Governance meetings have a reputation for being slow and bureaucratic. They do not have to be. The key is separating the review of items (which can be done async) from the discussion of exceptions and risks (which needs live conversation). This template does exactly that.
State the review items, the applicable standards or policies, and the approval authority present.
Walk through each item requiring approval or review. Items that meet all criteria are approved without discussion. Only flag items that have exceptions, risks, or open questions.
For each flagged item, discuss the risk, the proposed mitigation, and the recommendation. The approver decides: approve, approve with conditions, or reject with required remediation.
Restate each decision explicitly. For items requiring remediation, assign owners and deadlines. For conditional approvals, document the conditions.
Confirm the audit trail: who decided what, when, and under what conditions. State the next review cycle.
Pre-meeting checklist
- All review items submitted and documented before the meeting
- Each item pre-assessed against the relevant criteria
- Items that meet all criteria flagged for fast-track approval
When to use 25 minutes instead
For routine reviews where all items are pre-assessed and most are fast-track approvals. If the agenda is only exceptions, 25 minutes may be sufficient.