Tip #32 Is Board Cohesiveness Goor or Bad?
Group cohesiveness can be understood as group members feeling a sense of belonging and comfort in the group, feeling an emotional connection to other group members and to the group as a whole. If group cohesiveness results in group members feeling accepted in the group and being encouraged to challenge one another’s ideas respectfully and to offer differing viewpoints, that’s great. But, if group cohesiveness means that members do not want to upset the harmony of the group and are reluctant to disagree or offer differing opinions, then there’s a serious problem. So, group cohesiveness can be either good or bad.
How to promote cohesiveness that supports effective group functioning. First of all, create clear expectations about disagreements being expected and encouraged while such disagreements should always be engaged in respectfully. Focusing on issues instead of people and disagreeing respectfully create a board culture in which disagreements and differing viewpoints are expected and valued. Clear expectations about disagreeing can be incorporated into statements of board member and board meeting rules and expectations. Such expectations can be included within board policies and board member job descriptions. Board recruitment interviews and new board member orientation sessions can reinforce these expectations. New board members can be assigned board member mentors to coach expected behaviors. The board chair and all board members can express appreciation for the expression of dissenting opinions. Board member behavior that might undermine a culture of open expression of respectful disagreement should not be allowed to continue and should be respectfully confronted by the chair or other board members. Boards can use confidential board meeting evaluation surveys and can consider periodic anonymous board member peer evaluation surveys to promote board member behavior conducive to constructive cohesiveness and other positive board member behaviors as well.
Opportunities for board members to socialize and to get to know one another are important to individual board member comfort in the group and a group sense of comradery and “team-ness.” However, without clarity about and reinforcement of respectful disagreement, a board may develop a culture of “niceness” where the unspoken norm is that nobody disagrees.
A few additional tips to keep cohesiveness constructive include the following: recruit diverse board members, encourage the participation of all board members in boardroom discussions, seek information from outside the board and outside the organization, actively elicit differing viewpoints, and avoid rushing to a decision.
In the Policy Governance® system, it is clear that the board represents and acts on behalf of the organization’s ownership (or key stakeholders). To adequately represent this ownership, the board needs to be attuned to the diversity of the organization’s ownership with its range of perspectives. Hence, the boardroom needs to provide a forum for eliciting and discussing a range of perspectives and ideas. If a culture of welcomed disagreement (of course, respectful disagreement) is not fostered in the boardroom, can the board adequately represent the spectrum of organizational owners? For more information about the Policy Governance® system, please go to https://www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.