Board service is a great way to expand your horizons and help you examine an organization in its entirety instead of just the functional areas that you’ve supervised. It also exposes you more diverse challenges and issues that companies confront. For instance, you might have to make tough decisions that impact people negatively like deciding to cut redundancies or closing a branch. These situations force you to look at the issue in hand and not be influenced by your personal emotional reactions or the opinions of your colleagues.
Another issue that comes up is how to ensure that a https://theseboard.com/creation-development-and-operation-of-your-advisory-board/ wide variety of voices are heard during the deliberations and decision-making processes. Boards employ a variety methods to accomplish this. For example some boards allow directors to play devil’s advocate during meetings, while others employ the whiteboard method to brainstorm ideas and “spitball” possible solutions before making a decision. This helps to remove decision-making from the nature of individuals and helps in avoiding groupthink.
Boards can be more effective by being willing to question long-standing practices. For instance, a large number of board members are reviewing their committee structures. They question whether they serve their purpose and are a viable way to run meetings. They are searching for new ways to identify patterns and insights hidden in data and digital tools.