By Carlo M. CuestaWhen I was executive director at The Playwrights' Center, I had the opportunity to experience the creative mastery of Roberto ("Bert") Ifill. Bert is neither a playwright nor a theater artist. He was the Center's board president and is an exceptional strategic planner. In a recent discussion we had about planning, Bert enumerated on his approach in a very simple statement: "Good strategic planning is about understanding 'why we are here.'" As I think back on our time at The Playwrights' Center, Bert was constantly trying to get us to answer that question. I also remember feeling rather uneasy during those discussions. I wanted to talk about how we were going to fulfill our need for more funding, more staff, and build a board of directors with greater resources, whereas Bert was focused on getting the people at the table to connect with a shared sense of purpose. At first, our difference in approach created tension, but as we continued to work together we learned the complimentary nature of our points of view and how it could help the organization create an effective strategy.
The Difference
A recent survey conducted by Creation In Common highlights similar differences among board and staff members of Minnesota nonprofit organizations. Though both groups agree that their organization's most critical issue is the improvement of fundraising capacity, board members tend to place greater emphasis on strengthening board and staff leadership and increasing board involvement over what staff members identified as increasing participation in organizational activities and developing earned revenue opportunities. Moreover, a large number of board members stated that the greatest challenge to building a strategy was first identifying the issue, whereas staff members cited affording professional assistance as their greatest challenge. Finally, both groups disagreed about what should be the outcome of a strategic planning process. Board members are more interested in getting on "the same page" with one another and discovering the best way they can work together, and staff members want new resources identified. These findings underscore that board members tend toward creating a better process, whereas staff look forward to a better day with more resources.
These results are not surprising considering the different roles and responsibilities of the two groups. A board member becomes more deeply involved in an organization based on the experience they have and how it fulfills their own personal goals; a staff member's involvement is based on the results they can create through their daily activities. But what is startling is how this difference becomes a basic stumbling block for many organizations that try to develop effective strategies. Often strategy is created out of a need to placate potentially rancorous conversation that is at the heart of divergent points of view, rather than create positive transformational opportunities for the organization. Instead of providing greater clarity of direction and vision for the organization, the planning process itself becomes a case study of people's ability to communicate and overcome what seem to be polarizing agendas. In order to build an effective strategy board and staff must forge a stronger connection and reconcile these differences highlighted by the research and develop them into an organizational strength.
A Strategic Experience
Cultivating a strategic experience as part of the organization's daily operations will create an atmosphere that harnesses the strengths of board and staff. A strategic experience is one that instills a shared understanding of the purpose of the organization and cultivates a desire to take action as a whole. To build this experience requires looking at daily operations and identifying opportunities where board and staff members can engage one another and expand their thinking about the work they are trying to accomplish. The following are three examples of such opportunities:
Story Circle - One of the biggest problems we faced at The Playwrights' Center was a lack of institutional memory. Not the kind of memory that is easily archived in boxes, but the thoughts and feelings of key stakeholders as they came upon terrifically challenging times, survived them, overcame them and strengthened the organization as a result. Once a year, at our one-day board and staff retreat, we started with the person with the longest history with the organization to the newest board and staff member in the room and one by one told the story of The Playwrights' Center. It took two hours to complete and was by far the most important activity we did over the course of the day. It gave us a strong sense of why everyone was involved as well as helped each of us understand how our past framed the present. Each year, our history evolved always providing insight into the current challenges and opportunities we were facing.
Issue-Oriented Monthly Board Meetings - Bert did a great job of getting us through board meeting reports within a matter of minutes to leave as much time as possible for discussion on a critical issue that required everyone's attention. This is where his great skills as a facilitator took over as he helped us investigate the topic of the moment from all directions. The level of discourse among board members improved as well as communication between board and staff.
Project Leadership - Coinciding with the issue-oriented board meetings was the dissolution of most of our standing committees and reorganizing work around specific projects. To guide these projects, we built a framework called Project Leadership that allowed board and staff to submit projects for consideration. The leader of an approved project put a team together of staff, board, volunteers, vendors, and consultants. Together they created outcomes, established a timeline and developed a budget. As a result of this approach board and staff members found themselves working more closely together and traditional barriers between them began to break down. Also, a greater sense of responsibility for getting things done was shared among the leaders of projects and their teams.
Bert's statement: "Good strategic planning is about understanding 'why we are here'" has two meanings. One is about defining the organization; the other is about its people. To understand why the organization exists, you need to understand why your board and staff have come together in service of the purpose of the organization. With this understanding comes the ability to celebrate differences and activate a strategy that actualizes your collective vision for the future.
