Not scored. Use this to calibrate mood and establish rapport. Listen for: optimism vs fatigue, direction vs drift. This sets the emotional tone for everything that follows.

Not scored. Listen for: the gap between expectation and reality. This often surfaces the most honest statement of the presenting problem before any formal questions are asked.

Listen for: whether mission is lived or decorative. Does it inform resource allocation, hiring, and conflict resolution — or is it wall art?

Listen for: clarity of personal mandate vs inherited agenda. Are blockers structural, relational, or resource-based?

Listen for: alignment vs fragmentation. Is there a shared operating plan or is everyone pulling in different directions?

Listen for: distributed vs centralised decision-making. Does a clear process exist or does it depend on who's involved?

Listen for: whether operational and financial health is tracked, or only mission outcomes. Are there leading indicators or only lagging ones?

Listen for: existence of a real strategic plan vs a compliance artefact. How widely is it understood and believed?

Listen for: self-awareness and honesty. Whether the gaps named align with what you're observing. This is also a trust-building question.

Listen for: whether energy is direction-driven or event-driven. Is there genuine momentum or is the institution coasting on identity?

Not scored. Listen for: the thing they've been waiting to say. Often the most important observation of the session comes here.

Scored — use as your overall dimension score. The "what would make it higher" follow-up often surfaces the single most actionable insight. Before our next session, it would be helpful to have the current strategic plan and any recent Board meeting minutes.

Not scored. Bridges from Session 1. Sets the emotional tone for what is often the most sensitive dimension. Listen for: the word they choose — "collaborative," "complicated," "improving," "frustrating."

Not scored. Establishes the second key governance relationship before formal questions begin. Listen for: warmth vs formality, clarity vs ambiguity.

Listen for: whether there's a clear process or whether it depends on who's involved. Informal processes reveal where real power sits.

Listen for: signs of Board overreach into operations, or alternatively, Board disengagement. Both are governance failure modes.

Listen for: specific examples that reveal where ambiguity actually lives. Vague answers suggest the boundary is everywhere unclear.

Listen for: whether there's a written delineation or an informal understanding. Informal always means contested under pressure.

Listen for: whether accountability structures are clear to the people they govern. Confusion at staff level is a governance symptom.

Listen for: the gap between documented governance and lived governance. Old policies reveal where the organisation has drifted from its stated intentions.

Listen for: avoidance of accountability (common in mission-driven orgs), or punitive cultures that suppress transparency.

Listen for: external governance influences not visible in the org chart. Faith-based institutions often have shadow authority structures.

Listen for: the single biggest source of governance friction in the President's own words. This answer often contains the most actionable insight of the session.

Not scored. Listen for the unsaid. Often the most sensitive governance issue is named here for the first time.

Scored — use as your overall dimension score. Before our next session, it would be helpful to receive the Board bylaws and any documentation on the President/Principal role delineation.