QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
Question: What guidelines do you try to follow regarding co-facilitation of the two-day workshop? -- Coaches in Texas, Illinois, & California
TESBC: Important question that's been coming up lately. The most important thing to remember is that this workshop has been meticulously created through trial and error over the course of roughly 20 years. Each element is a puzzle piece. If you want to change a piece, you probably need to change the puzzle.
Here are some important items:
Actual Minimum Number of Participants: 6
Ideal Minimum Number of Participants: 8
Ideal Number of Participants: 16
Ideal Maximum Number of Participants: 32
Actual Maximum Number of Participants: 50
Is it possible to do it with more than 50? Yes, but expect that it'll be lower quality.
If your priority is participant experience, aim for 16-24.
Best Quality Number of Co-facilitators: 2
Is it possible to do it with 1? Yes, but expect that it'll be low quality.
Is it possible to do it with 3? I've never seen that not be a mess.
If your priority is participant experience, always have 2.
Do the two days have to be consecutive? Yes. Not for the knowledge/skill segments; those can be done non-consecutively. But these mindset activities were specifically designed for this format. If you don't have consecutive days, you need to use different mindset activities.
Can we do the workshop in one day? No. These mindset activities were specifically designed for this format. If you don't have two days, you need to use different mindset activities. But the knowledge/skill portions could absolutely be done in a single day with adequate pre-work by all of the participants.
Question: I had a client ask about a board member who submits 50+ questions per month. What coaching do you have for these individuals? -- Aspiring Coach in Arizona / Coaches in Texas & California
TESBC: There are a few key things to keep in mind, but they'll seem contradictory:
The board can ask however many questions it wants; that's its right.
Board members can ask however many questions the board allows; that's a privilege.
Rarely is the solution to so many questions cutting someone off; it's normally helping them learn how to get their needs met in another way.
So with those ideas in mind, the first step is often simply awareness. If a simple conversation won't do ("I noticed you submitted x number of questions last month. What are you trying to get that you aren't getting? Maybe I can help?"), then gathering data often helps. We have a Board Use of Staff Time process that we often use to help quantify how much time is being used. That tends to help normalize behavior.
In some cases, it has helped to have a conversation about disciplined question asking. Board members often don't realize how much time and energy responding to their questions takes, and how the simple act of answering them can often redirect the focus and behavior of staff. Another way of building awareness is to have a direct conversation around which questions are likely to generate alignment with the Goals and Guardrails and which questions are likely to harm alignment.
If all else fails, it may be necessary to modify governance policy to place parameters on question asking. This is definitely not the place to begin, but it has been effective at addressing behavior when nothing else would.
INTERESTING READS & LISTENS
Here are three great governance nerds worth reading:
Susan Mogenson (general governance)
Rick Maloney (school board governance)
Hartger Wassink (non-profit governance)
BOARD MEETING ANALYSIS
A subscriber asked us to watch the meeting of a school board in New York. Here are the highlights from the Regular Board Meeting:
Total Minutes: 150mins
Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 0mins
Key Topics: personnel, board/supt communication, board transparency, superintendent evaluation tools.
What Coach Celebrates:
It is always appreciated to see public officials vehemently disagreeing on matters of policy, but in a manner that is soft on the people they’re disagreeing with. This was true of the workshop conversation about how the board operates and demonstrates valuable maturity on the part of the board members.
What Coach Recommends:
The level of passion (see above) and amount of time (1/3 of the meeting) that was afforded to the board transparency debate would be powerful if applied to monitoring student progress as well. Unfortunately, the board does not currently appear to have clear Goals for what students should know or be able to do. While discussing the means of superintendent evaluation, the board was unable to discuss the substance of what the superintendent should be evaluated on (ie: Goals). Our recommendation: begin a community listening campaign with the intention of setting 5yr Goals that represent the community's vision for what students must know and be able to do.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
Effective Policy Monitoring & Review
We are continuing the Policy Leadership series with a 30-minute webinar on two frequently overlooked aspects of owning a policy: monitoring it for compliance and reviewing it for relevance.
11am central on Friday, September 12th, 2025
Did you miss last month's 30-minute free webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session on any of our growing list of topics, including governance policy, delegation policy, effective budgeting, superintendent evaluation, professional services management, strategic planning, consent agendas, and more.
BONUS MATERIALS
For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources (to gain access to the links below, please consider subscribing):
Additional details about the analyzed meeting:
Board Meeting Video
Meeting Agenda
Strategic Plan
Time Use Analysis
Guidance documents related to this issue:
Effective policy leadership and how boards often engage in ineffective policy leadership
Question asking discipline to help board members think through how to get access to the info they need.
How to implement a Board Use of Staff Time process.
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