In a prior MMM I wrote about the CEO’s responsibility to craft and focus the story for each board meeting. I advocate sending a board update well in advance of the meeting to provide each board member with information about what happened in the last reporting period (quarterly or monthly). The update is not forward looking or aspirational. Like the old TV show saying, it is “just the facts, nothing but the facts.”
VC- and PE- board representatives are typically engaged with several companies in various businesses and at various stages. It is not unusual for a board member to serve on five or six or more boards. From one quarter to the next, a lot happens in every company on their roster, and it is a challenge to keep it all in focus. When a quarter ends, all of the board meetings tend to be compressed into a short window, so individuals with multiple board seats have a flurry of meetings all in a row.
As the CEO, you are 100% focused on your company, and you live and breath it every day. Your mind is packed with all of the nuances of your market, your competitors, your opportunities, your personnel, and your company’s performance. Not so much for a board member serving on a half-dozen boards.
During the board meeting, everyone is focused on your company (hopefully). Typically there are questions raised and requests for follow up information, and there are actions agreed upon. In the moment, these are all clear and well understood. Then the meeting ends, and the board members are on to the next company and the next board meeting, and the memory starts to fade.
This pattern leads to ‘Board Amnesia.’ It is the understandable affliction where board members forget the details and the decisions made from one board meeting to the next. CEOs are often surprised when a board member asks the same question meeting after meeting, or doesn’t remember directing the CEO to take some action or investigate some outcome. As CEOs we find we have to re-litigate decisions that we thought we put to bed at a prior meeting. Board Amnesia is real, and it wastes a ton of our precious board meeting time.
A CEO has to recognize this condition and take action to overcome it. It is not that hard to do, but it does require focus. The starting place is to summarize the actions and requests made during the board meeting, and send them to the board immediately following the meeting along with whatever slides were presented during the meeting. Some CEOs add apendix slides that may not have beed used during the meeting, but provide support for topics discussed during the meeting. That is not a terrible practice, but it requires you to tell the board members why the slides are there and what to make of them. Be as specific as possible when summarizing the meeting, and clearly identify the items the board agreed to, or where action was requested. You are building the memory book for board members with this follow up, so pay attention to carrying your board narrative forward into the summary.
For quarterly meetings, it will be a long 90 days before you get totally focused board time again. Most companies have some form of interim update process. Maybe it is a monthly finance call, or a six week business update, or something less formal. My advice is to make it formal and follow a rigid cadence. You are not just updating the board on results, you are also striving to avoid Board Amnesia, so include update information about the checklist of decisions made during the last meeting. Your purpose is to keep bringing your company to top of mind so they do not forget what is going on.
Between board meetings, it is up to the CEO to remain engaged with board members. Regular, scheduled 1:1 calls are ideal. Too many CEOs only reach out when they need something or have a problem. Think about how you manage the people that work for you with regular meetings and discussions. As CEO you also need to manage your board. Continuous engagement is your second tool to stave off Board Amnesia.
Lastly, we come back to the board update that goes out in advance of the meeting. If you have kept the board involved throughout the reporting period (quarter), this ought to be a routine aggregation of what went on during the quarter and why it is important. In other words “NO SURPRISES.” However, keep in mind that you may still be dealing with Board Amnesia, so use this last opportunity to remind everyone of important conclusions from prior meetings and the narrative that led to those decisions.
As a CEO, manage up as well as down. Recognize that Board Amnesia is a common affliction for busy board members. When you communicate with board members, you are not just picking up where you last left off, you also have to reiterate the journey that led to your current actions and results so that your narrative strengthens and refreshes the board’s memory. Help put an end to Board Amnesia!