Strong Boards Don't Happen by Accident

There’s a particular kind of energy in a room when a board decides to stop circling and start moving. We felt it on March 28th, facilitating a full-day Board Governance Retreat for Brooklyn Arts Council — one of Brooklyn’s most enduring arts institutions and a pillar of the borough’s creative community for nearly 60 years.

This is the other side of Giant Steps. And we love this work just as much.

Our process begins long before anyone walks in the room. Discovery work — board surveys, leadership interviews, data analysis — gives us a detailed picture of where an organization is strong and where the gaps are structural rather than cultural. That distinction shapes everything about how we design the day. You can’t facilitate your way to clarity if you don’t know what’s actually in the way.

The Giant Steps approach to board governance is deliberately unconventional. Clients tell us they’ve never experienced strategic planning quite like it, and we love that compliment. We start with where an organization actually is — we hold up the mirror, revealing what they’re thinking, what tensions are real and unresolved, and where the organization is being asked to lead without the infrastructure to back it up. From there we move through what we affectionately call the messy middle: the honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations that surface what everyone already suspects but hasn’t said out loud — including the hard work of examining beloved projects and good ideas that simply aren’t serving the mission anymore.

Boards leave with named priorities, a shared framework, and decisions that were months — sometimes years — overdue.

Clarity — genuine, shared, actionable clarity — is what’s waiting on the other side.

I’m proud that Giant Steps is increasingly known for leadership development and career strategy. We do that well. But board governance, organizational development, and strategic planning for nonprofits, arts, and culture organizations is equally central to who we are — and it sits at the heart of how we believe mission-driven organizations grow. Strong boards are built through deliberate practice, honest conversation, and the willingness to name what’s easier to leave unspoken.

If you’re a board chair, an executive director, or a governance committee member wondering whether your board is ready for this kind of work — reach out. That question alone is usually a good sign.

PS — We work with nonprofits, arts organizations, and mission-driven institutions of all sizes. If you’re asking whether your board needs this — it probably does.