Honored to spend time last week facilitating a strategic planning retreat with the talented and committed Board members of CASA of Lexington. Their vision is a community where every child lives and thrives in a safe, caring and permanent home. They are getting there one child at a time!
I was honored to deliver the morning keynote presentation today at The Kentucky Association of Systemic Therapists (KAST) conference. KAST is a nonprofit organization that supports the needs of marriage and family therapists and systemically oriented therapists in the state of Kentucky. Great to be with you this morning KAST leaders!
Through my partnership with Leadership Strategies, thoroughly enjoyed facilitating a team retreat this week with the leadership team of Gun Lake Tribe. The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) is part of the historic Three Fires Confederacy, an alliance of the Pottawatomi (Bodewadmi), Ottawa (Odawa) and Chippewa (Ojibwe). I am inspired by the richness of their culture and commitment to govern with excellence and thoughtfulness.
Through my partnership with DCM Associates, I am pleased to share that we have brought the search for a COO for Vista Care to a successful conclusion. Dave Sneddon has been selected as the next COO for Wisconsin-based Vista Care. I want to extend my congratulations to Dave and the Vista Care team and my gratitude to my search partner Yvonne Styles, who so skillfully and thoughtfully led this search.
Last week I thoroughly enjoyed facilitating a multi-day Board retreat in Estes Park, Colorado with the talented team from National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA). After facilitating their strategic plan back in February, it was inspiring to see how much this team has already accomplished. NDPA elevates awareness to educate, advocate, innovate, and equip to prevent drownings.
Join me on Thursday, August 31 at 11am ET as I will be leading a webinar sponsored by Leadership Strategies entitled “From Vision to Values - Translating Your Philosophy Into Identity.”
Learn how to:
☑️ Craft a compelling vision statement
☑️ Discover your company's core values
☑️ Implement values-based decision-making
☑️ Turn vision into action for tangible results
I am proud to serve as a member of the Core Team at Leadership Strategies, which is the #1 facilitation company in the U.S. Don't miss this chance to excel through strategic visioning. Reserve your spot now!
Thank you to the Board and leadership team of Great Kids for inviting me to facilitate last week’s 2-day Board retreat in Philadelphia. Great Kids is an international leader in early childhood development. Great Kids creates early childhood education curricula and training for home visiting programs who support families.
Thank you NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association — for the invitation to speak at the first session of your Summer Symposium in Jacksonville, Florida. I throughly enjoyed moderating a panel discussion on Board governance and community engagement and leading sessions on developing healthy, engaged, and inspired Board members. See you next week in Minneapolis for the second session!
A thoughtful strategic plan informs the direction of the organization, generates heightened ownership of the mission, and inspires staff, board, and the community to envision bold possibilities. Honored to facilitate a strategic planning retreat with the incredible team from Kentucky CASA Network. Court Appointed Special Advocate® (CASA) volunteers are community members, just like you, who stand up and speak out to help abused and neglected children. The Kentucky CASA Network is committed to providing resources, technical assistance, and advocacy for the local CASA programs across Kentucky.
Partnering with purpose driven organizations to inform, engage, and inspire their Board members energizes me every single day. I was honored to facilitate a Board retreat with the team from CIT International recently and equally honored to receive this heartwarming testimonial. I encourage everyone to learn more about their inspiring work to improve community responses to mental health crises by visiting their web site: CIT International
Responding to those in crisis requires a community partnership of law enforcement, mental health and substance use professionals, individuals, and families. Last week I had the privilege of facilitating a multi-day Board retreat with the team from CIT International. CIT International aspires to be a leader in promoting safe and humane responses to those experiencing a mental health crisis.
Leading in the present means understanding the ever evolving ecosystem around your organization. It was my pleasure to facilitate a long-range planning session with the Board of Walden School. Walden School provides an educational environment - both academic and social - that fosters a lifelong enthusiasm for learning and challenges individual students to reach their full potential so they may flourish in a diverse and changing world.
Thank you to Nonprofits LEAD and Marietta College for the invitation to speak at yesterday’s conference. Thoroughly enjoyed leading a session entitled Mission Ambassadors: Developing Effective and Empowered Ambassadors. It was so inspiring to be among so many talented and committed nonprofit leaders and funders!
A thoughtful Board retreat informs, engages, and inspires Board members. This week, I enjoyed facilitating a retreat with the Board of the Council for a Livable World (CLW). CLW is a nonpartisan nonprofit promoting policies to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons, and to minimize the risk of war through lobbying and by helping elect and support Members of Congress who share these goals.
This past weekend, I was honored to be in Sacramento, California to lead a session on strategic planning at the Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA) conference. California’s regional centers are a network of 21 community-based non-profits, represented by the Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA). The regional centers coordinate services for, and advocate on behalf of, nearly 400,000 Californians with developmental disabilities.
Join me on May 9 at Marietta College where I will be speaking at the Nonprofits LEAD conference. I will be leading a session entitled Mission Ambassadors: Developing Effective and Empowered Ambassadors. Click below for more information and to register. Hope to see you there!
Through my partnership with Leadership Strategies, it was my great honor to facilitate a team retreat this week with the Tribal Council of Gun Lake Tribe. The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) is part of the historic Three Fires Confederacy, an alliance of the Pottawatomi (Bodewadmi), Ottawa (Odawa) and Chippewa (Ojibwe). I am inspired by the richness of their culture and commitment to govern with excellence and thoughtfulness.
A web site is a window into the vision, mission, values, and impact of your nonprofit. It represents an opportunity for people to learn about your organization and explore the many ways in which they might engage with you in order to amplify your impact. However, many nonprofit leaders have experienced difficulty and frustration in securing funding to develop or reimagine their web site. Andrea Shirey of One Nine Design has written an outstanding article that shares 7 Best Practices to Successfully Write a Grant Proposal for a New Nonprofit Website. Click below to check it out!
Over the past several months, through my partnership with DCM Associates, I led a talented team that conducted the search for the next Regional Director at Dungarvin Inc. Congratulations to Jay Laurens on his selection by the Dungarvin team! Dungarvin is a national organization of privately owned companies dedicated to providing high quality, community-based supports to people with varying support needs. Congrats Jay!
Healthy teams are characterized by shared expectations, mutual support, and a culture of accountability. Board and staff teams both greatly benefit from opportunities to step back from regular business to allow time and space for reflection, evaluation, and critical discussions. When planned thoughtfully and executed well, a retreat can be a vital tool that builds trust and strengthens relationships among team members, while helping to ensure that the team is positioned to govern or lead effectively. A retreat may also allow a divided team to address conflict or pull together to address a critical issue. As you consider your next Board or staff retreat, here are a few thoughts to consider:
Clearly define the purpose of the retreat
Perhaps your organization is launching a new program. Maybe your Board or staff team are working through a particularly challenging or stressful period. Possibly your team would benefit from time spent clarifying roles and expectations and building relationships. Whatever the purpose of your retreat, it is important to “keep the main thing the main thing.” Avoid trying to cram too many goals into one retreat and instead focus on the quality of the experience rather than the quantity of objectives. Most effective retreats have no more than 1-2 key goals.
Facilitation matters
Whether you are working with an external facilitator or facilitating the retreat yourself, remember that ultimately, the wisdom lies with the members of the team who are in the room. A retreat is not an opportunity for one leader to dominate the agenda and present to an audience. Rather, a thoughtful retreat is one in which every member of the team feels seen, heard, and valued. An effective facilitator promotes respectful discussion and debate throughout the day while ensuring that the objectives of the retreat are met.
Document key discussion points and commitments to action
A retreat is an opportunity to embrace change, to build consensus around new activities or behaviors, and to set meaningful priorities. Board and staff teams pay attention not only to what happens at the retreat, but more importantly, what happens after the retreat. Positive energy from a great retreat experience can quickly evaporate if team members perceive “nothing happened” after the retreat. Throughout your Board or staff retreat, ensure that key discussion points are captured, and where commitments have been made, be sure they are recorded and followed up on.
Have you had a particularly moving or impactful experience at a Board retreat? We'd love to hear about it. If you would like to create an engaging and inspiring retreat for your Board team, let's talk!