1,5 meter supervisory board - could we get used to this?

Last year summertime we held our first newly composed supervisory board for strategic guidance, executive experience and support to further grow our transformation consultancy business.

Tuesday June 16 it was time to catch up. To report back on results, achievements and setbacks. And also, to look forward to new initiatives in line with our strategy. Based on progress, lessons learned and market developments.

Upfront we had discussions if we should pursue this board meeting in these challenging Corona times. Should we postpone? Go digital also with this? Or experiment with a first supervisory board meeting taking into account the 1,5-meter social distancing? Whilst all major companies, so also our board members as executives in their organisations, still predominantly work from home probably till the end of this year? Can we safeguard our board members health, taking into account they are responsible for the safety and well-being of staff themselves? What is appropriate example behaviour in these times anyway as a leader?

Normally we reside at Pulitzer right across our offices at the Keizersgracht, where at this point of time we have not returned since March. Although we are all used, also already years before Corona times, to work remote we missed the real-life group interactions when discussing progress and new plans. Also we had quite a year and much to report back on, as well as two new substantial initiatives to share with our board. So we decided to relocate this meeting from the Amsterdam city center to the centrally positioned village of Eemnes in the Dutch countryside near highways.

We talked about the progress and next steps to further grow and professionalize our associate consultants’ group and two major new initiatives:

• The RibbonWood “change maturity scan” to access change readiness in organisations

• The RibbonWood “transformation circle” for (non) executives to regularly share personal transformation experiences; not just successes but also mistakes and lessons learned. So definitely some cool new stuff coming in the next months!

What we learned from this first board meeting practicing social distancing is:

• “Maximum” is not the same as “optimal” with respect to remote or face2face working, meeting and discussing.

• Holding a group meeting whilst taking into account 1,5 meters is a challenge with respect to seating, eating, discussing etc.

• Also, informal personal talks in between subjects and during breaks is a totally different thing if you practice social distancing. As you can do this with only two or max three people at the same time. So informal networking during meetings becomes different too. And to be fair: for some things are no real alternatives and you just miss out ;).

A special “thanks” to our supervisory board: Lia Belilos (CHRO Robeco), Joost Mortier (CEO 9292 Reisinformatiegroep), Eric Kuisch (executive board member & COO Eurofiber), Marielle Ploumen (bestuurder Altrecht), Maarten Vervoort (investor & ex private equity executive) and Paul Slot (EVP Infrastruture KPN).

Due to Corona no group pic(s) this time but a photo collage impression of a vivid, critical and constructive supervisory board meeting practising social distancing.

More to come so stay tuned!