John Sutherland on mitigating Board Level Human Risk

If you were looking for a sector that had lots of examples of Human Risk, then you'd probably pick banking? And if you were trying to understand why some of the senior people within banking hadn't been prevented from taking bad decisions, you'd probably look at people who were specifically hired for that purpose; non-executives.

That's what my guest this time, John Sutherland, explores in his new book Ensuring General Wisdom. John is a banking expert, who works as a Senior Adviser to one of the UK's Financial Services Regulators. While working for a UK Parliamentary Commission looking at the Banking Industry, John wondered whether what the role of the non-executives that Boards are required to have really is and whether it is reasonable for them to be expected to have an awareness of everything going on within the organisation.

This led him to research the role of Non-Executives and Trustees and how best for people in those roles to fulfil their function. What emerges are some fascinating insights that are of relevance to those who are, or aspire to be Non-Executives and those with an interest in managing Human Risk at senior level within organisations.

In our discussion, we explore how the book came about and John's thoughts on the banking industry and governance in general.

For details on John's book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52558412-ensuring-general-wisdom

You can find John's lectures here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jasvidcast-video-webcasts/id1513012881

For more on the Banking Commission which prompted John's interest in the role of the non-executive: https://bit.ly/357WaxA

For more on the Three Lines of Defence model of Risk Management: https://bit.ly/2U3lmiu