Episode Description
Most committees have a story like this one — the meeting where everyone noticed something and nobody said a word. In this episode, Kate H and Kate M tackle the governance failure that hides in plain sight: the question that didn’t get asked. They dig into why people stay quiet, what they should actually be asking across finance, risk and strategy, and how to build a committee culture where hard questions are welcome before they become hard problems.
Show Notes
Asking questions is how a committee does its job. Not asking is a governance failure — not because people are lazy or malicious, but because there are very real human forces that keep people quiet in committee rooms. In this episode, the Kates name those forces, work through what good questions actually look like across finance, risk and strategy, and tackle the thorny question of how to ask in a way that gets you information rather than defensiveness. They also take on the quiet meeting — the one where every agenda item sails through without a single question — and explain why that is not the sign of a well-functioning committee.
In This Episode
- The four forces that keep committee members silent — and why none of them are good governance
- Why silence in the face of something that doesn’t add up is a transfer of responsibility, not neutrality
- Groupthink: how the duty of care fails not through malice but through everyone assuming someone else has checked
- The baseline financial, risk and strategic questions every committee member should feel comfortable asking
- How to frame questions that get you information rather than defensiveness — including the phrase that does a lot of heavy lifting
- The quiet meeting: why a committee where nobody asks anything is a warning sign, not an efficiency win
- What a good chair does to make asking questions normal — and what happens to the committee member whose hard question gets shut down
- The elephant question: the one sitting in the room that nobody’s asking — and why being the person who asks it is governance, not troublemaking
Free Download
The Questions Are Gold checklist is in the show notes — a one-page reference with the most useful questions from today’s episode that any committee member can keep with their meeting papers. Download it at thecommitteeroom.com.au.
This Week’s Challenge
At your next committee meeting, ask one question you’ve been holding back. Just one. You don’t need to set the room on fire — just ask the thing you noticed and didn’t say. See what happens.
Got a Question for the Kates?
Kate H and Kate M want to hear from you. If you’re dealing with a governance situation you’re not sure how to handle, or there’s a topic you’d love them to cover, use the contact form at thecommitteeroom.com.au. No question is too basic — if you’re wondering about it, someone else on a committee somewhere is wondering about it too.
About Your Hosts
Kate Hartwig has spent forty years working in and around not-for-profit and membership organisations — as a CEO, director, and independent consultant. Her Committee Companion is a head start on good governance with checklists, frameworks and exemplars for committee members. katehartwig.com.au
Kate McPhee has three decades of hands-on experience helping small clubs and associations get more done with less stress. She is the author of Just a Tick, a plain-English governance guide for committees and boards. liquoriceallsorts.com.au
Together they offer governance health checks and practical support through Fresh Allsorts.
This podcast provides general information on best practice governance for small to medium not-for-profit associations. It is not legal advice.
Timestamps
00:05 — Why did nobody say anything?
01:05 — Introduction to the Kates and this episode on asking questions
02:48 — Why don’t people ask questions?
03:06 — Feeling underprepared
03:23 — Not wanting to look stupid
03:38 — Deferring to the “experts”
03:51 — Assuming it’s already been checked
04:36 — Silence is a choice
05:00 — Not rocking the boat is not OK
05:32 — Silence is a transfer of responsibility
05:54 — Groupthink
06:35 — What should people be asking?
06:55 — What are the baseline questions?
07:01 — The financial questions
07:40 — The risk questions
08:07 — The strategic questions
08:35 — Confrontational questions?
09:54 — Keeping it real
10:17 — Framing your questions well matters
12:25 — What questions to avoid?
13:04 — Timing
13:38 — The quiet meeting
15:22 — The good chairperson
16:59 — The elephant in the room
19:44 — Recap
20:38 — This week’s challenge
21:10 — Your questions!
21:59 — Wrap-up and next week’s episode
Next Episode
Now that you’ve got the right people elected and asking the right questions — how do you bring a new committee member in properly? Next episode, the Kates tackle induction: the difference between handing someone a folder and actually setting them up to contribute from day one.
Resources & Links
🎙️ The Committee Room thecommitteeroom.com.au — episode archive, show notes, downloads and contact form
🍬 Fresh Allsorts freshallsorts.com.au — Governance Health Checks and practical services from both Kates
Kate Hartwig Consulting katehartwig.com.au — including the Committee Companion, a practical governance reference for committee members
Liquorice Allsorts Consulting liquoriceallsorts.com.au — including Just a Tick, Kate McPhee’s plain-English governance guide
LinkedIn: Kate Hartwig | Kate McPhee
You don’t need good luck if you’ve got good governance.
The Committee Room | thecommitteeroom.com.au