ABSTRACT
Key dynamics are formed when attitudes shared by members of a board coalesce. They form the right conditions for catalyzing and maintaining a driving dynamic, which is the dominant attitude or feeling in a board that ultimately informs what the board wants, and how it enacts its role through its judgments and performance. Participants described dynamics such as competing, seeking power, and protecting their role and the organization. Not all dynamics observed in play coalesced into key dynamics. Initial meetings took the form of individual semi-structured conversations. The three elements of a ‘dynamic’ are that it is an attitude or feeling that occurs in the context of a person’s membership to a specific group, is consequent to an event perceived to be relevant to the group, and the group as a whole perceives that attitude as appropriate.
