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Category :: Board Development
Last weekend, I had the honor of facilitating a planning retreat for the LA Urban Rangers. It went really well! One thing the Rangers did which is often overlooked in planning these retreats, is that they selected a site outside the City of Los Angeles. We met at the Sedgewick Reserve, which is part of the UC Natural Reserve System, and is about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara.
While we worked hard during the day to define mission and new projects, we all had the opportunity to unwind during a sunset hike. We also had time to chat by the campfire and enjoy the beautiful landscape that surrounded us. By balancing the busy workload with being in a faraway place, we managed to get a lot of work done.
For any organization planning a board or staff retreat, I recommend picking a site that feels far away from the day to day stresses of Los Angeles. While it means more work logistically, it usually leads to stronger results in accomplishing whatever your agenda is, as well as providing the space for participants to build stronger relationships with each other.
Earlier in the week, I facilitated a portion of a strategic planning process with the board and staff of Cultivating Sustainable Communities, an organization working on transforming Los Angeles into a sustainable City. Having already worked with the group to develop a new vision and mission, we then took some time to discuss and decide what the collective values of the organization were.
Everyone comes to an organization with their own set of values, which guide them in their actions and decision making. What’s important is for an organization’s leadership to decide on what their common values are. Why? Because these values will play a key role in guiding the organization as it moves forward. The values will help them decide how to prioritize their work, and help them with the process of making difficult decisions. It will also shape how they interact with whoever they come into contact with.
After a brainstorm, we listed about 30 different values. We then combined like values and boiled them down to six general categories. From this list, we decided the key value for each category and came up with six values. From this list, they whittled it down to five guiding values for Cultivating Sustainable Communities, which everyone was really excited about. I’m inspired by their choices and am really excited to see how these values shape the future work of the organization.
Mission and Vision statements are critical pieces to any successful nonprofit organization. After all, everything else the nonprofit does flows from these two all important questions.
An organization’s leadership can spend countless hours brainstorming, refining and deciding its mission and vision. Earlier this evening, I worked with one of my clients, Cultivating Sustainable Communities, to craft a new vision statement.
After working with the organization’s leadership to brainstorm different aspects of what should be included in the vision, we narrowed it down to four major themes. Given that we had already been working together as a group for more than an hour, I suggested we break up the larger group and have each small group work on creating a sentence for one of the major themes identified.
This worked quite well! Within fifteen minutes, each group developed a proposed sentence which we combined on a sheet of paper for everyone to see. Together, we then refined the vision and explored one more theme to work on. At this point, I suggested we split the group into two, one to refine the sentences we had already posted and one to add a new sentence. Fifteen minutes later, we came back together as a group and after reviewing it, agreed unanimously in concept that folks were excited about this vision, and that the only work left was some final language refinements.
As a facilitator, I’m constantly looking for the best structure to assist with the decision making process. I believe that breaking up the larger group into smaller groups not only led to a decision made in less time, but that it also creating an even more engaging space for all board members to participate in the decision making process. Both the board and I are very pleased with the results.
I recently had the honor of facilitating a board/staff retreat for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. After a day and a half, the organization’s leadership not only decided its annual goals and objectives, but they also built stronger relationships with each other that will fuel their work as they work to improve the bicycling environment and quality of life in Los Angeles County.
Why have a facilitator? First, having an outside facilitator gives everyone else in the organization’s leadership the opportunity to participate in the decision making process. Second, a facilitator helps the group stay on track and make the key decisions it needs to make. Too often, a group can stray from it’s agreed upon agenda. While a group may have had a good discussion, if no key decisions were made, then the time could have been used more effectively. While my role is to help the group reach a decision, at no point am I ever telling the group what decision to make. That’s the group’s role. My role is to help get them to that point.
By the end of the Bike Coalition retreat, everyone was excited to move forward. They worked hard during the entire retreat and at the end of the day, came to consensus on how they should move forward. I wish them the best and also look forward to writing more about more detailed aspects of facilitation in future blogs.
Greetings,
Welcome to my new website! In addition to describing the services I provide, background on my experience and my past clients, I’m excited to launch a blog where I will share with you valuable lessons I’ve learned about nonprofit management over the last 11 years. Every week, my goal is to capture a bit of wisdom I’ve learned that will hopefully be a resource to you and your organization. Over time, I hope to build an online library that you can access anytime, on a series of different topics. If there are certain areas you would like for me to address, or questions you have, please email them to me. If you would like to discuss any of these areas in greater detail, please contact me. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Ron
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