The Board Deck Is the Living Board Meeting Agenda

Saying you want a strategic discussion and walking into a board meeting with a 45-slide operations review deck is like saying you want to eat healthy and driving to a Baskin Robbins. The intention and the action are in direct contradiction. And — hint — the action wins every time. If you go to Baskin Robbins, you're having banana splits. This mismatch is the most common, self-inflicted problem I see in board meetings. The board deck is not a passive document. It is the living, de facto agenda of the meeting — regardless of what's in the cover email or on the agenda slide. What's in the deck will get discussed. What's not in the deck will mostly not. Like a raft in a river, the board meeting will go where the slides take it.In short: ill-conceived board slides lead to unproductive board meetings.You may think your board is wonderful or you may think it's not. Either way, your slides can prove you right. A thoughtfully constructed deck can lead to a great meeting. Mindlessly pumping new…