How to run an effective board meeting?
8 tips for a purposeful governance
Is it sufficient to be well-prepared for a meeting: to know the topics to be discussed and the key decisions that need to be made? Is it enough to understand and weigh up the risks and challenges that the organization is facing? And to take any follow-up tasks or actions agreed?
These are all popular recommendations to run an effective board meeting. They are certainly true but not enough. Have you experienced to prepare all the topics, to think in advance of any questions or clarifications to be addressed, to be aware of any legal, regulatory, or governance issues that need attention and… finally to realize being stuck in a meeting? How many meetings end with little progress with every member defending his/her point of view?
I suggest a few tips to change the board meeting mood and progress towards effectivity:
Start with an ice-breaker
You can find hundreds of exercises on the internet. One simple ice-breaker could be: “Share a true, unknown and surprising thing about yourself”. The objective here is to start opening and showing your identity, your values and who you really are to the other members.
Another ice-breaker could be: sit in a circle and pass a little object from one’s hands to others’ repeating a simple sentence with a different feeling. You can repeat the sentence with a normal tone, then talking as a camel or really fast, then caring the object, then seducing, being drunk, being really sad etc.
Move your body
You can include body movements in the ice-breaker. For example, you can put a music and every member can lead the movements during a while when the others follow the movements and the music. The objective here is to stop thinking, to focus on the body, to relax, to enjoy, to feel the difference between leading and following and to feel the collaboration and synergy among the members.
Each board member can also simply walk in the meeting room listening to the music, then stop and stretch his/her body, or stop walking, close her/his eyes and move his/her hands flowing with the music.
Avoid talking on top of each other
To regulate who speaks in a group and to make the board’s members behave in a dialogic way when there is a conflict you can invite the members to sit in a circle around a talking stick. Whoever holds the stick is the only person who can speak. All other members must listen. When the person holding the talking stick has finished speaking, he/she puts the stick back in the middle of the circle. Then, and only then, another member can pick up the stick and speak.
This tool helps people to respect their turn, to practise their tone of voice to address to others and to get used to listening to the people with whom the conflict took place.
Discover yourself and the other members
When does a conversation with friends and relatives is meaningful and productive? A lot of people will answer to this question saying when one person trusts the other one. This rule surely applies as well to board meetings. What would you do to enhance trust among board members?
For example, you can dedicate periodically the first 10 minutes of a meeting to know better each member and connect with the other members. With this aim, each board member can prepare a 5 minutes presentation about his/her important values in life and how he/she sees him/herself in 10 years. The board member can share pictures to represent his/her important values, in addition they can share a motto that fits the specific moment of life they are living in.
Define the values of the board working together
Every year dedicate a meeting to define or update the values of the board, maybe the members of the board have changed or maybe people changed their own values also.
You can use picture cards for example. Spread 50 picture cards on the table, each board member chooses 3 cards and explains why he/she picked those ones and what is the impact of choosing these values on the board. Then agree a limited number of values of all members, of the board as an entity. Each member must feel that his/her values are represented in the common values of the board. Maybe some values are similar, maybe others values encompass other or have a broader meaning. Conclude the meeting defining how the board will be accountable to respect and apply the values and define specific behaviours and rules that demonstrate the integration of the common values in the organization.
Define and rotate roles in the meeting
Have you ever experienced in the days after a complex meeting that nothing changed and almost any board members is committed to the action plan? Have you ever experienced endless board meetings without reaching an agreement on important topics?
One important tool you can use in a meeting is the “Delegated roles” invented by Alain Cardon. The idea is to distribute roles that are often concentrated in one person among different board members. Indeed, every board member will have 2 roles: the formal role (HR director, Head of marketing, Country manager, etc.) and the “delegated role” for this unique meeting. The different roles are the facilitator, the time-keeper, the decision-maker, the scribe and the coach (who is mirroring people attitudes and giving feedback about the interactions). In the following meeting, every board member will play a different “delegated role”, he/she will experience first-hand what it means to make a sum-up or to be the coach, and will have the opportunity to improve his/her performance in each role.
Define the mission and vision of the board
I have often seen organizations that had the mission and vision printed on the walls of their factory or their office, but really these sentences did not make sense any more for the people that are working there: “being the leader of”, “offering tasted experiences”, “showing the best”, …
You can use one board meeting every 1 or 2 years to redefine the vision and update, if necessary, the mission of the board. The stripped-down concept of “vision” is to know where and how the board will be in 2/3 years and to describe it with plenty of sensory details. Will we be partying on a rooftop or having a meeting on the beach offering such services to the market or what? 
The stripped-down concept of “mission” is to know why we want to offer such services or products and how these services and products will contribute to the evolution of society. Normally the mission is more static than the vision.
You can ask to the board members first to draw with markers or paint the future of the organization and the purpose of all the board’s work through years and decades. Then board members can share and explain their drawings or paintings revealing their true desires and fears. Finally, the board members can draw or paint a new vision of the future and purpose for the organization.
Define rules to manage conflicts
The conflict among these 2 people is blocking us to move on. There have been 2 coalitions fighting one against the other for years. These people hardly talk to these others or avoid them. Have you ever experienced these kinds of situation? Most boards have had one of these experiences.
To prevent exacerbated and endless conflicts and run effective board meeting you can first apply one or more of the previously mentioned tips. A board where each member is self-aware of his/her and the other members’ strengths and weaknesses will approach the conflict in a more mature way. There will be no room for battles between egos.
Every 6 months you can use the first 20 minutes of a board meeting to define how are the best ways to anticipate or solve a conflict answering to such questions: What will we do when a board member is unpunctual? What will we do if a board member is not consistent with what was agreed? What will we do to keep calm?
These recommendations are by no means exhaustive, they are only meant to be an aid to boards members committed to their development. I’m really curious about your experience as a board member. Share your tips to improve the effectiveness of a board meeting in the comments below.
If you would like more tips about board meeting facilitation book a free call with me.
