by Fred Darbonne Because nonprofit organizations are so passionate about their mission, and often stretched to maintain their operations, it can be difficult to break away and climb to the “balcony” (Ronald Heifetz, 1998) for a fresh perspective. From the balcony, leaders can look down on the “dance floor” and see how the parts interact to produce the whole guest experience. There…
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By Fred Darbonne Nonprofit organizations generate different forms of capital than commercial enterprises, making it easy to underestimate their operating environment. In commercial enterprises, the structure is clear: produce a product or a service that the customer needs, hopefully do this better than your competitors, and the customer exchanges money for what you offer. Of course, there are layers of…
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By Fred Darbonne Stakeholders can blindside leaders with resistance to their strategic plans. Perhaps the leadership team met on a retreat with a consultant who stimulated their thinking with provocative questions. Possibilities emerged which they had never considered, and they identified resources they had not seen as capital. As they collaborated, comradery strengthened their team and fostered trust. They anticipated…
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“Customer service shouldn’t be a department; it should be the entire company,” said Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos (@zappos). A key organizational competency is a strategic focus on meeting the needs of our primary customers or clients. Without customers, an audience, clients, a loyal following, or others we are trying to reach, we have no viable organization. Still, organizations are…
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Organizations can suffer learning disabilities that prevent them from capitalizing on their experience, as Peter Senge argued in his classic The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. Strategic planning develops a baseline organizational knowledge that helps its leaders enhance their strengths, recognize and improve weaknesses, be agile enough to seize opportunities, and mitigate potential threats and…
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At business and networking events, after answering the inevitable “What do you do?” I’m often asked, “So, what is strategic planning?” The question is understandable for nonprofits pressed with daily management issues and resource limitations. Those matters push planning down the list of priorities. For those who have experienced strategic planning processes that were poorly conducted or included no clear…
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