Colla­bo­ra­tive.

Why is colla­bo­ra­tion so crucial in the board of trus­tees today?

Beate Eckhardt: Because impact is a team sport. Well-coor­di­na­ted boards of trus­tees that work with a board workspace are more focu­sed and have more time to deal with stra­te­gic issues and the content-rela­ted support of the funding prac­tice. Working on a digi­tal plat­form crea­tes a common context: ever­yone is simul­ta­neously on the same page, knows where to find what, what is being deci­ded, and who is respon­si­ble for what. This reli­e­ves admi­nis­tra­tive bottlenecks. 

How is the dyna­mics chan­ging – and what oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges are emerging? 

I think the gain in effi­ci­ency and trans­pa­rency is parti­cu­larly important. Agenda items, decis­ion-making bases, minu­tes and tasks are proces­sed asyn­chro­no­usly upstream and down­stream – the meeting itself beco­mes more precise and produc­tive. Addi­tio­nally, youn­ger members often expect digi­tal working methods for their enga­ge­ment. Purely analo­gue bodies are losing their appeal and speed. But digi­tal plat­forms also need to be mana­ged and mode­ra­ted. Other­wise, email casca­des, digi­tal over­growth and unclear access rights can occur. This quickly erodes trust. Clear rules and a secure digi­tal space are helpful for data protec­tion and cybersecurity. 

What does this mean in prac­tice today? 

I recom­mend a step-by-step approach, stan­dar­di­sing the essen­ti­als and prefer­ring univer­sal tools. Indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons quickly lead to high costs and make digi­tal networ­king with other funders impos­si­ble. A secure board workspace like Sphe­riq bund­les ever­y­thing rele­vant for the foun­da­tion board: the agenda and dossiers, the decis­ion-making basis, the minu­tes, the tasks and dead­lines. Once they have expe­ri­en­ced it, few foun­da­tion boards want to go back to the old analo­gue world. Inci­den­tally, digi­tal colla­bo­ra­tion has long been the norm in the manage­ment boards.

Get invol­ved now

Sphe­ri­q’s board manage­ment brings the work of the foun­da­tion board toge­ther in a secure, clearly struc­tu­red space: Plan agen­das, share dossiers, record decis­i­ons and track tasks – with role and access rights, track­ing and noti­fi­ca­ti­ons. Fewer emails, more over­view, better tracea­bi­lity. The webi­nar “Board­ma­nage­ment in der Praxis” at the end of Novem­ber will show you what this looks like in prac­tice.

spheriq.ch/en/collaborative