Agenda Collaboration is a Much-Needed Time Saver
Board members are busy. Their time is precious. A board meeting agenda that arrives late is a common complaint. The Agenda Collaboration capability not only enables more people to participate in the agenda-building process, it means board members get their agendas sooner, which gives them more time to prepare.
It Streamlines the Collaboration Process
Instead of several different communication channels, from emails to online chats to phone calls to PDFs to Microsoft or Google products, OnBoard’s Agenda Collaboration capability provides a one-stop shop. It also allows for granular permissions, so the agenda document doesn’t slip into the wrong hands.
It's Usable in Ways Beyond Traditional Board Agendas
You can use Agenda Collaboration with committee meetings, or other ad hoc discussions. You can use it within the board book creation cycle. You have a track record of all communication related to the agenda-building process. You can select who has access to the agenda document while you’re building it.
Webinar Recap: Paroon Chadha, OnBoard co-founder and CEO and Justin Adams, director of product management, explore the challenges boards face when developing meeting agendas – and how OnBoard’s agenda collaboration capability can help.
An effective board meeting starts with a strong agenda. As Paroon Chadha, co-founder and CEO at OnBoard explained in a recent webinar, “There’s the meeting you intend to have and the meeting you actually have. By honing in on the agenda, you can make these one and the same.”
But creating a great board meeting agenda isn’t always easy. Often, organizations use ineffective tools and endless email strings to collaborate on board meeting agendas. Agendas are often released last-minute, leaving board members with little time to actually prepare for the meeting.
Recently, Chadha and Justin Adams, OnBoard director of product management, teamed up to discuss how OnBoard’s new Agenda Collaboration capability can transform the way organizations collaborate on meeting agendas. Chadha and Adams explored topics including:
Here, we share key takeaways from this session.
Directors and Administrators Have Little Time to Prepare
Administrators and directors alike often lack the time to adequately prepare for board meetings. While admins often feel they must scramble to create and finalize the board book, board members often feel they don’t have time to prepare for the meeting itself.
“In today’s world, business is getting more nuanced, compliance is getting more involved, and business cycles are getting faster and more frequent,” said Adams. “A recurring problem we hear often from companies is that there’s not enough time to prepare for the next meeting.”
The results of OnBoard’s 2024 Boardroom Insights Survey prove a lack of time is a common challenge. According to the results, one in five directors think board members aren’t given enough time to prepare for meetings. Also, the top response for how board members could be more effective is to “increase engagement and preparation time.”
Furthermore, in OnBoard, one-third of meetings go from initial draft to “meeting held” within 24 to 48 hours. This means many are drafting the agenda outside of OnBoard – and publishing it very close to the actual meeting. The result is minimal time for directors to thoroughly prepare for the upcoming meeting.
Organizations Face Many Pain Points With Agenda Collaboration
Creating a solid agenda is foundational to the success of any board meeting. But often, organizations struggle to collaborate on agendas. According to Adams, there are 4 key themes when it comes to agenda collaboration pain points:
Often, organizations leverage channels like ongoing email threads, chats, and phone calls to collaborate on agendas. This can lead to chaos. “Too many channels often results in feedback and important details getting lost,” said Adams.
If you’re like most companies, you likely use Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite. As Adams explained, “when you combine those solutions with other communication channels, there’s a lot of switching back and forth between systems – causing a lot of unstructured data.”
Board meeting agendas often take a long time to compile. “This often results in agendas getting rushed to be finalized at the last minute, leaving board members with less time to actually prepare for the meeting,” said Adams.
Often, organizations create and share agenda feedback without proper access permissions. This is discoverable material that can create liability and risk.
The Importance of Agendas
According to Chadha, agendas for board meetings are immensely consequential. “What’s not on the agenda will never be discussed,” he said. “Often, it’s something you have to go back and forth on.”
In addition, agendas are important because they are a legal record. “The agenda is actually something that’s part of discovery cycles,” Chadha said. “You have to make sure you have a good, final copy of the agenda.”
Finally, board meetings are all about maximizing your time. According to Chadha, agenda collaboration is “an opportunity to set the tone and expectations with the board and your team for these important interactions.”
Build More Effective Agendas in Less Time
Developing effective meeting agendas is key. But collaborating on meeting agendas can be challenging. However, OnBoard recently released a new Agenda Collaboration capability to empower organizations to overcome these challenges and create better agendas – faster.
“We took these pain points and the problem of limited time to prepare and focused on helping you create more effective agendas in less time, maximizing the amount of time the board has to meaningfully prepare for the board meeting,” said Adams. “We believe the best board meetings start with a well-crafted agenda.”
Agenda Collaboration Can Be Used in Myriad Ways
During the session, Chadha gave a sneak peek of OnBoard’s Agenda Collaboration capability, showing attendees how it can be used for several different use cases.
For this use case, you can add people as reviewers of the agenda and allow them to go back and forth about it. “You can always go back and see what the interactions are,” said Chadha. “There’s a track record of all the questions that have been asked. I can then go back to edit the agenda as appropriate.”
Once the agenda is final, you can flush out all the comments. “At that point, you’d go back to publishing the agenda and add your team to it so they can start building the materials for the board book,” said Chadha.
After the agenda is finalized, you can use the agenda collaboration workflow in the board book creation cycle. “This is the same tool with some different users. It’s going to come in handy here too,” said Chadha.
He expects the tool will improve the quality of board books. “The board book is likely going to be much more on-point,” he said. “There will be no surprises.”
The Agenda Collaboration workflow can be used for other meetings outside of the board meeting. For example, an organization can use it for committee or other ad hoc meetings.
“If people are part of the agenda creation, they’ll engage more,” said Chadha.
As one example, OnBoard uses Agenda Collaboration to prepare for its weekly executive leadership team meeting. Topics are collected a week in advance, and the team goes back and forth using the Agenda Collaboration capability. “I think this is a wonderful tool that can be used at least with your board – but also with your leadership team,” said Chadha. “There are plenty of other meetings you can use this for.
OnBoard’s Agenda Collaboration Delivers Significant Benefits
The Agenda Collaboration capability will simplify and streamline the process of building and collaborating on meeting agendas. Chadha shared the following key benefits.
Centralizes collaboration: All communication and collaboration happens in one place. “There’s no broken telephone game,” said Chadha.
Everyone is on the same page: Alignment is vital. “You can’t keep everyone on the same page if [the agenda] is stuck in several different phone calls and five different email chains,” said Chadha.
More time for meeting prep: With the Agenda Collaboration tool, agendas can be finalized faster. Also, it dissuades last-minute agenda changes. That means agendas can be distributed sooner, and boards and admins have more time to prepare for the meeting.
Security and liability: When you have email threads and text messages, it creates liability. “If there’s ever a discovery launch, all that can come back and haunt you,” said Chadha. With OnBoard’s Agenda Collaboration tool, only the final agenda is maintained. This dramatically reduces everyone’s liability footprint.
It’s Time to Transform the Way You Collaborate on Agendas
Collaborating on meeting agendas doesn’t have to be a pain. With OnBoard’s new Agenda Collaboration capability, you can expect:
With OnBoard’s new Agenda Collaboration capability, the meeting you intended to have is the meeting you actually have.
Are you looking for advice on how to create better meeting agendas? Then join us for “The Ideal Meeting Agenda,” featuring Erik Hanberg, Author, of The Little Book of Boards.
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