Running a Successful Board Meeting

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A successful board meeting requires careful preparation, planning and sharing agenda items before the meeting. It also requires a concentration on the topics of discussion and clear documentation of decisions and action items. This enables productive meetings as well as a responsible follow-up, which helps companies get closer to their goals.

To make your meetings efficient and productive as you can, it’s crucial to be familiar with the expertise of each board member, their interests and expectations. This knowledge will help you customize agenda items and encourages active participation. Understanding each board member can help you decide the best time for meetings, as well as offer convenient locations and a productive space for discussions.

Prioritizing the most important issues is crucial to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. As a rule limit the number subjects that are discussed in a meeting to two per one hour. Each subject should be allocated at least 30 minutes. If the business is struggling and needs help, it might be beneficial to devote a larger portion of the meeting to discussing hopes and plans for the future, rather than updates.

All documents (including reports from committees staff reports, committee reports, Board packs and other documents that contextualize upcoming decisions) should be accessible prior to the meeting to increase Board participation. Make sure that all these materials are uploaded on your Board portal, and accessible to the Board prior to the meeting, as well as at the time of the meeting.