Board Member’s Playbook, Miriam Carver and Bill Charney, 2004. This book is a must for any organization implementing Policy Governance. It provides a series of board scenarios, with answers, that give a new Policy Governance board the opportunity to rehearse various situations in the following areas: board interactions with the CEO or staff, board member interactions with the CEO or staff, the roles and responsibilities of board members, and the board’s job as a team. In addition, the book includes a quick review of the model and a sample board policy manual. Finally, the book comes with a CD of the most important material.

Boards That Make a Difference, John Carver, 2006. This book outlines in detail John Carver’s model of board governance, called Policy Governance. This model offers an empowering and fundamental redesign of the board role and emphasizes values, vision, empowerment of both the board and staff, and strategic ability to lead leaders. It gives board members and staff a new approach to board job design, board-staff relationships, the role of the chief executive, performance monitoring, and virtually every aspect of the board-management relationship.

The following is a series of 12 booklets, all written by John Carver, which outline a specific topic in Policy Governance. These booklets are an important resource to any organization implementing and sustaining Policy Governance.

Carver Guide 1: Basic Principles of Policy Governance
Carver Guide 2: Your Roles and Responsibilities as a Board Member
Carver Guide 3: Three Steps to Fiduciary Responsibility
Carver Guide 4: The Chairperson’s Role as Servant-Leader to the Board
Carver Guide 5: Planning Better Board Meetings
Carver Guide 6: Creating a Mission That Makes a Difference
Carver Guide 7: Board Assessment of the CEO
Carver Guide 8: Board Self-Assessment
Carver Guide 9: Making Diversity Meaningful in the Boardroom
Carver Guide 10: Strategies for Board Leadership
Carver Guide 11: Board Members as Fund-Raisers
Carver Guide 12: The CEO Role Under Policy Governance

Corporate Boards That Create Value, John Carver and Caroling Oliver, 2002. In this book, Carver applies his Policy Governance model to corporate boards.

On Board Leadership, John Carver, 2002. This book is a collection of John Carver’s most noteworthy articles and essays about Policy Governance. It is a comprehensive resource covering a wealth of critical topics such as achieving meaningful diversity in the boardroom, protecting board integrity, handling staff complaints, evaluating the mission statement, making informed fiscal policy, owning the board agenda, evaluating the CEO, and knowing when (and when not) to form committees. Designed as a hands-on guide, this book also includes an innovative Frequently Asked Questions navigation tool that is helpful for finding specific answers to targeted questions.

The Policy Governance Fieldbook, Caroline Oliver, Mike Conduff, Susan Edsall, Carol Gabanna, Randee Loucks, Denise Paszkiewicz, Catherine Raso, and Linda Stier, 1999. This book is for organizations considering, beginning to use, or already using Carver’s principles of Policy Governance. Readers will discover practical advice based on the real-life experiences of organizations that have tried and tested Policy Governance for themselves. Each chapter is built around a user-friendly, hands-on framework–first introducing a specific Policy Governance activity or challenge, exploring the experiences of boards that met this challenge, and then drawing key lessons from those experiences.

Reinventing Your Board, John Carver and Miriam Carver, 2006. This book, as its subtitle suggests, is a step-by-step guide to implementing Policy Governance.