The Secret to a Winning Strategic Board Agenda
A great strategic board agenda sets the tone for your meetings. It ensures that your board members are involved in productive discussions and taking decisions. It also allows for sharing of new insights and perspectives. The key to a successful agenda for the board is more than a list. It requires a certain amount of expertise, art, and discipline.
When you design your strategic board agenda, make sure to allocate time limits for each item. This can prevent meetings from running over schedule and will ensure that critical issues get adequate attention. It is also crucial to prioritize and balance the amount of strategic long-term items with reports and other business items. It’s best to prioritize the strategic discussion and move the reports for the last part of the agenda, so your board can focus on the most important issues facing the organization.
Consider inviting an impartial facilitator or board member to help with the strategic planning. They can bring an alternative perspective to the discussion and guide your board to adopt an approach that is more strategic when making decisions.
Distribute the agenda, as well as any other relevant documents, to the board members ahead of time. This will allow them to go through the documents ahead of time and develop ideas for the meeting.
