Leveraging technology and development to engage your board members
Keeping board members engaged can demand substantial time and energy from the board secretary or clerk. To be effective in the role, you have to remind without nagging, support without suffocating and keep the board on track without fostering resentment.
It’s a fine line to walk, but there’s good news: technology and a fresh board member development strategy can help.
What are the benefits of embracing technology?
The introduction of new people to the board provided White Pine Charter Schools with the opportunity to pursue a solution to enable the board to lead with greater efficiency and confidence.
Visalia Unified School District has seen their board meetings run more efficiently with board members able to review and annotate documents with ease as they prepare for meetings.
Here, we’ll take a look at some of the challenges board administrators face in fostering board engagement, how you can reimagine board member development and how to follow the path to an effective technology solution.
Challenges board administrators face with engaging their board members
You may face some or all of these difficulties as you manage the needs of your organization’s board, all of which can lead to disengaged board members:
- Time constraints: Board members are often busy people even before they begin their service. And the staff of mission-driven organizations are similarly doing more than time permits.
- Poor information resources: Organizations can struggle with not enough information or information that is hard to access, and trustees will disengage if they cannot find the information they need when they need it.
- Uncertainty about roles: When onboarding is a one-and-done experience, board members can be excused for not always understanding what they should and must be doing. An uncertain board member may pull away from service opportunities.
A board that is not engaged will struggle with effective decision-making — something you’ll see in living color when members are not prepared for the difficult discussions around board meeting agenda items.
3 obstacles in implementing technology solutions and board development initiatives and how to address them
While tools and resources that support board work — from new training opportunities to a board management solution — can increase board engagement, you may be facing resistance in adopting new solutions for a number of reasons.
1. Resistance to change
Your board and staff may find the familiarity of training and communications resources to be hard to let go of, and in this era of overload, they may feel new solutions will just complicate the work.
With a tool designed specifically for the work — a board management solution — board members and administrators will find that their service will be simplified within a single, easy-to-use location. And by incorporating training into the board management solution, board members can take charge of their own learning, seeking out development on their own schedules.
2. Budget constraints
There is never enough money to accomplish everything the organization sets out to do. However, finding a tool that both creates efficiencies and replaces multiple complicated and time-consuming tools can be a win-win for your organization. Plus, development materials can be reused by multiple generations of board members, leading to new cost efficiencies.
3. Time spent learning new technology
The board may feel that spending precious service time learning a new tool or topic is hard to swallow. For any new tools the board is asked to use, the members should understand the time and effort savings they will experience after investing the time to learn.
Board development and its importance for engagement
Fostering an attitude of constant learning — of which technology is one small part — is a great way to keep board members engaged and contributing effectively. After all, the next great solution can come from anyone at any time.
Everboarding means there is always something new to learn. Board development should extend throughout service, starting with a robust onboarding process and continuing into specialized training about board service as well as nuances of your organization, its mission and related topics. Board members require training around cybersecurity, stewardship, communications and more to be effective and engaged in their roles.
Also, throughout the process, not only by marking service milestones and wins, but by putting extra effort into helping board members see the results of their work. Acknowledging your board members regularly can also keep them enthusiastic about coming prepared for board meetings and contributing effectively to the governance of the district or community college.
The role of technology in board engagement
Many organizations have found technology is an effective tool for engaging with any audience. So, when you’re working on developing your board’s engagement, it’s no wonder technology is part of the solution.
Consider what your board management software can offer the board:
Facilitating secure communication and information sharing
Board members need to be able to work with each other and with leaders and administrators to provide effective guidance. When communication is fragmented across multiple tools, their messages get muddled. Implementing a single tool for board communication keeps board member focus where it belongs with no undue distractions.
Assisting with goal tracking
Strategic planning is among the most important responsibilities public education boards undertake, and they can take a lot of time. Diligent Community can help simplifies strategy development by enabling goal tracking. And board members can easily click to view supporting materials when preparing for meetings.
Streamlining board operations and saving time
Focusing board work in a single platform simplifies work for both the board and staff. Trustees can work from dashboards to find their current asks, search easily for stored documents and complete their service from multiple devices, wherever they are.
Increasing board participation
By making information easy to find, board management software reduces the risk of frustration and encourages board members to take ownership of their own learning and participation.
Supporting every stakeholder
With workflow management, communications, meeting tools and robust document storage and searchability, board software helps support all stakeholders: the superintendent, school board members, board secretary and the public, they can all benefit from having a central solution to find key information and work more effectively together.
3 actionable steps to better board engagement
So, where do you go from here? Consider what comes next:
- Review your onboarding and ongoing training processes. Where can you build in more engagement throughout the board member lifecycle?
- Look at simple ways to start building in engagement activities to your processes. Check who is attending and contributing to keep on top of disengagement and understand where to direct more attention.
- Find the right partner. A solution provider with extensive public sector experience, like Diligent Community, is ready to join with you to make engagement even easier. Reach out to begin building your adoption strategy.
Technology and board development are two crucial tools to help improve your organization’s performance and meet your mission and goals. Lack of trustee engagement can really stand in the way of your board and organization reaching its full potential. By considering a board management solution for your organization, you can give the board what it needs to be better engaged and prepared for service.
Diligent understands that public education board members are a vital resource for every mission-driven organization, and we have designed Diligent Community to encourage and support their full engagement. Let us know how we can help you and your organization.
