08/18/2025

Driving More Effective Boardroom Conversations

Better leverage the power and efficiency of board meetings

Before attending my first meeting as a new director, I received an email that included a 150-slide, data-rich deck. The CEO had the executive team meticulously prepare a voluminous packet for all the board members to review. As a new director, I was surprised at the volume of data and lack of analysis or context. When I asked the CEO about it, he said, "I never know what they will ask about, so I include everything that might come up."

During the meeting, the conversation veered wildly as one director asked, "What about this data on page 64?" Another referenced page 30 with a clarifying comment about something else.

While well-intended, the unintentional consequences of this board packet meant that every director had to decide for themselves what was important without the benefit of others' experience and insights. Because of the scattershot nature of the conversation, meaningful and thoughtful insights were few and far between.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Directors & Boards.