Hack:
Increase Board effectiveness: eliminate jargon

I have a strong belief that if any of the I-Bank Boards were told in 2006-2008 the key driver of their profits had been buying bonds from banks who had lent to people at the bottom end of the income curve with limited security, the party would have ended very quickly. However, they were told that they were buying tranches of AAA rates CDOs with CDS support...

for every Board meeting, all management papers should go through a jargon removal test, to ensure it is said in the simplest and most direct of languages. With this, management cannot hind behind jargon and independent Board members cannot chanllenge them as they do not know what is going on and feel too embarrased to ask for explanations.

Simple solution: empower the CoSec to turn back any documents not written in layman's language as a prerequisite for a Board meeting.