Part 2: Taking Your Orientation to the Next Level
You’ve outlined your plans for your board orientation and find you have more time allocated to this purpose than needed to cover the three essential components outlined in the first part of this series. So what are your options for enhancing the overall insights and impact? You want to be sure that what you add to the conversation provides value to your board members and you want to avoid adding just for the sake of adding.
Here are a few possible additions for your orientation to consider. Each has benefits, but what you add should be based on the strengths, focus and overall culture of your board. We’ll outline a few items and why they might be a good fit for your orientation.
One of the first items I’d encourage you to consider is a review of your board job description. Yes, we communicate with candidates about the position description, but a quick refresher is a great addition to help focus and keep those stated priorities in mind as they start their work as a new board member. For a board which leverages its directors to be engaged in more hands-on work, I’d recommend also including a breakdown on what work or oversight is owned by the board, the committees and the staff. This helps further define the job description and scope for your board members while also providing insight into the overall organizational structure.
Also on my short list of recommendations for inclusion are some modified case study exercises focused on the legal duties of a board. If legalese is not the first language for your leaders, taking the time to craft short discussion-generating case studies in terms and/or situations that align with their industry helps make these memorable, more easily understood and applicable. This is also a great time to have your current board leadership ask a few open-ended questions to generate discussions between both new and returning board members.
Shifting the focus from governance to oversight, new board members may appreciate a high-level overview of the member benefits and/or programming your organization provides. While we’d love all our members to be intimately aware of everything our association offers, oftentimes there are programs or other offerings that members aren’t aware of. This overview helps ensure your board understands the full scope of the work your association does which aids in the oversight responsibilities they have as members of the board.
Consider a summary of recent feedback on your flagship benefits or programs, or an overview of your recent member survey feedback. This helps calibrate the overview of programmatic work with what your members or key stakeholders perceive as the most important, which is crucial for a high-impact board.
Overall, it’s important that you bear in mind the importance of balancing information with time and space for questions and discussion on all items included on your agenda. You don’t want your board to leave your orientation with more questions than they started with and planning time to address these questions is crucial to help your leaders feel well-informed and supported as the governance term begins.
Next up, we’ll discuss considerations for the format of your orientation: who to include, and the impact that virtual, hybrid or in-person formats make on how you present and engage with the information. Watch for more coming next month.
Read part 3 of the Board Orientation blog series on the Acumen blog.