Board meetings can be an excellent way to increase the energy level of all participants and get fresh ideas from people with different backgrounds. In order to keep the momentum going, it requires more than just getting everyone in the same room.
Board members must feel that they can trust each other enough to be candid and to ask difficult questions. This is only possible by having an atmosphere of transparency and openness. This is the reason it’s so important to create a board culture which recognizes the importance of board meetings and tries to make them as productive as they can.
The board’s agenda must clearly communicate to directors what they need to accomplish to accomplish their goals. The agenda should be flexible enough to accommodate unexpected items or the necessity to reorder items. The board should also be given the chance to discuss any new business issues.
When it comes to addressing new business, a good board chair will not present reports and instead concentrate on facilitating discussion with the whole group. This will not only help save time, but will also help create a positive environment in which the board can pose difficult questions of the management.
Parking lots could be added to the agenda to allow for small, unrelated topics but without distracting the important issues. Getting sidetracked by irrelevant discussions can eat up the time at meetings and prevent board members from taking action.