I’ve watched many non-profits struggle because they have the wrong people on their boards. Even conscientious organizations with lists of criteria used to carefully recruit qualifying board members usually get it wrong. Yes, you need diversity. At the very least, that likely means you need to consider race, gender, and age. Depending on your focus, you may need diversity of experience and socio-economic representation as well. If you are a member organization, the diversity of your board must reflect your member base or desired member base.
When my parents died, their wills suggested an onerous process for dividing belongings among 5 siblings. But at least they provided a process! They also indicated we were welcome to come up with a better process, if we so desired. My parents, who probably had something to do with my clarity(!), clearly knew the importance of having a process! As executrix, I gladly proposed a better process. Being me, I’m pretty sure I would have done so regardless of whether or not it was my responsibility. So I wrote up a simple process, explained it to all siblings, asked for opinions, and then got their signatures to confirm agreement before anyone began claiming anything. The process worked smoothly. Success depended only on the thought invested by each sibling into their desires and needs. Everyone left with a combination of cherished and practical items. There was one opportunity for dissension, however.
Most well-run organizations are pretty good at creating what I call “Organizational Clarity.” They have strategic priorities and annual goals. They have job descriptions, policies, rules, and training programs. They have well-defined and documented production processes. They also have well-defined management systems that control things like performance reviews, budgeting, approval processes, and projects. All told, these constitute a yeoman’s effort to create: Clear purpose, Clear roles, and Clear process – the three keys to productive, effective, committed employees. The resulting structure and controls are essential for allowing growing and shifting numbers of people to work together effectively. But there’s a problem with this: It doesn’t help employees get through their average workday.
Ann’s style is empathetic, open, and non-judgmental. She somehow seemed to know the room right from the start. She was able to engage everyone, elicit honest feedback, and stimulate creative thinking. This was especially impressive since our group differs significantly in terms of professional expertise and history with the organization. We all felt that our ideas were honored and appreciated. Ann is especially adept at making good choices about further discourse and exposition, pursuing the most fruitful issues and avoiding time wasted on others. She created a productive environment with a level, inviting, and open playing field. I was very pleased with the results. Jon Abbott, CEO, President, and member, WGBH
In last month’s Clear Thoughts, I suggested an exercise that I hope you tried. The exercise was to pick a typical item off a meeting agenda and then compete in pairs for two minutes to see who can brainstorm the longest list of possible directions the conversation could go given that topic. When I do this exercise in workshops, the idea is initially met with bewilderment, but it doesn’t last. The winning pair usually comes up with about twenty different directions. By the time we collect all the non-overlapping ideas from the other pairs, the total is typically three dozen topics. So what is the point of this exercise? Before you read on, maybe you want to stop and draw your own conclusions. If you come up with conclusions I don’t list, I’d love to hear about them. Ready For My List?
I’m really excited to tell you that the third book of my daughter’s trilogy, THE SONG OF THE ASH TREE, is now available. I love her books, but I know I have no credibility when it comes to singing their praises. I hardly dare describe the books for fear of getting it wrong in her eyes, so I’ll quote from her website instead: “Brimming with echoes of the Homeric epics and set in the nine realms of Norse mythology, THE SONG OF THE ASH TREE is a story of betrayal, vengeance, love, war, and fate.” Sounds pretty intriguing, don’t you think? If you were waiting for all three books to be available before diving into this series, your wait is over! The Blood-Tainted Winter The Hills of Home Already Comes Darkness And, definitely, let me know what you think when you finish! OK, back to work!
I’m looking out the window at giant snowflakes on the last day of March, the front edge of up to 12″ of snow. Yesterday I skied in New Hampshire, where the trails are wonderfully white despite the sun riding high in the sky. It hasn’t been a notably wintery winter, but it has been notable! January and February were ridiculously warm. March has been ridiculously cold. Anyone looking for soft spring skiing in New England is still waiting. The weather isn’t the only aspect of our lives that has gotten more unpredictable! And this new level of flux is not likely to stop anytime soon. How to cope? Breathe deeply. Smile. Clarify your priorities. And then identify a few concrete steps that will get you closer to your goals. All any of us can do is to make the best of each and every day. There is no point in whining. No advantage to beating yourself up. No benefit to blaming anyone else. Just keep walking forward and enjoy all the good things that surround you.
By working with Ann Latham, Zoo New England developed a strong and focused strategy. Its strength has been confirmed by everyone we have talked with – the entire board, the staff, donors, and people in the community. It enables us to tell a compelling and convincing story instead of reciting a litany of disparate and competing values directed in too many directions and at too many constituencies. Almost as important, is our new level of consensus and confidence as a board. Ann has given us the ability to make decisions and not wring our hands over too many choices. We have clarity – one plan, cohesiveness, and can use a shared vocabulary to forecast the future and communicate consistently with donors, members, partners, and the public. We are delighted to have achieved such strong alignment as well as an ambitious, credible strategy. In addition, we now have a more complete understanding of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses and how they relate to our vision and focus. All the consultants we considered had good references and good experience, but we chose Ann because we believed she would hold us accountable for what we wanted, and needed, to achieve, even if it made us uncomfortable. We were right. She forced us to have honest conversations, make tough choices, and reach agreement about what is most important. I think what makes Ann most unusual is her level of commitment to us. She was in it with us, willing to take fire. She was completely dedicated to getting results, not just to following her process. Someone less committed to clear outcomes probably would have let us off the hook when we most needed to be pushed. Ann is not just a facilitator. We got advice, ideas, recommendations, and food for thought. She was a resource for us in… read more →
Did you know that almost no one made the word ‘priority’ plural before the 1950s? Having multiple priorities probably made about as much sense as describing something as ‘very unique.’ Something is either unique or it isn’t. And something is either the priority or it isn’t. Makes sense to me! Once you have two priorities, what is the priority? And once you have two, why can’t you have three? How about four? Where is the line?
A liquor store in Atlanta is refusing to sell Boston Lager until after the Super Bowl. No harm done. Sam Adams Brewery and the liquor store both get great publicity from that one and people have their fun. The New England beers will be back on the shelf in a few more days. Meanwhile, the Internet is awash in football analogies and Super Bowl mentions in order to ride the excitement and generate search engine hits. But sport analogies aren’t just limited to play-off season. They permeate business talk. You’re supposed to walk onto the court with your head held high, leave it all on the field, and dominate. The goal is to inspire competitiveness, perseverance, and confidence. To tap the inner warrior and the calm, but fierce, leader. And, of course, the goal is to win.