From Bored Meeting to Board Meeting

Takeaways

Use these tips to overhaul your board meetings and keep board members engaged.

There are an estimated 20,000 board meetings a day. For some, that fact inspires hope as so many give their time to create a better world. For others who think of board meetings as the place where strategy and creativity go to die, the idea that there are 20,000 of them happening right now inspires a full-blown anxiety attack.

Every board member was recruited because they were passionate about the organization and the issue being worked on. However, how many are now in a meeting talking about bake sale items and auctions?

Let's be honest. For most board members, the reality of serving on a board often falls well below their expectations.

Too many meetings are driven by an infrastructure that is set up to be professional but is less than helpful, and it often drives out the type of engagement that most board members want to have, which is to talk about the issue the organization is working on. Boards may choose to adopt these structures because they want them, but let's all agree not everyone needs them. 

One of the most consistent frustrations for executive leaders is dealing with their board. Often those frustrations escalate to the place that they want to do away with the concept of board governance entirely, claiming it is an old-fashioned and unhelpful structure from the past and not needed as organizations evolve into the new era. While I completely understand the benefits of leaving behind the time and energy vampires that most boards can be, I believe most executive leaders can benefit from a healthy functioning board. Having a team of independent people who hold the leader accountable for the organization's performance, confirm that funds benefit the intended recipients, and ensure that the mission is clear and accomplished greatly benefits the leader and the organization. These are not bad things. Any healthy leader would kill to have a team of people helping them do them. The problem is that most boards don't do them. So, let's fix that instead of eliminating what could significantly benefit our organizations.

Part of what is driving us to question the usefulness of boards are the ineffective practices, assumptions, and ideas about how boards are supposed to work that are not serving us well. Below is a collection of tactics and tools to help improve effective meetings and overall board function.

Clarify Your Board Type

It is one of those essential steps that is easy and common to miss. Boards have different types and focus based on the season that the organization is in. When organizations start, the board is usually a circle of friends of the founder and functions like a quasi-staff. As the organization professionalizes, the board may completely change members and function, often shifting to more of a fundraising and resource-generating team. Still later in the organization cycle, boards frequently center around policy and governance. In each season, when your board has shifted types, what the focus is now for board members and gaining consensus builds unity, momentum and effectiveness.

 Size Matters

The current trend is to work with a smaller, agile, distributed board. The ideal size for most organizations is a board of 5 to 7. You want the group large enough to have a healthy variety of ideas and perspectives but not so large that the executive and board chair spend inordinate amounts of time on board maintenance and upkeep. I still see some leaders trying to build a large board of 20-30 people, and they are buckling under the strain of keeping all of these members engaged and informed. If it takes just an hour a month for the proper care and feeding of each board member to keep them informed and engaged with a high level of trust, it is evident that a smaller group is a huge advantage. The leader that has accumulated a board of 30 will spend almost one week a month focused on keeping the board moving in the right direction, while a leader with a board of 5 spends half a day each month on board care and feeding. 

If you find yourself leading an organization that loves more of the traditional model of a large board, a great tactic to manage this is to create within the board an executive committee of 5-7 board members that function as the board when the full board is not in session. Focus most of your energy on this smaller group and ask them to own keeping three or four members engaged. Limit the meetings and the decision-making of the rest of the board by holding only one or two meetings per year of the full board, making these meetings primarily informational and generative discussions, leaving a lot of the decision-making to the executive committee.

Board Field Trip

Mission-driven organizations with local programs that the board can interact with through some sort of field trip experience can be powerful for board members. These shared learning moments can unite board members, build connections, empower staff, and promote greater understanding of the core mission. Creating space for board members to humbly listen to front-line staff, ask questions, and interact with past or present program participants will help center board members in their own personal journey.

Consent Agenda

If too much of your board meeting is dominated by picking apart the prior minutes or the financial report, try using a consent agenda. Pooling together routine, non-controversial items on the agenda allows them to be approved by a single motion. It is a statement to the board that these are not items we want to focus on, saving time for generative discussions later in the meeting. For this to work, it is important to have your board docket go out a few days in advance of the meeting so people get used to analyzing minutes, reports, and financial statements ahead of time and asking any questions they may have before the meeting rather than bogging everyone else down with their questions in the meeting.

Video Updates

An easy way to keep board members engaged between meetings is to send out video updates personalized to just the board. Shot on a cell phone is fine. This is not about production quality but personalization. It is far more engaging than a printed report and lets you easily informally include other staff or program participants without pulling them into a meeting. You can still hit the highlights in the meeting and answer questions but this increases board awareness of a "day in the life" of their CEO.

Informal Board Meal

A fantastic way to start a multi-day board meeting is with a meal. It allows people to talk about their families, hobbies, and work. Informally, getting to know each other deeper before a meeting begins builds trust and connection. It may feel like you are wasting valuable time, but this paves the way for much smoother discussions and more efficient board functions. Always have these informal connection points before hard conversations and when new board members join.

Assigning Committees Ahead of Meetings

For those who use a committee structure, setting those meetings before the board meeting so that committees have done their work before a full board meeting is very helpful. For instance, a trusted finance committee that has already met, adjusted, and placed its stamp of approval on a budget before the full board votes on its adoption saves so much time at the full board level.

Chunk Onboarding before a Board Meeting

It may not be the most convenient for you as the executive to onboard board members right before a board dinner that rolls into a full meeting, but it is usually what is best for new members. Do it for them. After onboarding, keep an eye on that first meeting to see how new members are engaging. Some new board members may have a hard time getting their voice out there in the beginning. Offer to call on them once to get their ideas on the table, and they can take it from there.

Handle hard conversations in line with your values

There are always ups and downs in organizational life. It is never always up and to the right. Own the realities of where the organization is at and handle critiques, seasons of poor performance, or hard conversations about difficult issues with humility, candor, and courage. It will build trust for the future.

Bring new board members into the board as a cohort

When possible, add new board members in groups so they can support each other and not feel singled out or tokenized (particularly if they are community board members).

Start each board meeting with a short meditation. 

Be grounded in the voices of the community that you serve. Share inspiration around the mission, testimony from someone served, or insight from others related to your work. Allow board members to reflect on it, share their thoughts and feelings, and center themselves on the core of the work before diving into a meeting.

A lot of these things are simple but not always easy. Great board function does not need to be complex. Still, it does need to be intentional, thoughtful, and executed well to maintain the trust and engagement of the people who have agreed to play such an essential role in your organization.