In challenging times, not-for-profit organization boards and staff need to resist reactive-thinking and remember the basics of good governance and management. This starts with remembering what management-guru Peter Drucker identified as a leading quality of not-for-profits that sets the sector apart from most businesses, and that is to:
- be mission-focused;
- be thinking long-term;
- be delivering the value that has proven over time to be the reason why stakeholders support the organization (ie, now is not the time to venture into new areas where the organization has no track-record).
To focus on the mission means the organization will at all times act strategically and concentrate on how to further enhance the activities of the organization which are valuable to those it serves. This infers the organization will be disciplined in knowing (e.g., conducting research) what matters most to its constituents – those activities your supporters cannot do without. When financial pressures do become a significant pressure on the not-for-profit organization, decisions to scale-back will then be made on fact and not fear.
Too many organizations have recently been caught up in the fear-spiral of dire economic times, cutting costs and cancelling plans without having a strategic discussion about which activities matter most. These decisions are, surprisingly, not always prompted by actual evidence of financial pressures on the organization but rather fear of what may be ahead or, in other words, fear of the unknown.
While it is good practice to be financially prudent, for example, to commit to building financial reserves for those inevitable “rainy days,” it is folly to cut indiscriminately.
Even in slow economic periods, operations must go on if the organization is to continue to deliver on the priority needs and expectations of its stakeholders. To do otherwise will provide stakeholders will ample justification to take their support elsewhere. There are five steps every not-for-profit board should undertake:
- If you have created a strategic plan and developed an annual plan to implement the strategies, these plans are even more important to update now.
- Where pressures may exist to cut or reduce programs, activities, or even staff, the organization’s leadership must clearly understand the priorities that stakeholders most value and will miss if eliminated.
- Do not let the cost of hiring a facilitator be the excuse to stop planning in your organization. Rather than the three-day retreat at a resort hotel which you may have done in the past, find a qualified person who will work with the board and staff over a half-day (or full-day) in the office. A good facilitator also brings an objective perspective and the skills to enable the organization’s leadership to focus on what is the purpose of planning – understanding where we are; where we want to be; how we will get to where we want to go; how we measure accomplishment; and who is to be held accountable for achieving the outcome. Consider as well a facilitator who not only has experience and training in facilitation, but someone who can help – without manipulating the process – the organization to make the best decisions.
- A lot of planning time in workshops is focused on reaffirming the organization’s vision and values; revisiting the mission statement and crafting new wording for goals. In reality, these higher level elements of an organization’s strategy tend not to change year-to-year. Instead, once the board affirms the high-level areas of focus (eg, goals such as education, advocacy, or services), concentrate on setting the measurable objectives, strategies, and action plans for each area so there is clarity on what success looks like, who is accountable for achieving the outcomes, and the action steps are clear.
- As Peter Drucker observed, what gets measured gets done. Let me add to this truism. What is owned gets done. For planning to be effective, and for plans to be accomplished, there is must be clarity on who owns the task and will be responsible for the outcome. Where volunteers and staff share the responsibility, the board (or planning team) must take the extra step to decide who has the primary responsibility. Boards cannot hold people accountable for work they do not control and, where there is shared authority, the risk is high for the old adage, “Too many chefs spoil the broth.”
Boards and staff in challenging times need to be even more disciplined than usual with strategic and operational planning. Plans enable organizations to identify what’s most important, to prioritize actions, and to allocate the necessary resources (people, time, and money) to get the right things done. Where resources – especially money – become tight, it is all the more imperative to have a plan identifying what matters most, how it will be done, when the result will be expected, and by whom.
Content is © Jack Shand and is reprinted with permission.
Jack Shand, CMC, CAE, is president of Leader Quest, a management consulting firm providing expert advice to not-for-profit organizations since 1997. Leader Quest specializes in executive search/staff recruitment, strategic planning, governance, and organizational reviews. Jack can be reached at 905-842-3845 and 1-877-929-4473, or jack-at-leaderquest-dot-com.
