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    You are here Home » strategy

    How Nonprofit Leaders Can Use Strategy and Technology to Enhance Organization’s Performance

    Last updated on Apr 25, 2013 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post by Harrison Coerver:

    Many membership
    organizations and not-for-profits are struggling to maintain their relevance in
    today’s fast changing environment. 
    Unprecedented competition, higher expectations, accelerating technology,
    changing preferences and time pressures are all converging to create a
    challenging landscape.  At the root of
    the problem: weak, hidebound board leadership.

    Given the strong role that
    not-for-profit boards have in directing their organizations, it is difficult
    for volunteer leaders to not to take responsibility for the plight of these
    groups.  Many boards of membership and
    voluntary organizations share three characteristics that hamstring their
    leadership.

    First, most boards are not
    composed for performance.  Directors are
    selected based on who they know, what interest they represent or how long they
    have been hanging around.  Let’s face it;
    many on boards are along for the ride. 
    They have superficial levels of involvement and they engage in “social
    loafing” -- the propensity of those in large groups to default to a smaller
    group to carry the workload.  While there
    are leaders on boards, there are not enough of them.

    Second, board leadership
    rarely holds themselves or their peers accountable.  Admittedly, it is difficult to challenge a
    non-performing director that is volunteering their time.  But, tolerating slackers marginalizes the
    efforts of true leaders intent on advancing the organization’s mission.

    Third, tradition – not
    strategy – is the master of most non-profits. 
    This year’s board does what last year’s board did.  Officers perpetuate time-honored programs and
    legacy processes.  There is a lot of talk
    about “strategic boards” and “strategic thinking,” but most nonprofits are
    driven by convention and “the way we’ve always done it” mentality.  Traditions have a stranglehold on most tax
    exempts.

    Membership, civic, and
    charitable organizations are in a race for relevance.  To win, it requires leadership that can craft
    and execute strategy: skillful, creative, and disciplined use of resources to
    achieve their objectives.  Strategy
    doesn’t just happen.  It requires
    leadership, focus, and work.  Successful
    nonprofits will embrace the following three approaches to succeed:


    1. Small, competency-based boards with rigorous director selection
    Most boards are too
    large.  They are cumbersome and consume
    an inordinate amount of staff time.  A
    five-member board is likely to be most effective in many cases.  And, directors need to be carefully selected
    based on predetermined
    criteria.  For starters, ask “What are the major
    opportunities and challenges we will encounter in the next five years?”  Then ask, “What kind of directors will be best
    suited to govern (“direct and control”) the organization given those
    opportunities and challenges?”


    This takes time and
    effort, but think of the time and effort costs of underperforming boards.  It will be well worth the effort.  For those who pushback at a five member
    board, please show me a large board where the Executive Committee does not do
    the lion’s share of the work anyway.


    2. Strategy-driven vs. tradition-driven governance
    Boards that perform will recognize
    the risks associated with clinging to obsolete programs and processes that once
    served them well, but now threaten their relevance.  They will assess their true strengths and
    areas where they excel, and concentrate their scarce resources on them like
    never before.  To do so will require them
    to say “no” – something politicians can’t do, but leaders know they must.  Losing focus in today’s environment is a
    prescription for failure.


    Directors on effective
    boards will eliminate waste by understanding the cost of an activity and effort
    that doesn’t deliver value or advance the organization towards its mission.
    They will eliminate unproductive effort, just as manufacturers eliminated waste
    in the production process to compete in global markets.  Many tax-exempts are overweight and out of
    shape, yet vying with lean and nimble competitors.


    Non-profit leaders of
    tomorrow will know that purposefully discontinuing programs and activities that
    have outlived their usefulness frees up resources for innovation.  They can’t continue to add new services,
    events, and initiatives year after year without spreading resources too thin
    and marginalizing performance in all of them. 
    Leaders will learn that at times you need to “shrink to grow” as did
    General Motors when it eliminated Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer
    to focus on Cadillac and Chevrolet.


    3. The technology imperative
    Many associations and
    non-profits have been slow to adopt technology in a world that is rapidly going
    digital.  Members, donors, policymakers,
    and volunteers alike are constantly using technology from apps to streaming
    video to social media.  They expect
    non-profits to use the same technologies they are accustomed to in their
    day-to-day lives.  Ignoring the imperative
    and potential of technology is a short cut to irrelevance.

    Change is particularly
    difficult when organizations have decades of operating based on long-standing
    traditions.  But, as someone tweeted
    recently during my keynote speech, “If you don’t like change, you’ll like
    irrelevance even less.”  Association and
    not-for-profit leaders will understand the tradeoffs involved and make the
    necessary changes with a sense of urgency.

    About the author:
    Harrison Coerver is an
    internationally recognized strategy and planning consultant and bestselling
    co-author of Race for Relevance: 5
    Radical Changes for Associations
    (
    www.raceforrelevance.com) and Road to Relevance:
    5 Strategies for Competitive Associations
    (
    www.roadtorelevance.com).  He can be reached at harrison@harrisoncoerver.com or 239.281.1691
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