Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Matt Horn, Director of Local Government Services for MRB Group; and, according to unnamed sources, CBS’s second choice for the host of this year’s Golden Globes…well, there’s always next year. Who is Jo Koy anyway?
- What I’m Reading: Just re-started “Eleven Rings” by Phil Jackson – looking for sports-laced insights into elements of high-performance organizations.
- What I’m Listening to: Trolling through old episodes of “American Scandal” on Apple Podcasts. Since January 1st, I’ve finished installments on David Koresh, Iran-Contra, and the Boston College point shaving scandal. I love real-life drama (see above reference to Golden Globes).
- What I’m (not) Drinking: Well, it’s Dry January, so my Maker’s Mark has been replaced with highball glasses of Wegman’s peach seltzer water. Same-same…ugggghhhh…
It’s that time of year again…many of you find yourself with some new faces on your governing board, and new or seasoned, they’ve all got big ideas for how to move the organization and community forward. I’ve found that now is a chance to capture that energy and direct it for good – to develop a clear path forward by which the board and staff are going to govern into the new year and beyond.
One great vehicle for addressing this is a board retreat. Boards who spend time in their initial days together, sharing and seeking alignment on vision and values, and creating a clear roadmap for success, will have stronger performance, and move toward their shared vision in a much more efficient (and ideally, congenial) way.
From my experience, great board retreats break into two clumps of sessions – early work on identifying a shared vision and governing principles, and nuts and bolts discussions on board operations, finance, and work plans for the year.
Team Building and Overarching Strategy
Whether you’ve got a team full of veterans, with no turnover, and a history of clear, decisive strategy; or a clean slate of new board members with no cohesive forward look, it’s best to start the day with a session that addresses why, exactly, it is that we have all come together in this organization.
There are dozens of frameworks to build a session like this on, but my preference is the “Start with Why” approach, penned by author Simon Sinek. Sinek posits that the best organizations out there not only know what it is that they’re supposed to be doing (filling potholes, treating water, preventing fires, etc.), but WHY we are doing it to begin with. Sinek also has a text entitled “Finding Your Why”; which provides for some exercises that groups can use to get down to the nitty gritty.
Whether you use Sinek or another framework, the goal here is for board members and staff to understand how each other thinks, and what is most important to each of them. Then, seek to find alignment in overarching strategies, which will serve as the foundation for your work together this year and into the future.
At the close of the first session, your board should have identified a shared purpose, and an overarching set of principles by which they plan to govern during their time together (sounds easy, I know).
Nuts and Bolts Sessions
- Board Operations and Team Roles: These sessions can focus on how we’re going to work together as a team. If you have board-level rules of procedure, this is a good chance for a refresher on these. It’s also an opportunity to discuss:
- agenda setting
- communications among Board members and between Board members and staff
- an overall discussion on how decisions are going to be made
Getting off on the right foot, with a universal understanding of who’s on which seat on which bus can save some headaches later.
- Finance and Budget Basics: I was always surprised by the variation in understanding among board members about how municipal finance worked. Even when board members had been engaged for multiple years, there still seemed to be one or two who benefited from an annual refresher on the most basic elements of the balance sheet, financial dynamics, and the budget process.
Calibrate this part of the agenda based on the experience level and understanding of your board. If you’ve only got one or two new members (or one or two older ones who still need help) consider a separate onboarding session for those folks. This session is less about financial goal setting, and more about getting everyone a similar understanding of the financial condition of the organization and the processes and dynamics of the finance side of things. - Goal Setting and Annual Work Plan: Of the nuts and bolts session, this is the most critical. Leverage any time you spent on shared visioning and overarching priority areas to discuss what specific items we’ll work on this year. Tie priorities to specific goals and action items that board and staff members will work toward. Work to identify:
- the specific action
- how it ties back to the overarching vision
- who is responsible for leading the effort
- what resources they’ll need
- what the timeframe for action is
- how we will measure success.
This will serve as our blueprint for the year and can assist in performance measurement at year end (and feedback throughout the year).
Other Considerations
A few more things to think through:
- Don’t intermingle routine business and big picture work. No “quick resolutions” or “brief discussions” on pending controversial (or non-controversial) items. Schedule a special meeting if issues need to be addressed quickly.
- Try to do this in one sitting, or over two close-knit chunks. The longer you spread it out, the less effective it is.
- Memorialize the discussion in a briefing that, at a minimum, includes the vision/purpose, governing principles, and work plan. Keep this handy all year for measurement’s sake.
- Speaking of measurement, discuss this often, and consider using it in performance measurement of board and staff effectiveness. Consider a monthly agenda item to discuss progress.
Sessions like these aren’t a cure-all for a new or challenging board, but defining expectations right out of the gate should give the board and staff a shared set of expectations as we begin our work together.