1. Organizational capacity and motivation to monitor and implement the plan, and to hold itself accountable for the outcomes. There’s no sense in spending the time and effort to create a plan only to have it sit on a shelf. If that’s what has happened in past, ask yourselves how this year is going to be different. Why this year must be different? The executive director is surely accountable to the board for the plan’s outcomes; however, the board must never forget that it is, in the final analysis, accountable to its organization’s donors and constitutents.
2. Willingness to take on the organization’s “sacred cows.” The best strategic planning process challenges everyone to think about how the organization can use its resources (time, talent, money) most effectively to impact and advance the mission; for this process to soar, its participants must be invited to respectfully challenge every aspect of the organization.
3. Demonstrable commitment by the board of directors and management to the planning process. By “demonstrable commitment,” I mean to suggest a willingness to be intellectually and emotionally involved in and to otherwise support the process from beginning to end.  
4. Absence of significant organizational conflict or transition at either the board or board/staff level. In order for the board to engage in stategic planning, it will need to be able talk and work together for hours at a time. It will also need to be able to reach consensus about the organization’s priorities. If, for whatever reason, sufficient tension exists at either the board or the board/staff level to make this task impossible or extremely difficult, I recommend the planning be postponed until after the underlying issues can be addressed and resolved.
5. Willingness and ability to commit sufficient resources (and in this case I’m referring to the money) to the planning process. Facilitating your own strategic planning process to save a few dollars is generally inadvisable. When a member of the staff or board is the facilitator, s/he steps out of the role of participant in order to play the role of facilitator and her/his voice is lost from the process.  A professional facilitator is both neutral to the outcome and has no allegiances to particular individuals; her job is to professionally guide the group to the outcome of a well-conceived plan aligned with the mission and grounded in the organization’s resources. A strategic planning process that is effectively done will pay for itself over and over again for years to come.

Once a year or perhaps every few years, nonprofit organizations slow down just long enough to take a look at themselves. And that’s when the opportunity presents itself; that’s when the organization has the opportunity to do what it’s not permitted to do during the rest of the year by virtue of its day-to-day pace. It is at this moment, that the board and staff members have this delicious opportunity not only to listen to each other, but also to the organization’s external stakeholders. 

As a consultant who interviews stakeholders about the hopes, fears, views, and visions they have for organizations they care so passionately about, I can tell you this is one of the most powerful tools that exists for moving an organization forward.

There are many powerful outcomes from interviewing stakeholders; here are three. 

Quality Data:

Interviews of stakeholders are recommended in order to scan an organization’s environment to find out what key individuals think about the organization’s performance, priorities, and future. The data these interviews generate is as powerful as the questions posed, the process used in selecting stakeholders, and the consultant conducting the interviews and analyzing the data. When the entire process is done well, the data informs the board planning session and the development of long-term goals and objectives. 

Deeper Thinking:

By virtue of being interviewed by an outside consultant, people raise their level of thinking; some will even prepare for their interview. They want to be thoughtful and thorough; they want to share smart ideas which are representative of their best thinking.  As a result, the quality of the feedback they provide in the interviews is generally high. In addition, they often report that they learned a lot from giving the interview, resulting in the internal stakeholders being better prepared going into the board planning session.

Positive Message:

Thirdly, there’s the message your organization communicates when it elects to have its stakeholders (especially its external stakeholders and staff members) interviewed for their opinions. Having interviewed stakeholders, I can tell you that, nearly universally, people appreciate being asked for their views and many even find the process fun; this is so even though the process takes their time (30-60 minutes). In my experience, most are only too happy to give the time.

It is alarmingly rare how often external stakeholders get their voices heard outside of a process like this. In my experience, they want their voices to be heard and, regardless of their level of modesty, believe they have something to offer. So ask! When you do, you will deepen the organizational bond with those stakeholders, raise the quality of the planning conversations, and develop a strategic plan based on the views of your organization’s most valuable players.

Susie’s nerves were apparent from the start; I wouldn’t have to wait long to find out the cause. She had enlisted in the Army and was headed to Fort Leonard Wood to begin basic training. “I was stuck,” the 19-year old declared before we’d even left the gate. She hadn’t been able to graduate from high school because she didn’t have a car and couldn’t get there. Without a high school degree, the only work Susie was able to get was at the local fast food joint.

All before takeoff, I knew about Susie’s “ego problem,” her need to be the best, her rebellious nature, the friends who weren’t talking to her because she’d joined the Army, her family, and more. She didn’t stop talking or figeting, all while proclaiming her excitement about the aircraft, the flight, and boot camp.
She shared so much so quickly; what did she want me to do with this information?

You might imagine that my coach training was kicking in from the start. As a woman 30 years her senior, part of me–perhaps a maternal part–was eager to share some life experiences with this strong, yet vulnerable nineteen year old. But as I leaned into the moment, it was apparent that Susie was not in a frame of mind to hear anything. I realized that Susie needed something else from me. What was it?

As I listened to the totality of Susie’s communication–the content and tone of her speech, her body language, her energy–it all expressed one need. As she flew away from the only home she’d ever known and on to the next chapter in her life, Susie needed me to listen to her.

Susie was starting a new chapter in her life, one that both excited her and frightened her and she needed to talk about it and be heard. It was my role during that flight to listen deeply to what she was saying and to communicate to her that she was being heard. It was my pleasure to do so.

Rebecca Shafir, author of The Zen of Listening, defines listening as “the willingness to see a situation through the eyes of the speaker.” During that flight, I attempted to appreciate how it might feel to have the courage to sign a 4 year contract for service–to anyone, for anything. I tried to appreciate how it might feel leaving everything and everyone you know in one state and travel to another state to start a new life–and to do that all by yourself at nineteen years of age. I attempted to appreciate how it might feel to be entering the Army at a time of war.

More often than we realize, what a loved one, co-worker, or stranger needs most is for us to listen deeply to them. When deep listening takes place, both speaker and listener are often transformed. As Sue Patton Thoele says, “Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand.” Susie: I thank you for expanding my spirit and salute you for serving our country.

January 8, 2010

According to recent data from the Center for Work-Life Policy, lots of folks are considering voluntary career changes and women are doing it at more than twice the pace of men. The Center’s data shows that twice as many women in top jobs (54%) as men (22%) are contemplating voluntarily leaving their positions. The Center’s data show that the majority of these women are leaving in order to recalibrate goals and shift to other sectors.

It seems that in this recession women in particular are taking a long hard look at what they value most and what they’re willing to endure in the workplace for a paycheck. Does a high salary offset a workplace with high time commitments, high stress, and low morale? It seems that many are answering that question “no” after years of being unable to create and/or sustain a satisfying work/life balance.

Study after study shows that women in particular want not only to be paid a fair wage, but also to do work that is meaningful to them; when this is missing, the money often doesn’t matter to them. According to Center for Work-Life Policy data, among women who are considering leaving jobs in the financial sector, a shift to the nonprofit sector is high on the wish list of many.

Life is short to be sure and we spend a lot of time at work. (As of 2007, the average American spent 8.7 hours a day working according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.) If your work is not aligned with your core values or isn’t making you happy, the situation simply isn’t sustainable in this economy or any other. Figuring out what you value most and pursuing it is time well spent; it can yield a lifetime of purpose and meaning. And, regardless of the state of the economy, if you set your intention to it, it is well within your power to create a worklife that provides you meaning and satisfaction.  

So as you think about your future, I leave you with the question I pondered in 2008 as I was contemplating whether to start this business. At that time, the recession was just heating up and no one in their right mind would have started a new business. At that time, the question that kept coming up for me was this: “If not now, when?” Can you answer that one?  If now is not the time to infuse your worklife with more meaning, when?

P.S. I have no regret. My work is filled with meaning and purpose. I have more work/life balance than ever before.

January 6, 2010

So where to begin? With strategic planning, the end is a great place to start. How does your organization define success? What does success look like? Knowing the definition of success for your organization is essential to writing an effective strategic plan.

 I am a big fan of a 2004 article by Stanford researchers Colby, Stone, and Carttar called “Zeroing in On Impact.” In this article, Colby, Stone, and Carttar discuss two concepts: intended impact and theory of change.

Intended impact and theory of change provide a bridge between a nonprofit’s mission and its programmatic activities. Intended impact is a statement or series of statements about what the organization is trying to achieve and will hold itself accountable for within some manageable period of time.  “Zeroing In On Impact” Colby, Stone & Carttar, Stanford Social Innovation Review (2004).

Using this framework, I recommend your board create an intended impact statement that specifies quantifiable outcomes it can realistically achieve within a set time frame (i.e. five years). This process is best accomplished with the assistance of a competent consultant who will facilitate the process. Properly engaging in this process will require your board to prioritize some desired outcomes over others. To be sure, prioritizing and reaching consensus about desired outcomes are not easy tasks. However, if you’re doing this, your board is engaging in the most important board-level work of the planning process.

While trying to create your organization’s intended impact statement, you’ll explore questions such as:

1. Who are our intended beneficiaries?
2. What are their primary needs?
3. What benefits do our programs/services create?
4. Do the benefits match the needs?
5. What work won’t we do in the coming year(s)?
6. If we could create just three measurable changes in our outcomes over the next five years, what would those be?
7. What work will we take off our plates in order to be more effective?

Once the desired outcomes are prioritized, the staff can more easily prioritize activities and programs based on the degree to which each can contribute to the organization’s desired ends. However, without a set of prioritized outcomes to guide it, an organization can spend a great deal of time, energy, and money on good ideas and well-designed programs and not significantly impact its targeted constituency.

With a well-conceived intended impact statement in place, a strong staff can often engage in critical thinking and planning about theory of change in order to make recommendations back to the board. This involves the staff considering the strategies it has been utilizing to achieve the desired outcomes and whether there might not be more effective ones. The staff is often in the best position to analyze how the organization’s programs might be changed or adjusted in order to more effectively get from resources to impact.

If an organization begins its strategic planning at the end–by defining the most important outcomes it seeks to achieve–it will then truly be able to be strategic with its precious resources, using them to serve its intended beneficiaries in ways that will yield the greatest impact for them and the organization.

January 4, 2010

So how might you maximize your chances of achieving your new year’s resolutions? A healthy dose of realism and some specific, well-proven strategies will help you avoid being a new year’s statistic. Here are ten of my top tips to get you started and keep you on track towards success:

1.  Start with only one personal and one professional resolution/goal. Choose each wisely after scanning all the areas of your life and then prioritizing. Make sure each goal is your own (and not a goal someone else has for you) and is aligned with your core personal values.  

2. State each resolution/goal in concrete, positive, motivating language. State each goal as though you’ve already achieved it. (”I am physically fit; my healthy body enables me to perform at my best in business and have an active, adventurous personal life.”)

3. Identify the reasons for each resolution/goal. Once you’ve identified each resolution or goal for 2010, list at least 10 reasons why you want to reach each of these goals. Then ask yourself: Do these reasons seem like compelling reasons? Will these reasons provide me the strong motivation I’ll need to achieve my goal? Compelling reasons (and, might I add, a reward/incentive system!) significantly increase one’s likelihood of achieving a goal. Post the reasons in a place where you’ll be able to review them regularly.

4. With every action or decision, ask yourself one question: Is this going to bring me closer or further away from my goal? My personal goal is to be more physically fit. Which action will bring me closer to my goal: running on my treadmill or laying around in my pajamas all day? When I ask that question, there’s no ambiguity about what my decision should be if I’m serious about achieving my goal. Try it! Of course, if you make a decision that brings you further away from your goal, ask yourself how much you really want to achieve the goal. Review the list of 10 reasons for renewed motivation.  

5. Create a plan for each goal and allocate sufficient resources (time, energy, money) to the implementation of the plan. Most change initiatives fail at the implementation state. Create a step-by-step plan with manageable actions you can take to achieve your goal. One step at a time. Make sure it’s logical to you.

6. Visualize yourself achieving your goal. Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself achieving your goal. As I reflect on achieving my goal, I think about questions such as: What would I look and feel like if I were more physically fit? How would I feel in a stronger, healthier body? How might I feel if others noticed a change in my body and commented? How would it feel to have more energy? Utilize this visualization exercise in the beginning and thoughout the process as necessary to sustain your motivation.

7. Don’t go it alone. Share your goal with others. This serves both to create a support system for you and to create pressure on you to achieve your goal (or risk losing face). Find someone who is working on the same or similar goal who will be your accountability partner, pushing you when necessary along the way. Alternatively, create an accountability group. Social networking sites are great ways to find friends and others in your geographic area who are working on the same goal as you.

8. Use images that inspire you. Surround yourself with images that remind you of your achievement of each goal. Perhaps it’s a picture of the reward you’ll provide yourself when you achieve your goal. Or perhaps you might post an image of someone with the focus and commitment to success you seek to emulate. Alternatively, you might post an image of someone who’s already achieved your goal against far greater odds than you might be facing.

9. Reward yourself. Whether you’ve set your goal for a short-term period (i.e. 90 days) or longer, you deserve a reward. And studies show that rewards do work to keep people motivated and moving towards their goals. Some folks incentivize the goal-setting process with betting. They bet their friend (or a third party company) that they will achieve their goal, with cash or a donation to an anticharity on the line. This too, studies show, works to keep people on track. Figure out what most will motivate you across your finish line and set it as your reward. If your goal is longer term, provide yourself rewards along the way.

10. Be patient with yourself. Don’t give up. Achieving your goal, no matter what it is, will take focus and commitment. But if you’ve selected wisely, you’ve set goals around the most important changes you’d like to make in your life and work in 2010. And certainly those are worth making happen!

January 2, 2010

Webster’s describes a “superhero” as having “extraordinary or superhuman powers.” Nonprofit organizations everywhere are led by extraordinary women and men who work long hours and make great sacrifices for their organizations, staff members, and constituents. Their passion is amazing, their commitment to their causes is without end, and their results are truly superhuman.

But here are some questions I raise for our collective consideration: Is the existing model–one that encourages executive directors (and other staff members) to work at superhuman levels day in and day out–one that is in the best interests of any organization? Can this model be sustained for as long as the organization needs to exist in order to achieve its mission? Are we experiencing a greater number of executive transitions as a result of our use of this model? If so, at what cost?

I’m here to suggest we encourage and support today’s executive directors in cutting back on the “superhuman” part. Human, not superhuman, must be the standard that we as boards of directors and as a society accept–and appreciate–from our executive directors and the nonprofits they lead. This is especially true in times where resources are more scarce. Today, executive directors are commonly asked to do more–not less–on less. Say what? Isn’t this the very definition of superhuman?

In order to achieve the organizational change I suggest, the executive director needs the help of the board of directors. If an organization’s key priorities are to be changed–which priorities ultimately drive the allocation of resources, including staff time–the board must make this happen.  When the board of directors takes a proactive step towards realistically adjusting the organization’s priorities, it will move towards a healthier and more sustainable operating model with a leader, not a superhero, at the helm.

-July 18, 2009

The first step is a diagnostic one. Where are you out of balance? Is it that you’re not fulfilled by work? Or is it that you’re overwhelmed by family responsibilities? When was the last time you engaged in self-care or self-renewal? 

One diagnostic tool I find helpful is the wheel of life. The wheel of life is a simple tool consisting of a circle divided into segments, each representing the key areas of your life. To create one is as simple as drawing a circle and dividing it into parts (six and eight are most common). You then label each as one of the core parts of your life. These parts will vary for each person. Examples include:

• health;
• relationships (together or divided into intimate relationships and friends and family);
• finances;
• self-renewal;
• work;
• personal growth; and
• spirituality.

Of course, you can come up with other categories that fit your life.

On a scale (usually of 0-5 or 0-10), you grade where your life is in that segment. What you ask yourself on the wheel of life is up to you, but it’s usually one of two questions: 1) How much attention am I giving to that part of my life? and 2) How fulfilled do I currently feel in that area of my life? Again, you can generate another question of your own design!

A completed wheel of life is a rather stark visual representation of your life. It will demonstrate–in black, white or color (your choice!)–the areas of your life that are being attended to (or not) or in which you are feeling fulfilled (or not). The goal–at least for most of us!–is to move towards a wheel that is balanced, so that life’s ride is as smooth as possible. That doesn’t mean, however, that you need to get the same score in each category. For example, at any point in time a certain area of your life may demand or you may want to give a certain area of your life more attention; that is your choice. If you do that, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of balance. In order to make a judgment about that, I recommend that you do a comparison of what you’d like your ideal score to be vs. what your actual score is at this moment in time.

There are many wheel of life templates which can be found online, though one of my favorites is that of MindTools. It can be found online and with instructions. Whether you use a version found online or make one yourself is less the point than simply doing the wheel of life diagnostic check! It’s a quick and easy way to check in with yourself and then point you in the right direction to make the readjustments necessary to bring your life back into balance. I hope you’ll give it a spin! When you do, let me know how it worked for you.

Suggested Action Items

1. Find someplace quiet. Close your eyes for a few minutes to reflect on your life. When you’re ready, climb into the basket of a hot air balloon and take a virtual ride. As you float in the air over your life, what do you see? What do your days and nights look like? Where’s the activity? Where’s the stress? Where’s the joy? Does what you see align with what you’d like your life to look like? When you’re ready, gently float back down for a safe landing.
2. If you’re creative, create your own wheel of life. Identify the categories. Decorate them in any way you’d like to reflect how you feel about either the attention this segement of your life is getting or how much fulfillment it’s providing you. If you’d rather, go to MindTools and fill out their wheel of life online.
3. Reflect on the results of your wheel of life. What are the changes that need to be made to bring you into balance? In what segment(s) of your life? What daily adjustment(s) can you make in order to achieve the realignment you seek?  Even identifying one thing you’ll do each day to correct your course and achieve more/better balance can be life transforming.  

p.s. The above image is of a Tibetan Buddhist wheel of life. At the center of this wheel are the three root poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance.

Image: Srid pa’i khor lo (Wheel of Life).
Painting on cloth, twentieth century.
Tibetan Collection,
Asian Division (109)

If you have a good succession plan on file then that’s a significant advantage in your favor and you’ll turn your attention to implementation. But what if you don’t? What do you do?

The first thing I urge a board to do is stop and breathe. Now breathe some more! It is common for boards to react to the resignation of an executive director with fear and panic. Afterall, with that executive’s decision to leave, countless responsibilities that were routinely handled by the executive director just got shifted to the board of directors. Ugh. The additional weight on their shoulders is almost palpable to them.

But remember: change brings both opportunities and threats, and it is up to a board to maximize the opportunities and minimize the threats. What opportunities, some ask? We’ve just lost our fearless leader?

One of the organization’s greatest opportunities during a period of change is the opportunity to conduct an organizational assessment. It’s wise for boards to take a look at where they are and where they want to go. I encourage boards to spend time revising (or developing) their set of prioritized outcomes. This organizational change moment is an unique opportunity for the board to take the organization in a direction that will make a greater impact on its mission. Two other opportunities include to:

• Bring a divided board together or tranform an underperforming board through working together during the executive transition; and
• Hire an executive director with the core competencies needed to take the organization in the direction necessary to achieve the prioritized outcomes.

When the executive director steps down, the organization needs its board chair to step up. One of the first actions the board chair must do is form an executive transition committee. This committee is customarily tasked with the dual responsibilities of: 1) keeping the organization’s operation as close to status quo as possible; and 2) searching for and selecting a new executive director (assuming that is what the full board votes to do).  

Among the most crucial early decision this committee (or the full board) will make is who will lead the organization in the interim. The most common options include: hiring an acting director or interim director to do all or certain aspects of the executive’s work or having the staff and/or board absorb the executive’s essential functions during the transition. Before a board makes a decision, it is well advised to take into consideration the following kinds of issues:

• What critical work must get done during the transitional period? What deadlines are we facing?
• What skills do they require?
• Which ones can board members take responsibility for?
• What additional staffing can we truly afford? 
• If we pay for staffing during the transition, what other activities will we have to forego? 
• If a board member steps down from the board to be acting or interim director, what will happen when they want to come back on the board after the new executive director is hired?
• If a staff member is given additional responsibilities in the interm to serve as acting director, will they be able to handle transitioning back to their old position after the new executive director is hired?

Effective executive transition management requires boards to govern in a more proactive way. Figuring out how to do this most efficiently and effectively sometimes requires the services of a consultant experienced in executive transition management. When hiring an outside consultant, you’d be well advised to consider the scope and depth of her/his experience advising nonprofit organizations about executive transition, as well her/his related nonprofit management experience.

Finally, you need a map. That is, after all, how you know you’re on course, right? So in this case, I recommend you develop a transition plan. It is nothing more complicated than an operational plan for the 4-12 months the organization will likely be without a permanent executive.

Ideally, the organization will have conducted its organizational assessment first. In doing so, it will have asked and answered questions about mission, goals, objectives, programs, resources, etc. Once that has been done, the executive transition committee can develop the transition plan to guide the work of the organization during the transition period. If you create and implement a document outlining who will do what and by when you will be many steps closer to a smooth and effective transition. In turn, this will enable your organization to capitalize on its opportunities and your new executive director to get off to a great start from day one.