Chorus of Crickets

Boards never cease to amaze me. It's not the people but the group dynamic. A poorly managed board is a deadly board. Every organization I have worked with has struggled in one facet or another in managing or activating its board, whether it is managing meetings, level of participation, raising funds, nominating and securing the 'right' participants.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to sit-in on a board meeting where one particular board member challenged his colleagues to set a give or get goal (not policy, just an immediate goal for the current fiscal year) to assist the organization meet some of it’s financial needs. The request was not outrageous in monetary size, actually quite the opposite – a very achievable amount of money for each person. This was met with dead silence, literally. I like to refer to this as the “chorus of crickets.” Whenever an ‘ask’ isn’t well planned or timed the prospect often responds with dead silence. Cue the crickets. [Note: in general, large amounts of dead silence during an 'ask' is a bad thing.]

What was so painful wasn’t that this person had the nerve to make the challenge (bravo, actually for suggesting it!) but the fact that the rest of his colleagues were so stupefied by the idea of having to take this on, they were speechless. To my amazement, not one other board member mumbled, even begrudgingly, “I agree” or “we should consider this now.” Their collective response revealed the true colors about the mentality of the group toward their fiduciary responsibility.

I won’t get into the details of what followed but in short, the outspoken board member was left hollowed by the experience. Ironically, for me, this is probably the fifth or sixth time in my career (across numerous boards, large and small, national and local) I’ve witnessed this in a board meeting. The crickets can be deafening.