Through a quirk of the calendar this week, I attended three unique Board meetings running for a total of 6 hours within a 16 hour time span. Other than myself there were no overlapping Board members. I drank a lot of coffee.
The organizations' missions,size and scope cover a range of concerns. One is a business community focused on economic development in a region including 600 businesses and 15,000 people. Another is the largest human services focused private fund raising entity covering Cape Cod's 250,000 residents. The third is Massachusett's 20th largest school district with 900 employees and 6000 students. These are all relatively high functioning Boards.
I came away from these, back to back to back sessions with a renewed appreciation for how easily individual members and entire Boards can move from being powerfully vital to entirely passive. One moment a discussion can move from tactically useless and the next it is strategically focused.
Is this ebb and flow of strong to passive roles for Board members a primary characteristic of high functioning Boards? Yes it is. I will leave it to others to identify and define these Boards roles. My sense is these organizational dynamics are really complex and equivalent to a well rehearsed string quartet switching instruments after every song. Each person needs to listen for their role yet play as a group.
More importantly, CEOs, Executive Directors, and Superintendents require a sophisticated level of interpersonal skills in order to build and maintain a high functioning Board.
In a world being driven by globalization's intensive competition this ability to listen locally but play globally becomes a defining skill set.
