Building Trust: Key Strategies for a Cohesive and Effective Board of Directors
In our experience, many boards (possibly most) have members who don't know each other well. Why? There seem to be many reasons. People are busy, the virtual world is quite impersonal, boards tend to meet infrequently, and meeting agendas are often quite full. Sometimes, board members don’t even know each other’s names.
Under these conditions, expecting a board to function as a cohesive team and for members to be fully engaged in their tasks seems like a lot to ask. It's not surprising that two of the top issues currently facing nonprofit organizations are board engagement and recruitment. From various perspectives, joining a board may not appear to be an appealing proposition.
Prioritizing interpersonal connections is at the heart of creating a culture of trust. It often gets kicked off meeting agendas to allow time to review financial reports, complain about downward revenue trends, and discuss what might have gone better last year. We recommend that your board should remove any non-essential items from the meeting agenda to prioritize fostering interpersonal connections.
How does this look in practice?
One strategy is to pair board members for a 20-minute conversation during a board meeting where they discuss the following questions:
When have you really enjoyed your work with (the organization) and felt like you were
making a positive impact?
What do you most appreciate about (the organization) and the work we do?
How can we build on our strengths as an organization to reach our goals?
What can the Board do to best support (the organization) over the next year?
What do you imagine your role might be in helping to make this happen?*
And of course, you can change the questions up. You might choose to start with more personal questions such as Why did you join the board? Or, What do you do for fun?
Other strategies work too. Arranging a happy-hour get-together, a walk in the park, or attending a community event can be very effective activities to engage in. And when you do, take the business agenda out of the conversations. Get to know one another.
So, what’s the payoff? Skeptics may say that there is no time for this, and it is the business agenda that needs to take priority. Well, the skeptics have it. The business agenda is the priority - but meaningful discussions about business matters will be more effective in a trusting environment in which people know one another.
Check out this Harvard Business School article, What Makes Good Boards Great. Here is a teaser: “The key isn’t structural, it’s social. The most involved diligent value-adding boards may or may not follow every recommendation in the good governance handbook. What distinguishes exemplary boards is that they are robust, effective social systems.”
Our model for board engagement is based on the following three elements:
Personal Engagement - the honoring of your motives for joining the board and understanding how the organization's mission resonates with you.
Shared Vision - Working with colleagues to build for the future, in a trusting and intimate environment
Strengths-Based - Opportunities for members to utilize their expertise to further the mission of the organization.
Together, these elements create synergy - a total effect that has a greater impact than any single element. And for this to happen, board members need to know one another. In this context, the standard business agenda items take on a new meaning and purpose.
It is both inspiring and encouraging that the key to board effectiveness lies in human connectedness and understanding.
Interested in learning more about board leadership? Join us on August 7th for a Board Bootcamp training that we are facilitating, in partnership with the Colorado Nonprofit Association. See Event Details.
*Inspired by Appreciative Inquiry Interview Questions, Center for Appreciative Inquiry.