Mission, Vision, Money

Last week I was asked to serve as the opening speaker for the Major Gifts track at a nonprofit fundraising conference.  In summary, I said that an aspirational Mission & Vision are the pathways to Money.  In fact, this is the most important path to take if you want to raise BIG money for your nonprofit.

Mission.  The aspect of Mission I encourage nonprofits to focus on is identifying their Mission Gap.  Mission Gap is essentially a statement of unmet mission needs.  It compares the current reality of those you serve with what their ideal condition would be.  For example, if your mission was to eliminate illiteracy in your county, then you would want to know your current reality – how many people are currently not literate.  You would compare that to your ideal of everyone being literate.  If your county matches the national average, then 20% of the adults there are not literate.  If you had a county of 100,000 adults, then your Mission Gap would be 20,000 people.  Mission Gap gives you a clear way to communicate the stark challenges your organization faces.  Instead of asking for incremental improvements in funding to help a few more people read, you can say “We have 20,000 people in our county who cannot read.  It’s a big number and we need your big time support to close the gap.”

Vision.  Create a Vision – an ideal picture of what your organization would be like – if you could have it any way you wanted it, so you could close the Mission Gap as effectively as possible.  In the literacy example above, we would want to know what kind of capacity the organization would need in order to close the Mission Gap.  What would your programs, staffing, budget, etc. look like if you were ideally positioned to close that gap most effectively?

Money.  Put a price tag on the Vision.  “We have excellent programs that teach people how to read – but we need more programs to reach many, many more people.  Here’s what we think it is going to take, ideally, to close the illiteracy gap in our community as effectively as we can.  (Describe Vision & Price Tag.)  Will you help us close the illiteracy gap by making a $10,000 gift to our annual fund today?”  

Mission Gap helps articulate the problem your organization is working to solve and an aspirational Vision can inspire donors to make major gifts which contribute to the solution.  Money feeds the Vision and that helps close the Mission Gap.  Share your Mission Gap & Vision with others 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.

“We’re Lost But Making Good Time”

This is the title of Chapter One of Mario Morino’s new book, Leap of Reason.  I know that most of you don’t have the time to read a blog much less a book, but I strongly recommend it.  He makes a compelling case for the urgency, now, for nonprofits to change the way most operate.  As he states:  “Here’s the problem in a nutshell:  We don’t manage to outcomes, thus greatly diminishing our collective impact.”

“We’re Lost But Making Good Time.”  What a great chapter title – and it is fitting.  So many nonprofits are filled with dedicated, smart, and hard-working people – staff and volunteers – and yet they do not have metrics which objectively tell them how well they are accomplishing their mission.  They know they are busy – making good time – but what kind of progress are they making?  If you have attended one of my workshops or read my book you know that I make the same case of the importance of metrics to determine your Mission Impact.

Many of you reading this know who Mario Morino is – a generous philanthropist and co-founder of Venture Philanthropy Partners (www.vppartners.org), which provides funding for organizations serving the needs of children from low income families in the Washington, DC area.  So he is a person who knows of what he speaks. 

If you are someone who believes that your organization needs to do a better job establishing outcomes, then this is the book for you.  It will help you rally others to help with this and it will give you excellent resources to do the hard work of setting your outcomes.

To get the book, go to http://www.vppartners.org/leapofreason/getit

When I checked the other day, Amazon was out of print copies, but you can buy the Kindle version for $1.00 (that’s not a typo).  Even better, it is available as an iBook or a PDF at no charge.

Full disclosure – Mr. Morino lists my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, as one of six “resources that address how to drive change, improve effectiveness, and achieve greatness.”  I am pleased to have my book listed along with resources by Jim Collins and John Kotter.

Get yourself a copy of Leap of Reason today and learn how your organization can 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.

How Are You Listening?

Do you want to be an empowering leader and colleague?  Then I suggest you monitor how you listen to others.  Notice I am saying “how” you listen, not “how well.”

There are two general categories of how you can listen to people.  You can “listen to respond” or “listen to understand.”

When you “listen to respond,” it is like you are in a debate.  You listen for the flaws in the other person’s ideas or a potential weakness that you can exploit to show that you are right and they are wrong.  A person who “listens to respond” is not really interested in what the other person cares about or in what they have to say.  They are interested in arguing their point and being right.

When you “listen to understand,” you sincerely want to hear the other person’s ideas.  You care about them and what they have to say.  You listen for something new, different, and/or better than what you had thought of on your own.  You want to understand them.  Once they have shared their thoughts with you, you may well follow-up with some questions to clarify and deepen your understanding of what they were saying.  This doesn’t mean that you need to agree with their ideas or perspectives; you are just making sure you “get them.”  You are interested in learning and deepening your understanding of the topic being discussed.

“Listening to understand” is the kind of listening that is the cornerstone of transformational leadership.  This is the kind of leadership that can transform organizations and communities, as explained by James MacGregor Burns in his book “Leadership.”  Better ideas are generated in this type of dialogue and people develop deeper relationships with one another in the process.  They each feel empowered and more committed to the cause they are serving.

One more thing – you can’t fake “listening to understand” any more than you can fake any kind of sincerity.  If you don’t legitimately care what the other person has to say then your responses will just sound like karaoke sincerity. 

We all want to be heard!  Pay extra attention to how you listen today and see if it makes a difference.

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.

The Power of Constructive Conflict

When I teach seminars on teamwork, I usually break people into small groups and give them a few minutes to come up with what they think are the five most important aspects of a high performing team.  What would you say?

Usually groups come up with lots of good ideas, but almost never do they list the importance of “constructive conflict.”  Yet, the research on teamwork tells us this is a very important ingredient for a high performing team.  Why?

Imagine this.  A team is having a meeting and “Billy Bob” has an idea.  “Sally Mae” thinks it is a bad idea, but not so bad that she wants to “rock the boat.”  She doesn’t say anything, the idea does not work, and it wastes a lot of time and money.  This happens every day in organizations and bad ideas get implemented because someone won’t speak up.

Or maybe it goes down like this . . . . . Billy Bob’s next idea is SO bad that Sally Mae can’t stand it.  “Billy Bob, that is an idiotic idea.  Are you trying to destroy this organization!?!?”  And that’s what we call negative conflict – and you have seen the results of that.

What is needed is a “norm” of valuing constructive conflict and developing a team competency to disagree without being disagreeable; to collaborate and create better ideas together.  The lack of constructive conflict leads to mediocre or even disastrous decisions.  It can lead to “Groupthink” which has been blamed for causing such tragedies as the Challenger explosion.

I’m oversimplifying (it’s a blog), but here’s the advice:  don’t be overly polite, but don’t be a jerk, and don’t get upset if someone respectfully critiques your idea.

How do you develop the competency of “constructive conflict” within your organization?

Of course you could hire a great consultant to come in and do a workshop for you.  But if you want to try something on your own, I suggest buying the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni for everyone.  Lencioni’s formula for a high performing team, which is backed up by the research, is:

*They trust one another

*They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas

*They commit to decisions and plans of action

*They hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.

*They focus on the achievement of collective results

Bring your team together and ask these questions:  Based on what the book says about teamwork:

*What are we doing well?

*What’s not working?

*How can we make what’s not working, work?

This will give you the beginning of a dialogue that you will have to reinforce over time to develop the competency of constructive conflict and the other four competencies.  Over time you can develop your group into an even higher performing team.

Try it for your next off site or summer staff retreat and practice disagreeing . . . without being disagreeable.  It will help your team 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.

The Four Fundamental Questions

If you want focused, effective, coordinated action from the people in your organization, then every one of them should be able to answer these four fundamental questions:

*Why are we here? 

*What do we stand for? 

*Where are we going? 

*How are we going to get there?

Why are we here?  This is the mission question.  But we don’t need to make people memorize the mission statement.  It’s much more important that everyone can, in their own words, explain the impact your organization intends to make and for whom.  Invite people to practice doing this with one another at your next staff meeting.  It will help them the next time someone they meet asks what you do.

What do we stand for?  If you don’t have a list of articulated values of your organization, then add this to your “to do” list.  But don’t just check the box when you are done and file them away.  Regularly – maybe quarterly – refer to them and ask one another how well your organization is living up to them.  How well have you navigated the inevitable ethical challenges that have come along?

Where are we going?  Can everyone state the organization’s most important goals for the coming year, and for the next five years?  And what about your vision for the future?  Have people been given a chance to share their dreams and contribute to creating a shared vision for the organization?  Allowing people to participate in crafting the future of their organization can help develop a more empowered team.

How are we going to get there?  This is, of course, the strategy question and most people in most organizations cannot articulate this.  Writing in Harvard Business Review in 2008, Collins & Rutland made this observation:

“Leaders of firms are mystified when what they thought was a beautifully crafted strategy is never implemented. . . .  They fail to appreciate the necessity of having a simple, clear, succinct strategy statement that everyone can internalize and use as a guiding light for making difficult choices.”

Make the four questions a topic for your next staff meeting or go even deeper on them at your summer staff retreat.  The questions are also a great topic for employee orientation.  When everyone can clearly answer these questions you have a much greater chance of coordinating action and making 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.