The effectiveness of board meeting can have a significant effect on the performance of your company. Board members are accountable to the future of their company, so they have to create a setting that encourages discussion and decision making.
The first step to ensure effective meetings is to set realistic goals and time frames for each meeting. Distribute the agenda in advance and include estimated discussion times. This ensures that important discussions are not overly rushed and that the less important items get enough attention. This lets board members prepare ahead of time and ask more intelligent questions.
Examine the availability of board members for each meeting. This includes their schedules, family obligations, and work commitments. The time of each meeting has a significant impact on attendance and engagement. It is best to choose a time when the majority of your board is present.
Make sure the agenda has all the necessary topics for discussion and that the meeting is scheduled to begin promptly. This will help to energize and keep the participants from becoming exhausted or distracted.
The voting procedure and the rules clearly to avoid confusion. Encourage active participation by using various participation strategies, such as breakout sessions, brainstorming exercises and role-playing scenarios. Visual aids can be used to align the participants’ perspectives and help them understand. Conduct evaluations of the meeting, and review of action items afterward to identify areas in need of improvement. These evaluations will help your board to continuously improve and enhance its effectiveness.