FCCS News & Insights

Farm Credit West Implements Interactive Board Evaluation

Continued strong board performance doesn’t happen by accident. Just as with individuals, evaluation at the board level is key to identifying strengths and weaknesses, as well as skills to be developed and gaps to be filled.

The leadership at Farm Credit West recognizes the value of effective board evaluation, and last year determined to go beyond the traditional individual director survey. Their search brought them to FCC Services’ new Interactive Board Evaluation.

“Our board is not a fan of checking a box, even when something is required by general business practices, and their mandate is to drive value in whatever we’re doing,” says Mark Littlefield, Farm Credit West CEO. “At times in the past, we haven’t gotten as much benefit from the anonymous survey as we would like, and often seemed to end up with more questions than answers.” 

The Interactive Board Evaluation is a real-time survey tool combined with facilitated discussion. Rather than directors completing a survey at home with results discussed at a later board meeting, this alternative approach puts the directors in the same room, responding live to survey questions. Once everyone has responded to a given question, the results are revealed and discussed.

“For every question we asked, we were able to then discuss the results says Mark. “If there was disagreement, or the board was split, we discussed that, too. Sometimes it was just a matter of having different perceptions of what the question was asking, but because we were in the same room, we were able to get alignment on the questions, talk through the issues, and reach consensus right then.”

The questions themselves – 19 in all – were developed in conjunction with FCC Services’ Jay Lux, Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness Consulting at FCC Services, who also facilitated the evaluation session. For Farm Credit West, in addition to a few general assessment questions, the session focused on a specific issue the organization is facing: the need to replace a retiring appointed director. 

“Through the active engagement process, we honed in on the skill set we wanted and got our arms around the process we’d follow to identify the strongest replacement for our retiring director,” says Mark. “With the software we were using, we could ask a new question, even if it wasn’t on the original list, to really dig deep into the issue we were discussing.” 

The Interactive Board Evaluation process is also inclusive, ensuring a certain amount of anonymity in the survey responses, but requiring 100 percent response before revealing results. Once discussion begins, the facilitator ensures that everyone has a chance to speak, drawing out those who may be reticent.

“The Farm Credit West Board in general is not afraid to provide their opinions, but different directors do take a different approach to participation,” says Mark. “Jay made sure to reach out to directors directly to draw each of them into the discussions.”

Following the evaluation, FCC Services provided an in-depth report including the survey results, discussion notes and executive summary assessing the outcomes of the half-day session.

The Interactive Board Evaluation provides for increased engagement from directors during the Board’s discussion. It continues to give deep insight into issues facing the organization, but with a robust platform to immediate discussion of solutions to issues and opportunities,” says Jay. “The open, active and candid discussion allows us to dig into the root of an issue real-time and in the moment.”

While there are also benefits to the traditional board evaluation approach of private surveys consisting of a standard set of questions, and FCC Services also offers a an evaluation approach with customized questions, Farm Credit West anticipates continuing with the Interactive Board Evaluation in the coming years.

 “We have a board confident in expressing their opinions without being confrontational, and who recognize that it’s ok to have a difference of opinion in the boardroom in order to get to the best place for the organization. They appreciated the open dialog on the issues they need to address,” says Mark. “Working with FCC Services also brought big advantages because they’re flexible and highly skilled, and because they come in with keen understanding of the regulatory and other nuanced differences from a commercial bank.”

While Farm Credit organizations are required by the FCA to conduct an annual board self-evaluation, it behooves all boards to consider their own performance and identify areas in which they can improve in order to benefit the cooperative and the members who elected them. For more information about FCC Services’ board evaluation services, contact Jay Lux at 651.982.4568.