A successful board meeting is a combination of strategies designed to maximize the results and create the perfect environment for collaboration. The following suggestions can help you set an exciting mood, promote participation and achieve your desired result.

Define the purpose of your meeting

The setting of clear goals helps keep meetings focused and productive. This will also lead participants to meaningful discussions and decision making processes. The clarity of meeting goals will enable the leaders to prioritize agenda items, assign enough time to each topic and allow for flexibility for the eventuality that unexpected problems or urgent issues arise during the course of the meeting.

Begin with the Most Important Issues

Addressing the most important topics first will energize the meeting, as it will put everyone in the right frame of mind for deeper discussion. It’s also a great method to establish the expectation that your meetings are focused on issues, not updates, which is the most frequent complaint of board of directors meetings.

Distribute Meeting Materials in advance

Distributing the materials for meetings and reports to all Board members prior to the meeting is the best method to ensure they are prepared for the meeting. This gives attendees the chance to look over the materials prior to the meeting and plan their thoughts and opinions. This will also prevent the meeting from going off track or getting bogged down by administrative tasks.

Review Your Meetings

Utilizing an online board portal will allow you to keep track of action items and follow-up tasks during the meeting, and disseminate them in an easily digestible format after the meeting is completed. It is also crucial to review the board look here meeting on a regular basis to determine what’s working and what could be improved.