Suppose. The next board meeting is around the corner. There are heavy costs in the 'pre-read', including a major investment and the follow-up to the CEO. But you went through everything carefully. What does bother you: you doubt that investment. Seriously. But you can't reach either the chairman or the CEO — all busy, busy, busy. What do you do to make your voice, which you know is different, still be heard?
I experienced this myself: the CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board were convinced that they had to build a new factory, a crucial part of a 'renewable' strategy. Great, but the technology for that facility had not yet been adequately tested and the supply chain was complex. In addition, we were facing much higher costs than budgeted. Why does no one see that this is going wrong?
The boardroom is a lot and often about content. Full agendas with topics such as strategy, safety, performance, a subsequent acquisition, appointments. But behind that content are people — administrators with opinions, interests, emotions, doubts and deep convictions who don't always come to the table. How do you get that unsaid to the surface?
It can be very difficult to be the only one to say that you disagree with something. And yet, in the case of the new factory, I succeeded. And that was not only due to my ability to curb my own fear of “lying out of the group”, but mainly because of the Chairman's leadership skills associated with “making the unsaid visible”.
A good chairman (or CEO) creates social safety in the team. By maintaining personal, human, vulnerable contact with each of the board members. Good preliminary discussions, one-on-one, and give everyone plenty of opportunity to express objections and opinions during the meeting. A good chairman (or CEO) counteracts. So that decisions are both taken thoughtfully as well carried collectively become. And — a handy tip: if there are big, far-reaching decisions on the agenda, decisions that you can logically suspect there are different opinions about within the team, make sure that the rest of the agenda remains as empty as possible. With such an otherwise empty agenda, there is plenty of room for a free flow of energy about the essentials.
