On average, a company’s board meeting takes between two to four hours.
This means spending this timeframe in a closed-door gathering demands a level of intentionality and preparedness. Board meetings are held to carry out strategic decisions, communication, and governance.
As pivotal board meetings are, if planning is not put in place, your board meeting can become repetitive or borderline burdensome and unproductive. The goal is to get every team member on board. This is why preparation and presentation matter before the meeting, during, and post-meeting.
One of the ways to execute this is by having a mapped-out agenda. This gives insights into the discussion of the day and gives members the ability to prepare ahead.
This article explores the successful strategies you can implement to run efficient and effective board meetings but before that, why is it important to plan for board meetings?
The essence of planning board meetings
According to a recent Forbes report, most CEOs drive their company forward to perfection by thoroughly gathering sufficient data on key integral issues affecting the organization before holding a board meeting. An effective board meeting is reliant on an environment where no stone is left unturned as certain issues are addressed and key strategies are developed to combat them.
Here is where essential tools like board portal or board books software come in. With these, information is relayed easily across team members. There is efficient distribution, easy follow-up, and quick access to past meetings.
The benefits of this board meeting management software are to encourage automation in data collection and security of private messages. It’s an innovative way of tracking decisions during meetings and there is clarity in the next steps taken
Strategies for running effective and efficient board meetings: Pre-Meeting Phase
● Curate a mapped-out agenda
The purpose of an agenda is to touch on probing issues that require attention. Beforehand, roadblocks should have been identified from previous meetings, and significant progress highlighted. Agendas set the pace for how meetings would flow and determine how effective the board meeting would be.
A mapped agenda answers these three questions;
- Where were we before?
This looks at past performance and progress made from previous meetings. This is the foundation for starting the board meeting.
- Where are we now?
Highlights current positions regarding project milestones, updates, successes, and roadblocks.
- Where do we desire to be?
This looks at actionable steps to take to meet the goals, execution, ideas, and strategic steps to take to meet the company’s vision. A board portal would be relevant to helping team members access and contribute to important discussions of the day.
● Share relevant documents ahead of the meeting
Team members should be informed ahead of the touchpoints covered in the meeting. Technologies like board portal software can be used to share reports or presentations for the day. Traditional methods like emails are prone to mistakes as in the process of forwarding emails, a certain stakeholder not meant to be a part of the meeting is attached to the message.
Using a centralized board software allows all meeting records stored in a single location where members can collaborate and contribute to certain points shared on the platform. This encourages active participation from members as due diligence is taken for adequate research and strategic implementation.
Strategies for running effective and efficient board meetings: During the Meeting
● Implement high-end technologies for the meeting
Digital evolution in the post-COVID era has changed the flow in board settings. Executives have evolved from printed materials to using paperless board meeting software to capture, share, and track the progress of information shared.
For your periodic meetings, implement board meeting software to encourage ease of access with document sharing and tracking progress made from stakeholder decisions. On a board portal platform, it is convenient for members to collaborate and share information because there is a unified platform to manage responsibilities online.
● Encourage participation from members
The essence of team participation is to get unique insights from members and create an avenue where they can expressly share their ideas. Board members are contributors to the success of the organization. Hence, different perspectives are needed for the growth of the company.
A sustainable way of implementing this is to have board management software that takes notes and captures information for streamlined collaboration. Also, there is room for accountability because member’s inputs are recorded and there is a unified integration of members’ contributions on the platform
Strategies for running effective and efficient board meetings: Post-Meeting Phase
● Record final decisions on a reliable platform
Manual collection of minutes is an outdated method of tracking information. Aside from the burden of noting every point down, team members involved would not be fully engaged in discussions.
Different central points are covered in meetings so the information should be stored on a reliable platform for future reference. Once this information is garnered, every team member should have access to them so that they are aware of what areas were covered and each individual pulls their weight to achieve set goals.
● Evaluate performance of team members
The final step is evaluation. The progress made would determine the success of these board meetings. For instance, if the meeting was held between a board of directors, through the materials shared on the board of directors portal or board of directors software, there is accountability in terms of tasks assigned and progress made. With these in place, team members would be spurred to give their best.
Conclusion
Successful board meetings are hinged on the right strategies. From assessing discussions from previous meetings, highlighting successes, and figuring out what needs to be done. All these surmounts to the growth of the company’s vision. Utilizing board management software or a board portal platform for conducting periodic board meetings would transform the flow of your meetings. It would become more collaborative, productive, and simply put, efficient. In no time, results would come from these efforts.
