Diligent Boards Governance Administration for Executive Teams Training Course

Course overview

Executive teams depend on timely, controlled board information, yet many governance processes still rely on emailed papers, inconsistent agenda structures, manual version checks and uncertain approval trails. This course addresses the operational gap between preparing leadership decisions and administering a secure, auditable board process in Diligent Boards. Participants learn how to reduce late-paper disruption, protect confidential material, coordinate contributors and give directors a reliable experience before, during and after meetings.

The course covers the full governance administration cycle in Diligent Boards: configuring meeting workspaces, building agendas and board books, assigning document ownership, setting permissions, managing revisions, publishing materials and maintaining post-meeting records. Participants gain practical skill in using workflow controls, questionnaires, annotations, approvals and secure communications to support executive and board decision-making. The programme also connects platform activity to governance controls such as retention, access review, delegation and evidence of due process.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided configuration labs using realistic executive committee and board scenarios. Participants work through a five-day case in which they administer a quarterly board cycle, respond to a late confidential paper, run a decision questionnaire and close the meeting record. They leave with a completed Diligent Boards governance administration playbook, including an agenda template, publication checklist, permissions matrix, meeting-close checklist and 30-day implementation plan.

The course is designed for executive office, company secretarial, governance and board-support professionals who need to operate Diligent Boards confidently while improving the quality and control of leadership meeting administration.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure a Diligent Boards meeting workspace with defined roles, access groups and governance settings
• Build a structured agenda and board book using Diligent Boards sections, documents and publishing controls
• Apply a permissions matrix to protect confidential papers, committee material and restricted executive content
• Manage document revisions through an owner, reviewer, approval and publication workflow
• Create director questionnaires and voting items to capture decisions, declarations and meeting feedback
• Administer secure meeting communications using Diligent Messenger and approved governance protocols
• Produce an auditable meeting-close record containing decisions, actions, attendance and retained materials
• Develop a governance administration playbook for a recurring executive or board meeting cycle

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Company Secretaries — who must maintain controlled board processes and defensible governance records
• Board Administrators — who prepare agendas, papers and meeting workflows for directors
• Executive Assistants — who coordinate executive committee papers, schedules and confidential communications
• Governance Officers — who administer policy, compliance and committee documentation
• Chief of Staff Professionals — who need disciplined decision-support processes for senior leadership teams
• Legal Operations Managers — who oversee privileged material, approval evidence and secure information handling

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable using web-based business software, uploading and organising documents, and working with Microsoft Office files and PDF packs. Familiarity with the purpose of board agendas, minutes, action logs and confidential papers is helpful, whether gained in an executive office, governance, legal or administrative role. Access to a Diligent Boards training tenant or organisational account is useful for workplace application, but is not required for attendance because exercises use guided scenarios. No coding, system administration, prior Diligent certification or detailed corporate-law knowledge is required. Complete beginners should expect to learn both the platform workflow and the governance rationale behind it.

Training methodology

The instructor uses live Diligent Boards demonstrations to show each step of a controlled meeting cycle, then participants configure the same features in guided labs. Small-group workshops examine realistic issues such as a late finance paper, a restricted legal appendix and a director questionnaire requiring a documented response. Participants review sample governance artefacts, diagnose control gaps and make administration decisions using a permissions matrix and publication checklist. The final session converts the case work into an individual implementation plan for a live executive or board process.

Course outline

Day 1: Governance administration foundations and platform orientation

• Board and executive committee governance administration roles
• Diligent Boards navigation, dashboards and meeting workspaces
• Meeting lifecycle from annual calendar to archived record
• Governance roles, delegated responsibilities and segregation of duties
• Agenda architecture for board, committee and executive meetings
• Information classification for confidential and privileged papers
• ISO 37000 governance principles applied to meeting administration

Workshop: Participants map a quarterly board cycle and configure the initial workspace, meeting structure and role responsibilities for the case organisation.

Day 2: Agenda, board book and document workflow control

• Agenda creation using sections, items, timings and owners
• Board book assembly with linked documents and supporting appendices
• Document naming conventions and metadata for retrieval
• Paper-owner submission schedules and content readiness criteria
• Version control, revision comparison and late-paper handling
• Review and approval workflow design before publication
• Publication checklists for complete and accurate board packs

Workshop: Participants build a multi-section executive committee agenda and board book, then resolve a simulated late revision without losing version control.

Day 3: Access control, confidentiality and director engagement

• Role-based permissions for directors, executives, administrators and observers
• Access groups for committees, restricted items and guest participants
• Confidentiality controls for legal, remuneration and transaction papers
• Secure distribution and withdrawal of meeting materials
• Director annotations, reading status and paper engagement monitoring
• Questionnaires, polls and voting configuration for governance use cases
• Diligent Messenger protocols for secure meeting communications

Workshop: Participants create a permissions matrix and configure restricted access, a director questionnaire and a secure communication for a sensitive acquisition paper.

Day 4: Meeting execution, decisions and auditable records

• Pre-meeting readiness checks and director support procedures
• Attendance, quorum and declaration-of-interest record controls
• Capturing resolutions, decisions and action owners
• Action tracking and escalation of overdue commitments
• Minutes preparation workflow and approval evidence
• Post-meeting publication, retention and archive procedures
• Audit trail review for governance assurance and internal audit requests

Workshop: Participants run the administration close-out for a simulated board meeting and produce a decision log, action register and meeting-close checklist.

Day 5: Operational governance improvement and implementation planning

• Diagnosing bottlenecks in current board-pack production
• Standard agenda templates and recurring meeting setup
• Service-level measures for paper submission and publication
• Governance dashboard metrics for meeting administration
• Access review, retention review and periodic control testing
• Stakeholder adoption planning for directors and paper owners
• Thirty-day Diligent Boards implementation roadmap

Workshop: Participants present a governance administration playbook and 30-day implementation plan tailored to one executive committee or board process.

Tools & standards covered

Diligent Boards, Diligent Messenger, Microsoft Excel, ISO 37000

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions