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3.11 Efficient Conduct of Board Business
How can the Board get through its business efficiently?
Board meetings should always have a manageable and prioritised agenda, an agreed duration and - perhaps - an estimated length of time for each agenda item.
It is important that the agenda is properly focused. It must reflect the Board's two fundamental purposes - the long term (mission, strategy and planning) and monitoring performance. There will be some issues reserved to the Board, such as major capital spend decisions, and these must be on the agenda. However, it is important that the agenda is not clogged up with detail, even if it is just items 'for noting'. It will be all too tempting to dwell on the easy unimportant things and not concentrate on the big issues.
The Chair should ensure that some action is agreed for every substantive item on the agenda and that the minutes clearly and accurately record decisions taken, responsibility for agreed action, and as appropriate, the views of individual Board members.
It is worth taking some time to find out how the Board you have just joined conducts its business and ask questions about the structures and processes that are in place. Questions from a new Board member can often be thought provoking and may stimulate new and more effective ways of working for the Board as a whole.
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