REIMAGINING YOUR ORGANIZATION
Nick Saul
1 Listen
2 Create a plan (but donât always stick to it)
3 Embrace your inner entrepreneur
4 Remember: itâs competitive out there
5 Contribute to public policy conversations; donât get swallowed up by service delivery
SUCCESSFULLY REIMAGINING A non-profit organization isnât simple. Part determination, part optimism and part good fortune, the process requires a great board and staff, a lot of strategic listening, a willingness to take risks, and relentless incrementalism â for all change takes time.
When I arrived at The Stop in 1998, it was a straightforward food bank: three staff members in a small space, a few programs and a very modest budget. Today weâre a full-fledged community food centre with 35 to 40 staff, two locations, multiple programs and a budget ten times what it once was.
There was no silver bullet, no âmiracle growâ that got us there. But there are some ideas weâve refined along the way that help articulate our approach to change.
1Listen
It sounds obvious, but it isnât easy to pull off. Listening isnât just a matter of sending out feelers once every four years when you put together a strategic plan: it needs to be habitual, part of your organizational DNA. You listen to be relevant and responsive, and also because it demonstrates that you value people and their ideas, that members of your community have something to say and that youâre willing to listen. Organizations that listen well feel and look very different than those that donât.
At the beginning of The Stopâs reinvention we did a lot of listening: to partner organizations, funders, staff and â most importantly â the community, the people who walked through our doors on a regular basis. Since then weâve held community dinners, hosted impromptu town halls, issued an annual survey, conducted focused conversations with community leaders and noted the day-to-day feedback staff receive as they deliver services.
That last point is essential: staff need to be open to hearing both the good and the bad, and have mechanisms for relaying that feedback to the organizational leadership â through staff meetings, reports, logs, year-end program evaluations and so on. Pay particular attention to your teamâs own feedback as well. Create space for the generation of new ideas and for discussion: encourage staff to walk into your office, take time to solicit comments at staff meetings, make an open-ended conversation part of your annual board-staff retreat. Good ideas are lurking everywhere.
Still, not every idea is a good one; as a leader you need a plan, something that will filter and rein in the many suggestions that are out there. Which brings us to . . .
2Create a plan (but donât always stick to it)
Listening followed up with honest evaluation is what produces a plan. A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of all the feedback and ideas you receive will help you create a roadmap that is clear â for both internal and external purposes â about your goals and the initiatives that will best help you meet them.
Make your plan fairly broad, because youâll need room to manoeuvre, to tweak and refine your implementation, within the broad aims that you set. Also, remember that plans are important, but they are never perfect: a plan is always a work in progress. Donât get so caught up in making your plan that you stall before taking action, and donât let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Your plan needs to be yours â this is one thing you cannot outsource. While you might hire an outside consultant to help facilitate your planning process, at the end of the day you need to write your plan yourself and fully own it. Because your plan will inform your organizationâs entire development, this is one area you really want to micromanage. And once your plan is written, make it public. Itâll help clarify your activities for your stakeholders and community members. (I am always surprised at how few organizations do this.)
When you start to implement your plan, something interesting is going to happen: youâll start to say no to things and feel good about that, because youâll know why youâre saying no. Youâll have clarity of purpose and direction, and that will enable you to make smart choices.
3Embrace your inner entrepreneur
Non-profits need to be as opportunistic and nimble as possible: the landscape in which you are delivering services can shift quickly, and unforeseen opportunities will arise. You must be willing to be bold and think big.
Non-profits need to be as opportunistic and nimble as possible.
At The Stop, our biggest moment of boldness came with the investment in the Green Barn: a full-service food facility that includes a greenhouse, kitchen, classroom and office space. We recognized that it was a calculated risk, but we embraced it â we did our homework and concluded that the Green Barn was an incredible opportunity, one we couldnât afford to miss. It was too good a chance to put our food work on the map and to create a bigger platform to tell our story. We felt strongly that it would attract the a...
