The value of focused intervention
Gil Dibner

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reminded a few times of the value of focused intervention by engaged and committed boards of directors. Many board meetings can trend towards the mechanical: periodical and largely formulaic updates when nothing of great significance is discussed. In these situations, both the founders and the board members tend to think that the founders basically know what to do and that the other board members are basically exercising their obligation of oversight. This sort of board meeting is common but not very valuable.

In other cases, however, a board meeting can be highly focused and impactful. This can happen in one of two ways. The first way is when a founder asks for a discussion on a specific topic either as part of a regular board meeting or in a special meeting called for the purpose. Ideally, everyone is prepped beforehand and a short deck is used to guide the discussion. When engaged board members come prepared, it’s amazing how much value and perspective they can inject into a conversation. Founders and board members alike need to invest in making a meeting like that useful, but if everyone pulls their weight — listening intently and speaking thoughtfully — the results can be truly impactful.

The second way in which a board meeting can become focused and impactful is when a board member decides to intervene and make it happen, often in response to something said or done by management that triggers a firm response. I was recently involved in a case when management presented a plan that simply wasn’t good enough or clear enough. Fortunately, one of the board members (in this case, not me) had the presence of mind to speak up very firmly and not let it slide. That completely changed the course of the conversation, triggered others to voice their concerns as well, and led to a series of one-on-one follow-up conversations with the entire board. A subsequent highly-focused board meeting called by management revisited the plan and presented what I thought was a much better and well-defined set of goals and forecasts. I’ve seen these sorts of things happen both quickly (as in this case when it took about a week) and slowly (when it can take management months to internalize and act on feedback from the board), but to my mind this is a sign of engaged board that cares.

Focused interventions at the board level can be triggered either by management or by one or more board members — but they are often a critical part of righting the ship when things are adrift. If you find yourself prepared for another mechanical update, now might be a good time to pause and ask yourself: what should the conversation around the board table really be about? On what topic would it be most useful for you to hear where people really stand? As a founder, it’s within your power to trigger that sort of conversation. Do your best to drive that conversation to the places where it will provide you with the most useful insights and the most vibrant discussion.

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