Build a Better Board Part 3
Visualize the most recent board meeting you attended and ask yourself these five questions about board performance:
- Were recommendations based on low aspirations due to fear of risk or criticism?
- Did the board leave knowledge and skills untapped in its members?
- Did one or two voices dominate the meeting?
- Did the agenda focus attention on the past?
- Did board members hold themselves accountable for results?
Each of these questions is an indicator of board engagement and high-performance. If you answered ‘no’ more than ‘yes,’ you are not alone! Few boards can hit their marks for powerful teamwork and outstanding organizational results. However, as a CEO or board chair, you can change the environment in which your board operates and create space for engagement.
It starts with changing the group dynamics in small but powerful ways. Most boards meet monthly or quarterly; most board members are barely acquainted with each other. Surveys tell us few have any interaction outside of the board room. However, solid interpersonal relationships create and support trust build strong board performance. Higher levels of interpersonal trust can transform your board from a group to a team. Imagine a board meeting with ample time to explore critical issues regarding your current or future workforce needs, the organization’s changing donor profile, or your customers’ wants and needs.
You can achieve this, but it takes time and commitment. The first step is to intentionally build and invest in opportunities for board members to get to know one another on a personal level. Some practices to consider:
- Don’t assume people know each other.
- Ask each board member to provide a bio that includes personal information like family, pets, alma maters, hobbies, along with the typical career and professional info
- Circulate it on at least an annual basis, and when a new board member joins
- Make time for introductions
- Provide a dedicated social time for your board
- A dinner after your annual meeting
- A happy hour
- A celebration of an organizational milestone
- Examine your board agenda
- Throw Roberts Rules away.
- There is no rule about how an agenda should flow.
- Create an agenda the focuses on the strategic issues your organization is facing
- Use a consent agenda
- Throw Roberts Rules away.
- Use dashboards to report financial and programmatic data; focus on trends, use charts vs. tables of numbers
- Trends, not points in time, tell a fuller story of how your organization and board are performing. Learn more about trends here.
- Most people cannot look at a table of numbers and discern the ‘point’ of it. Use charts as much as possible
- Use the Hindsight-Foresight-Insight model
- Hindsight- committee reports, program reports- provide in written form and accept as part of a consent agenda
- Foresight- trends, benchmarks, changes in the operating environment (homelessness, diversity, health indicators, revenue sources)
- Insight- Mission, Vision, succession planning, changes in needs of clientele, survey reports, long term goals
- Always send the agenda, supporting docs, written committee reports, and guidance on the agenda at least one week in advance.
- Guidance can be a message from the ED highlighting action items, recommendations coming from committees, or pointing out an issue that will be discussed
- Review your committee structure. If you are using standing committees prescribed by your by-laws, consider updating them to allow the use of ad hoc committees or task forces that focus on the strategic issues your organization is facing
- Committees are a perfect opportunity to teach board members about the mission and operations
- They also provide a smaller group setting that encourages participation
- Committee chairs, not staff, should be responsible for recommendations and accountable for results.
- Give your board members feedback
- Appoint a governance committee to review the board member job description and identify a handful of indicators to track. Transform the adage of Time, Talent, and Treasure into indicators. For example, board attendance, committee attendance, participation in activities or events, board giving, introductions to people in their business or social networks
These tips may provide the board governance catalyst you need to launch your organization into the next level of impact. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and take time to notice how your board meetings feel. With time and attention, you should see a positive change.