October 25, 2010 | Read Time: 3 minutes
One of my favorite memories from childhood is watching afternoon soap operas with my grandmother.
OK, maybe not just when I was a kid. And I did take a TV to college mainly to keep up with The Young and the Restless.
One of the things I noticed as a young soap-opera viewer was that time seemed to work differently in soaps than in the real world.
Consider the example of Philip Chancellor III, a character on The Young and the Restless who was “born” on the show when I was 8 years old, yet somehow managed to be in his mid-20s while I was still a junior in high school. (While I was in college, he faked his own death and moved to Australia. But I digress.)
How on earth does this relate to nonprofit boards?
The nonprofit board environment, much like soap operas, seems to distort the passage of time.
Many times I’ve asked board members how long they’ve been on the board. And they’ve shrugged and said they don’t remember exactly.
I’ve also asked board members if their boards conduct annual executive-director performance reviews. And the board member says of course. And when I ask when the last one happened, the answer turns out to be two years earlier.
As these examples illustrate, board time often works differently from real time–and not usually in positive ways.
Among the most important contributions to board effectiveness that an executive director and board chair can make is to be aware of the potential for board time warp and to take steps to prevent it. Here are four suggestions:
Create an annual work plan for the board. The plan should include goals and milestones for the year, along with items of business that need to get done at certain times of the year, such as acceptance of the audit, election of new board members, approval of the budget, and the executive director’s performance and salary review.
At each board meeting, take some time to put the meeting in context. To keep board members engaged, celebrate what was accomplished at the last meeting and give them a heads up about what’s coming up and why it’s important.
Keep track of board terms and when board members are up for renewal or are about to rotate off the board. That may seem obvious, but it often falls to the wayside in the press of other urgent business. I’ve run across board members who were in the fifth year of their three-year terms and others who were surprised and incredulous that their terms were up. It helps to plan ahead.
Have an annual one-on-one conversation with each board member. This conversation should include a reminder of where they are in their term and when they will be up for renewal. This is also an opportunity to ask for their feedback on how things are going, how their experience can be improved, and how the board could operate more effectively.
One of the most common things people say about soaps is that you don’t have to watch every day (or even every year) to follow the story. While this may be good for soaps, it’s bad for boards. Once board members believe they can skip a meeting or two without missing much, they start to disengage. And lose track of time.
Board members experiencing time distortion are at risk of becoming bored and disinterested. Or restless. And restless board members make trouble. Better to do everything you can to help board members keep track of time and want to tune in to every meeting.
