Across the social sector, organizations face the challenge of engaging their board members appropriately in critical areas — from core governance issues to fundraising. Frequently this shows up as poor meeting attendance, missed fundraising goals and opportunities, bad behavior and/or micromanagement. As a result, board members struggle with investing the time and energy for planning and decision-making needed in the rapidly changing environment that organizations face.
In this series of highly participatory, virtual workshops, we help board and staff leaders explore the key elements of a highly engaged and effective board. Through assessments, exercises and peer discussions, participants will learn strategies and tactics that help build board engagement and will walk away with tools and action plans that will help them strengthen their board’s engagement and impact.
You may register for days 2, 3 and 4 individually. Click on the event titles below for registration links. Register for the entire four-part series here.
• Board Recruitment – Attract the Right Leaders and Leverage Their Talent
Friday, January 27, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Engagement starts with the recruiting process and is a journey that continues as boards orient, train, and evaluate their members. Yet most boards approach recruiting without the thoughtful, comprehensive process necessary to attract their ideal board member. In this workshop, we will understand how to:
• Recruit and retain the highly engaged board member
• Leverage board member talents for the mission
• Design and develop a robust recruiting process
• Build diversity and inclusion into the recruiting process
• Develop a recruiting action plan that builds in engagement from the outset
• Breaking Down Barriers: Moving Toward a More Diverse and Inclusive Board That Can Explore Equity and Anti-Racism
Friday, February 17, 9:30am – 12:30pm
What’s holding your board back from achieving real diversity and inclusion, or even talking about it? How do you start to discuss equity and anti-racism and reflect it in your governance?
Your board may struggle with starting or maintaining the process of achieving meaningful and lasting diversity and inclusion. Whether you face challenges with recruiting the right talent, heightening their engagement, building an inclusive culture, and/or retaining and preparing diverse candidates for leadership roles, you know that you need to do something different to reach your goals focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
In this workshop we will discuss some of the structural, cultural, and emotional barriers that exist on boards when it comes to building greater diversity and inclusion. We will walk through the steps to breakthrough these barriers along three dimensions for sustainable board diversity and inclusion. Through exercises and peer discussion, we will explore how to:
• Make the case for equity, diversity, and inclusion on your board
• Understand the barriers to greater diversity and inclusion that may exist on your board
• Identify how to breakthrough these barriers and who should lead the process
• Explore an approach to action planning for real board diversity and inclusion and a path to explore equity and anti-racism
• Board Design and Processes – Structure the Board for Greater Effectiveness
Wednesday, March 8, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Is your board and committee structure designed to support your strategic plan and your equity, diversity, and inclusion goals? Are your board and committee meetings driving board members away? Do meetings produce board actions that drive the organization forward or is the board stuck on minutiae that staff can handle?
A well-designed board and committee structure and meeting agenda with the right leaders can make the difference in an organization’s ability to move ahead on transformational change. In this workshop, we will help participants:
• Deconstruct the structure and processes that may be holding your board back from being more effective and inclusive
• Structure committees for greater leadership, impact and engagement
• Redesign meetings for greater effectiveness, inclusivity and engagement
• Develop an action plan for injecting new energy into your board’s work that helps members reengage and recommit
• Board Performance and Culture – Building the High-Performance Board
Wednesday, March 29, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Is your board asking the right questions? Do they know what a high-performance board should be doing? Do you have the right culture to build a high-performance board? Is your Board Chair-CEO relationship as strong as it can be?
In this highly participatory workshop, participants will explore the following:
• Understand the elements of a high-performance board
• Identify the key elements in your own board that will make a difference in the board’s culture and performance
• How to move your board from focusing on operations to governance
• Learn the key elements of a high functioning Board Chair-CEO relationship
• Develop an action plan that will help you enhance board performance and culture for greater impact on your mission.
Series facilitator:
Rena Henderson Mason, Bold Agenda. Rena is a trusted advisor to mission-driven board and staff leaders, helping them shape their boards for high performance and tell their unique stories. She is a ICF-Certified Coach and BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer with extensive training in high performance coaching, board development and group process facilitation. She has coached Board Chairs and Executive Directors/CEOs through a range of organizational challenges including growth, leadership transitions, strategic alliances, restructuring, turnaround and crisis.