Equip Your Board Members: Indexes to Inspiration

Imagine receiving these texts from grateful board members:

   • “Thanks, Jennifer, for chairing another stimulating board meeting. The ‘Ten Minutes for Governance’ segment was perfect for new board members. Well done!” 😀

   • “Pedro—thank you, thank you…for asking Skip to present the Ten Minutes segment on the board member’s role in fundraising. I’ve been on the board for five years. Best. Meeting. Ever!” 👍

Many boards are following the practice of investing “10 Minutes for Governance” in every board meeting. (Click here to read this chapter online.) 

According to Lesson 39 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, “The typical boardroom includes a mix of new and long-term board members who bring their previous board experiences (or lack of experiences) into your boardroom. Every board member carries unhealthy baggage into your meeting that passed as normalcy in a previous boardroom.”

What will 2021 look like in your boardroom or on Zoom meetings? To avoid “bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience,” here are helpful “Indexes to Inspiration”—links to more than 200 blogs, lessons, and book chapters. Appoint a “Leaders Are Readers Champion” and plan now for a “10 Minutes for Governance” in every 2021 board meeting.

INDEXES TO INSPIRATION: 204 IDEA-STARTERS!

40 GUEST BLOGS: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings 

40 GUEST BLOGS: More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! 

40 GUEST BLOGS: Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance 

22 BLOGS: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board — Note: See Tool #19: “Ten Minutes for Governance (Lifelong Governance Learning—in 10-Minute Chunks!)”

18 BLOGS: Best Board Books (brief summaries of 18 board governance books)

30 BLOGS: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board (the 91-page book by Max De Pree)

14 BLOGS: Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask (summary of the 14 chapters/questions by Ram Charan)

Great Boards Delegate Their Reading! That’s a chapter title in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (click here to read online). Guest blogger Kent Stroman notes this from the U.S. Navy Seals: “Under pressure you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That's why we train so hard.” Stroman adds, “By being intentional about ongoing board member education, organizations are investing in their own preparation to ‘rise to the occasion’ that will inevitably emerge—at the least expected moment.”

View-and-Engage! In addition to the blog options above, check out the four short videos in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series. Topics include: board member recruitment, board roles (the three hats), conflicts of interest, and succession planning. Each toolbox includes a short video, a read-and-engage viewing guide, a facilitator guide, and bonus resources. Click here.

Blessings in the New Year! And speaking of encouraging texts, I’m so appreciative of Scott Rodin’s daily text ministry from The Steward’s Journey. As I finished this blog, this coronavirus-relevant insight arrived in his morning text:

“Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past;
it is possible to be sure of the future;
it is possible to be diligent in the present.” 😇
Alexander MacLaren

TOOL 13 – Board Retreat Read-and-Reflect Worksheets

Deputize a “Leaders Are Readers Champion"

Dan Busby and I recommend that every ministry board deputize a “Leaders Are Readers Champion." Appoint one board member to keep the lifelong learning core value on the front burner. Provide a small budget so he or she can keep abreast of the latest trends and issues—especially through the books that board members need to read, listen to, or hear reports on.

As former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis recently wrote in his bestseller, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”
  
TOOL #13: BOARD RETREAT READ-AND-REFLECT WORKSHEETS
Prior to your next board retreat, create a “Read-and-Reflect Worksheet” and inspire your board to read one governance book in preparation for your retreat. 

Tool #13 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of three tools in Part 4, “Taking Time for Strategic Planning,” in this jam-packed 271-page resource. The tool recommends seven options for pre-reading assignments before your next board retreat.

How do you engage board members? First you need to define what you mean and want for “engagement.” (Too much engagement could lead to micro-managing!) Many boards, however, have inspired board members to all read the same book prior to the annual board retreat. This tool provides sample “Read-and-Reflect Worksheets” for seven books—and various engagement methodologies, such as asking each board member to share a 10-minute chapter review (five minutes of content and five minutes for discussion and next steps). The options:

• Option 1: Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) 
• Option 2: Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today’s Leaders, by Peter F. Drucker, Frances Hesselbein, and Joan Snyder Kuhl (Read my review.) 
• Option 3: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, by Max De Pree (Read my review.) 
• Option 4: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (See the 40 blog posts.) 
• Option 5: Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (Read my summary.) 
• Option 6: More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson (Read my summary.) 
• Option 7: The Council: A Biblical Perspective on Board Governance, by Gary G. Hoag, Wesley K. Willmer, and Gregory J. Henson (Read my review.) 

For example in Tool #13, the one-page chapter review on page 154 lists four fill-in-the-blank reflection questions and discussion starters:
• My favorite quotation from the chapter
• My ONE BIG IDEA or take-away from this chapter
• Insight or implication for our board
• Question for groups-of-two discussions

Like many of the resources, Tool #13 is an “add-water-and-stir” package with many easy-to-use and boardroom-tested formats.

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: When was the last time our board read a governance book together—and made boardroom improvements as a result of our study? For more book options, check out this blog, “Best Board Books: Index to 18 Good Governance Stimulators.”

MORE RESOURCES: Kent Stroman notes, “As I’ve worked with and served on numerous boards, one observation has repeatedly smacked me in the face: Precious few of us have any formal preparation for the task we’ve accepted (serving on a governing board). No wonder there’s so much frustration with the work!” Read his thoughts on Lesson 38 in the Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog, “Great Boards Delegate Their Reading. Deputize a ‘Leaders Are Readers Champion.’”