Is a governance board a rubber stamp if it always approves projects?

Consider a recent article by Mark Suster, suggesting that the decisions at a governance board meeting should be foregone conclusions.  Would't that make the board pretty much a rubber stamp?  Maybe, but not necessarily.

What are effective metrics for seeing whether your governance process is effective?
At first glance, if a so-called review board always approves everything that it is presented, perhaps it is just a rubber stamp -- a pointless waste of the time lost in the pause needed to get through this milestone review.
So a metric might be the proportion of reviews resulting in approval.
Not so fast.

When checking your premises, there is value in going to the opposite extreme. What if the board rejects almost everything?  For those who actually made the effort to prepare something properly, over-engineering a decision package in hopes of trying to get over an unreasonable bar is a waste of effort.  And everyone will be finding ways to evade the process completely.  These don't sound like the symptoms of an effective process..

Mark argues that it is not in the nature of executives to debate one another -- with winners and losers -- in open forum.  Forcing that dynamic can produce unpredictable consequences.  Things may work better if the PM briefs the members beforehand and deals with any issues.

The problem with this "political" approach is that it leaves a lot of doubt as to whether the due diligence which was the board's responsibility is really being carried out.

Here are some circumstances under which near-automatic approvals are signs of a working governance process:

• The proposals already form part of an approved higher-level program - or the sponsor of that program has agreed to cancel some approved work in order to make room for the new idea
• The board meeting has been preceded by technical reviews which confirm that (if approved) the project should be delivered effectively
• The decision materials that are furnished clearly illustrate that the project team has thought through the issues and approaches

By the way, these are "and" statements, not "or".

Does your board approve everything put in front of it?
Does it have these assurances?

If not, how do we go about moving it in a more transparent and effective direction?