37. Board Meeting (definition)

Because boards only have authority collectively, just about all of the work that boards do happens during scheduled meetings of directors. Board meetings are usually better when they have carefully thought-out agendas and some type of formal process to make sure important decisions get made and every director gets a chance to contribute. 

Think of a board meeting as an opportunity for a group of smart people who all care about the same corporation to get together and have interesting conversations that make the corporation better. Sounds awesome, right? Not so fast! If you happen to run into ten random corporate directors on the street, nine of them would probably admit that most of their board meetings aren’t very good. It’s not their fault, at least not entirely. It turns out that planning and running a good board meeting is HARD.