Wild Apricot Free Expert Webinar - Leading Great Board Meetings

http://www.wildapricot.com
Leading Great Board Meetings: How to
Structure Yours for Success
Free Expert Webinar
Webinar presenter: Richard
Lent, Ph.D. & Co-founder of
Meeting for Results – an
organization that provides
leaders with the coaching,
tools and facilitation they
need to get better results
from their meetings.
Author of Leading Great
Meetings: How to Structure
Yours for Success

Take-Aways from Today’s Session
Provide practical tools and ideas to:
1. Generate constructive input on strategy, plans and
proposals.
2. Improve alignment and commitment to decisions.
3. Support effective follow-up actions.
And take your questions …

Replies to Registration Questions
 What is your biggest challenge in reaching decisions—
effectively and efficiently?
 Getting alignment. (All 3 stories will address, Tools: PALPaR and others)
 Lack of preparation (Tool: FATT)
 Reaching clear decisions (Stories 1 & 3, Tool: 5Cs)
 What is your greatest challenge with follow-up to board
decisions and plans?
 Action plans and follow-through (Last section on “Achieving Results” and
Tools: Forces Review, Follow-Up Timing and Three Follow-Up Questions)

Meeting Challenges for Nonprofit Boards
(And Other Teams)
• Size of group
• Ineffective time
management
• Discussions get stuck in
details
• Unequal participation and
engagement
• Low support for decisions
and uncertain follow-up

What We’ll Explore Today
• Three stories of board meeting challenges and how they
were resolved
1. Managing discussions and decisions
2. Board challenged by low engagement and alignment
3. Building alignment around strategic change
• Eleven tools to use to structure more effective meetings
– Specific focus on building decisions and follow-up
• Recommendations based on how you can work with the
structure of your meetings to use time well, build engagement,
alignment and follow-up, even with large groups.

Unseen Structures Affect What We Do

Which Meeting Would
You Rather Attend?

Unseen Structures of Meetings
• Physical, temporal, procedural
aspects of meetings.
• With an (unrecognized)
impact on how we interact
with each other and the work
of the meeting.

1) Challenge: Managing Discussions and Decisions
• 10 board members
• One person always had a lot to say
• Another always seemed to question, or have a different view
• Others participated on an uneven basis
• Unclear decision-making … and some get revisited later
My recommendations to the leader involved how she could
focus and balance discussions and one way to build decisions …

The Next Meeting
• Leader shares agenda with a plan that needs their approval.
• She introduces decision and turns to person responsible to
present proposed plan.
• He presents the plan, but doesn’t take questions (yet).
• The leader asks all to reflect for a moment… and then turn to
another person around the table to share views on 3 questions
she has written on a flip...
• What do you like about the plan?
• Where do you need further information?
• Where do you have concerns?

Meeting Continues: Gathering Reactions…
• She goes around again and asks
each pair to share their thoughts
on: questions and concerns. She
asks all to listen without
comment.
• After a few minutes, she asks each pair to share what
they discussed in response to the first question…what
they liked. She writes replies on flip chart.

Meeting Concludes: Reply and Decision
• Next, she asks the presenter for his replies to what he’s heard.
• Finally, she leads a Go-Around and asks each person to speak
in turn about whether the plan has his/her support … or if
further changes or clarifications are necessary.
• All say they support the plan, or at least consent to it and agree
that it should go ahead.
• This discussion lasted about 40 minutes and created a clear,
well-supported plan.

Some Key Structural Choices
She used the following tools to lead an effective meeting:
FATT
PALPaR
Three Reaction Questions
5 Cs
Go-Around
• Defining the task.
• Creating a structure for discussion.
• Having a clear process for decision.

Example:
In response to a safety incident, a team might meet to
discuss “Fund raising.”
A more clearly focused task statement could be, “What
can we learn from last year’s campaign that we can
apply to improve this year’s fund raising effort?”
FATT
Defining a Clear Task: Focused, Actionable, Timely, Timed
Clear tasks focus discussion. And when sent out in advance
help people come prepared to the meeting.
How clear are your tasks on a recent board or team meeting
agenda?

PALPaR
Creating an Effective Exchange in Response to a Proposal
Before you begin, summarize process and proceed as follows:
Present: The proposal or decision.
Ask: Participants to talk in small groups to share reactions.
Listen: Take reports from each small group. Record the
feedback where all can see.
Pause: Give the person making the proposal a chance to reflect
on the feedback and develop a thoughtful response and…
Reply: With a summary of what was shared and respond to the
feedback.

Three Reaction Questions
Gathering Balanced Feedback
Present proposal. Then ask participants to reflect on their own
or in small groups to answer these questions:
1. What do you like about [the proposal]?
2. Where do you need further information?
3. Where do you have concerns?
After a few minutes, take reports, one question at a time
beginning with the first. Get all replies to first question before
proceeding to the second.

Five “Cs” Of Decision Making
Choosing How to Decide with a Group
Productive engagement requires being clear how you want to
reach decisions. There are five ways to reach decisions with a
group, “5Cs”
Consensus
Consent
Compromise
Counting
Consulting
All agree.
Acceptable, no major downsides.
We all give up something to reach a decision.
Voting. “Side” with most votes “wins.”
Providing input to person responsible for
decision.

Go-Around
Hearing from each Person in Turn Without “Cross-talk”
• Ask participants to share their thinking on the subject
(or decision) one at a time.
• Give a specific expectation for the time each person
has to speak…usually 1-2 minutes is enough.
• Explain that no one should speak until everyone has
spoken once.

Questions So Far?
Photo credit: Rein Skullerud, for WFP

2) Challenge: Low Engagement and Commitment
• 18 members
• Monthly meetings of
uncertain length
• Difficult, ineffective board
discussions
• Lots of unstated issues
• New president hopes to
change things

• Create an agenda that clearly defines the
work to be done and sets a realistic time to
do it. (FATT)
• Change room set-up and seating to change
interactions. (Seating Arrangements, 5Cs)
• Plan a structure for discussions to make sure
all get to talk and be heard … and stay on
time. (1-2-All, 5Cs)
My Recommendations

Seating Arrangements
Changing Interaction by Changing Seating
How you sit together can change how
you talk together.
Decide if you want individuals to sit
as they usually do. The best choice
may be to mix participants so that the
same people don’t sit with and talk to
the same folks as usual.
Tips:
Direct people to their “assigned” seats as they arrive.
Begin by taking a different seat yourself.
If it’s a large group or you want better dialogue, use circles of chairs.

1-2-All
Effective Engagement for Any Size Group
After introducing a subject or question to be addressed by
the group, complete the following steps.
1: Individual Reflection. Give individuals a minute or two
to gather their own thoughts. (This is the “1” of the tool).
2: Small Group Discussion. Ask everyone to turn to their
neighbors to form small, 2 (or 3) person groups to share
ideas. Give them 5 minutes or so to share.
All: Whole Group Discussion. Ask each group for a brief
report (typically 1-3 minutes) summarizing their small
group discussion.

3) Challenge: Aligning Everyone on Strategic Change
• Board intends to propose
an important
organizational change and
expects resistance.
• Needs support of majority
of members and good
alignment among board
• Using PALPaR and Three
Reactions Questions

Engaging Everyone
(80 Stakeholders in 60 Minutes!)
• Board reviews purpose of
meeting: to gather input
on proposal.
• Proposal presentation.
• Small groups address 3
questions.

Listening to Feedback
• President asks for sample of responses to first question.
• As comments shared, board member writes key phrases
on flip chart.
• Repeats process for second and third question.
• After all reports, President thanks everyone for their
input and explains the Board will review feedback and
present conclusions next week.
• Over the following week, Board meets to incorporate
what they learned and develop revised proposal.

Board Meets with Members Again
• Board summarizes what they heard in response to all 3
questions.
• They explain how they considered feedback.
• Revised proposal is presented.
• Again people share their reactions in small groups before
whole group discussion (using 1-2-All).
• Proposal easily passes subsequent vote.

Underlying Structure
• Short initial presentation.
• Everyone gets to speak in small, mixed
groups. No one gets to “take over”
meeting.
• Addressing 3 questions, one at a time,
ensures balanced feedback heard by all.
• Small group sharing before whole group
discussion.
• Board works with feedback before
having to reply.
• Decision built before voting.
• Tools: PALPaR, Three Reaction
Questions, 1-2-All

Questions?
Photo credit: Rein Skullerude, for WFP
Photo credit: Rein Skullerud, for WFP

Two Key Structural Choices in Achieving Results
How you build decisions with
your group.
How you plan to follow-up.

80/20 Principle:
Focusing on Areas of Agreement
We often agree on 80% of some situation but put most of the
energy and time into the 20% we disagree on.
• Remind the group of this principle early in meeting.
• Record areas of disagreement as points “not yet agreed.”
• Keep the attention on areas of agreement.
Tip: Introduce this principle early in your meeting, not when you get stuck.
Make sure you follow-up on disagreed items in the future.

How You Plan to Reach a Decision
Tools to reach decisions with a group:
– Consensus
– Consent
– Compromise
– Counting
– Consulting
80/20 Principle, Go-Around
Go-Around, Multi-Voting, Forces Review
Small group brings back proposal: PALPaR or 1-2-All
Reach decision by some other means first
PALPaR

Forces Review
Thinking Constructively and Action Planning with all “Sides”
1) Preparation: Write goal at top of flip chart. Divide chart in half with
vertical line: one side labeled “Supporting” other “Restraining.”
2) Brainstorm: Complete a brainstorm of supporting forces and then all the
restraining forces. A force is anything impacting progress.
Goal
Supporting Restraining

Forces Review…
3) Multi-vote: Each person votes for top 3 supporting and top 3 restraining
forces.
4) Identifying actions: For top three supporting forces, identify ways to
strengthen them. For top 3 restraining forces, identify ways to weaken them.
5) Conclusions: Identify next steps to work with identified actions.
Note: This is not comparing pros and cons, but exploring all factors affecting
achievement and what to do about them. All views are shared and
considered.

Plan a review of progress within 30-45 days of original meeting.
Longer than this and much of the attention shifts to why things
have been hard to complete.
Review both what has and hasn’t been accomplished so far
using Three Follow-Up Questions.
Follow-Up Timing
Choosing the Best Time to Learn from Actions

Discuss the following questions in this order. Balance time and
attention across all 3. You can modify the questions, but keep
all 3 types.
1. What has been accomplished as planned?
2. What hasn’t been accomplished as planned?
3. What can we learn about making progress in this area
from our answers to questions 1 and 2?
Three Follow-Up Questions
Learning from a Balanced Review of Progress

Additional Resources
Rick’s new book is available on Amazon. It includes
example agendas, approaches to difficult situations, a
chapter on effective virtual meetings, many more tools.
Rick has four new videos on structural techniques at
https://youtu.be/9aK_adNs_ug
Contact Rick to explore your questions
rick@meetingforresults.com or visit his blog:
www.meetingforresults.com/blog
Rick will co-host a webinar on Leading Great Virtual
Meetings on Dec. 10. Nancy Settle-Murphy from Guided
Insights will join him in this session. Join us!

Wild Apricot Free Expert Webinar - Leading Great Board Meetings

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