MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How to Sabotage Your Board

There are myriad ways that directors and board chairs limit board effectiveness, intentionally and unintentionally. Here are the behaviors to look out for and curtail.

Ever sat through a board meeting and wondered whether other directors or trustees are not conscious of the time or are consciously sabotaging the meeting? Do some members seem hell-bent on turning decision-making into a no-win game? You’re not alone. The line between accidental and intentional sabotage can often be as thin as your treasurer’s patience after the third hour of budget discussions.

We’ve all seen this behavior. Often, directors don’t realize that they are obstructing the purpose of the meeting. But sometimes they engage in deliberate acts of sabotage that prevent the board from being effective or making decisions. They may do this to block a particular process, create space for their own agenda, or perhaps because they don’t believe they can pursue their own goals openly and collaboratively.

About the Author

Jon Huggett is a board director with GiveOut and the Alwan Foundation. Dariusz Jemielniak is a professor at Kozminski University and faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and he serves on the boards of the Wikimedia Foundation, the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, CampusAI, and Escola SA.

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