A well-planned agenda for your board sets the tone for your meetings. It ensures that your members are engaged in productive discussions and taking decisions. It also allows the sharing of new perspectives and knowledge. But the secret to a successful board agenda is more than just creating a list of topics for your meeting. It requires a certain amount of expertise, art, and discipline.

When you create your agenda, be sure to include time limits for each item. This will help prevent meetings from running over schedule and will ensure that important issues receive the attention they deserve. It is also crucial to prioritize and balance the amount of strategic long-term how to run a board meeting items with reports and other business items. It’s best to prioritize the strategic discussion and move the reports to the end of the agenda so that your board can concentrate on the most important issues facing the organization.

Consider bringing in an impartial facilitator or board member to help in the process of strategic planning. This person can provide an alternative perspective to the discussion and guide your board to adopt an approach that is more strategic in making decisions.

Before your strategic board meeting give the agenda and any other relevant documents to board members in advance. This allows them to read the documents ahead of time and develop ideas for the meeting.