Board Meetings

BTMAD 10

The central board resource is the collective experience of its members. It is a struggle to balance excellence and conserve time while trying to access the wisdom of our members. This knowledge is elicited at meetings and is not easily done. The challenge is to reduce this large job, composed mostly of words, into a small amount of time. To do this, we must exercise care in selecting topics for meetings as we strive to transform diverse views into a single voice.

We meet only about 20 hours a year, so there is no time for wasteful or inappropriate topics. We cannot afford to dabble in details even though it might appear when we do so that we are being “actively engaged”. Tradition is stacked against visionary leadership activity.

The board’s job is a verbal task. Debating, clarifying, and enunciating values are talking tasks. Boards cannot address just any topics at any time and hope to excel. When boards wander aimlessly, they are being negligent. The board is a deciding body, not a debating society. We must answer the question, “What does the board exist to contribute?”

Boards should ask the question, “What will we allow ourselves to talk about?” There are three screening questions. First, “What category is this issue?” (Is it Ends, Limits, Links, or Process?) Second, “Whose issue is this?” Does it belong to the board, or to the Executive Director and staff?” Sometimes the most effective question is, “Should this issue be on the board’s agenda?”

Complete information is rarely available so the board must sometimes act with incomplete data. When we delay, the existing silent, implicit policy is still in effect. A board can delay changing a policy, but it cannot delay having one.

The goal is a short meeting agenda -shorter but deeper. We want high attendance. People will come if meetings are interesting and if they feel they are contributing and accomplishing something significant. Therefore, meetings must be worth member’s time.

Often disproportionate attention is paid to financial and legal issues at the cost of program outputs. This serves accountants and lawyers far more than it serves leaders and creators who want to add value to the world. This sways the board to looking back over its own or others shoulders, more than looking forward.

Leaders (the board) do not ask followers (staff) to tell them what their job is. Board items should be focused on the basic board contributions: 1 – links with the ownership, 2 - explicit governing policies, and 3 – assurance of ED performance.

The board should concentrate on the mission and on those in whose behalf the mission is pursued. Board time should be spent largely (2/3) creating the future, designing a strategic vision infused by a long-term mentality. We must recognize that Policy Governance is a big change in concepts and behavior. It is a new path.