Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Your Strategy & Your Board

How involved should your Board be with your strategic planning process?

As usual, opinions vary all over the map on this question.

On one end of the spectrum, some people view strategy-making as the responsibility of the staff.  The Board should be generally informed – and certainly consulted if anything “wild” is being considered – but their main role is to ask good questions, and then approve “management’s” strategy.  And they should definitely stay out of reviewing annual operating plans.

On the other side, there are those who believe that the entire Board needs to be intimately involved with the entire strategy process – including a careful review of a detailed implementation plan.  Granted, some of these tend to be more of our smaller nonprofits – but this philosophy exists even in larger organizations.

Which is right and how do you decide what is best for your organization?

In my view, it is essential to involve every Board in three different aspects of the strategy process:

*Mission Affirmation:  What impact do we want to make and for whom/what?

*Mission Metrics:  What metrics will we use to track progress?

*Visioning:  What would the world look like if we were accomplishing our mission 100%?  What would our organization look like, ideally, so we have the opportunity to accomplish our mission as effectively as possible?

Beyond that, the next question I encourage clients to ask themselves is “How instrumental will the Board be in the successful implementation of this strategy?”  The more important they are to successful implementation – and that includes giving and raising money – the more involved they should be.  You can include the Board – or at least Board representatives – in the setting of Strategic Goals, SWOTs (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), and Strategy Themes.

As an example, a few years ago I was consulting with a group and a core of their Board was very involved with the strategy process.  They came up with an exciting vision and participated in creating some really big, bold goals.  At the end of the process, the Board members were fired up!  And this Board is experiencing a lot of success in accomplishing those goals – including raising a lot of money.  I seriously doubt that would have had the passion they now have, had they not been so involved.

Engage your Board properly with strategy and make even more of a Mission Impact!


For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Building Bridges

For the past many months, construction workers have been tearing down and then rebuilding both sides of a bridge I take to work every morning.  Traffic was redirected over one side while they worked on the other.  So, I have been able to observe their daily progress – and I have a new appreciation for everything it takes to build strong bridges.

I think that relates to organizations as well.

Many organizations – especially nonprofits – are engaged in collaborations, strategic alliances, partnerships, etc. these days.  But how well have you built the bridges to these partner organizations?  Here are some observations:

Pittsburgh is the City of Bridges and this is my favorite one there -
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, which stretches from downtown to
PNC Park, home of my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates
*Strong Bridges are Heavily Reinforced.  I am so happy to report that my new bridge has layers and layers of materials which will fortify the concrete when it is ready to be poured.  How strongly reinforced are your relationships with your partners?

*Strong Bridges Take Time!  Sure it is inconvenient to be rerouted for so many months.  But I am very confident about driving on this new bridge after watching the workers carefully take the time needed to do this right.  Are you trying to build partnerships too quickly?

*Bridges are Inspected Regularly.  I like knowing that my new bridge will be inspected regularly even though I am very confident in how well it is being built.  How often do you assess the quality of your partnerships?

Collaborations and partnerships are great ways to leverage Mission Impact, so long as we take the Time to build and Reinforce relationships – and occasionally Assess them.


For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.