Beyond Bored Meetings
Breathing Life into the Most Important Board Activity

Jim Brown
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

Most people find board meetings to be about as interesting as watching slides of their great aunt's bridge party. It's a good thing we don't turn out the lights for our board meetings! Considering that meetings are the only times boards have the authority to function, poor meetings mean poor boards.

If board members are going to add real value to the ministries they govern, their meetings will look much different than the current cliché gatherings that commonly masquerade as board meetings.

Start with Life

Great advice that I credit to Bill Hybels, founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, is to divide our board meetings into three segments: community, cause, and corporate. Corporate is the business portion of the meeting, and most of this article will focus there because that part could be improved so greatly. However, all our board business will go more smoothly when we frame our time together most appropriately. If our board has been assembled well, the people around the table are passionate about the ministry we're serving and worthy of being lifetime friends. Take a set amount of time—say 45 minutes—to build community amongst the board members, sharing life and maybe sharing some food. Our relationships are the glue that holds the board together.

Next, spend half an hour discussing some of the most outstanding recent accomplishments that have propelled the ministry forward in fulfilling its mission. There are many ways to do this. You could have a leader of an area in the ministry come and share some testimony and vision. You could share our own personal experiences and observations. Regardless of the method, this focus on your "cause" reminds you why you are meeting and sparks the right kind of energy for your gathering. With this foundation of community and cause, you're well positioned to tackle the "corporate" matters. And there are ways to tackle those matters with greater effectiveness.

Annotate your Agenda

Let's take a lesson from popular magazines like Home & Garden, Readers Digest, and National Geographic. To provoke people to read their articles, their tables of contents include a punchy description under every title. Board meeting agendas are typically flat and vague. Worse, some are simply last month's agenda with the date changed. And if last month's meeting was boring, guess what people expect from the upcoming meeting.

Freshen up the agenda to trigger some positive expectation in the board members. Rather than simply listing "Report of the Senior Pastor," underscore it by adding that "Pastor Brad will update on progress regarding the city-wide outreach being coordinated with five other area churches and elaborate on the disappointing news that our children's ministry leader will be departing." Give people reasons to want to be at the meeting.

Allocate Time

Not every agenda item is equal in importance or time requirement. Countless board hours get frittered away on "matters arising from the minutes," and then there is insufficient discussion on more weighty issues because the time has run out. Converting "matters arising … " into actual agenda items allows them to be prioritized on the agenda. The most important matters go first. If some items have to be rushed, it's better to breeze through the less critical ones at the end. Or just drop them!

Demand Preparation

Weighty agenda items usually require background information. It's always best to concentrate meeting time on the actual interchange of perspectives and decision making, so it's important to ensure that every board member receives background material well ahead of the meeting. And it's essential that they all read it, so it must be informative and concise.

Use Structure for Engagement

People rarely fall asleep when they're talking. But if people aren't involved enough to talk, they may be thinking more about how to keep their eyes open than how to impact the world for Christ. Frequent engagement is essential for effective meetings.

One way to accomplish this and encourage proper preparation is to assign a certain agenda item or two to each board member. They will be the first to turn to when questions arise. They may be expected to lead out with their analysis of the item at the start of the discussion. This way, everyone will be better prepared than if it was left to chance.

And rather than allow the same extroverted people to answer every question posed, turn regularly to the introverted ones for the wisdom that warranted their position on the board.

Better yet, structure the response for some agenda items. This may mean asking board members to pair up and list three pros and cons about a proposal being considered. It may mean assigning teams of three directors to argue "for" and three to argue "against" in a debate. It could involve everyone circulating the room with markers to write their ideas on four flip chart pages posted around the table with headings like "our strengths," "our weaknesses," "new opportunities," and "outside threats." Shake up the old sit-on-our-tails-and-yap-about-it approach to add energy, creativity, and openness.

Welcome Conflict

Real openness comes when we are willing to say what we think without fearing that someone may dislike our comments. The bane of most ministry boards is that we are so "nice" to each other we avoid asking many of the hard questions. For the meeting to be effective—and not boring—more must be shared than information. It's best when some emotional energy gets exchanged. Encourage people to disagree (while avoiding any personal attacks, certainly). Invite differences and challenges. That's when the deeper perspectives come to the table. When we learn to do it and maintain respect for each other, we become much stronger as a board team.

Put an End to Bored Meetings

Make a decision to spark life into every meeting of your board. It's the only setting where your board is entitled to make decisions and set the course for the future. We owe our best thinking, our most energetic input, and our most discerning decision making to the ministries we serve. And the best place for that to happen is in our duly-convened board meetings!

Since 1995, Jim Brown and his colleagues at Strive! have been helping boards and leaders be champions. Jim is a founding partner of Strive, an affiliate of Patrick Lencioni's company,The Table Group. You can reach him at www.strive.com.