Director Onboarding Series: Building a Board Culture (Installment 3 of 5)

MFDF has encountered various onboarding practices in discussions with fund directors that are newer or may be less common across fund boards. Consider these ideas as more of a menu than a plan, it is not necessary for a board to employ all of these approaches, but one or more may be combined according to board culture, priority, and need.

The third installment of the Director Onboarding Series focuses on building a board culture through onboarding. Building and maintaining a strong board culture is a key concern for many boards, especially as they navigate turnover. Here we have drawn out two ideas that may foster strong relationships between directors to encourage the kinds of respectful, engaged communication that are the hallmarks of strong, effective boards.

• Assigned seats at dinner/meeting – One idea for encouraging directors to mingle and connect with new directors, as well as to give new directors an opportunity to ask sidebar clarifying questions, is to assign seating for the board dinner and/or the board meeting. Some boards assign the seats and they remain consistent across the meeting and across the year. Others opt to thoughtfully rotate the assignments to give directors an opportunity to connect with different members of the board. On one board, new directors were seated beside more senior members of the board for the meeting to allow them to ask questions to their neighbor regarding abbreviations or references in the materials or presentations. Another board shifted seats according to the agenda to allow the new director to be seated beside someone well-versed in the topic of the presentation or committee. Assigning seats differently between the dinner and the meeting can create opportunities for directors to interact with more individuals.

• Participating in director education together – Enrolling a new director to attend a professional development event such as an industry conference alongside a committee chair, buddy/mentor, or the board chair can allow the two participants to discuss relevance or application of program takeaways within the context of their board or fund. This can help newer directors situate their own board/fund within industry trends or other boards’ practices. Simultaneously, the more senior participant can observe and identify places where a new director might benefit from additional information on their board or fund specifically.

Fund management and/or counsel to the independent directors may run sessions introducing new directors to the fund complex, etc. which can be instead of or in addition to any of the approaches we have included in the series. Look for future posts on:

• Utilizing a mentor/buddy program (click here to view the post);
• How board leadership can facilitate onboarding (click here to view the post);
• Setting new board members up for success, and;
• Creating onboarding education that sticks.