Thoughts on Engagement Organizing

November 8, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — jonathanpoisner @ 1:06 pm

I recently had the opportunity to read an excellent white paper by Jon Stahl and Matt Price on the topic of Engagement Organizing.

It’s well worth the read.

Here’s the nutshell version:

Engagement Organizing in their words is a set of inter-related practices that are designed to simultaneously use the latest technology to organize and drive real-world personal one-on-one conversations that, in turn, lead to organizational supporters moving up a ladder of engagement in support of the organization’s mission.

Here are 3 points Stahl and Price make that I think are worth elaborating on:

1. You must invest in data management.  Organizations that underinvest in data management are in far worse shape than those that overinvest. And the data management system must be one that everyone in your organization can utilize — not just a database administrator.

2. You must have a culture that emphasizes personal relationships that are built in-person, with the phone a major tool as well.  I’ve seen too many organizers in the last few years who think that organizing begins and ends on the internet.  The internet makes certain things much cheaper.  But in the end of the day, the phone is a critical means of reaching people, and only in-person relationships are the type that generate true organizational buy-in.

3. You must trust your volunteer leaders if you want them to take responsibility to lead.  I like to call this my Spiderman theory of organizing: “with great power, comes great responsibility,” to quote the comic book character.  Organizations that empower individuals outside staff and board to advance their program are more likely to succeed.  And that will only happen if you give them real responsibility.  I recently heard an Executive Director justify a decision to strip away power from volunteers by saying: “we had to do that because the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.”  In my opinion, this is setting the organization up for failure, as dog is entirely the wrong metaphor for an organization.  Organizations that centralize decision-making and control at a time when the world is becoming more networked are setting themselves up for decline.  Organizations that understand Engagement Organizing will get this.

I’ll be curious to hear what other folks think about the White Paper. If you’ve had a chance to read it and have thoughts, please comment here or shoot me an email.

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

August 20, 2012

Filed under: Leadership — jonathanpoisner @ 3:44 pm

I recently reviewed The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni.

The book is part fable and part logical argument about a series of dysfunctions that Lencioni believes lay at the heart of teamwork challenges facing many organizations.

For the full review, read onward.

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Clarifying the “why” when doing strategic planning

August 2, 2012

Filed under: Strategic Planning — jonathanpoisner @ 1:45 pm

Often times in early conversations with clients, it becomes clear that they can’t articulate why they’re doing strategic planning.  This can lead to disagreements about what process to utilize, since the process should focus on meeting the organization’s primary need for doing strategic planning.  In worst case scenarios, it can lead to the process falling apart.

By way of example, a strategic planning process that aims to get the staff and board past disagreements about mission and strategy should look different than one whose primary aim is to help a smaller or medium sized organization figure out how to get to the next level.

So here are five potential “top” reasons to do strategic planning.  Before launching a planning process, I advise organizations to make sure that they’ve identified the top one (or perhaps two) reasons and make sure the process they’re undertaking will be tailored to address the reason.

  • To help with fundraising.  A good strategic planning process should strengthen your relationship with top donors.  And more importantly, a good strategic plan can be an effective tool to go to your largest donors and convince them you have a solid plan to get to the next level if they invest.   (As an aside, “next level” doesn’t have to mean larger, it could mean more effective).
  • To prioritize. A good strategic planning process can help the board and staff collectively determine priorities among what are often too many laudable goals and strategies.   This can then provide a useful tool for future budgeting and work planning.
  • To reestablish consensus around the mission.  Often as groups grow, mission creep sets in, for both good and bad reasons.  As board turnover happens, you can easily wind up with a board and/or staff that has disparate opinions about the fundamental purpose the organization is seeking to serve.  Over time, this can lead to all sorts of inefficiencies and conflict.  Strategic planning is a great way to resolve these differences, or figure out what to do if the differences are unresolvable.
  • To get the board more engaged. Even the best boards go through cycles of less engagement.  It’s hard to overcome that through one-on-one meetings (thought they’re critical).  And regular board meetings can be improved to generate more engagement.  But to take a the board up a notch usually requires a reboot using something like “strategic planning” to excite the board, build community among the board, and convince them that stepping up their involvement will help lead to more success.
  • To develop new strategies or better articulate existing strategy.   A well thought out strategic planning process should either help you identify new strategies to initiate or, at the very least, better articulate how your existing strategy or strategies are designed to lead to achievement of your goals.   Without a strategy, you’re not likely to be effective.  And by better articulating your strategy, you’re far better prepared over time to stay on track as new opportunities and threats emerge.

This is not intended as an exhaustive list.  And I don’t want to suggest you have to pick one of these to focus on.

But thinking through why you’re doing strategic planning remains a key piece necessary to design a useful process.

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Get it done

July 3, 2012

Filed under: Human Resources,Leadership — jonathanpoisner @ 1:42 pm

I sometimes feel like there’s two types of people, those who talk about doing things and those that do them.

Talkers tend to talk a good game at first, but then remain remarkably passive in actual implementation of their ideas.  Often, when you ask them why something hasn’t happened, they revert to the passive voice.

“My board wasn’t engaged.”

“The donors weren’t enthusiastic.”

When you poke behind the surface, it’s often because the passive voiced talker sat on their buns expecting everyone but them to get it done.

I remember talking to one Executive Director who complained about their board’s lack of engagement and quizzing him about it.

Me: “Have you sat down with your board members one-on-one to talk about what they want to get out of service and to get to know then?”

ED: “No.”

Me: “Why not?”

ED: “I don’t know.  I guess I was waiting for my board members to call me”

Likewise, I recently engaged with a fundraiser who was great at building relationships, but it was never the right time to make an ask.

Fundraiser: “I spent the last year building relationships with these people.  If I ask them for money this year, they’ll think fundraising is all it was about.”

Now I’m all for relationship-based fundraising — indeed, it’s at the heart of what I train.  But you build the relationships as you ask for money, not as an alternative to asking for money.

In the end, the people who have get it done mentalities tend to do a bit less talking, and more time setting up clear plans, clear objectives, and then engage actively to get things done.

So one question I’ve come to ponder is this: how do you identify the talkers versus the “get it done” mentality in the hiring process?  Let me know if you have any ideas.

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Nonprofit leadership traits

June 29, 2012

Filed under: Human Resources,Leadership — Tags: , , — jonathanpoisner @ 1:55 pm

In doing their hiring processes, most boards focus on what skills they want their Executive Director to have.

In my experience, it’s equally if not more important to identify the traits or personality characteristics you want.  Skills can be learned.  Personalities evolve infrequently.

So what traits/characteristics would I look for first?  Admittedly, this may vary based on the size and needs of the organization.  But this list is a pretty good starting place that any board could adapt to fit their own situation.

1. Self-Starter.  Good Executive Directors do not need somebody else to motivate them.  They are driven to be successful.

2. Passion for the mission.  Some people are highly professional, but it’s exceedingly rare that an Executive Director will excel if they do not feel a strong passion for the organization’s mission.  This will impact everything from their own motivation, to understanding the motivation of their board, donors, and volunteers.

3. Ability to motivate others.  No thriving organization relies upon the Executive Director to carry the load him or herself.  Rather, thriving organizations involve a team of staff, board, and other volunteers working together.  The key to all that is an Executive Director who values teamwork, is excited by watching their co-workers develop professionally, and who puts the team first.

4. See the forest and the trees.  An Executive Director must be able to view the world at two levels.  They must see the big picture (e.g. the forest) and think strategically about how to get the organization from here to there.  But they must also see the trees, being able to wade into the details of budgets, task lists, databases, and other nuts and bolts.   Very large organizations may be able to get by with a visionary Executive Director who has an assistant and is also paired with a Chief Operating Officer who handles the “trees.”  But for smaller or medium sized groups, having this dual personality is critical.

5. They have a service mentality.   They’ve probably volunteered for other nonprofits.  The questions they ask should suggest they are mostly concerned about how they can make a difference through the organization.  If a prospective Executive Director mostly asks about compensation or demands more than the organization can afford, this should be  a red flag.

6.  They are very comfortable and competent fundraisers, particularly with regard to individual major gifts.   Some may think this belongs in the list of “skills” instead of “traits.”  Perhaps it’s so important it belongs in both lists.  Regardless, the knack for being fearless in both forming relationships with prospective donors and a willingness to ask may be as much a personality trait as it is a skill.

7. Deal well with conflict.  All organizations have setbacks.  Thriving organizations handle them well, learn from them, and move on.  Since setbacks often involve conflict, Executive Directors need to be calm under fire, yet not be averse to conflict when it’s sometimes the right choice.

8. Doggedness.  They don’t let the little things get them down, but keep plugging away.  It is rare that a nonprofit thrives overnight.  Rather, it’s the accumulation of smaller victories over time that gets the boulder rolling downhill.  That means an Executive Director who works hard day in and out and not just at the obviously critical times.

What do you see as missing from this list?

Look for a future blog entry on how boards can use the hiring process to identify which candidates have these traits?

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Tips for being innovative

June 22, 2012

Filed under: Strategic Planning,Uncategorized — jonathanpoisner @ 4:20 pm

Lots of groups say they value innovation.

But it’s harder to say that than to do it.

If you want to encourage out-of-the-box thinking in your organization, here are some ideas I’ve gleaned over time.   I’d be curious to learn what other ideas you have.

1. Be explicit about when you’re experimenting and how to evaluate it.  If you’re trying something innovative, have clear goals and think ahead of time about how you’ll know whether the innovation was better than whatever standard practice you’re putting aside.  Of course, true A/B experiments when you can compare the results are possible in some situations (e.g. testing email formats), but not in others (testing an innovative board meeting or conference call format).

2. Set aside some professional development time to attend conferences, particularly those OUTSIDE your core field.  It’s when you get out of your core network that you’ll be most likely to be exposed to something truly new.  Or to have that flash of brilliance that somehow connects something new in one field to an opportunity in your own.

3. Set aside reading time.  This can be anything from books or blogs.   This is best if you can get a few people in your organization to read the same topic and then have a discussion about what it means for your organization.

4. Ask a funders if they’ve heard of any innovative projects from which you could learn.

5.Recognize employees who’ve done something innovative or interesting, even if it fails!  As long as you’ve learned from the failure, this should be counted as a victory.

6. Get together as a staff and watch a dozen TedX videos on subjects that are tangentially related to your organization and see what ideas come up.

7. At least once a year, make sure to set aside a true staff retreat where out-of-box thinking is encouraged, preferably in a non-corporate setting.

Of course, innovation for innovation’s sake doesn’t make sense.  If something’s working, sometimes the answer is to scale it up, not change it.

What other practical ideas do you have for how to encourage innovation withing a nonprofit organization?

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Don’t take board relationships for granted

June 21, 2012

Filed under: Board Development — jonathanpoisner @ 9:24 am

It’s easy for Executive Directors to take their board for granted when it comes to their time.

You already get their input at board meetings and through formal processes.

They should be 100% behind the organization already — that’s their role after all.

The Executive Director should be able to focus on building relationships with other people.

Yet, board members are people.  And people relate to other people.

The reality is that too many Executive Directors I talk to don’t recognize the importance of building and maintaining strong personal relationships with individual board members.

Stronger relationships will leave board members more motivated to help you (e.g. raise money), more willing to engage in deeper level strategic conversations, and more likely to see themselves as part of a team.

How do you generate stronger relationships in practice?

Separate from board meetings, you should get to know your board members.   As a general rule of thumb, I recommend meeting with every single board member every 12-18 months over coffee or a meal.

Put this in your work plan.  Work it just as you would a list of major donors.

There should be no agenda at these meetings.  Your top goal should be to get to know them and to have them get to know you.  Of course, naturally in the conversation you will get the chance to talk about how things are going organizationally.  I found these informal check-ins were often when the most useful strategic ideas emerged.

If you get to the point where you see board members truly as friends, don’t hesitate to invite them to other social gatherings you host, or to attend theirs if invited.

Of course, board relationships also run board member to board member.  It’s a good idea if you offer board members an annual opportunity to do something together socially.  This could be an organizational holiday party for board and staff, a summer barbeque, or a dozen other options.

Of course, for boards that are more far-flung (e.g. national or even spread out within a single state or region), doing social activities is more challenging.  It probably can only realistically take place in the evening before or after an in-person board meeting.

But under any scenario — Executive Directors should consciously think about how to build better personal relationships with board members and ways for board members to get to know each other.

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Some opening thoughts on leadership

June 12, 2012

Filed under: Leadership — jonathanpoisner @ 2:30 pm

I expect this to be the first of many blog entries on leadership.

I’ve been thinking about leadership as I’ve surveyed the landscape of organizations with whom I’ve worked or interacted.  In many instances, I’ve concluded that organizational challenges are really just a byproduct of the fact that those with authority in the organization lack leadership skills.

Three examples come to mind from the world of Executive Directors.

Being overly deferential to all-volunteer boards.  Executive Directors report to the board; and the board has the ultimate authority to set the organization’s direction.  But in my experience, boards thrive only when the Executive Director articulates a clear vision and strategy.  I’ve watched organizations flounder when the Executive Director has been unwilling to step up and push for a vision or strategy because he or she wants to keep every board member happy.

Paralysis by analysis.  Data is good.  Being deliberate about decisions is good.  But taken too far, I’ve watched organizations spin their wheels trying to line up the perfect set of information to justify what, in the end, has to be a judgment call.

Lack of focus.  I’ve seen this happen often within meetings.  But even more damaging is when the nominal leaders of an organization flutter back and forth among strategies based on minor shifts in the lay of the land.  Picking a winning strategy and focusing to see it through almost always will win out over vacillating between strategies.

I could, of course, add a dozen other skills that would fit under the label “leadership” and expect to write about them in the future.

Right now, I’m more interested in how people develop their leadership skills.  Four methods come immediately to mind.

  • Self-consciously studying leadership and trying to emulate what you’ve studied.
  • Finding a mentor or a coach to work with whom you work on your leadership skills.
  • Being thrust into situations where you must take on leadership outside your previous comfort zone.
  • Experiential learning program designed to teach leadership.

I’m particularly interested in hearing feedback on the last option — what experiential leadership development programs have you been part of that you recommend to others?  Or don’t recommend?  Why?

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Time is your most precious commodity

May 10, 2012

Filed under: Strategic Planning — Tags: — jonathanpoisner @ 10:01 am

I recently wrote an article about the perils of chasing money and other shiny objects.

That article didn’t do justice to one reason why this type of mission and strategy creep can be so damaging.

Time is your most precious commodity as a smaller, growing organization.  And even small amounts of time that are distractions from your core activities are damaging.

I recently came across a great article making the same point about the for-profit world.

As they put it, the scarcest resource in a start-up or small business is management bandwith.

It’s tempting to take on new projects, new features, new geographies, new speaking opportunities, whatever. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams. I like to counsel that the best teams are often defined by what they choose not to do.

Read the full article.

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Effective new board member orientation meetings

Filed under: Board Development — Tags: — jonathanpoisner @ 9:33 am

As I work with more clients, I’m struck by the number who acknowledge that they don’t do a good job — or any job for that matter — orienting new board members.

They acknowledge it’s a mistake, but seldom does that change.  For many of them, the task seems daunting.

Yet, it shouldn’t.  A board member orientation isn’t rocket science.

Here’s my quickie guide.

When a new person joins your board, you should give them a packet of information about the organization and its current board.   A week or two later, you should then meet with them to develop a plan for their activities over their first year.

The New Board Member Information Packet should include:

  • An organizational fact sheet.
  • A list of board members with contact information.
  • A copy of the bylaws.
  • A copy of the current budget and most recent financial statements.
  • A copy of the strategic plan — if you don’t have one, that’s the subject of another blog posting.
  • A few examples of recent communication materials (e.g. last few issues of your newsletter, an annual report, etc.).
  • Upcoming board meeting dates

Then, a couple weeks later, hold the orientation meeting.  Don’t put it off if you want to create a culture from the start that your board involves active engagement.

Ideally, the orientation meeting includes both the Executive  Director and a board chair or board development committee chair.  But the Executive Director should do this alone if their board leadership isn’t able or ready to participate.

If you have two board members start at the same time, it’s okay to orient them at the same time.

Then, for the board orientation meeting, you should:

  • Get to know them more as an individual.  The quality of personal relationships matters — take the opportunity to build them during one-on-one or two-on-one meetings.
  • See what questions they have, particularly related to the strategic plan.  It’s as important for them to understand the why of the strategy as the specifics of your program.
  • Walk them through the budget and financial statements — make sure they understand your current financial situation and how you report on your finances.
  • Develop objectives for their participation in their first year.  These objectives should include: a decision on which committee(s) to join and their fundraising goal for the year.  If they want to hold off on picking a committee for a couple of meetings, that’s okay — but then put it on your calendar to circle back to them when the time is appropriate.

Some of this may have already been covered, of course, in a board recruitment meeting.  But don’t hesitate to repeat yourself a bit.  My wife often has to repeat herself several times before I remember something.   Don’t assume new board members will remember everything you’ve told them — particularly if it’s one fact that came up at a board recruitment meeting.

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