Posts Tagged ‘measuring performance’
Facilitating Strategic Planning for Social Impact
. Over the last few months, I have posted a series of articles on strategic planning for nonprofit and social sector agencies. Not surprising, a number of potential client calls are from folks looking for facilitation and process support for strategic planning. Indeed in this anemic economy, many nonprofit agencies find ...Read More
Facilitating Meaningful Differences between Vision and Mission
. As a facilitator I work with a range of social sector organizations on strategic and business planning processes. In my work, I often encounter ambiguity about the difference between a vision and mission statement. In some cases, I will hear an executive director or board chair say something like, “Our ...Read More
Facilitating a High Performing Board
. Recently, I have been working on several different projects that involve nonprofit board development issues ranging from staffing a board, to recruiting board members, and improving the effectiveness of boards. My recent work has led me to filter my experience through a review of the literature on the characteristics of ...Read More
Facilitating Models of Social Impact
. I will confess that I am a visual learner. I like to not only see the big picture but to be able to draw it as well. This inclination towards a visual process has served me well in facilitation. In fact, I have staked out the position that visual learning is ...Read More
Measuring Network Effects in Community Engagement
. At the most basic level all facilitated group processes can and should be measured across the two dimensions of process and outcomes. Process examines the road you took to get to where you wanted to end up, and outcomes measure whether or not you got to your destiny. In one ...Read More
Workplan Development Process
. I believe that a workplan is a critical component of process improvement but is often under-resourced in the planning process. For example, I was recently asked to facilitate a meeting for an interdepartmental team that was in the early stages of operationalzing a major quality improvement initiative. The described goal ...Read More
Goals and Objectives Matter
. Recently, I was asking a team for their feedback on the goals and objectives for an approaching meeting and one team member emailed me, “I always get confused by the differences between goals and objectives but here is what I want out of the meeting.” As I read these words ...Read More
Data Drives Everything
. In addition to facilitation and process the recurring themes of this blog also include discussions of performance, measurement and agency capacity, with a focus on the government and nonprofit sector. Recently I was in a conversation with a colleague where we were discussing the keys to sustainable nonprofit growth. ...Read More
Agency Capcity, Resource Development Planning & Fundraising
. A few years back, I directed a larger national training project that worked extensively with non-profits on fundraising, capacity building, and resource development planning. One of the challenges of this work was that there was a surprising lack of a common vocabulary describing the the differences between the three terms. ...Read More
A Workplan as a Facilitation and Performance Tool
. Elsewhere on this blog, I have written about the importance of a meeting agenda and the importance of having meaningful meeting minutes and meeting minutes. Agendas and minutes are the backbone of effective meetings and are the mechanisms for accountability, shared expectations and tracking progress. The backbone, however, needs ...Read More