tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64167922775232342422024-03-13T08:51:36.096-04:00Leading by DesignAnne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04543098694263540652noreply@blogger.comBlogger220125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-80417937375652950852020-12-28T14:45:00.006-05:002020-12-28T14:55:36.553-05:004 Nonprofit Resolutions for 2021<p>Even though 2020 will <i>technically</i> be in our rear view mirror soon, its ramifications will be with us for years to come. Make no mistake, there's a lot of work to do. So, here are my four really tough, but really important, resolutions designed to lay some solid groundwork for doing your best work in 2021. Aren't you glad there are only four?</p><p>If you're interested in my resolutions from previous years, take a look <a href="http://leadingbydesign.blogspot.com/2017/01/nonprofit-board-resolutions-for-new.html">here</a> and <a href="http://leadingbydesign.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-to-get-to-work.html">here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-SRlZsuZ2Y/X-oyuRieSdI/AAAAAAAAEMw/jjs21Tg24Okvo0kHPze9UMdqOCeRLkHpACLcBGAsYHQ/s1826/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-28%2Bat%2B2.27.22%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1826" data-original-width="724" height="1605" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-SRlZsuZ2Y/X-oyuRieSdI/AAAAAAAAEMw/jjs21Tg24Okvo0kHPze9UMdqOCeRLkHpACLcBGAsYHQ/w637-h1605/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-28%2Bat%2B2.27.22%2BPM.png" width="637" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-7582193556654775812020-12-03T08:21:00.003-05:002021-03-03T11:31:40.636-05:00Introducing The Resilience Playbook<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wroLPWURIKA/X8jiHkBPf6I/AAAAAAAAEF8/xsFVTZrsab4M67NKafolk21lWIpweVZSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2110/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-01%2Bat%2B8.32.45%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1488" data-original-width="2110" height="453" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wroLPWURIKA/X8jiHkBPf6I/AAAAAAAAEF8/xsFVTZrsab4M67NKafolk21lWIpweVZSQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h453/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-01%2Bat%2B8.32.45%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Times of extraordinary change and disruptions demand flexibility, humility, perseverance, self-reflection and a responsiveness to a complex confluence of realities by museum leaders. Agile leadership requires mapping out a meaningful, relevant, and financially viable path forward to achieve greater public impact, inclusion, and value through resilience practices. Resilience strategies require rethinking long-held approaches and tackling embedded exclusionary, colonial, and outmoded ideologies and practices to establish more flexible, inclusive, and responsive frameworks that better align with external realities.<p></p><p>With your purchase of THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK and time with the Resilience Team, your organization can reimagine a future that is relevant and responsive to the changing world around us. Specifically, THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK encompasses 5 Resilience Goals and 20 Plays that offer practical and empowering approaches to help your organization realign around equity and inclusion, community value, impactful role, financial viability, and agile leadership. It’s a detailed tool for taking the steps to create a resilient organization and to inform and shape your Resilience Plan.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9FyqqSCLKMg/X8ji92sUT_I/AAAAAAAAEGE/1xwl08bt-EUCVHlM0_zqpVYnY15jFKJSACLcBGAsYHQ/s1932/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-01%2Bat%2B8.39.37%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="1932" height="365" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9FyqqSCLKMg/X8ji92sUT_I/AAAAAAAAEGE/1xwl08bt-EUCVHlM0_zqpVYnY15jFKJSACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h365/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-12-01%2Bat%2B8.39.37%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><strong>The RESILIENCE TEAM of museum veterans - Anne W. Ackerson, Gail Anderson, and Dina A. Bailey - is here to guide you through <em>THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK</em></strong>, meeting you where you are with your goals in mind. We tailor our services to you, whether it involves one of us or the full Resilience Team. Here are some options for you to consider:<ul><li>Attend one of our upcoming sessions at the <a href="https://annualmeeting.aam-us.org/aam2021/" target="_blank">American Alliance of Museums</a> and the <a href="https://aaslh.org/annualmeeting/2021annualmeeting/" target="_blank">American Association for State and Local History</a> annual meetings</li><li>Participate in an in-depth, half-day orientation workshop that will utilize <em>THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK </em>and members of the Playbook Team to determine next steps that are specific to the needs of your organization (initial fee);</li><li>Engage the Playbook Team in a coaching role over several months, beginning with an initial orientation workshop and, then, supported with check-in calls and work sessions to keep organizational momentum going (negotiated fee); or,</li><li>Work with the Playbook Team to take you through a planning process, based on <em>THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK</em>, to build a Resilience Framework and Plan that will guide your institution forward (negotiated fee).</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">THE RESILIENCE PLAYBOOK is designed for organization use only, but individuals will be able to learn more in future webinars and articles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://dl.monday.com/forms/embed/284d3f87517cfb3d8d3eef3c8b56152e?r=use1&dl_slug=forms&dl_msgid=878558282" target="_blank"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: x-large;">BE IN TOUCH TO LEARN MORE</span></a></b></div><p style="text-align: center;">Or feel free to contact us individually for more information: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="mailto:anne@awackerson.com">anne@awackerson.com</a> <a href="mailto:gail@gailanderson-assoc.com">gail@gailanderson-assoc.com</a> <a href="mailto:dina@mountaintopvisionllc.com">dina@mountaintopvisionllc.com</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>© 2020 by The Resilience Playbook Team. All rights reserved.</i></p>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-4749320012927190292020-09-21T09:49:00.001-04:002020-09-21T09:51:35.126-04:00Organizational Resiliency in This Crucible Moment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ll33MtGkb_8/X2iujApipXI/AAAAAAAAD7c/mgwTXyWXogUT734DcEqDyCavNo32iocfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s259/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ll33MtGkb_8/X2iujApipXI/AAAAAAAAD7c/mgwTXyWXogUT734DcEqDyCavNo32iocfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/images.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p>I am currently working with two colleagues from the cultural and heritage fields to think and write about organizational resiliency in times of upheaval and ambiguity. We believe resiliency in this crucible moment requires, first and foremost, nonprofit organizations activate equity and inclusion by embracing it as central to all their internal and external work. It begins when organizations commit the time to examine their own historical roots and practices as a critical step to ensure they “live” their most meaningful missions, visions, and values.</p><p>Resiliency requires many organizations also renegotiate what it means to be valuable to their communities. The traditional idea of “value” has changed and is changing, and recognizing the extent to what our communities really value is key to being wanted, needed, and, thus relevant.</p><p>All organizations must retool their financial mindsets, taking a hard look at their current financial realities and realigning the costs of doing business with greatest community impact. And finally, resiliency is gained by advancing agile leadership – and by that we mean creating equitable and inclusive organizational cultures, recasting structures for greatest impact, and maintaining learning cultures within organizations that foster agile, resilient mindsets among staff, board, and volunteers.</p><p>Chaos and uncertainty aren’t going to go away. In fact, it’s quite likely they will accelerate. Working toward the goals of activating equity and inclusion, renegotiating community value, reimagining impactful role, retooling financial mindset, and advancing agile leadership will expand every organization’s capacity to not only survive chaos and uncertainty, but emerge more centered in its place in its community ecosystem. </p><div>Stay tuned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Image: <a href="http://anthillonline.com/welcome" target="_blank">Anthill Magazine</a></div>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-8017900154171982052020-07-07T16:25:00.001-04:002020-07-07T16:28:55.868-04:00Talking Gender Equity in Museums and Cultural OrganizationsOn July 2nd, Joan Baldwin and I joined Cali Buckley and an audience from the College Art Association to talk about gender equity in museums and cultural organizations. Our conversation was wide-ranging with thoughts about pay equity, the intersectionality of workplace issues, and next generation arts leaders.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QN18ycikiMs/XwTaxsgwBKI/AAAAAAAAD0Q/Qh3IFp784ZQmconhYIHzr4uZ-nwso3bwACK4BGAsYHg/s1196/Screenshot%2B2020-07-07%2B16.27.08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1192" data-original-width="1196" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QN18ycikiMs/XwTaxsgwBKI/AAAAAAAAD0Q/Qh3IFp784ZQmconhYIHzr4uZ-nwso3bwACK4BGAsYHg/s320/Screenshot%2B2020-07-07%2B16.27.08.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the video of our conversation:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zgnb7FAr-E&feature=youtu.be">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zgnb7FAr-E&feature=youtu.be</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-27235113266270732182020-07-02T08:51:00.003-04:002020-07-02T08:52:00.508-04:004 Strategies to Pivot and Lead Through Disruption<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tC4Rn0Rsxv8/Xv3X42re8LI/AAAAAAAADy4/rKBHhznDYoUcbM9dKNs_gAXK_5fSV2FVACK4BGAsYHg/s3456/Pivot%2Band%2BLead.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="2304" height="976" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tC4Rn0Rsxv8/Xv3X42re8LI/AAAAAAAADy4/rKBHhznDYoUcbM9dKNs_gAXK_5fSV2FVACK4BGAsYHg/w650-h976/Pivot%2Band%2BLead.png" width="650" /></a></div>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-87648098430914114482020-06-17T11:06:00.003-04:002020-06-17T11:07:00.420-04:00New Professional Development Class Coming!<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pyOJ2-hueB0/XuowPNTeEyI/AAAAAAAADww/LkhxXGkZEOk0JrTzJyOzdkxP3l0hg1oIACK4BGAsYHg/s1760/Screenshot%2B2020-03-31%2B15.12.08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="982" data-original-width="1760" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pyOJ2-hueB0/XuowPNTeEyI/AAAAAAAADww/LkhxXGkZEOk0JrTzJyOzdkxP3l0hg1oIACK4BGAsYHg/s320/Screenshot%2B2020-03-31%2B15.12.08.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Are you a nonprofit executive director in search of a better relationship with your governing board?</div><div><br /></div><div>Is your relationship with your board collaborative, contentious, or non-existent? Does your board drift between non-management and micromanagement? Do you mentally or emotionally check out of the relationship due to lack of time or commitment?</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll be leading a new class for Museum Study starting August 3rd on <i><a href="http://www.museumstudy.com/courses/course-list/leading-together-working-for-and-with-your-board-of-trustees/">Leading Together: Working for and With Your Board of Trustees</a></i>. This four-week course is geared for executive directors and will cover roles and responsibilities, assessing the board-staff relationship, and putting strategic and integrative thinking to work at board and committee meetings, among other topics. </div><div><br /></div><div>Each week will include readings and assignments. We'll also gather in Zoom chats to explore topics in more depth and problem-solve your CEO-board challenges! </div><div><br /></div><div>The cost is $400.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope to see you this summer!</div><div><br /></div>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-46821167075188954102020-06-08T08:18:00.000-04:002020-06-08T08:18:01.459-04:00Crisis and Creative Leadership: A Conversation with Paul OrselliOn May 19th, exhibition designer and developer Paul Orselli and I sat down to talk about museum and nonprofit leadership.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0TyuT92BCqA" width="320" youtube-src-id="0TyuT92BCqA"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>If you'd like to watch more of Paul's Museum FAQ's, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paul+orselli" target="_blank">find him on YouTube</a>.</div>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-90290106247147010492020-03-05T12:09:00.002-05:002020-03-05T12:09:33.210-05:00Nonprofit Transparency: Creating A Culture of Trust<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We read and hear a lot about transparency and accountability these days, but these are by no means new concepts. However, they've taken on renewed meaning in a world where spinning the message and dodging the glare of scrutiny seem to be prized skills.<br />
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Yet....<br />
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“…our funding is principally from sources requiring superficial accountability, our strategic planning is rarely compelling, board and staff are uninformed about exactly who is and is not participating in our exhibitions and programs, and we provide fare that is indexed to internal priorities, with minimal effort to explain what we have chosen not to do, or the explicit rationale for what we have chosen to do. It is essential that museum leaders resist self-congratulation and start explaining our priorities, our intentions, and the desired and measurable outcomes of our efforts.”</blockquote>
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Maxwell L. Anderson, Ph.D. from</div>
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“A Clear View: The Case for Museum Transparency,” </div>
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<i>Museum Magazine</i> (March-April 2010) pp. 48-53</div>
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This harsh, ten-year-old indictment by the former director of the Dallas Museums of Art, still rings true to me today. Thanks to AASLH’s StEPs program, AAM’s Accreditation and Museum Assessment Programs, and the standards programs of other professional associations -- along with the increasing pressure from the museum field’s leading thinkers, and, to their credit, some states’ attorneys general – many museums are pulling back the curtain on their decision making -- even discussing the sources of their support. There is more emphasis on making transparency and accountability a guiding leadership and management principal in museums of all sizes and disciplines.<br />
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Yet....<br />
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Despite all the discussions these days around the critical importance of organizational transparency and accountability, there remains a belief among some non-profits, particularly scarcity-driven ones or ones in the iron grip of zealous founders or club-like boards, that they don’t need to be held to the same standards of transparency and accountability as nonprofits-at-large; that their organizations are somehow unique exceptions to the rule of law and/or regulation. These organizations feel the very nature of their work should exempt them from such responsibility, or that they are too small or too poor to achieve compliance with the requirements of their corporate status. They turn a blind eye to preparing annual reports to stakeholders or drafting and approving appropriate policies and procedures to help them in their work. Even the scandals of large nonprofits -- of which there have been too many -- tend to have happened when leaders have adopted the attitude they are too big or too important to fail.<br />
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Here's a definition of transparency I really like, precisely because it's so basic ad understandable:<br />
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Transparency, in the non-profit sense, is defined as the widespread availability of relevant, reliable information about the performance, financial position, and governance of an organization.[1]</blockquote>
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We might elaborate on the term “widespread availability” by adding what Warren Bennis and James O'Toole describe as the "free flow of information within an organization and between the organization and its many stakeholders."[2] While acknowledging that complete transparency is not always desirable or possible, there are steps organizational leaders can take to nurture candor. Among them, Bennis and O'Toole cite encouraging staff to speak truth to power, admit mistakes, and be "willing to set information free."</div>
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The bottom line is <b>transparency builds trust</b>. It helps create shared ownership and greater agency among staff and volunteers. It supports ethical leadership. And it ensures legal compliance.</div>
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What holds organizational leaders back from creating a meaningfully transparent culture? A lot has to do with fear. Fear of not living up to expectations and fear of the repercussions if people were to find out that we don’t manage our work well. However, as we've seen recently with activist employees picketing for better wages, public demonstrations about who serves on nonprofit boards, and reams of news reports of bungled collection management decisions, sexual predators, and failures to address diversity and inclusion, the enemy of secrecy is....us.</div>
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<b>Notes</b><br />
[1] BKC Certified Public Accountants, PC, <a href="https://www.bkc-cpa.com/transparency-in-non-profit-organizations/">"TRANSPARENCY IN NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS,"</a> APRIL 28, 2017.<br />
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[2] Warren Bennis and James O'Toole, <a href="https://erm.ncsu.edu/library/article/culture-of-candor">"Culture of Candor,"</a> Enterprise Risk Management Initiative, Poole College of Management, NC State University, 2009.<br />
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Image: <a href="https://www.usource.me/a-workplace-culture-of-fun-trust-and-high-performance-for-your-virtual-staff/">USourceDigital</a>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-88548977056798794772020-02-04T11:33:00.003-05:002020-02-04T11:33:58.478-05:00Nonprofits and the Public Trust: No Excuses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Periodically, social media is ablaze with comments from nonprofit leaders bemoaning the fact that their organizations are too small to keep up with a seemingly overwhelming amount of professional and regulatory standards. While one may hear less outright complaining from big nonprofits when they turn a blind eye to the importance of standards, ethics, and the public trust, chances are we'll be reading about their transgressions in the headlines.<br />
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Whether nonprofits flaunt the public trust due to ignorance or by design, the performance expectation for all nonprofits -- no matter their size, discipline, or resources -- is grounded in the fact they have been incorporated to perform a public service. They have entered into a relationship with the public that fulfills a need for which they receive benefits in return. Chief among these benefits is tax exemption for mission-related activities and the opportunity for donors to make tax-deductible contributions. When a nonprofit honors its accountability to its mission, its donors and regulators, and to the law, it is fulling its public benefit responsibilities. As <a href="https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethical-dilemmas-in-the-social-sector/upholding-public-trust-in-nonprofits-through-standards-for-excellence-training-/">Sara Tangdall</a> writes, "As a result, members of the general public place a great deal of trust in nonprofit organizations and often hold them to a higher standard than for-profit organizations."<br />
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But when a nonprofit fails in these responsibilities it risks the loss of the public's trust, resulting in the loss of its reputation and effectiveness, donor giving and, in the most dire of circumstances, the loss of its legal incorporation. Writes <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Restoring-Public-Trust-in/245314">Dan Cardinali,</a> "The voluntary role of board members of nonprofits does not excuse insufficient oversight." The alarming fact is that many nonprofits skate terribly close to thin ice on a regular basis when it comes to accountability.<br />
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<i>Besides promoting and following ethical principles, all of us who work at nonprofits should call out organizations when their boards and other leaders fall short of accepted standards of transparency and oversight.[1]</i></blockquote>
Holding up one's end of the public trust relationship is the cost of doing business as a nonprofit. There are no excuses for any nonprofit not doing what it says it will do in its mission. And for nonprofits that own property, care for important collections placed in the public trust, employ staff, deliver services and any of the hundred other benefits they provide, there is heightened scrutiny to do so according to legal and regulatory requirements, and accepted best practice. Why would any nonprofit choose to do otherwise?<br />
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Meeting the public's needs through nonprofit service is a choice. Whether it's forming a nonprofit corporation, governing an existing nonprofit, or working or volunteering for a nonprofit, preserving the public's trust in your organization's work is paramount. Closing the knowledge gap by gaining proficiency in the work of your nonprofit and learning about the public trust and its attendant legal and ethical expectations are all part of running a trustworthy organization. Nonprofit accountability requires an ongoing organizational commitment, which can include time for ongoing learning and funds to take advantage of professional development opportunities. I repeat: these are the costs of doing business as a nonprofit.<br />
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If a nonprofit can't or won't do that, should it survive?<br />
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<b>Notes</b><br />
[1] Dan Cardinali, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Restoring-Public-Trust-in/245314">"How Nonprofits and Government Can Work Together to Restore Public Trust,"</a> <i>The Chronicle of Philanthropy</i>, December 13, 2018.<br />
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<b>Resources</b><br />
Dan Cardinali, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Restoring-Public-Trust-in/245314">"How Nonprofits and Government Can Work Together to Restore Public Trust,"</a> <i>The Chronicle of Philanthropy</i>, December 13, 2018.<br />
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Karen Gano, <a href="https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/thought-leadership/regulators-and-nonprofits-working-together-protect-the-public-trust">"Regulators and Nonprofits – Working Together to Protect the Public Trust,"</a> National Council of Nonprofits, January 23, 2019.<br />
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Image: <a href="https://mbexec.com/public-entities-non-profits/">McDermott + Bull, Inc.</a><br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-78289848413179293052017-12-31T14:30:00.000-05:002017-12-31T14:30:55.864-05:00When 'Busy' Isn't Good Enough<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On the eve of a new year, lots of you (myself included) are thinking about the shape of your lives and careers in the year ahead. Taking my own <i>Strategize Me</i> advice, I like to reserve New Year's to reflect on my past accomplishments and map out a plan for the coming year.<br />
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The year just ending was overflowing with work commitments: a full plate of employee and consultant responsibilities, a new book, co-developing a new museum studies course and trying to teach it, trying to be present with colleagues and friends, struggling to be creative and interesting and interested -- well, the list goes on and on.<br />
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It's easy enough to chalk it up as a busy year. What's struck me as I attempt to catalog my 2017 accomplishments is that I get no satisfaction from being so busy. Busy-ness does not equal quality; it doesn't begin to describe depth (or even lack) of commitment. It fails the authenticity test.<br />
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I'm tired of being busy, of describing myself that way as my pat answer to anyone's query about how I am or what I've been up to. Because, of course, 'busy' is not really an answer. <i>And we're all busy</i>.<br />
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I want more than just putting one more brick in the wall. The challenge for strategizing me this year is to find renewal and meaning.<br />
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I hope that's your challenge, as well.<br />
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Happy New Year.Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-84954938496971250212017-08-20T06:45:00.000-04:002017-08-20T06:45:50.423-04:00Why You Need a Personal Board of Directors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today I'm meeting up with my career planning posse. We call ourselves the Gang of Five and we've been meeting periodically for about six years to share our career challenges and aspirations, our plans; seek and offer advice, support, and the critique as appropriate. The Gang is my personal board of directors, who collectively and individually I can call on when needed. As a result, I've advanced my thinking about my career journey, if nothing more than to make it far more intentional.<br />
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Earlier this summer, I got to talk with my friend and colleague, Greg Stevens at the American Alliance of Museums, about career planning. The result is <a href="http://labs.aam-us.org/blog/leadership-and-why-you-need-a-swot-analysis-and-a-personal-board-of-directors/">this interview,</a> published at Alliance Labs. Greg is a terrific proponent of career planning and development -- not surprising since he's the Director of Professional Development at AAM and the co-author of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Museums-Managing-Museum-Career/dp/1933253703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503224166&sr=8-1&keywords=life+in+museums">A Life in Museums: Managing Your Museum Career</a></i>. Whether you work in museums or some other type of cultural institution, check out the book -- you'll find it packed with great insights and advice.<br />
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Now back to a personal board of directors.<br />
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This group of people that you invite to help you make strategic decisions about your career needs to be a mix of people who can see the landscape from a 30,000-foot level as well as offer on-the-ground advice for navigating it. This isn't the group that gathers after work to moan about work over a few drinks. That may eliminate your grad school BFF and it almost certainly eliminates family and those whose emotional connection to you sways their perspectives about you. For more thoughts about 'strategic' network building, read Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter's <a href="https://hbr.org/2007/01/how-leaders-create-and-use-networks">"How Leaders Create and Use Networks."</a><br />
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A personal board of directors can be all about you and your career. In the Gang of Five, we're about each other's careers as much as we're focused on our own. We've helped each other with job searches, resume review, sorting out employee conflicts, and cheering on the various publishing projects three of us have been involved in (as well as comparing notes about publishers).<br />
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The point is you don't have to chart your career moves in a vacuum, nor should you (and I ought to know, since I spent a good part of my career doing so). I still rely on my own counsel for many career decisions, but knowing I have four colleagues I can call on who know my career aspirations well enough to ask tough questions and offer some creative and sound advice is like having that extra blanket on a cold night.<br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-50240637426744834632017-06-02T11:57:00.000-04:002017-06-03T10:57:44.911-04:00The Parallel Universes of Nonprofit Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been following some of the running commentary in a couple of Facebook groups that cater to nonprofit leaders, both veteran and emerging. I'm glad to know there are active and supportive fora where folks can vent their frustrations and celebrate their accomplishments. We all need a safe space in which to do just that.<br />
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The venting focuses almost exclusively on workplace issues -- you can probably guess them -- lousy pay, crushing hours, troubles with subordinates, trouble with board members, ethical dilemmas, general frustration with the pervasive notion of scarcity to which many nonprofits cling. While the members of the Facebook groups represent a teeny fraction of the actual nonprofit workforce, I believe their challenges are widespread and probably growing as the number of nonprofits continues to expand. <br />
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These challenges aren't new, although increased external scrutiny and competition have made them more pressing, more in-your-face, and no longer avoidable. Taken together, the nonprofit sector lives in at least two parallel universes: the lofty, mission-driven world of doing good and the pernicious world of scarcity where board and staff leaders lack the foundational knowledge or the discussion/planning space to grow healthy, prosperous organizations.<br />
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The disconnect between these two universes is wide and growing. And we need the entire nonprofit ecosystem (individuals, institutions, professional associations, graduate programs, etc.) working together to close the gap by making nonprofit workplaces as great as the public benefit they say they provide.<br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-69167862752903297112017-01-01T11:43:00.002-05:002017-01-01T11:46:12.076-05:00Nonprofit Board Resolutions for a New, Uncertain Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've written about resolutions for nonprofits before (see the <a href="https://leadingbydesign.blogspot.com/2014/12/nonprofit-resolutions-for-new-year_30.html">infographic</a> and <a href="https://leadingbydesign.blogspot.com/2010/12/spark-resolution-for-2011.html">read more here</a>), but this year -- <i>especially this year</i> -- nonprofit boards will be put to the test in the face of civic dissonance, uncertain government support for education, arts, history, and science; and the continuation of dramatically shifting demographics.<br />
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So, here's my short list:<br />
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<b>Know your organization's mission cold</b> and I don't mean memorize the mission statement. I mean deeply and fully understand the impact your nonprofit makes to those who benefit from the work you do. Understand how you meet the need, how you excel at doing so, and why that's important. Be able to tell the stories about your organization's impact to anyone.<br />
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<b>Get up to speed on what real governance is all about. </b>Set goals and success measures, exercise oversight, consider the future (a lot), strategize pathways to success, and keep at it. Good governance is intentional and sustained.<br />
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<b>Be the partner your staff leadership needs and wants.</b> Ask what you as a board and as individual board members can do to help staff leaders. Listen. Act together.<br />
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<b>Understand that constraints often lead to creative solutions.</b> It's easy (and lazy) to bemoan the lack of resources. Frankly, no institution ever has enough. So, figure out how to use constraints to your advantage.<br />
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<b>Know that you are not alone.</b> Almost every nonprofit in the US is considering its options in the face of the next four years. We're traveling the same road, meeting similar, if not the same, challenges along the way. Reach out. Share information and knowledge. Work together.<br />
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We're part of a big, beautiful nonprofit sector. Let's all work together.<br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-80188500634324943462016-11-25T14:11:00.000-05:002016-11-25T14:11:38.946-05:00Welcome Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's hard for me to believe I've let my blog writing lapse for so long and to my many readers I apologize for that. It's not that I haven't been writing, because I have, just in other fora. The last year-and-a-half was taken up with co-authoring a new book, <i>Women and the Museum: Lessons from the Workplace</i>, which will be published next spring by Routledge.<br />
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Gender equity for all women is on my mind. Hardly a day goes by without seeing or hearing a story on this topic, but there seems to be little movement toward positive change despite the attention it's getting. Lest you think gender equity is a symptom unique to under-resourced nonprofits and old-school for-profits, I'm here to tell you that it plagues every sector from Silicon Valley to higher ed to Hollywood and, oh, yes, it's alive and well at your friendly neighborhood cultural and social welfare organization. <br />
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A group of colleagues and I recently published <i><a href="https://leadershipmatters1213.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/gemmplatform-1.pdf">A Call for Gender Equity in the Museum Workplace</a></i>. I hope you read it and share it, no matter what sector you hail from.<br />
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So equity is in my sights and I'm mixing and remixing it with larger and broader discussions about race/racism, inclusion, identity, and accessibility. These are conversations I see taking place across the museum, library, and archives professions, and the energy fueling them is passionate, unapologetic, determined, and urgent. I am quietly hopeful that cultural nonprofits might become the equitable workplace model for others. It will take lots and lots of work, but the work begins with a growing chorus of voices. Will yours be one?Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-42894407382584680262015-05-08T17:48:00.000-04:002015-05-08T17:50:43.434-04:00Three Most Important Nonprofit Executive Director Soft Skills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you were asked to narrow down the list of executive director qualifications to the three most important, which ones would you identify? Would the list consist of soft skills, hard skills, or some combination? Would your list be based on the great ED you are or one you've worked for, or would it be your wish list for the ED you haven't been fortunate yet to work for? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was an assignment in my recent online class in leadership and administration for the <a href="http://learn.aaslh.org/">American Association for State and Local History</a>. I asked the class to review three-five advertisements for museum directors and analyze what these listings intimated about the organization’s past experience, current focus and goals, and future aspirations. Then, I asked the class to identify what they consider to be the three most important qualifications they would look for in a director. (Okay, so there's more than three if you dissect my three big groups.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soft skills outnumbered hard skills, although demonstrated museum/nonprofit experience is right up there on the list. We'll focus on the soft skills in this post; hard skills later. Here's what the class said: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Passion, Vision and Creativity </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Museums need innovative and ambitious thinkers willing to try new things while being careful to not lose sight of those ever-important priorities," wrote one participant. Another wrote, "Willing to carry out the values and vision of the organization." Others cited a passion for the museum's discipline (science or history, for example) or special focus (Impressionist art or American arts and crafts). But this is not just about the objects; it's about connecting the dots. In that vein, one wrote, "Passion about the relevance of history to modern life." </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Effective Communication</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How many times have we seen this is a position listing? When you think about the sheer number of people museums and their leaders interact with, communication is not just about speaking and writing in whole sentences. This is about being able to build bridges at the staff and board levels, among audiences and within the community; to articulate a vision and purpose in ways that inspire individuals to get involved; to understand different groups and how to talk/work with them and a willingness to keep staff informed; and to negotiate and be able to reach consensus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Humility</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was surprised at how many times this attribute was cited as a top qualification. This contribution from a class member says it all: "I think that a good leader should always be open to the possibility that they might be wrong, or at least be aware that there might be alternative ways that something can be viewed. Be cognizant that you can always learn something new from anyone. First and foremost remain open to dialogue and differing points of view and always listen to advice given. You don’t have to follow it, but just listen, it just might be worth it. And don’t tell anyone to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself."</span><br />
<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-13552669771136439192014-12-30T14:43:00.002-05:002014-12-30T14:48:14.565-05:00Nonprofit Resolutions for the New Year | Infographic<iframe width="450" height="735" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https://magic.piktochart.com/embed/4006630-resolutions-for-your-nonprofit"></iframe>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-49142401212226852962014-12-29T12:06:00.001-05:002014-12-29T12:08:42.880-05:00Five Questions for the New Nonprofit Board Member<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">IS 2015 THE YEAR YOU JOIN A NONPROFIT BOARD? Perhaps you've been thinking that board service would be a great way to give back to your community or perhaps you've decided to give in to your best friend's pleading to join her board. Whether you're giving back or giving in, don't waste any time in asking these five questions:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. Am I comfortable with group work? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everything you read on nonprofit governance casts it as group work: deliberation and decision-making as a team; working with and through committees; and working to consensus. If you're the lone wolf type, preferring to tackle problems and projects on your own, you'll find group work difficult, even drudgery. So, if you're intent on joining a board know that the group trumps the individual. Yes, your individual skills, opinions, and talents are needed and will be welcomed (hopefully), but when it comes to execution, it is the group that will capture the flag.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. Where will my skills and interests best fit on the board? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the organization hasn't given you a good reason why you're being tapped for board service, or if you're unclear what you could bring to the table, take some time to figure this out first. The nominating or board selection committee should have a clear vision for your participation, but in case they don't, work with them to craft one. You need to know why you're on the board and they need to know why, too. The last thing you want to have happen is to get pigeonholed into a committee assignment that doesn't make the best use of your skills and interests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3. What is my role in the organization's strategic plan?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A strategic plan is the overarching, mission-driven picture of where the organization is going. It's the result of group work and broad buy-in. It should drive everything from who is serving on the board to staff positions to programming. If the organization doesn't have a written plan or has one that's no more than just a laundry list of tasks to be accomplished, take a step back and ask yourself "Do I have the skills and interest to help the organization get to a plan?" That alone could take a year or more to accomplish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the organization has a strategic plan and it's a good one -- one that energizes both the organization and you -- then it's worth a conversation with the nominating or board selection committee to find where you can advance it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. What are my organization's financial expectations of me (both giving and getting)?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many nonprofits are still reluctant to talk about money. They don't understand that it's the 21st century and an organization can't meet its mission with just a wish and a prayer. So, you need to know where you stand in helping to put cash in the bank. Know that you have to give <i>and</i> get. How much of each is a part of your conversation. If you can't meet the expectation, say so -- there's valor in honesty (and usually a solution or two).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. How can I best help the executive director?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An important part of a board member's job is to support the executive director in doing the very best job she or he can do. The executive director needs your knowledge and insights, needs access to your networks, needs you to show up and be counted, and needs your understanding. You can do all of that and still maintain your oversight role. So, don't forget to ask "How can I be of help to you today?"</span><br />
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Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-41898505048141811232014-11-29T16:02:00.000-05:002014-11-29T16:03:40.725-05:00What Would You Do With a $$ Windfall?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">RECEIVING A SUM OF MONEY UNEXPECTEDLY (or half-expectedly) isn't as unusual as it may seem in the nonprofit world. It often comes in the form of a bequest, but it might just as often come as a year-end gift from a loyal member. Sometimes, it's a grant few thought the organization would ever be competitive enough to get. Or a local corporation or government acknowledges the efforts of a nonprofit that is making the community a better place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question that gets some organizations tied up in knots is how to make the best and most efficient use of these funds. We all dream about how we'd put a few thousand bucks to use if it were to arrive on our doorsteps, but when actually faced with a check in one's hands, the dreams may be...well... too dreamy. Where <i>should</i> it go, if the donor hasn't stipulated a place for it to land?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The director of a small cultural nonprofit asked me this question. After several years of increased attendance and program income, should a new source of funding be used to expand promotion to keep those numbers rising or should it be used toward dedicated staffing that ensures organizational stability and related programmatic quality? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My first response was to ask what the nonprofit's strategic plan said. Hmmm....no up-to-date strategic plan. OK, that explains why the organization doesn't readily know where to put its windfall. Then how about the mission -- what does the organization say it does? Where does the mission focus the work? Once those questions can be answered, then an obvious next question to answer is how can that work be best accomplished? Answering that could lead to a landing spot for the cash.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what about that phrase "be best accomplished" -- what do I mean by that? I'm talking about the greatest return for the investment of that money, because, frankly, what to spend the money on is as varied as those staking a claim on it, but clearly some items have greater mission ROIs than others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's also this old notion that I particularly like: windfalls should be invested rather than frittered away precisely because it's money you never planned on and might certainly never see again. If you use your windfall to pay the electric bill, you've bought yourself a month's ROI. If you use it to install energy saving systems, your ROI is a whole lot longer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the case of the nonprofit that's trying to weigh staffing against a bigger promotion budget, I see the investment in staffing as having greater potential long term impact on developing and expanding the reasons why people would attend. Will more advertising about the same old programming really keep attendance growing? To a point it will, but promotion dollars follow great programming (not the other way around) and what really keeps audiences coming back for more is the talent behind the mission. To me, that's where I'd put the windfall.</span>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-6776858788882957252014-09-06T07:55:00.000-04:002014-09-06T07:55:22.975-04:00Stagnant or In Motion: What's Your Nonprofit's Mission?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kI2LKhDDgDs/VAr1ulevv-I/AAAAAAAAAfA/iXIHvlOFr28/s1600/The-Perfect-Mission-Statement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kI2LKhDDgDs/VAr1ulevv-I/AAAAAAAAAfA/iXIHvlOFr28/s1600/The-Perfect-Mission-Statement.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT A NONPROFIT'S MISSION STATEMENT ANYWAY? A recent exchange of emails with a museum client about their mission statement underscores the potential they can play in a nonprofit's growth and development. I've been encouraging this client to go beyond the usual, inward-focused litany of activities that virtually <i>every museum in the world</i> cites as their mission. Yes, museums collect and preserve stuff. But if that's <i>all </i>they did, they'd be more like mausoleums than museums.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The museum director and his staff have had several robust discussions about what the museum does and the audiences they serve. It's clear from their conversations that the museum is <i>much more</i> than a place full of stuff. There's meaning and resonance there, too. Sorting through that has been both an intellectual and emotional exercise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Museums are not the only victims of tepid mission statements. There are plenty of nonprofits of all stripes that hew to a litany of well-worn phrases and dusty metaphors. Why do so many nonprofits seem content to go through life with a wishy-washy, nondescript, beige mission statement? When the competition for audience and money is so fierce, when separating one's organization from the pack is so important, why do organizations time after time turn a blind eye to marking their turf as boldly as possible? Is there something about having to declare to the world "we are this and we own it!" which causes us to choose the safe position, the middle of the road, neutral over drive?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If a nonprofit is going to stand for something, shouldn't it be something worthy of the blood, sweat and tears we pour into them? Are we afraid to go too far out on a limb for fear we can't or won't live up to our reason for being? Fear of your nonprofit's ability to be more than 'meh' for sure won't attract much attention or support....or terrific boards and staff talent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's where Newton comes in and even though it's about physics, I think it can be applied to nonprofits: those in motion, stay in motion; those that are stagnant, stay stagnant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stagnant missions do nothing to provoke movement. They are lazy; virtually useless words on a piece of paper that few read and nobody takes to heart. Stagnant mission statements and the thinking behind them provide cover for tame, even timid, leadership.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Missions in motion call out and heighten a nonprofit's points of distinction. They draw a clear line around an organization's reason for being and its public benefit. Missions in motion stretch an organization's potential. They are energizing, because they are alive with meaning. And they facilitate big, powerful thinking. </span><br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-30487072622961537892014-07-04T10:44:00.002-04:002014-07-04T10:44:56.140-04:00The Nonprofit Director's Skill Set: One Group's Opinion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AEREUhuPc9A/U7a9v5U5oxI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/7iErO0GnM_g/s1600/Manager+Wordle.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AEREUhuPc9A/U7a9v5U5oxI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/7iErO0GnM_g/s1600/Manager+Wordle.jpeg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">THIS SUMMER I'M LEADING AN ONLINE COURSE in museum administration -- a new venture offered by the American Association for State and Local History. The small band of participants -- most not museum administrators, by the way -- are being treated to the basics of nonprofit organization spanning how museums are founded to issues of leadership. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most recent lesson explored the complex and sometimes competing roles of the museum director. A director has allegiances to both the governing board and the staff requiring continual alignment of priorities and mitigation of distances between the two. A director also has allegiance to her vision for organizational health, sustainability and excellence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Add to that the fact that as an organization develops, its leadership needs will change. What worked for the start-up may be too informal and inefficient for a more mature organization. The director's role, therefore, is not only played out vertically and horizontally, it's also played out over time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the assignments for the week was to review several job announcements for directors to deduce where the organization might be in its development, the irons it had in the fire, and the skills it was looking for in the next director. All three pieces ought to link together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One participant noted that an announcement stated several times that the director would need to wear many hats -- this caused her to wonder if the museum had experienced some prior misunderstanding about staff responsibilities. I figured it was a really small institution where a new director would be faced with having to prioritize focus and time right from the get-go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other cases, it was much clearer to deduce what an institution was looking for in its next director -- building audience, expanding the museum's role as an educational resource, taking on a bricks and mortar expansion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When asked what the three most important qualifications they would look for in a director, the class responded with a mixture of hard (business knowledge, fundraising) and soft skills (communication, problem-solving). In the final analysis, the class gravitated toward:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. a track record of leadership and managerial experience</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. fundraising</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. vision, commitment to mission, and passion for/understanding of the subject matter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do you think belongs on that list?</span><br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-82209972050410406912014-04-19T08:31:00.000-04:002014-04-19T09:52:22.062-04:00When the Board Wastes the CEO's Talent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A RECENT CONVERSATION ABOUT WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE for ongoing member communications at a nonprofit got me thinking about how boards can, often quite unintentionally, waste their CEO's talent and, in turn, the talent of bright, committed staff. Boards can waste their own talent, too, but that's the subject for the next post. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this conversation, some board members argued that it was the role of the board to review and approve every word the organization relayed to its membership. Others differentiated between "strategic" communications -- issue briefs, advocacy alerts, statements on future organizational directions, for example -- and "informational" communications, such as event promotion, volunteer or donor recognition, and activity recaps. Clearly, the substance of the communication seemed to be one (if not <i>the</i>) determining factor in when the board would involve itself in message development and approval. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, we didn't get to that understanding until after I raised the issue that, at some level for many communications, we are talking about an </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">operational</i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> activity, one carried out on a daily basis by staff who are hired in whole or in part because of their ability to communicate. The board may approve an overall communications plan; it is the staff, with the leadership of the CEO, who will develop and implement it. The CEO will determine what communications need committee or board input or final approval before release, not the other way around.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We left the conversation with the understanding that the organization's CEO would be responsible for "informational" communications. Her judgement would determine if the board or the president would review a message before its distribution to the members, to stakeholders, or to the media. "Strategic" communications would likely be developed collaboratively with a committee or task force and approved by the full board. We did not delve into the issue about the CEO spanning the critical space between strategy and operations -- leading or shaping strategy at times, carrying it out at others. That's a nuanced conversation for another day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is just one small example of how boards and their CEO's can get bound up in who-does-what-when-and-why. Boards are charged with hiring the most capable staff leaders they can find. Boards that then forget (or fear) their CEO's talent by doing the work of that talent may just as well take that CEO salary and throw it down a rat hole, because they've reduced their CEO to the level of a glorified administrative assistant. (And even though great administrative assistants are worth their weight in gold, the CEO almost always earns more. If the board fails to hire the best CEO talent it can find, it's <i>a thousand times better off</i> with a really great administrative assistant. At least stuff will get done.) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Talk about squandering human AND financial resources! Are you listening, board members?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm reminded of John Carver's statement “Board members and the executive director are colleagues without hierarchy.” It's a beautiful thing, but often unrealized, especially if a board is new to having a CEO relationship or it is stubbornly carrying some outdated notion that the CEO is nothing more than their 'hired help'. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boards hire CEOs to do mission-critical strategic AND operational work. Let them do it and support them in their doing it. Talk that through to clarity, establish policies or procedures, if necessary, but don't do it for them.</span>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-16590710136065068872014-01-26T18:23:00.002-05:002014-01-26T18:23:26.834-05:00That's Just the Way We've Done it Around Here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uKwKEW0Chbg/UuWWsLN8MKI/AAAAAAAAAOg/elZ4S7vsqmI/s1600/Change.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uKwKEW0Chbg/UuWWsLN8MKI/AAAAAAAAAOg/elZ4S7vsqmI/s1600/Change.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">MAKING CHANGE IS TOUGH. EVEN THE TINIEST OF CHANGES CAN OFTEN MEET THE LARGEST OF HURDLES. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recall meeting some serious resistance when I suggested that a nominating committee take an inventory of board member skills and attributes in an effort to help it think more holistically about filling existing gaps. I thought that was a pretty easy one, but some members of the nominating committee didn't think it was a good idea at all and refused to participate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or the time an organization decided not to seek external input for its planning because it didn't want to raise stakeholder expectations beyond what it felt it could deliver. Or the many times the hard won work of a strategic planning process fell by the wayside as organizational attention was lured away by yet another new, shiny object. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of my examples of change have the potential to raise fear, mistrust, or anxiety about any new approach or philosophy. And that's the typical reaction of many (myself included from time to time) to change. And that's OK, because most of the time those reactions can be anticipated and largely mitigated with deliberate forethought and effort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I just don't get are those nonprofit organizations that see inertia as the safe harbor or the all-they-can-muster. The mantra of the inert -- i<i>t's the way we've always done it</i> or <i>if it ain't broke, don't fix it</i> -- implies satisfaction with the status quo whether or not the status quo is terrific, satisfactory or just barely adequate. That's what frustrates me the most, I suppose -- the stubborn lack of recognition that there is almost always room to improve and to grow. At the very least, consider the potential!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those of you in inert nonprofits know that you have to do twice the heavy lifting to make even the smallest change. Even though I'm generally not an advocate of change for change sake, there are certainly reasons to do just that. The inert organization may be one of those reasons, if for nothing more than to break the defeating cycle of that's just the way we've done it around here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Start small and choose something to change that you know will have a positive impact right from the start. Maybe it's the way people are greeted at the door or the way they're greeted on the phone. Maybe it's a different choice of refreshments for a meeting or the paint color of the break room. Maybe it's a breather in a board meeting to talk about an issue that's larger than the institution itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember, you're not just making operational change, you're trying to ultimately move the needle on people's perceptions of change. Two different, but closely and often emotionally connected, things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Got inertia? Tell us what you might do to get unstuck.</span>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-13159878532562278402014-01-10T15:55:00.000-05:002014-01-10T16:16:15.634-05:00Forward Guidance for Nonprofits: Where is it Taking You?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tA-GuBlkWqM/UtBaz6vVKCI/AAAAAAAAANs/qj_QwNcLJsQ/s1600/The-Spectruam-of-Forward-Guidance-Options.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tA-GuBlkWqM/UtBaz6vVKCI/AAAAAAAAANs/qj_QwNcLJsQ/s1600/The-Spectruam-of-Forward-Guidance-Options.png" height="261" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">THE TERM 'FORWARD GUIDANCE' IS USED BY central banks to influence market expectations about the future levels of interest rates. Banks do this by forecasting where markets will go and communicating their forecasts to businesses, governments, and the public. I can see I've really grabbed your attention now. But wait -- I'm going somewhere with this concept that has related, but not necessarily financial, applicability to the nonprofit sector.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm intrigued by the phrase, which I admit I hadn't heard until recently. I'm also intrigued with the idea of 'forward guidance' -- of articulating how something will turn out or could turn out based upon agreed-upon indicators, is (or should be) one critical component of planning for a sector as much as for individual organizational planning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the chart above from the banking industry illustrates, forward guidance is a combination of calendar-based indicators and trends and outcome-based indicators and trends. Look where you get the greatest impact -- it's on the outcome-based side the of spectrum, which combines explicit evidence from past performance with forward looking information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Forward guidance requires organizational leaders to look for and interpret trends and scan the landscape for potential opportunities and pitfalls in order to plot future directions. It requires leaders to have their antennae up beyond the institution's walls, homing in on information and ideas that could be of practical use in thinking about the future. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Forward guidance is about influence and impact. As with the banks and interest rates, it's about shaping public perception and opinion that supports the need for the nonprofits in our lives. It encourages people to get involved and to open their hearts and wallets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the snag: I think many nonprofit leaders are still more comfortable looking solely at past performance as the predictor of the future (the left side of the chart). It's safe and, well, predictable. We know the cast of variables and the vocabulary. Our ability to forecast solely based on past performance has blindsided more than one nonprofit organization -- cultural organizations come immediately to mind, but I also wonder if education is stuck in this traditional approach despite all the talk about STEM, Common Core, and the electronic classroom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We nonprofit leaders are woefully unskilled at forecasting using different vocabulary or trickier metrics that focus on consumer/community needs and wants. We rarely receive that sort of training in a classroom; it's rarely demanded of us on the job. Many of us haven't a clue about what to do with future trend information from across our own sectors or from other sectors, especially how to intelligently apply/adapt it in a timely, proactive way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We may read an article, listen to a TED talk, or attend a session at a professional conference that sheds some light on where our sector is/may be going, yet are many of us taking those perspectives and fashioning them into predictive tools for our boards and staffs to forecast the future? Are many of us assembling forward guidance with the help of our nonprofit colleagues in our own communities or regions?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, let's think about how we can move from the "least impact" side to the "greatest impact" side of the forward guidance spectrum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me know how you're doing it. I guarantee there are dozens of people anxious to learn from you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #e69138;">Quick Update:</span></b> Just read this <a href="http://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23457-as-the-world-turns-npq-s-10-trends-and-10-predictions.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=3281024">Nonprofit Quarterly article</a> about 10 trends and 10 predictions for 2014 --- a little forward guidance grist for the mill, perhaps?</span><br />
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<br />Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-81471288372962086472013-12-01T12:42:00.000-05:002013-12-01T12:46:08.044-05:00Committee Job Descriptions: The Essence of Group Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'M SPENDING SOME TIME THIS MORNING DRAFTING COMMITTEE JOB DESCRIPTIONS, or charges, for a nonprofit organization whose committees have been working without the benefit of this important tool. You might be saying to yourself, if committees are functioning, why gum up the works with wonky job descriptions? Isn't that just one more layer of red tape that few people pay attention to, much less care about?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could respond by saying that committee job descriptions, just like employee job descriptions and board of trustee job descriptions, have the potential for strangling enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing until it sloshes over unrequested into the work of others, or when it distorts organizational focus to the point where no one is sure where they're headed or why. I see this very simple tool as a means of harnessing enthusiasm, not curbing it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At their best, committee job descriptions provide parameters (broad or specific) that help organizational leaders see how all the parts of their nonprofit universe fit together. Job descriptions reveal what committees have overlapping or complementary functions (like executive and nominating or board development committees, or education and communication committees, or program and fund development committees); others may not seem to overlap quite so visibly, but all should clearly be supporting the organization's mission and external impact. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This morning, I'm contemplating the overlaps of an existing committee that has responsibility for ongoing member and stakeholder communications, but also is charged with some program development for the membership. This is an organization that also engages in very specialized programming for its members, which is generally handled by special committees or task forces. I wonder if there ought to be an overarching program committee instead, of which communications might become a sub-committee. I'm not convinced that it should, or could, be the other way around.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without the job description for guidance, I probably wouldn't be thinking so deeply about the committee roles for this organization, about what the organization needs in terms of committee support, and about why committees are critical to the work and impact of this organization.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's value in drilling down, in no small part because almost all nonprofit boards and staff <i>need</i> the expertise and wide-angle view that committees, task forces and work groups can provide. Without a clear understanding of a committee's potential, and how that potential fits into the whole, we are just as likely to squander its value as we are to tap into it. But who would know, without a yardstick by which to measure effectiveness? Why take that chance?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, a job description is only one element. If not used by the committee and attendant staff as the guide it's meant to be, the group's expertise and energy can be expended it all sorts of useful or worthless or harmful ways as if there was no written job description in the first place.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, get started! As a full board, make the time to review your organization's committee job descriptions. Don't be off-put if they need some work, especially if you haven't reviewed them in awhile (or ever). CompassPoint's 1999 article on <a href="http://www.compasspoint.org/board-committee-job-descriptions">"Board Committee Job Descriptions"</a> and the Center for Association Leadership's <a href="http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=24191">"Board Committee Structure"</a> (2006) are excellent starting points. Seek out committee job descriptions from other nonprofits in your community or discipline. Get a handle on new trends for committee work. </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, I like these recommendations about committees found in <a href="http://www.jcamp180.org/uploadDocs/3/Jill-Paul-Board-Committees.pdf">"Thoughts on Great Committees"</a> from the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy.</span>Anne W. Ackersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04515705877936397989noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6416792277523234242.post-78712482687105492692013-10-03T16:08:00.001-04:002013-10-03T16:08:21.789-04:00Boards and Staffs: Four Simple Lessons for Building a Win-Win Relationship<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LAST MONTH I PRESENTED A WORKSHOP ON NONPROFIT BOARD-STAFF RELATIONSHIPS to members of the Long Island Museum Association. Here's a picture of most of us at the end of the session -- a fine looking bunch, don't you think?</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LuRi14D7lKI/Uk2-Zju1fhI/AAAAAAAAAI8/11CQZ4indQM/s1600/LIMA9-20-13_JPG_300x300_q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LuRi14D7lKI/Uk2-Zju1fhI/AAAAAAAAAI8/11CQZ4indQM/s1600/LIMA9-20-13_JPG_300x300_q85.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I shared with the participants four simple lessons that I've learned over the course of my work in nonprofits about the delicate interconnectedness of nonprofit boards and staffs. We may know the accepted divisions of authority and responsibility between them, but they rarely function with textbook precision, even in the best of organizations. Why? One reason is because it takes work to learn and try to understand the motivations of others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a possible starting point: my four lessons, meant to be short, sweet, and hopefully memorable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lesson
#1:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re all in this together.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
is my personal and professional philosophy. I take to heart this quote from John Carver, author of <i>Boards that Make a Difference</i>: “Board
members and the executive director are colleagues without hierarchy.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet we need to recognize that boards and staff have defined, but dovetailed (and sometimes overlapping) roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact is that although boards make policy and staff
carries it out, the best work is often born of a collaborative effort. Boards
and staff each bring to the table strengths that can complement and play off of
each other. <b>The fact is that the board and the
staff both have the responsibility to achieve the organization’s greater
potential as well as its mission. That is huge common ground. Period.</b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lesson #2: Set Expectations Together </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Once
you’ve figured out <b><i>how</i></b> you want to work as an organization, you can collectively
turn your attention to establishing expectations.</span> Expectations can be easily shattered if they aren’t
clear and communicated well right from the start.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conversations
around expectations can and should cascade through your institution:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>between the board leader and the director;
between the full board and the director; between the board and committee
chairs; between committee chairs and committee members; between the director
and committees; between the director and staff; between staff and volunteers. Encourage these conversations -- they help to establish healthy foundations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lesson #3:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work Toward the Future Together</b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By
developing a set of common expectations, board and staff can begin to explore a
common vision for the organization that can point them in the direction of
future growth and development. When board, staff, and other stakeholders
in an organization start to openly articulate their aspirations for the
organization, a wonderful transformation can take place that can be energizing,
affirming, and challenging. Board members and staff are often so focused
on the day-to-day challenges of running our organizations that we don¹t give
ourselves the time to dream about them. Make that time.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lesson #4:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be Accountable by Measuring Success Together<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It wasn’t
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vocabulary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now it is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is the
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And we need
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We need to
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mission, it is having an external impact on the audiences and communities we
serve. Not only do we need to understand the extent of the impact, we need to
know what do with that knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boards and
staff need to know this so that they know where to best set organizational
direction and expend resources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Bonus: </b> Use this <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/awackerson.com/www/boarddevelopment/board-staff-relationship-assessment">self-assessment</a> I prepared for the workshop to help you and your board/staff colleagues focus on where you can best apply the four lessons.</span></div>
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