Some Tips for a Successful Board Self-Examination

“I always think of a self-assessment as sort of an investment in the board so that board members become more invested in the organization, because it ends up opening up conversations about what motivated them to join the board, why they care about the cause -- all the things that often get lost in board meetings when you get caught up in reports and progress or strategy discussions where you sometimes lose sight of why do we care, what are we really accomplishing here,” she says. “So you often get a lot of renewed interest, and you also get the people that say, ‘Hey, I didn’t sign up to do this work. I didn’t realize this is what it meant. I didn’t realize it was so serious. I think it’s time for me to step off the board.’ So it also can be helpful to clean house a little bit.”