Gary Daniels, FACHE
Gary Daniels Consulting, LLC
(603) 763-4875
e-mail to: danielsconsulting@myfairpoint.net
You may want to consider a time out or, as some Boards call it, a “Governance Moment.” With Board agendas packed with crucial issues related to finance, hospital/physician relationships, health care reform, new construction, and do forth little if any time is devoted to the Board itself.
Boards typically do take time for discussion of their annual self-evaluation or the more comprehensive Board Assessment. These discussions lead to improved effectiveness of the Board and are certainly very valuable.
Unfortunately throughout the remainder of the year the Board often spends little time on itself. That is where the Board Moment comes in, providing the Board with ten or fifteen minutes to address pertinent issues or to respond to questions posed by Board members.
For example, a Board member may have read about a person being injured at a local charity event and want to know more about the
Board’s responsibility to ensure adequate insurance is in place. Or, a Board member may be reviewing his or her retirement plan and question, as a Board member, their responsibility for the organization’s retirement plan for employees.
Questions such as these may, of course, arise without a Board Moment and will likely be answered appropriately by management. With the Board Moment, however, members can ask what their role is in relation to the responsibilities of management.
Topics for the Board Moment do not have to await spontaneous questions from Board members, but rather can be identified and
present by the Governance Committee, the Board chair or the CEO. The Board evaluation mentioned above will lead to important issues that should be addressed in a formal work plan such as committee structure, development of a board member evaluation process or introduction of term limits. Less weighty issues may not be included in the work plan, but could be appropriately a part of the Board Moment. Examples could include modest changes in the orientation program, additions to the Board education program or establishment of a mentoring program.
And finally, the Board Moment can reflect on the Board meeting that just occurred; could the agenda have been improved, did the Board receive the information it needed, did all members fully participate. Waiting for the annual evaluation isn’t always appropriate. Some issues can be addressed and promptly resolved throughout the year.
Give the Board Moment a try. Have your Governance Committee take responsibility, define how and when you will use it and start with some subjects that you know are of interest to your members. Leave time, though, for those unexpected questions that may prove to be the best topics for discussion.
