You’ve worked hard to recruit your board members. You sought out people with experience, with networks, with expertise. With brains! So why waste all that talent with board (bored!) meetings that don’t accomplish anything? Don’t let your board become rubber stamping zombies.
Plan
Creating productive and energizing board meetings is possible. It just takes a little planning ahead. Gather data and reports early and send them to your board well ahead of time. That way, you can spend just the first few minutes of your meeting approving things and answering questions. Spend the rest of the time engaging the board in an issue, challenge, or opportunity that requires some thought. Let them know ahead of time what you would like to discuss and arm them with information. Use the meetings for discussion, not reading.
Play
Sometimes sitting around and talking is useful, but that’s not always the best way to come up with innovative, new ideas. Be playful. Consider breaking the board up into groups and having them compete against each other to come up with the best idea. Or break out the crayons and have them draw a path to success. Whatever you think might get your particular board’s brains going – try it out!
In short…
Put Them to Work
Being an ED can be a lonely job, but your board is there to help you. They want to help you. No one joins a board just because they love reading meeting minutes. Set up your board for success by planning ahead and creating a playful, thoughtful environment, and then let them be the smart ones. Let them come up with plans and strategies. After all, you spent a lot of time and effort recruiting them for their brains!
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