A companion to the Strategic Horizons Question Set. This one is useful for any board member preparing for or participating in a board meeting.

1. Board Member Strategic Questions
A print­and­keep reference sheet / poster
The top three strategic questions
● Why this, why now?
● What does success look like?
● How does it advance our overall strategy / vision / purpose?
A bank of other questions to pick from below, based on our work with boards and inspired by the the
ORID format: Objective >>> Reflective >> Interpretive >>> Decisional
Consider getting the book for lots more questions. It has useful scenarios for many settings.
Objective Reflective Interpretive Decisional
What do you want to achieve? What excites you the most about this? How does it link to our vision? What are our proposed next steps?
Why this, why now? What surprised you? How does it link to the business objectives? What decisions can we make?
What factual statements can you make
based on the data?
What encouraged you? What would you like the audience to feel? What is our action plan for moving
forward?
What is your objective? What discouraged you? Why should the audience believe you? What does success look like?
What do you expect from the project /
goal?
How does this make you feel? What is the behaviour, mindset or action you
want to leave your audience with?
What would you like to work on /
improve?
Describe the “Big Idea”
How can I help you? What does the data tell us? What new insights
do you have?
What does success look like? What doesn’t it tell us and what else might we
need to know?
Boards, Chief Executives and Chairs – and the next generation of talent – turn to us for help:
// We advise boards // Facilitate strategy // Develop changemakers – learn more at alignyour.org