Earlier this year, the Vantage Point board confronted a challenge many organizations face: should we press forward with renewing our strategic plan, or should we hit the pause button until we have a new executive director in place? With Denise’s planned retirement on the horizon, it would have been easy for us to hit pause. After all, wouldn’t we want to wait and involve a new executive director in developing the next phase of Vantage Point’s future? And, more practically, we were already going to be dealing with an executive director succession process, did we really need to add strategic planning to our agenda?

In spite of these concerns, we decided to move forward with our plans for a strategy renewal. I hope sharing our rationale may provide some learnings to those of you facing a similar choice. These were some of the key reasons we decided to renew our strategy ahead of a leadership transition.

1. We were on a solid strategic and operational footing. Denise’s retirement comes at a time when the organization is thriving. Our strategy had served us well, and we found ourselves in a position of mission growth and organizational evolution. In many respects, it made our strategic planning process quite straightforward as we looked at renewing and advancing, rather than recreating, our strategic focus.

2. We needed a framework to help us make strategic and operational choices. We were increasingly being confronted by opportunities and choices that were pushing us outside our existing decision-making framework. Should we expand our geographic presence? Should we invest more in advocacy? Should we grow our internal consulting staff? A renewed strategy would help both the board, and staff, choose and invest wisely.

3. We had an engaged staff team that was chomping at the bit to understand where we were going next. We are blessed with a group of super-smart professionals, passionate about growing our mission impact. We risked losing that energy and enthusiasm, and leadership, by hitting the pause button. Involving our senior staff in our discussions and decisions helped to ensure we aligned around a shared vision of the future and gave us all a renewed passion for our cause.

4. We have a board of directors who will take us into the future, most of whom were not around for the last strategic plan. As a director, it is hard to really connect with the strategy of an organization if you have not participated in its development. This provided an opportunity to engage all of us in shaping our future and deepened our commitment.

5. We wanted to give our new executive director a running start. While it is tempting to wait until a new leader is in place to embark on strategy, we risked delaying forward progress as he or she gets up to speed. Unless an organization is in crisis and the new executive director is charged with leading significant change, there is good reason to ensure a strong strategic plan is in place to guide decision-making.

Having a renewed plan allows us to look at executive director candidates with a clear view as to where we want to go, and ensures we select someone who can help take us there. Having a solid strategy in place, at all phases of an organization’s life cycle, is one of the very few critical responsibilities of the board. For us, that meant embarking on renewal at the same time as we are working through a significant leadership transition. Now that we have gone through the process, we know it was the right decision.

When I was hired as the Executive Director for CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association) Vancouver-Burnaby, I was charged with accomplishing a few key priorities, including working better with other local CMHA branches.

Formal collaboration had been discussed but was mostly stuck in the research and contemplation phase. An opportunity to bring the three local branches together presented itself through a growing fundraising event called Ride Don’t Hide. I used the event as a way to demonstrate that the local Branches could work together more closely. The Executive Directors had to meet regularly and negotiate an agreement on the often difficult subject of money. My hope was that if the branches could reach agreement on a topic as sensitive as money, they would learn how and if they could work together while building trust. The fundraiser also provided opportunities to build relationships between the boards.

In September 2014, three regional branches of the Canadian Mental Health Association – Vancouver-Burnaby, Fraser and Delta – began formally amalgamating into one branch. Once this decision was formalized, we initiated a process of change management and training with the staff teams of the founding branches.

Sharing Insights

I would advise other organizations undertaking significant change initiatives to be mindful to:

1. Know the Why. Knowing and being explicitly about why you are amalgamating is necessary. Your common mission and desire to better serve your clients and communities are strong drivers of amalgamations that can help maintain motivation through the sometimes intense workload. Saving money is unlikely; reaching higher levels of efficiency (doing more with the same resources) is often realistic, but if this is the primary reason, it is unlikely to maintain motivation and focus through the process.

2. Find a framework to equip people with de-personalized language to describe their experience. In this case, William Bridges’ model worked well as it was familiar to me, but also simple and memorable enough to be quickly picked up by a large group of people. A common language and common understanding of how people react to change makes sense for large groups.

3. Separate the technical from the adaptive pieces. It was incredibly important for us to have a very detailed operational plan and be onside with labour laws, accounting practices, and the CRA, for example. We created a master checklist, followed a plan and made sure we were on track. Tackling the technical in this way allowed greater energy and focus to be placed on the adaptive pieces of organizational culture, human relationships, and identity (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

4. Consider your timing carefully. Amalgamations should be time-bound. Nine to twelve months is likely more reasonable than the 5 months the CMHA branches gave ourselves. I would also advise against timing amalgamations to align with things like the fiscal year end or any other ‘perfect’ time. Be ready to run when the timing is right. If you wait until everything is perfect, it never will be. Be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

5. Leadership is required at both governance and staff level. What’s more, both levels of leadership need to work together. Either level could undermine the process and create unintended challenges. Working together, it’s more likely that joint solutions will emerge.

6. Separate governance decisions from operational decisions. Clarity on what the board does and does not need to decide can free their focus and ensure there is space to tackle the right questions with thoughtfulness and confidence. Building this clarity with the board before formal conversations related to amalgamation or mergers begin is very helpful as to demystify the process and reduce anxiety.

7. Leaders should embrace their strengths and find others to compensate for their weaknesses.
I found that it was important for the staff leading their change initiative to know their strengths and identify what pieces might be better handled by outside experts. CMHA had limited budget to engage consultants, so a lawyer was engaged to do legal work pro-bono, and a consultant was brought on to provide options on re-organizing the leadership team. I had significant experience in leading staff transition and leveraged that strength by facilitating staff meetings, and introducing Bridges’ model.

More and more, BC not-for-profit organizations are looking to make a greater impact through their boards. Some groups want to go beyond the typical governance practices - such as monthly meetings, Robert’s Rules of Order, and the implied expectation that directors are fiscal managers. Recently, a group reached out to Vantage Point to ask how they could support and reflect Indigenous cultural practices at the board level. There is also a rising awareness to support and reflect the diversity of our communities in our boards.

At Vantage Point, we believe good board governance goes beyond basic fiduciary responsibilities. But to take things to the next level, we also emphasize the importance of board leadership (best described in the Governance as Leadership framework). This approach pushes boards towards strategic discussions and a more visionary perspective – beyond fiduciary oversight.

We held a discussion session within our community to explore this topic. What would governance look like that empowers communities? How can organizations that exist to support specific populations include diverse communities in a meaningful way? What are the cultural means of governing not-for-profit societies? In the discussion, we quickly realized we had more questions than answers.

Here are some key questions that we’re going to explore:

• How can we understand governance as responsibility to community¸ rather than (or in addition to!) fiduciary responsibility?
• How do we equip different population groups to participate on boards?
• How can we bring different perspectives to the board, rather than different representatives? (an important distinction!)
• How do we ensure cultural safety, humility, and an ability to make mistakes at the board level?
• What does love and emotion look like in the board room?

We also took inspiration from Hildy Gottlieb’s article Governing for What Matters (Community-Driven Governance) to focus in on what really matters when it comes to board governance. This inspired a conversation about what governance is fundamentally all about. These two items were added to our list:

• Boards exist to share power
• Boards exist to make decisions

We’ve got a lot to explore going forward, but we agreed that it is more important to be willing to take some first steps before all the answers are in place.

What is your board’s governance meant to achieve? What could governance look like in your organization, if it focused on what really matters?

Imagine a community service organization with no explicit policy manual on customer communications. Yet somehow, whenever the phone rings or someone walks in the front door, whichever staff member is in the office stops what they’re doing to provide immediate assistance, regardless of that person’s role in the organization. How does this happen? How does a particular pattern of behaviour become consistent across a diverse team?

Organizational culture has a tremendous influence on the work of your organization, and the impact your team has on the community. Culture can be understood as the practices and behaviours that permeate all of your work as a team. How do you behave with each other? How do you talk about and organize activities together as a group? What have clients, funders, and partners come to expect of your organization when working together? What do you want them to expect when they work with your team?

For some organizations, a culture of open sharing and communication is critical. For others, it may be more appropriate for team members to minimize interruptions from one another. Ideally, the culture of your organization should align with the work that you do. Think of the impact you are looking to have on the community. Is your focus on accessible services for a particular age group? Do you provide a safe space for creative artists to incubate new ideas? Is education or advocacy your focus?

Different cultural practices will impact each of these activities in different ways. It is important to think about how your practices and behaviours will support your intended impact on the community your organization serves. Culture does not change easily, but explicitly acknowledging your team’s cultural practices can reveal new opportunities to work together differently.

In your next team meeting, ask your colleagues some of the questions above. The answers may surprise you, and will serve as an important reminder of how much impact each and every one of us can have on the work of our organizations.

Taking the time to update or develop your organization’s strategic plan can often feel daunting. There are, however, numerous benefits to having a current and clear strategic plan for your organization. Whether you do a quick refresh session or undertake a comprehensive review – here are some of the benefits we hear from organization’s that take the time to develop or renew their plan:

1. Attract more resources to your organization (yes that means more $). Time and time again we hear from not-for-profit groups that by clarifying key priorities for a defined time frame (2, 3 or 4 years), and getting commitment from staff, board members, and volunteers, new targets for revenue, volunteer engagement, and partnerships are achieved. By getting everyone on the same page you’ll move toward your resource targets more quickly.

2. Connect and engage with all the people involved in your organization. Your funders, donors, volunteers, and staff, all love your organization. By engaging them in a strategic planning process you can deepen their commitment to your organization, and re-connect with all those who contribute or have been impacted by your work. (Check out this podcast on effective stakeholder engagement)

3. Decide what you can stop doing. Not-for-profits are notorious for stretching programs beyond their core purpose, and carrying out activities simply because “that’s what they’ve always done”. Having an explicit discussion about what activities to drop will free up new and different resources you never knew you had, and improve your impact in the areas aligned with your core purpose. If you do this well, you can even free up some time for some much needed self-care!

4. Get excited about why you exist. The work we do is hard. It’s not easy to keep the passion for your programs when you’re faced with to-do lists that never seem to end. Talking about, and confirming, your core purpose (why your organization exists) can get your whole team excited and reinvigorated for your work. They can also discover new ways to work together with each other, and with your board, volunteers, and supporters!

5. Figure out how to communicate your impact. Many funders, donors, and even volunteers are asking about how to measure and understand the impact of not-for-profit organizations. If you take the time to share the key stories, your theory of change, or the areas where you can document the changes that have happened in the world as a result of your work, you’ll uncover new approaches as well as supporters for your organization’s activities.

Vantage Point can support your organization with your strategic planning process. Learn more about our strategic planning consulting and download our One Page Strategic Plan resource.