The Clock is Ticking for America's Nonprofits

How to Lead a Creative Life, is the title of Rick Tetzeli's article on Martin Scorsese in this month's FAST COMPANY magazine. I've been thinking this summer and fall on this topic, leading a creative life, as I spent hundreds of hours learning to build a website, to create graphics, and understand how really important words become when you are publishing into the world wide web. Now that I have officially launched www.OpenSky-wi.net, I have gone "viral" with my creativity and philosophy, and was relieved to read Martin's own thoughts about creativity that you share with a larger audience. For me, the audience may only be as large as my family and friends. (Oh, please, please let this not be so, please at least have a few hundred near-strangers check it out, and like it.) For Martin, it is the entire movie and entertainment industry.

And surprise! This amazingly successful director still panics about deadlines, worries about funding, whether his supervisors will approve, whether he will ever get to create another movie after the one he is creating now (like if this one is a flop). Will his vision get into the final product, how does he say "yes" at the right time or "no" when he should or needs to?

Reading through Tetzeli's piece, it struck me again how the concept of great leadership, even good leadership trails through all walks of life, down every corridor, in every gathering, for every great endeavor that people push to complete, to attain. Several of the qualities of leadership that we've already talked about in our blog, on our website, or in our videos, are true of Scorsese. Respect the past. Appreciate the contributions of those who have come before you. Understand yourself, as an individual, as a human being and as a leader. Trust your confidants. Understand power and how to fight, contain and use it. When needed, understand how to participate in the institution. Defy the pressures of others when you must, when you know your vision, your value, your course is correct, is best. Most importantly, develop other outlets for your creativity, so you don't burn out.

Creativity needs to be shared, challenged, played out in more than one space. Which is why I learned to build cartoons on the way to creating videos, tools for boards and leadership retreats and workshops.

It is the season of creativity. For the nonprofit world, creativity may be the only means we have of meeting the challenge of 12 hours to save the world; that's the average number of hours any one board member spends in a year on the efforts of your nonprofit.

Thank you, FAST COMPANY, for inspiring me one more time. The Clock is Ticking.

90 Days Later we have a Website --- 3 months!

Up until this summer/fall, I was used to suggesting, emailing, pleading, begging and haranguing tech staff to add things to the website of what ever organization at which I was working at the time. And then........

I started my open entity, and suddenly was faced with needing to develop a website. Being conscious of the cost of these things, and being wedded to the "free" tech support I was receiving with my Mac extended warranty, I decided to build the website for OpenSky-wi on my "own" using their weekly personal project sessions and their IWeb, etc, programming. Which meant, of course, that it would be my fingers and my brain staying up late, getting lost for weeks inside shapes and animation, learning about hyperlinks and all sorts of other connections for which I needed new contracts and new user codes and passwords.

I've been trying for weeks to make the acquaintance I-Movie and YouTube, but could never become friends with either of them, though sometimes they tolerated me enough to let me slide in the door to stand awkwardly in the dark lobby.

90 days, 3 months or 3 of the 12 days we have to save the world each year, the Website is launched, and I'm only finding 4 or 5 kinks each day. Of course I will eventually have it hosted with a stronger server, but I am happy now that it is up and running, out there in the public space for everyone's comments, criticisms and thoughts of "what is she thinking about?"

What I came to realize is when you are building a new organization and you are the builder, you move from being a private person always presenting the "company" to others, to having to really open up and present yourself. Even if you are a leader of one or two or three, you still have to get up each morning and lead the charge to the next hillside.

And that is what I have found, building a website or building an organization is a series of hills that you must scale, "take", and then there is another hill, and another hill. A helicopter doesn't show up out there somewhere at the edge of your wilderness and provide you a free ride to milk and honey or paradise or even a building on Park Avenue. And some days you can only see the hill behind you and maybe the base of the hill ahead of you, and some days there is only fog, Then every once in a while you scale a hill, and it's a bit higher and harder, but once on top, you realize you can see the next three hills out there, can actually see there is a path to the other side of where you are trying to arrive.

So, many apologies for any of my past behaviors to any of my past tech people at those other places of employment.

And now, I can actually get back to blogging and creating public will to change the world.

Have a good day, take a long walk and smell the fall air. I know that is where I am off to right now!

You Chose to Live and Face the New Day

Again, I heard that phrase this morning. "Some nonprofits should die. In a business environment, bad managers and poor operations will die naturally. So should nonprofits."

Those of you who have read some of my work know that phrase drives me wild. Because attached to it is the implied or stated introduction or completion --- it's someone else's problem and no one in a community has the role of "management police" --- no one is minding the store for the bad managers. There is no answer to the query on where does the responsibility lay, to call out those who are "dying" because of bad management, not because their cause is poor or their mission is wrong or those for whom they are striving are not deserving enough?

I happen to believe that there is a difference between organizations that are "not-for-profit" and are "for-profit", a very big and distinct difference. For profit is clear --- we are opening a business in order to make money for ourselves, to make a profit for any investors, and to focus on the bottom line. We are employers, but we are also profit seekers.

What is the bottom line for non profits? What is the profit they seek? It should be set down in their mission and purpose, and these are what should draw individuals and supporters to their cause --- to change the world, to provide services and hope and opportunities that help others lift themselves out of whatever peril they face. So, we measure the profit of a NFP on the value they are creating for those they state they are helping. And to honor the dollars that have been given for this purpose, we can't afford an attitude of "they'll die if they aren't managed well."

So, if you chose today to live another day as a manager or board member of a not-for-profit, then face what really is going on in the organization and don't let it die from neglect, ignorance, exhaustion, or creaking old bones.

Kick Your Way Out of That Silo

If you have rolled out of bed and are now out the door and crawling across the surface of life, if you are moving in any direction, please make sure it is forward. If you are heading in the right direction, then hand-pull by hand-pull, knee by knee, you will get someplace. If you are facing the right way, you may get to that space your cranium once dreamed of seeing.

But we can't get there alone. The greatest drain I'm seeing among leaders of nonprofits is the loneliness of what they have begun to believe is their personal long distance run to nowhere. The very scope, complexity, or continuous build-up of tasks and roles, take their toll in a growing isolation and building of a tall narrow silo. The energy necessary to even think of how they will tackle one more activity blocks out the sun, and rather than shift those activities to others, they just say they have to do more. They lose the very voice their members need from them, the voice of collaboration, health and willingness to let go of being in charge of day to day.

Kick out of the silo. Spend part of each day considering who would be helpful for each task or responsibility that must be fulfilled in the next month, season, year. Ask people to support something, ask people to join in answering a need. Make a list and then give away the sole role. Make it a goal that at the end of one month you'll have brought 3 volunteers into the organization who are tackling one or more tasks. Make a goal, an audacious goal to demand that you learn, and the organization, learns to work in an entirely different model of service and leadership; set the goal that at the end of the year there will be 50 new volunteers working to meet the objectives and purpose, doing real work and bringing strength. This new model will leave you able to again be the valued and astute leader, and not the isolated overpaid drudge you've been dragging around on your back for too long.

And you can begin to remember why you took that job in the first place. Because you were excited at what were the possibilities. And this is the real possibility - each person who joins with you brings 6 opportunities along with them.

Be aware. And dare to be well.

10,000 Steps or 10,000 Hours - Either Way You Better be moving

10,000 steps a day is what we're being told is the key to health and long life. 10,000 hours, per Gladwell, is the key to achieving excellence in any one pursuit. Both numbers relate to our need to be active and focused and not give up after a few days or a few hours, a few months or a few years.

10,000 hours at 50 hours per week (for those who jump in deep) equals 200 weeks, with time off for vacation, illness, family breaks, etc, that is approximately 4 years to become exceptional. Having worked with staff and leaders around the country, I was slightly amused to do the math and find it met what I'd been saying - it takes four years to turn around an organization and transition from new leader to accepted leader to appreciated and admired leader, both as an individual and/or as an organization. Given these facts, we all need to consider and address the debilitating drain on our nonprofit human service system by the constant turnover in staff and lack of consistency in boards.

Start today to assess where you are going and how you are going to get there. Plan out how you are going to spend the next 10,000 hours on your purpose in order to bring exceptional services or outcomes to those whom you are hoping and planning to delight --- your customers, friends, funders and staff.

Put on the jogging shoes, the t-shirt and get moving! I'll see you at the next intersection.

Leaders Buiild Bridges for and to Other Leaders

How do you keep your board members focused during the "12 hours to save the world" on strategies, planning, and funding development outside the office and away from sticking their hands around operational management issues?

I saw this question on another professional network site, or a close version to my statement anyway.

The short answer for me is that honesty is the best policy, just tell it like it is, with good job and responsibility descriptions, clarity in the bylaws and policies and even good graphics that hang around the walls during meetings.

But if the staff leadership cannot come up with real action plans/volunteer opportunities for the board to grab hold of around issues of strategic outcomes and funding and friends development, then there are only two options:

1. Staff leadership has to spend the time to do so AND/OR pay for help from mentors and wise folks to teach them the ropes OR

2. Staff leadership just has to change. Well, in effect, they have to change anyway, either through #1 or through this option, #2 leader-out and another leader-in. And this is painful even when it turns out to the best outcome.

Remember --- you want to be the leader and that is why you applied, competed for and made it to the role of leader.

So learn to lead in many different ways. True, you are not the chair of the board, but you are the guide -- the bridge between the board and the organization, just as the board should be the bridge between the organization and the larger community, business, schools, providers, peers, advocates, funders, and services.

Take on the really productive challenge of bringing meaningful learning and action opportunities for the board, understand why they joined the organization, how they want to focus their time, insert hope and recognition and GET YOUR ORGANIZATION'S name and adventures in the news -- in the media.

If you have things happening on the outside, and if you bring strategic planning and decision making opportunities to your board, so they are busy, engaged and believe their 12 hours each year are really productive and meaningful and they see the progress in both dollars and recognition/reputation --- well, they really won't have time to put their hands inside NOR probably think they need to.

A board that senses that things are going well, that reports are presented and information provided on a timely and meaningful basis, and their time and ideas and energy is solicited for meaningful progress and success for the organization is a board that doesn't begin blurring the edges of roles and responsibilities.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - 12 Hours to Save the World

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Yes....I had an amazing thought this morning as I replayed images from several sessions as an observer of another organization's board meetings over the past year.

Why do board meetings sometimes feel like the gunfight at the O.K. Corral? What are the particular conditions that create the tension, the waiting, the undercurrents, the glancing to see if there is the possibility of an ambush from someone on the sidelines, an unknown action from an unanticipated supporting character, perhaps even someone you took for a supernumerary (one with no lines in a movie) until they unloaded the double barrel shotgun.

Here are a few possibilities from the director to motivate the actors:

• "History" between the lead characters and others involved

• The peccadilloes of the main characters

• Misrepresentation of the facts of each side

• The hero got his job from whom he knew and not what he'd done

• The challenger(s) wanted someone else to have the job

• A bad hair day

• The level of drinking done by any or all of the characters the night before

• A debt owed to someone on the street or in the back room

• Rumors

• What the wife, husband, partner said just before the character left for the saloon

And here are some possibiliites on how the shootout will go down

• Hero forgets to load his gun in the excitement of getting to the corral

• Hero arrives late, as usual, only this time he walks into the full ambush, something he just didn't see coming

• Folks on main street are tired of the whole thing and just step back and watch or don't even show up for the event

• Hero has planned for this possibility and has extra deputies on hand to shout down the hub-bub

• The judge behind the scenes issues an arrest warrant for either the hero(s) or the challenger(s) or everyone

• A thunderstorm or a snow storm forces the show-down to be postponed

• At the last minute, a witness shows up with evidence that it is someone in the other town who has been causing all the rumors and lies and misunderstandings and everyone goes off to ambush the next town

• The hero is wounded and has to retire to recover; if he ever will awaits to be known

• The challenger is wounded and slinks off with his followers to the back of the corral to whisper and plot again

• The challenger proves the hero is the bad guy, runs him out of town, and takes the day

• The hero survives being wounded because he came prepared to have an open dialogue with any and all and was able to be both apologetic for any misunderstandings and to be strong and "leader-like" to the crowd; i.e. came with proof, with a plan, and with all the spreadsheets and secrets laid out in full disclosure AND with a mighty set of friends.

Well, we want to all choose the last bullet. But if we're not sure how we're going to actually get out of the predicatment of the O.K. Corral, we need help to keep our jobs and keep our town alive and in-tact.

You did want to be the hero, didn't you? Why else would you take on the job of leading?!!!!!