04 / Board practice
Make better use of your board’s time and attention.
Your directors care about the organization, but the meetings may not be helping them contribute as fully as they could. We help you understand what gets in the way and make practical changes to how the board works.
Beyond bylaws
A full agenda can still leave the important work undone.
Reports take most of the meeting. Difficult questions get pushed to the end. A retreat produces good ideas, then daily work takes over. We look with you at how the board prepares, discusses issues, and follows through, so changes address what is actually happening.
Sounds familiar?
- Most of the meeting goes to reports
- Proposals get sent back for more information
- Decisions get revisited a few months later
- Actions from the retreat have no named owners
An illustrative example
The documents changed. The meetings didn’t.
Imagine a nonprofit that recently updated its bylaws but still struggles to make progress in meetings. Proposals return for more information, staff reports fill the agenda, and ideas from a retreat have not moved forward.
Looking at recent decisions could reveal that proposals reach the board before the options and the decision are clear. Better preparation and a simple way to follow up may help more than another change to the bylaws.
How we help
Start with how the board works today.
We build on what is working and focus attention where it will make a difference. That might mean better preparation, a different agenda, or support for a more useful board conversation.
- 01
Understand the experience
We listen to directors and leadership and look at recent board business, from preparation through the discussion and what happened afterward.
- 02
Find what gets in the way
We look for recurring issues in the information, conversations, responsibilities, or follow-through.
- 03
Put useful changes into practice
Together, we identify changes the board can use in its regular work and consider what needs adjusting as you try them.
The aim
More useful discussion, clearer decisions, and attention to the issues that matter most.
- Where we focus
- The meeting practices, preparation, and follow-through that need attention in your board.
- A related option
- If an urgent decision needs attention first, we can help with that while keeping the broader pattern in view.
How is this different from a governance assessment?
We look closely at your board’s actual work and the experiences of the people involved. The point is to identify practical changes you can use, with enough context to understand why they matter.
Can we use this to plan a board retreat?
Yes. We can help you decide what a retreat needs to accomplish and facilitate the conversations that will make it useful. A retreat can also be a good place to address patterns the board has been avoiding.
Will you rewrite our bylaws?
We can help identify whether the documents support how the board needs to work and coordinate with your counsel where changes are needed. Many improvements involve preparation, meetings, and communication.
Other ways we help
Situations often overlap.
Questions about board practice often connect with an immediate decision or the board–CEO relationship.
What would you like to change about your board’s work?
Tell us where meetings or decisions are getting stuck. We can help you consider what deserves attention.