Board meetings are a great way to generate enthusiasm and bring members from diverse backgrounds to discuss their innovative ideas. However, maintaining the momentum takes more than getting everyone in the same room.
Board members must believe that they are trusted enough to be honest and to ask difficult questions. This can only be accomplished by having an openness and transparency culture. This is the reason it’s so important to establish a board environment that recognizes the importance boardroomcommunity.com/boardmaps-board-management-software-review/ of board meetings and strives to make meetings as productive as it is possible.
The agenda of the board must clearly state what directors need to accomplish in order to meet their objectives. It should also be flexible to accommodate unexpected issues or the need to re-order items if needed. The board should also be given a chance to discuss new business items.
A good board chair will not make reports when discussing new business. Instead, they encourage discussion among the entire group. This is not just a way to save time, but will also create a positive and supportive environment which the board can be able to ask difficult questions to the management.
Another method of encouraging discussion is to include a parking lot on the agenda, which allows small, random issues to be discussed however, it won’t distract from more important issues in the room. Being distracted by irrelevant discussions can eat up meeting time and prevent board members from taking action.