I recently observed two of my pet peeves about board meetings in the same meeting.
1. Orally report on past activities, when there was plenty of time to put the report in writing.
2. Framing broad general subjects, rather than specific decisions.
What’s wrong with both.
Let’s start with orally reporting what you could put in writing ahead of time. This is just a poor use of time. Your board’s time is one of your most precious resources. And your board’s time in the same place is even more precious.
The vast majority of people can absorb information quicker reading. Listening to one person share orally not only wastes time of those who could absorb the information quicker by reading, but it squanders the time your board has to do its most important job: govern. Governing takes conversation.
What about selecting topics, instead of questions, for board deliberation? This is perhaps an even bigger time sink. Adding topics to a board meeting just because it’s always on the agenda is not a reason to schedule an item for the agenda. And even if it is, you need to give your board some decision or options around which to frame the conversation, or it will be meander.
The conversation I recently witnessed went off in five different directions not just because the board chair didn’t intervene to keep it on a single topic, but because the board chair had no guidance for how to do so since the agenda item was set up as a topic, instead of a decision.