Boards should cut the volume of material in their board packs and agendas to improve performance, especially in the current uncertain times, according to a special webinar hosted by Board Agenda.

Run in association with Board Intelligence, the webinar heard that up to 69% of board members believe their boards are not performing in meetings.

Panelists in the session, called ‘The Future-Ready Board: Fixing Inputs, Improving Decisions, Driving Strategy’, said that much of that was down to the volume of material to cover.

Jane Hanson CBE, chair of Welsh Water, said: “In uncertain times, in febrile times, the quality of board decision-making is even more consequential.

“Volatility, whether it is geopolitical, economic, or environmental, demands sharper judgements, stronger oversight and the ability to act decisively without being reactive.”

A report from Board Intelligence this year found that 74% of 1,000 board members polled believe they should spend more time on their organisation’s “big picture vision and goals”, while 68% score their board materials as “weak or poor”. Only one in a hundred could say their board materials were excellent.

‘Drowning’ in data

When asked, directors concluded they were “drowning” in information, with the average board pack running to more than 200 pages. Board Intelligence says directors read, on average, 30 pages each hour.

Hanson agreed with the report, adding that the “real obstacle” to effective boardroom discussion and decision-making was “information overload”.

“If your board pack is 400 pages long, even if you’re a FTSE 100 company, I think you need to be asking yourself the question: Have we got the right information in there? Have we got management able to steer us towards where we need to be really looking to move the dial?”

Pippa Begg, chief executive and co-founder of Board Intelligence, said that one of the biggest challenges was boards breaking the “habit in convention”—conducting boards the way they’ve always been run.

This just grows the board packs and fails to focus on priorities, she said. Change places a premium on having meetings to set the board’s agenda.

“Instead of preparing the same old pack we always prepare, we really hone in on those important questions.”

On purpose

Paul McCullagh, company secretary with Monzo Bank, said that what he had seen in some companies was setting a “purpose” for the board.

During agenda-setting meetings—with cosec, chair and CEO— the purpose can be used as a reference point for the agenda.

“It really anchors the executives and the chair,” McCullagh said.

Another problem that arises is the format of boardroom meetings. Pippa Begg cautioned against executives and managers simply presenting their reports via PowerPoint.

Meetings, she argues, should be “facilitated conversations” that focus not on going through board pack materials, but on issues that arise from pre-reading.

Jane Hanson echoed this view. “Taking papers as read is really important, because using up the time of a board meeting with somebody coming and just talking through their paper—that’s a complete waste of time.

“The discipline should be such that every board member has read the paper.”

The webinar, ‘The Future-Ready Board: Fixing Inputs, Improving Decisions, Driving Strategy’ is available to watch on demand. See the full webinar here.