Story is Vision

"The careful telling of the story creates ripples for everybody; including me" - Brian Stiller, Tyndale Seminary (from a FreeFORM interview).

Defining, redefining, revealing, and sharing our vision is one of the difficult challenges of leadership. There are endless resources on how to do this, but lately I've found the best and most intuitive way of doing it is through storytelling.

In recent meetings with two groups where we worked on mission/vision/values matters we experimented with beginning the process by telling the stories of those moments where we felt our organization was performing at our best. Out of that comes not only an easily emerging picture of what we most want to be, but also an energizing reminder of what we're all about. We end up with statements and stories that become central reflections for us and which we believe in at a deep level. And it's wicked fun.

As the appreciation for the value of narrative continues to move from the world of academic criticism and artistic expression into the realm of leadership and strategy the potential for better engagement of all levels of stakeholders is exciting.

One simple process:
-Ask your board/team/committee/etc. to spend a little in advance thinking about the very best moments and memories they have of your organization. these could include not only the work with your clientele; but fundraisers, staff interactions, resources embraced, board meetings, and more. the point is to uncover the times when you experienced the best of what you can be.

-Begin the session with someone telling the broad story of your organization's history. As they do; everyone is encouraged to note and post ideas from the story that might relate to Mission/Vision/Values. (We've handed out post it notes and put flip chart pages on the wall to capture these thoughts).

-Invite all to add their own stories of highlight moments; and continue noting the themes.

-When the stories began to run out, review everything posted to ensure understanding and adjust the location of notes where needed.

-Synthesize these notes to expose the strongest themes and try to turn these into shared statements or even a simple image or narrative.

Does it work? So far, so good.

This is the revised Vision Statement for Catalyst:
Catalyst is committed to developing leadership in compelling nonprofit organizations as their dreams become action to transform lives.

Scholarship Announcement

Last week I was pleased to be with the first cohort of nonprofit organizations participating in World Vision's FreeFORM program for a jazz cafe in Niagara Falls. In addition to the always great entertainment from Mike Janzen, I had a chance to connect with several people I've met in the last several months through Catalyst.
A highlight was seeing the workspace where 6 Canadian nonprofits were spending three days processing their strategies and developing their futures.
My reason for being there was to announce that Catalyst has reached agreement to support the FreeFORM program with a scholarship fund to assist those groups who are unable to afford the tuition cost. The fund is administered by FreeFORM.
We are very excited to see the outcomes of this extremely well developed new program.

Ignorant Board Members

I am learning quite a lot about the roles and responsibilities of board members. I'm realizing how very important an effective board can be to the long term work of an organization, and conversely, how crippling a poor board can be.
In evaluating grant applications one of the factors we consider is the effectiveness of the board of directors. In conversations with nonprofit leaders, board issues are often near the top of their frustration lists.
This blog post from the good people at Strive reminds me of the legal responsibly board members hold, that is rarely discussed it seems.
And by the way, why would any nonprofit not have someone designated to regularly blog on their behalf? It's an amazing way to keep your organization and your mission/vision in the minds of your constituency. Not doing so, when it costs only a little time and creativity, seems almost negligent.

Worth Reading

A quick list of websites and blogs that I find helpful:
Strive! is the best organization I've come across for helping boards learn to function in ways that don't drive themselves, staff, volunteers, donors, and clientele to desperate frustration. You should subscribe to their monthly GEMs and buy Jim Brown's book.


Mission Based Management by Peter Brinckerhoff keeps me thinking about how nonprofits can keep their focus in the midst of the daily realities of work.

Seth Godin's blog is updated pretty much daily and offers some innovative ideas about marketing that have the ring of both genius and common sense.

Open Hands is the blog of Mark Petersen from Bridgeway Foundation. Mark has been unfailingly helpful as we're getting Catalyst underway and he knows everybody.

I could give several more but this is a good start. And since it is hard to keep up with all of these I highly recommend Google Reader or some other tool that keeps you aware of updates.

Prepare for Boarding

This week I’ve been in a couple of discussions about how boards of directors are built and function. Stuart Taylor at IDE-Canada compared boards that are made up primarily of major donors (large scale investments lead to positions of influence), with those who are brought together for their professional credentials (“We need a lawyer, a physician, an educator, a politician, etc.”). Then I was at a board meeting for Compassion Society last night where the board is made up of people who are strongly committed to the cause and are active in a lot of grassroots activity.
What works best? I don’t know yet. I’m sure board members need to be prepared to be more than just figureheads, but in what types of capacity and what types of activity? My hunch is that what is most important is that all involved parties clearly understand the expectations of the board and the structures needed to support and maximize the effectiveness of whatever board is established.
In the next couple weeks I’m looking forward to reading The Imperfect Board Member (first recommended to me by John Latta from Canadian Youth Network) to gain some more insight on this.

How close should we get?

We were “late” to pick up my son from daycare this week. We’re usually there shortly after 4pm but it was a nice day so we all walked up to get him and didn’t arrive until just after 4:30. Officially they don’t close until 5:30 but Ian was the last child of the day and they were expecting us at our usual time. It was a little bit awkward because the providers had dinner plans and were waiting for us. I felt pretty sheepish about it at first, but afterwards not so much. The issue was really that we’ve tried to have much more than a professional or contractual relationship with the daycare. If they are going to be caring for our son a couple days each week we want to be personally connected to them. Which makes it a little harder when any of us are disappointed or frustrated by one another.
As a foundation we’ve decided that we aren’t just about handing out novelty cheques and waiting for annual reports. We want to become personally involved with the work our partners are doing. Sometimes that means mentoring one of their staff, sitting as a board member, taking part in one of their programs, or just really getting to know the people who make things happen. It’s a big part of what I love about this role.
But it does make things potentially awkward. When we are the ones evaluating grant proposals and the results of our funding we need to be somewhat at arms length. Personal relationships make the professional aspect of what we do complex if not conflicted. What happens if someone who has become my friend doesn’t get the grant next year that they need to maintain their salary? What changes if I feel personally offended by someone over something that has nothing to do with their programs and projects?
My hope is the both we at Catalyst and those we partner with are willing to face those complications. If we can be up front about the possibility for issues to arise and be unafraid to take the risk of becoming involved there is little doubt that somewhere along the line something will blow up in our faces. But, isn’t that always the way of humanity; and the way of Jesus?
The Incarnation means, at the very least, that God risks giving up his professional distance and seasoned objectivity and gets into the muck where we live. It is profoundly costly as Easter will highlight for us again very soon. But it I the way God chose to work to bring not only obedience but actual transformation through love.
If anyone has experience or insight into the pitfalls and pleasures of these more subjective partnerships I’d love to hear some thoughts…
(Oh, we worked everything out at daycare and things are cool again now.)