty Workshop combines this behavioural capability with contemporary approaches to strategic foresight, scenario thinking and adaptive governance.
Board Scenario Workshops
Building Board Capability for Resilience to Disruption & Uncertainty.
Through facilitated exercises and real-world board scenarios, directors explore how uncertainty affects thinking, behaviour and collective decision-making — and practise techniques for governing more effectively when conditions are changing rapidly.
The workshop develops five critical board capabilities:
- Lead through uncertainty — stay composed and think clearly under pressure.
- Challenge assumptions — spot the blind spots that narrow board thinking.
- Think ahead — consider more than one possible future.
- Sharpen decisions — know what’s known, assumed, and what’s genuinely uncertain.
- Adapt as you go — build the dialogue needed to respond as new information emerges.
Adaptability Workshop: Cultivating Bold Boards
How does a board stay risk-aware without becoming risk-averse?
This workshop looks at what holds boards back from bold decisions — fear of failure, reputational risk, and the pull toward control. We help directors challenge assumptions, weigh real opportunities, and take intelligent risks when the way forward is not clear.
The objective is not to predict the future. It is to build an adaptive board equipped to govern whatever future emerges.
Our workshop equips boards and executives to reset mindsets, providing a strategic mirror and encouraging a bold step toward building a governance culture that is resilient and thrives on ambiguity, not despite it.
Coaching for Directors, Chairs and CEOs
How does board and executive coaching work?
Board Synergy’s coaching programmes are tailored one-on-one engagements for directors, Chairs and CEOs, designed to build clarity, confidence and purpose in navigating the complex dynamics of governance.
Coaching focuses on real-world application, so leaders leave sessions with strategies they can put into practice immediately:
- Strengthen leadership and communication — improve influence, build trust and foster a collaborative boardroom culture
- Strengthen the Board–CEO relationship — align perspectives, establish clear boundaries and build mutual understanding between board and executive
- Navigate conflict and build resilience — develop constructive approaches to disagreement and productive dialogue
What does a Board Synergy engagement look like?
Every engagement follows a structured pathway, so boards know what to expect from first conversation through to lasting change:
- Discovery and context — a comprehensive discovery of the board’s brief and operating environment, clarifying priorities, challenges and aspirations
- Diagnosis and insight — qualitative inquiry (confidential interviews, live meeting observation, facilitated conversations) combined with quantitative analysis (surveys, diagnostics, data review) to identify patterns and barriers to effectiveness
- Chair briefing — a high-level briefing to the Chair on findings and recommended pathways, to secure leadership support and align on priorities
- Tailored intervention — bespoke workshops, targeted coaching, or facilitated discussions designed around the board’s specific needs
- Embedding and momentum — practical tools and strategies to sustain progress, so improvement continues after the engagement ends
Our process
Every engagement with Board Synergy follows a structured pathway designed to deliver insight, clarity, and sustainable improvement.
Discovery & Context
We begin with a comprehensive discovery of your board’s engagement brief and operating environment. This includes clarifying priorities, challenges, and aspirations.
Diagnosis & Insight
Through qualitative inquiry (confidential interviews, live meeting observations, facilitated conversations) and quantitative analysis (surveys, diagnostics, data review), we identify patterns, dynamics, and barriers to effectiveness.
Chair Briefing
We present a high-level briefing to the Chair on inquiry findings and recommended pathways for intervention. This ensures alignment on priorities, secures leadership support, and sets the tone for constructive board engagement.
Tailored Intervention
Drawing on agreed insights, we design bespoke interventions aligned to your board’s needs, such as:
- Customised workshops
- Targeted coaching for directors, Chairs, or CEOs
- Facilitated discussions to address conflict, trust, or alignment
Embedding & Momentum
We don’t just deliver recommendations — we equip your board with practical tools and strategies to maintain progress. Our approach ensures continuous improvement, stronger trust, and long-term cultural resilience.