I enjoy helping boards think through what may be ahead for their organizations. Through Clayton Rose Group, I work with leaders to make foresight a regular part of those conversations. I also bring lessons from the times I got ahead of the people I was trying to help.
One of those lessons came during our work on housing at the chamber. The board meeting went great. I came away ready to press further into the discussion, so I sent homework to help board members test assumptions and identify other people who needed to be part of the conversation.
I overloaded them. The information and the assignment were overwhelming, and they pushed back.
I had assumed that a good meeting meant the board was ready for the next level of work. I needed to test that assumption, too.
Test the materials before you send them
My intention was to help the board think more deeply about housing and the chamber’s role. But I needed to pay closer attention to what I was asking people to absorb and do. I was familiar with the process. They were being asked to learn it while also working through a complicated community issue.
That experience changed how I think about preparation. Board materials should help people enter the conversation with enough understanding to contribute. The amount of information, the wording of a question, and the size of an assignment all affect whether that happens.
Before sending a new exercise to the full board, I recommend asking a few members to work through it with you. Ask what they think the assignment is asking them to do. Where do they need more context? How much time would it take? What would make it easier to contribute?
Their answers can tell you whether the materials are ready. They also give board members a role in shaping how the work will happen. That matters when you want people to participate in a new way of thinking.
Give people room to grow into the discipline
Looking back at the housing assignment, I would start with one assumption for the board to examine. For example, what are we assuming about the housing needs of the employees our members are trying to hire?
Provide a short explanation of why that question matters and the relevant information already available. Then use meeting time to explore what the board knows and what still needs to be understood. That discussion can help identify whose experience is missing and who should be invited into the next conversation.
As members become comfortable testing an assumption together, the next assignment can build on that experience. Give them a chance to see how their questions affect the work. Ask whether the preparation helped and adjust it when it did not.
Foresight takes practice. So does preparing a board to use it. We need to allow people to learn the process, try it together, and develop confidence in what they can contribute.
That housing discussion stays with me in my work with organizations today. A good meeting is an opportunity to build on. My responsibility is to make the next step manageable enough that people want to take it with us.
