Background
Board meetings can sometimes be long and painful. We at RANA believe that many meetings would benefit from some Process Leadership, i.e., where a facilitator keeps in the process in check, while Board members can concentrate on the content. Here are a few other hints for people needing to be productive during Board meetings.
1.Deal in Sound Bites
The limit of any person’s attention is about 8 seconds, unless you keep them engaged. Use the Headline Technique, which is to give gist of your idea within an 8-10 second span and then add the detail when people are less likely to be listening as attentively.
2. Manage Listening
The attention of normal human beings in meetings drifts in and out according to their individual motivation. You can manage your listening better by taking notes on what you are hearing that is directly on the subject (the in part of listening during the meeting) and what you are hearing that fits outside of the subject of the meeting (the out part of the meeting).
3. Assess Your Meeting
Always always take two minutes at the end of each meeting to assess three things that went well and one thing to improve for the next one. Then, make one person in the room accountable for implementing that improvement
4. Make Your Agendas Actionable
Your agendas should not only contain the content items for the meeting, but the process and expected outcome for each of them, for example, an agenda item that might say: “The latest OHA recommendation to Boards” should also say: “Decision required on adoption”.
5. Control Your Own Blather
Resist the urge to comment on every item, especially if you have the bad habit of commenting at length. Rather, set up a competition among the meeting participants for brevity and use “code” expressions for be ruthless when the discussion is deteriorating into too much detail.
6. Set and Respect a Time Standard
Set the time standard for your meeting, for example, 2 hours separated by one 10 minute break. Then, structure the meeting so that highest priority items appear first and lowest last. End the meeting 5 minutes before the elapsed time and take the time ti assess your meeting, as mentioned above.
7. Do Away with Side Meetings
Simply refuse to engage in “side” meetings, not only because they are rude (which they are), but also because valuable information is lost to two important people – yourself and the other person – in the room when a side conversation goes on.
8. Manage Cell Phones
Simply decide on a policy for cell phones: some Boards don’t allow them in the meeting room; others tolerate them to be on vibrate mode; and virtually all agree that having them ring during a meeting is a definite no-no. Flight mode is very handy.
9. Prepare
It is essential to prepare for Board meetings. It is, in fact, part of the job. If you choose to be a Board member, then, you must also choose to do the work. Lack of participant preparation is one of the key impediments to effective Board meetings and prolongs discussion needlessly.
10. Who Drives Change
Effective meeting behaviours need to be driven from individual motivation, rather than that of the group. Change is much more certain if each member of the Board decides to adopt effective behaviour rather than having the Chair impose a protocol.
