It’s that time of year when the wheels of change slow down a bit. Longtime board members are cycling off and new ones are stepping in. It’s the perfect window to regroup and gear up for the year ahead.
Maybe you’re considering a board retreat to onboard new members and refocus. Or maybe you’ve wanted to host one but haven’t gotten there yet.
After facilitating retreats for boards of all kinds, from highly engaged working boards to governance boards ready to re-energize, I’ve seen what makes the time worth everyone’s while.
Here are 5 agenda items for your next board retreat:
Here are 5 agenda items for your next board retreat:Team Building — Instead of hosting and facilitating your own retreat, bring in an outside facilitator so you can participate and be part of the fun. When I facilitate, I handle the planning, the agenda, and the note-taking, which means every board member, including the ED and board chair, gets to fully engage. Using a retreat to truly connect and build intentional culture is a productive use of everyone’s time.
Mission, Vision, and Values Alignment — Diving deeply into your WHY, or learning it for the first time, can be done in lots of creative ways. This part of your agenda can be fun and engaging as well as informative and impactful.
Review Board Objectives. Visioning and planning for the year, and connecting it to your strategic plan, is vital to meeting goals. When board members understand their assignment, the impact is felt across the whole organization. In my retreats, I always sequence visioning before priorities, because boards make better decisions when they can picture the future first.
Brainstorm, Brain Dump and Build Priorities — Board members often know a lot of work needs to happen between meetings, but it hasn’t been assigned to a committee or a lead. Use this time to build a Possibility Matrix for the tasks and projects that will leave a bigger impact down the road. This is one of my favorite parts to facilitate, because it turns vague to-dos into real traction.
Strategic Discussion — Pick one pressing area that needs some TLC, like development or marketing, and dive into it strategically. Board members feel heard and seen for their ideas and investment. That renewed sense of ownership advances the mission in new, bold ways.
Ready to sit back and enjoy your next board retreat?
If you’re a board chair or executive director, you already carry enough. You shouldn’t have to write the agenda, lead the discussion, and take the notes too. When you bring in a facilitator, you get to sit at the table as a full participant, and your board gets a retreat that’s planned, purposeful, and built for traction.
That’s exactly what I do with my Board Impact Intensive, a half-day retreat designed to re-engage your board and set clear direction for the year. Let’s talk about what your board needs next. BOOK HERE