What we looked at
Our dataset includes 1,523 respondents from online board evaluations, as of January 26, 2026. Respondents rated board performance statements on a 1 to 5 scale.
A finding worth pausing on
One of the strongest correlations with the perception that “the board achieves its mandate, fulfils its responsibilities, and provides value” is this: board meetings are structured so that time is prioritized to answer the most important strategic questions. This is both obvious and rarely acted on.
Why this matters
Boards and executive teams do not lack reporting. They lack time for collective thinking. Yet many meetings still spend prime time on updates that could be read in advance.
The cost is not only inefficiency. It is a lost opportunity: the room never reaches the questions that require debate, alternatives, and decision support.
What the data points toward
If you want stakeholders to experience the board as value adding, the meeting design matters more than most boards admit. In our data, clarity and meeting craft show up as powerful drivers, including the Chair’s ability to summarize and conclude, and meeting time being used for the right conversations.
A simple redesign principle
Use meeting time only for what requires the room. Everything else belongs in preparation.
Practical examples:
- Information: pre-read, asynchronous, consent agenda
- Discussion: dilemmas, options, trade-offs, risks, scenario thinking
- Decisions: clear decision question, criteria, owner, follow-up
A question to test your next agenda
For each agenda item: what do we want the room to produce? A decision, a better question, a risk surfaced, a trade-off clarified, or alignment on next steps? If the answer is “awareness”, it likely does not belong in the meeting.
Closing thought
The boards that feel most value creating are rarely the ones with the longest meetings or the most slides. They are the ones who protect the room for strategic questions and high-quality thinking.
If you want to explore how to redesign agendas and decision processes to increase board value, you are welcome to reach out.
Interested in self-evaluation? Try Online Board Evaluations
Well-aligned with national corporate and foundation/charity governance codes, our board clients usually conduct an external board evaluation every three years. However, most national governance codes recommend that boards perform a self-evaluation in the years between external board evaluations. Therefore, we have developed OnlineBoardEvaluations.com, a tool enabling boards to self-evaluate effectively and effortlessly every year.