Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017 - 48

EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT
interactions that value each family member's needs while
also meeting the broader goal of building relationships
across geographies and generations. For instance, if one
or more family members have specific financial or health
needs, the servant leader would advocate for a gathering
that takes those needs into account.
Likewise, the alliance manager's role in managing governance meetings cannot be overstated. Often, the alliance
manager is the gatekeeper who helps teams understand
expectations for bringing topics to governance. The
committee relies on the alliance manager to focus on the
important topics, milestones, and key decisions as well as
suitable timing for governance topics. Sometimes teams
must be encouraged to wait until other appropriate discussions have occurred or to revise their material to make
it suitable. Often this requires team members to be challenged to manage as much as possible at their level and
within their scope of responsibility prior to escalating any
issue to the senior-level governance committees.
To help manage risk-the risk that committee members'
time will be ill-used-alliance managers should establish
an adequate (but not overzealous) process for governance
meeting management. To this end, the alliance manager
must anticipate which governance topics will require additional discussion and where pre-reads will be needed to
facilitate positive outcomes. This would also include handling agenda topic approval, pre-reading of submissions
(ensuring appropriate length and format), submitting
presentation slides, legal review of meeting materials,
and walk-in topics. If the alliance manager doesn't take
ownership of the process, the committee is likely to miss
important opportunities for decision making and be less
likely to maximize the value of the alliance.

KEEP THE BUSINESS MOVING

So what happens after the meeting? Ideally, the committee members walk out of the room and inform their
colleagues about the decisions made or the next steps
agreed upon. If this is not happening, there is a huge
opportunity for the alliance manager to mitigate risk
by cascading decisions and actions to alliance teams.
The alliance manager can play a key role in ensuring
seamless continuity between the governance committee and team members, and from one governance
meeting to another.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 * 2017

Keeping individual family members informed and connected is a major benefit of gathering together, so it is
important to be mindful of those who did not attend.
What about the aunt who couldn't attend the family dinner
because of her work schedule, or the cousin who was away
at college? Knowing they would be interested in the latest family news, someone might offer to give them a quick
call. Or if siblings attended, they might send updates via
text message so those who missed the event feel included.
Perhaps there is a family blog or message group where fun
anecdotes or important updates on someone's health can
be shared. All of these strategies serve to further connect
family members. The servant leader can encourage these
communication channels for the benefit of all.
Many times team members who need to follow up on
important governance meeting topics are not able to attend the governance meeting itself. In this instance, it can
be helpful for alliance managers to support progress by
quickly disseminating meeting outcomes. Or it may be
most appropriate for the governance committee members to do so directly. In any case, next steps, actions, and
follow-up items with associated timelines and ownership
should be absolutely clear to every participant. If the alliance manager doesn't facilitate the process, the meeting's
outcome could be like a tree falling in the forest; with no
one around to hear it, a committee might assign an action
or make a critical decision that is not communicated to
those doing the work. This helps no one.

WE SAID WHAT?
Governance meeting documentation is extremely important. Agendas, pre-reads, slides, documents, and
meeting minutes are the official record of how the alliance conducts business (see "Making the Minutes
Count, The Critical Importance of Accurately Documenting Alliance Meetings," Strategic Alliance Magazine,
Q3 2013). Years later, new alliance team members may
refer back to the documentation. Or it may be produced
in litigation or investigations. For these reasons, take
the time to get these documents right. Conduct a legal
review to ensure the document states what it is intended
to state. Insist that employees who contribute content
do the same. Consider having your legal team conduct
a session to explain why good documentation is critical
and to provide guidelines. Poor documentation can lead

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017