Same Goes for Board Agendas

Here's something thought-provoking from Hugh MacLeod.

When I saw it, my first thought was, "Same goes for blogging." This whole Hourglass experiment, after all, isn't an attempt to make money. It's an attempt to engage a certain group of professionals, whose voices aren't frequently heard, in a dialogue around a set of leadership issues I believe are getting short shirft in current blogosphere.

But upon further reflection, I came up with something more practical for the current association leader: "Same goes for Board agendas." With apologies to Hugh, I would paraphrase his sentiment as: "You don't set Board agendas to manage your association. You set Board agendas to define the ground on which you want your Board to act."

It's a lesson that sometimes takes a while to learn. If you want your Board to deal with strategic issues, make sure you are putting strategic issues on their agenda. It's harder than it sounds, but really not that much.

And by the way, if you haven't subscribed to Hugh's daily cartoon email, you really should. He's got a knack for speaking to directly to the artist in you and helping you connect those passions to the things you do for a living.