69. Board Renewal (definition)

NOTE: if you’re new to Ground-Up Governance, or are finding anything a bit strange or confusing, you might want to START HERE.

Some stuff is boring right from the start, like being on hold. Other stuff eventually becomes less boring the more you do it, like digging through dirt and getting to know all the critters that live there. Even more other stuff is exciting right from the start, like skydiving with Billie Eilish. But most stuff – even the stuff you like – becomes more boring over time just because there aren’t many new surprises to keep you interested, like the 10,000^th time you went skydiving with Billie Eilish. Or maybe a more relevant example here is going to your 10,000^th board meeting. It’s just not as engaging as the first one.

This is one good example of why board renewal is important. Board renewal just refers to changes in board composition over time, or more specifically how much change there is. As in, if your board composition stays the same forever, you don’t have any board renewal. Having no board renewal isn’t automatically a bad thing…it’s just probably not the best thing.

Anyway, we were explaining that one reason why board renewal can be important is that people just get less engaged in stuff the more they do it. At your 10,000^th board meeting, you’re less likely to feel excited about showing up in the first place, less likely to stay up the night before coming up with cool new ideas, less likely to hang on to every word the executives and board members are saying. At least compared to your first board meeting. So, sometimes it can just be better to have someone brand new instead of someone who’s been there 10,000 times, even if they don’t tick the same number of boxes in the skills matrix.

There are lots of other reasons why board renewal can be good, but we’ll only share one more. As horrific as it might sound to you, it’s possible that one day Reallie Steilish might not have anything to do with fashion, or even anything to do with Billie Eilish. Things change. 20 years from now, the company might be dedicated to augmented reality accessories for people’s toes, and it might be called Augmentoed Reality or Augmented Realitoes or something. Would you really want the exact same board members for Toegmentoed Toe-alitoe as you had for Reallie Steilish? Would the same board members have even had the insight to help you make the shift from streetwear to toe-tech? A bit of board renewal would undoubtoedly help.