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There is an emerging mandate to re-envision the boardroom.  Accelerating momentum and pressure is mounting to diversify board rooms well beyond gender & race, increase ESG focus and address the myriad of demands from activist shareholders. The current model and governance norms of engagement & practices were conceived in a different era.

The inclusive & representative boardroom necessitates a new mindset and ways of working.  Dialogue, listening, collaboration, and unmatched teaming are required for new priorities and voices to add value.   Established ways of working dictated by Parliamentary Procedures/ Robert’s Rules of Order must be evaluated. Their intent is to keep order and expedite decision-making. The Rules & Procedures minimize dialogue which runs counter to the requirement for inclusion, innovation, and collaboration.  New voices added to status quo practices undermine the benefit gained from diverse knowledge on decision making and ultimately on exponential results.

Gone must be the days of decisions being made in committees and by a select few before the meeting, commonly experienced as vote lobbying.  The role & effectiveness of committees must be scrutinized.  Organization & leadership theory has long revealed the counterproductive nature of silos which produce fragmented thinking & decision-making-“no involvement, no commitment- involvement creates commitment!”

The idea of voting as the means to make decisions also begs the question of effectiveness.  Decisions are most effectively implemented when made by consensus- broadly defined as each person feels, I have been heard and I have heard everyone, and the decision was collectively created, and thus, I support it.

The board is a team that must intentionally focus on developing itself for high performance breaking the norm of jump in and get to work.  New ways of thinking and working must become the norm for the boardroom to benefit from the power and perspectives of all the voices. Learning how to listen, seek out information, clarify, and create together is required... these new skills must be mastered.

So, while we excitedly invite new voices to the table, we must with an equal and determined focus create a new & inclusive board team, culture, norms & practices.  Every aspect of governance must be examined- composition/size, succession planning, nomination, sourcing, selection, onboarding, term limits, roles & responsibilities, evaluation, development, and engagement.

The real opportunity for exponential results lies in boards taking leadership of the boardroom and increasing their collective EQ  by expanding the focus inward on their readiness & culture creation.  Candidate readiness and pipeline priming should be a secondary focus. Preparing the boardroom is an essential first step to ensure change is board-led for sustainability.

Only when there is a new boardroom culture will representation, ESG, AI, cybersecurity, privacy, 4IR, and the many vital initiatives yield a significant ROI.

I am excited about the potential to transform the boardroom as the gateway for triple-bottom-line impact!

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The story goes, a man was hanging off a cliff with one hand in desperate need of help. “Help me” the man yelled over and over again. All at once, he heard a voice say “Let go.”  Confused the man replied, “what did you say?” The voice again said, “Let go?” Who is this?! The man cried out now desperate and indignant? “God,” the voice replied calmly. The man paused for what seemed to be an eternity. He then responded with a firm conviction, “Is there anyone else?!”

Funny, but like most parables, painfully true! Trust is the “oil” to the engine of our lives. Without it, everything locks up! Cultivating trust means that sometimes the “help” that we are expecting is not the “help” that we will get, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the “help we need.”  The irony of the  “the man and the cliff” story is that the man didn’t know that 20 feet beneath him, indiscernible due to an impenetrable fog, was an outcropping of plush evergreen trees that would halt his descent, should he choose to “trust” and let go, to usher him to safety.

Stephen Covey maintains in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is the ex-factor for maximizing team and organizational performance.  For a moment, reflect on the number of times you missed out on an opportunity because you failed to “trust” a team member, colleague, or leader-manager who had an insight that took you out of your comfort zone that would have led to radical personal and organizational growth.

Each week, challenge yourself to seek, earn and cultivate trust.

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The loss of a  job is a death of the familiar- status quo. It sets individuals and organizations to travel the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. 

GOVERNANCE —From a governance perspective, I am troubled by the emerging etiquette and role of technology in employee engagement in all aspects of the workplace.  Especially disturbing is the tone of surprise and the impersonal & harsh approach powered by tech platforms as the primary means for employees to learn of their employment status.

The layoff decision of an organization requires deep involvement of the board as well as consultation with stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels.  So, while, announcements have a tone of suddenness, the process begins with the board which has a fiduciary responsibility of care.

I believe, leaders have a responsibility to deliver organizational news with “care” in all matters & circumstances.  Fear seems to undergird the current layoff etiquette. The practices feel careless, disrespectful, unprofessional, opaque, and hurtful.  Terminations, layoffs, sad and bad news have occurred since the beginning of work through every industrial period. So, what has changed in the relationship between workers and employers? 

EMPLOYABILITY PARADIGM—At the dawn of  4IR, there is an opportunity for boards & leaders of organizations to shift their paradigm from the hierarchical mindset of being responsible for guaranteeing employment to a partner mindset of a commitment to employability.  Employability requires creating a workplace culture in which employees gain skills and experiences that equip them to be highly employable, respected, and free of the often toxic parent-child employment relationship mindset. In fact, many organizations pride themselves on being a family which increases the likelihood of dysfunctional relationships, expectations, and behaviors.

Shifting the leadership paradigm creates an environment of respect among equals and engenders trust and love in the workplace.  Employees deserve trust and respect demonstrated by being well informed and having open and 1-1 meetings with their supervisor-manager.  Direct supervisors have the most intimate relationship with employees and are expected to be the ones to lead the relationship.  In survey after survey, employees state their direct supervisor has the greatest impact on why they stay/leave, how they perform, how they feel about the organization, and where they expect to receive information, direction, and support.

Employability leadership fosters a culture of personal responsibility, initiative, innovation, accountability, and radical results.  This is a 180-degree paradigm shift from many workplace cultures of today.  They emanate dependability, fear, uncertainty, trauma, and plunging productivity which undercuts and further erodes the greatest need- RESULTS! 

TRUST—For months early in my career, the leadership gave sunshine reporting despite the financial statements showing otherwise.  As an employee, it is essential to know the business and be objective about performance, metrics, and trends because the audio and video often don’t reconcile.  In my case, I felt it was only a matter of time before a change would be made.  When the layoff decision was made,  it was communicated to each employee, and the process was transparent, continuous, and much appreciated. The process enabled business performance and morale to be maintained.

There were difficult conversations and emotions ran high, yet the process allowed leaders and employees to individually and collectively prepare themselves emotionally and financially for the future and to say goodbye- those leaving and staying.  Employees were given the option to volunteer to be laid off.  For many, a layoff gave them wings to the next place.  Employees were offered resources to assist in navigating their future whether staying or leaving. After all these years, the organization has a strong and proud alumni network of colleagues who remain connected by sharing news of life announcements, holiday & birthday updates, and annual lunches based on the bond of the good old days of working together.

Everything gets better when leaders treat employees with HUMANITY and TRUST  commensurate with the trust placed in them.

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Goals often make us anxious and less fulfilled with each tick.  The more we achieve, the more we want. Have you noticed the most successful people often are the most unhappy?  Our heart yearns to find a purpose beyond our accomplishments. 

While visiting a factory with a CEO client, I met an employee who described her work as, giving people their daily bread. She worked on a production line in a consumer foods company.  I thought, wow, wow!  A great example of situating contribution in the context of purpose.

Our gifts are meant to serve others.  I am inspired by people who move with purpose despite their title or bank account.

This year shift your paradigm and begin the process by defining your purpose.  The change in perspective will be an energizer, powering you to new heights – well beyond the me/my focus.

Here’s to reloading in purpose!

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 The panel explores the developing capabilities of generative AI and ethical considerations.The moderators, Raquel Brigham Brown & Brandon Krueger, Esq., and panelists bring varying lines of sight, AI expertise & experience to the dialogue.  A college professor shares her field research using AI to expand access to legal services.  A Microsoft tech executive provides a look ‘under the hood.’  Ethics and Contingency Fee attorneys share their hopes and fears, and a governance leader reflects on the impact on society, customers, and the public- going beyond the mandate to do no harm to the goal of adding value.  

Through the dialogue board governance takeaways emerged:

• Transparency as a guiding principle:err on the side of over-communicating
• AI is simply a technology
• AI is not omniscient. It requires human direction, training, review, confirmation & correction
• There are a range of AI technologies & applications with unique risks & reward profiles
• Traditional ethical, security & privacy risks & unintended consequences can be exacerbated by AI
• Understanding the organization’s business model is a prerequisite to identifying use case scenarios
• Seek  education  and guidance from vendors before and during  policy & guidance development and implementation
• Customized applications often yield the greatest return and minimize risk factors
• Digital natives view personal data as the gateway to access
•  AI technology is rapidly evolving-  most effective guidance and policy provide an overarching framework as a ‘stake in the ground’

As an entry point to explore AI through the lens and application of human capital, I recommend boards read, The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted & Fired & Why We Need to Fight Back, by Hilke Schellmann.  The content is thought-provoking and can serve as a platform for boards to unpack AI broadly.

My advice based on my experience and the panel dialogue is for boards to learn, learn, and learn about  AI  from a 30,000-foot perspective as a prerequisite for initiating policy and best practices deliberations.

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Episode 7 is an unforgettable masterclass that puts the learning from episodes 1-6 into action. Raquel and Timothy’s boardroom guests are General Darren McDew, U.S. Air Force (ret.), & Jacob Maroga, former CEO of Eskom, the largest electricity utility in Africa. They challenge leadership paradigms using antidotes to normalize Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous environments. Darren & Jacob reflect on the impact being a trained engineer has on their leadership and share their approach and experiences which are riveting. You’ll have a front row seat into their mindset as leaders of large, complex, dynamic organizations from the front line to the board room during periods of great instability in their countries.

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