The recent US election demonstrated that almost half of all Americans have a very different World View than another almost half of Americans. The people in the gap between the Trump voters and the Biden voters may be only 10% of the US population. How is it possible that so many people see the country so differently, when the facts on the ground are the same?
There is a lot of buzz about sustainability during these challenging times.
Traditional sources of revenue have been squeezed by stay-at-home orders, public health concerns and reductions in government funding. Special events, performances and classes have had to be postponed or cancelled. A program that had been a large percentage of an agency’s budget may have suddenly dried up, while a relatively small program may have experienced an uptick in demand.
It is almost impossible to plan with so many factors still unknown!
I recently read Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka & Steve Zimmerman. The book is not new, but I had not come across it previously. It provides a step-by-step guide for nonprofit business analysis.
I would like to share a resource that may be helpful: Rick Tamlyn’s The Bigger Game.
I was fortunate to be able to participate in a Bigger Game Retreat with Rick Tamlyn and several other Bigger Game trainers at beautiful Silver Lake north of Albany. The Bigger Game is often thought of as a tool for aspiring entrepreneurs, but it can be just as effective for "intrapreneurs" – leaders inside an organization who feel the need to move away from "business as usual."
I am pleased to bring to your attention a concept of company culture captured by Edgar Papke in his book True Alignment (AMACOM, 2014). Company culture includes how members are empowered and rewarded, how compensation and promotion is used, how hiring occurs, and the focus of employee development. Culture offers insight into how teams are created and defines cooperation and collaboration.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, a phrase originated by Peter Drucker (a successful management consultant), is an absolute reality! Organizations disconnecting the two are putting their success at risk. Organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner so don't leave it unattended.
Customers are people. Whether you are a small corner store or a huge multi-national corporation, somewhere along the process a human being makes a decision to purchase your product or service – or not.
Are you thinking about starting a Strategic Planning process? Here are some questions to get you started:
The Deliverable
What "itch" is this scratching? What do you want to learn, expereince and/or generate through this planning process?
Is there a clear scope for the plan? What is up for discussion and what is out of scope?
Who will be the intended audience(s) for the final product?
How polished does the final product need ot be?
How much implementation detail will be addressed collectively during the planning process?
Healthcare has entered a period where confusion and uncertainty will be the overarching context, where the performance challenges and financial pressures on organizations will mount, and where more constant and ever-present change will be the new normal. With healthcare policy, insurance coverage, and economics headed for change with a new administration, coupled with the already turbulent healthcare environment, many healthcare leaders are concerned about how to develop reliable strategies for the future. Is effective strategic and financial planning even possible with so many variables up in the air? Yes, and one could argue it is even more critical to have a clear path forward during unsettled times.
By Laura P. Jacobs, MPH, President, GE Healthcare Camden Group
Board Development - Seven Tips For An Effective Board Development Program
Research into board development found that high performing boards generally have some form of board development program in place but many nonprofit organizations do not have a development program for their board members. A nonprofit board is a team and, like any team, training is needed to develop and perform at its best. But there are two other reasons why board development is important:
Providing board members with an opportunity to learn and develop has been found to build motivation.
There is a direct relationship between board performance and organizational performance which means that improving board performance can be expected to lead to an improvement in the performance of the organization.
For this article, we draw on the opinions of experts in this field to provide practical advice for creating a development program for your board.
Otto Scharmer’s book gives a different take on the role of leadership. He introduces the concept of “presencing.” This is a blend of the words “presence” and “sensing.” Presencing signifies a heightened state of attention that allows individuals and groups to shift the inner place from which they function. When that shift happens, people begin to operate from a future space of possibility that they feel wants to emerge. Being able to facilitate that shift is, according to Scharmer, the essence of leadership today.
Learn more about Theory U at the Strategies for Managing Change website.
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