Last year, I was working on a sustainability campaign around the holidays, and a TV producer challenged my client and me to come up with some green tips that haven’t been “done before.” You wouldn’t think that was such a tall order, but for a national TV outlet, it turns out nearly everything has been done before. LED Christmas lights? Nope. Unexpected ways to weatherproof your home? Over it. Some of the tips were truly different but too “off the wall” for a mainstream audience. We exhausted our list and came up empty handed for the segment.
This whole experience got me thinking – what HASN’T been done when it comes to “green” consumer holiday stories. It’s a tough time to be able to break through the noise if you’re a sustainable company – especially one with holiday offerings for time- and budget-strapped consumers. But, there are still ways to do it! Yes, friends, it’s time to crush and recycle that box and just start thinking (my version of “Thinking outside the box”). What would constitute a news story or blog post that YOU want to read?Here are four ways to make a holiday story pop:
DISCUSS YOUR CHALLENGES. Real businesses and organizations have weaknesses and challenges, and certainly are not “recession-proof” as many claim to be. Reporters and consumers alike are fascinated by how companies have overcome such challenges to beat the odds. Maybe you manufacture eco-friendly dishware and found it near-impossible to get a retail chain to carry your goods. Talk about how you used grassroots marketing and online sales to keep your business alive during the holidays. A high-profile story in a local paper may just mobilize the community to help you out.
SPOTLIGHT REAL PEOPLE. How do the people in your company or organization make a difference during the holidays? If your company has a volunteer day, what is the back story? Hundreds of companies embrace similar initiatives, so a compelling personal story about a specific employee’s real impact on someone in need trumps a generic announcement about corporate giving programs. Or, tell a story about your business operations through the lens of your employees. Try letting a reporter sit in on a holiday sales brainstorming session or talk candidly with employees about what you’ll change next holiday season.
EMBRACE CONTROVERSY. Yesterday, a group of competitive organizations that measure the effectiveness of charities teamed up to debunk a common misconception: Charities with high overhead costs are ineffective. Most consumers think that an effective charity must give the lion’s share of its profits to the cause. These organizations stood up and said, “Not so,” and piqued the interest of high-profile media outlets and influencers around the country. Be bold enough to say something that no one else is saying.
LAUGH A LITTLE. It’s the holidays! Why so serious, peeps? Several years ago, my old agency worked on a PR campaign that involved literally blowing up the most hated holiday dessert, fruitcake. Think about the stuffy, longstanding holiday traditions and just add dynamite or healthy sarcasm.
When I told a colleague that
today World AIDS Day, and that I was going to attend a panel discussion, she
gave me a surprised look and said, " I thought we had solved that problem," to
which I replied that while AIDS was no longer a death sentence for everyone
infected, there were still large numbers of people infected in the world
particularly amongst women and people of color."
Today's program was moderated
by award winning broadcast journalist, Belva Davis. One of the panelists was Barbara
Williams from the National Coalition of Black Women, and also a senior manager
at Sun Microsystems.
I heard her make two key
points that resonated with me. The first was her belief that corporations
needed to not only think about the bottom line but needed to do the right thing
and do what's right, by contributing ideas and resources to prevent, detect and
support treatment for people with AIDS.
The second point was that if
someone has AIDS, it impacts everyone around they are close to, so that if an employee
has an immediate family member who is infected and needs care, unless they get
the support they need from their workplace, they won't be able to do their best
work. If they have provided any
kind of innovation in their organization they will no longer be able to focus
on their work, but will be spending most of their energy worrying about the
person who is home.
If organizations want to
create workplaces where people love to do their best work and customers love to
do business, executive leaders need to take a more holistic view of their
employees. HIV testing should be included in physical exams and wellness
programs.
This is another reason why health
care benefits and work time flexibility are so important. There does need to be
a great awareness of HIV and AIDS in the workplace and in the outside
community. Just like any other type of illness, employees with HIV and AIDS need
to have access to the right treatment so they can continue to come to work and
contribute their skills and talents.
Strong leaders are aware that
what impacts work life impacts personal life. The days are long gone when
people were faced with the impossible task of leaving all of their personal
life at home.
Simma Lieberman
"The Inclusionist"
Creating workplaces where people love to do their best work and customers love to do business
AMC’s Mad Men ended its third season a couple of weeks ago. For those who don’t know the show, it’s a peek inside a 1960’s advertising agency. It's also an incredibly faithful depiction of a specific time and place, getting all the little details right, from period salt shakers to desk lamps and photocopiers. In addition to getting the physical details right, the show also gives us insight into the behaviors of the characters as they truly inhabit a different time, but a time not that long ago.
It’s those behaviors that evoke the greatest discussion, as viewers are able to assess actions that today we find shocking but, at the time, individuals don’t give a second thought to. Parents allow their children to play inside plastic dry cleaning bags. A family has a picnic in a park, then leaves their trash on the ground as they drive away. Perhaps more than the suits or hats or typewriters, it’s our differing view of the behavior that points out how far away those times are from today, despite only being 40 years distant.
It makes me wonder what behavior we indulge in today without a second thought that, in 30 or 40 years time, others will look at with shock and disgust: “How could they have done that?” Perhaps it’s cutting down virgin forests for extra-soft toilet paper. Maybe it’s airline travel without considering the carbon footprint. Or roses flown in from Peru.
Cultural norms can change over a generation. As new information, technologies, behaviors emerge what was once normal behavior eventually becomes marginalized, then fringe, then oddity. For a certain generation today, explaining that it was once part of a woman’s job to light men’s cigarettes on airline flights seems impossible to believe. Surely there are so many things wrong with that thought one must be making it up. But all you have to do is search Yahoo! Images to find the proof. And sometime in the very near future, folks will look back on us today and essentially say, “How could they?” Personally, I think they’ll be shocked by our flying produce across the world ensuring beautiful strawberries in New York in February. But I’d love to hear from you – what behavior of our present selves do you think future generations will be most shocked by?
As I finish my review of Vistaprint, I wanted to provide a link to the Vistaprint executive briefing webinar I held a couple of weeks ago. By uncovering some of the key strategies that this printing giant has employed, I aim to encourage other business leaders to come up with new approaches to outthink their competition. To view the webinar, please click here.
Wrapping up the examination of Vistaprint, I am reminded of an old Chinese fable that
warns against climbing a mountain to fight a lion because a lion’s
conditioning, its complex network of habits and responses, are finely
tuned to fighting among rocky mountain tops. Instead you want to lure
the tiger out of the mountain. This turns his instincts into
liabilities. Keep reading below to see how Vistaprint beautifully applies this strategy.
Challenge them to leave their stronghold
We grossly underestimate the extent
to which unconscious conditioning – the beliefs, habits, and
perceptions we collect through experience – plays on our behavior.
Cognitive scientists and linguists estimate as much as 98% of our
thought is not conscious. Buddhists have developed several methods and
frameworks that help us appreciate how little of our thought is conducted
in view of our conscious. We are literally operating on autopilot most
of the time, unaware of how our subconscious guides our actions.
Since advantage depends
on a company behaving differently than the competitors, it becomes
critical that leaders who wish to build an advantage understand and
leverage the 98% of thought that is guiding their people’s behavior.
Vistaprint seems to use
conditioning intentionally to build differentiation and advantage. We
can see this clearly in how Vistaprint views itself. When I asked Wendy Cebula, Vistaprint’s president of North America, to characterize her company, she immediately replied, “At the heart we are really a technology company. We start with what is important to our customers and look at how we can use technology to help them do that.”
This claim is supported
by data. I analyzed the last five years of press releases and annual
reports of Vistaprint and its closest competitor Consolidated Graphics.
By reviewing 2,400 pages of text, I looked to see how often each
company used words like customers, consumer, user, buyer, or purchaser.
By comparing the two companies’ language, we can look into the internal
culture of those businesses and see how they really see the world.
My research found that Vistaprint
is clearly and measurably more customer-focused and less
printing-focused that Consolidated Graphics. While the two companies
talk equally about technology and efficiency, Vistaprint talks about
the consumers or clients twice as much. Vistaprint talks about printing less than one third as often.
By examining Vistaprint’s messaging, we see that it thinks
about the customer twice as often. Consolidated Graphics talks about
printing three times as often. Vistaprint is a consumer-focused
company. Consolidated Graphics is a printer.
So how does that
resonate and provide a tangible competitive advantage? Because
Vistaprint sees the world differently (technology and consumer
focused), it naturally acts differently. Its people make thousands of little decisions every day that make sense for a consumer-services company. Those same choices may be counterintuitive for a printing-focused business.
Thus Vistaprint seeks to differentiate itself a thousand times a day from its traditional rivals.
Vistaprint has wisely
stayed out of Consolidated Graphics’ stronghold, choosing instead to
occupy terrain on which a printing company’s condition offers no advantage. This forces Consolidated Graphics
to choose between two losing options: come out of its stronghold and
risk losing or stay in its stronghold and watch Vistaprint grow.
Vistaprint sticks to
its stronghold because it does not seek out to hire printing experts.
With the exception of workers who actually operate VIstaprint’s
machines, almost none are industry experts. As Wendy Cebula says, “We hire smart people who know technology and are willing to be audacious.”
Ask yourself the
questions below to see how you can lure your competitors from their
strongholds or force them to let you expand uninhibited.
1.What is my stronghold? What do we do differently?
2.What is our competitor’s stronghold?
3.How can we expand our stronghold while avoiding stepping into theirs?
Tens of thousands of modern-day crusaders, charlatans, Nobel laureates, CEOs, quick-buck artists, earnest politicians, and assorted movie extras of every conceivable socio-political-ethnic-economic background will descend on Copenhagen for the next three weeks to participate in an orgy of carbon-bashing and flag-waving. The goal will be to agree on a blueprint - - not quite the precise Earth owner’s manual that some had hoped for, but at least a quick-start guide - - for reducing greenhouse gas emissions fast enough so that the world avoids the most expensive and unpredictable consequences of climate change.
As the Danes clean up the mess when the party’s over on December 18th, the question becomes “what does this all mean on December 19th and beyond?” Starting on that day, as the heavy lifting begins for global negotiators who will be filling in the details of that blueprint, we will be inundated with advice, predictions, and hand-wringing on all sides. Here’s a clip-and-save cheat sheet, suitable for framing or taping to your refrigerator, that will save you time - - and money - - as you try to crack the “Carbon Code” for yourself, your business, and your investments:
• December 2009: Conference of the Parties #15 (“COP15”) in Copenhagen. “Parties” to the deals struck so far by the United Nations’ climate club will meet to create a political framework that punts the details of how to reduce carbon (and how fast) to negotiators who will hammer this out over the next 12 months. President Obama will speak to the party of Parties December 9th.
• January 2010: California starts “early action” regulations/incentives to pick the low-hanging carbon fruit and get some quick reductions. Other states and the feds will follow this, so pay attention even if you’re not in the Golden State (http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ccea/ccea.htm)
• April 2010: Earth Day signing of a US climate bill. The bill will set modest targets for reducing carbon and will authorize the creation of a nationwide carbon cap-and-trade market. To get the votes, the bill will be full of pork for nuclear, “clean coal”, renewables, and more farm biofuel subsidies. Most significantly, the bill will allow states, like California, to set more stringent limits and use both regulation and carbon markets to accomplish their goals.
• June 2010: Dozens of states that have developed “climate action plans” begin to impose limits on carbon through energy efficiency measures, renewable energy mandates, and participation in a regional cap-and-trade program. Although each measure and each state’s program will roll out on various timelines, you should know what’s happening in states where you do business by this time. Keep track of it all in real time at: http://www.seventhgenerationadvisors.org/index.php?option=com_content&vi...
• Fall 2010: Expect Walmart to announce its requirements for sustainability labels on products, including carbon footprints. If you are part of the Walmart supply chain - - and what company is not? - - hire staff or a consultant to start measuring, whether or not you are required to do so by USEPA, Chinese authorities, or anyone else.
• December 2010: COP 16 in Mexico City. World leaders adopt the deal that will replace the Kyoto Protocol. All this means is that the UN is organizing each nation’s response to climate change under one roof, but the regulations and low-carbon economic opportunities that matter will still be found in your own backyard.
• January 2011: California adopts final rules and regulations for its cap-and-trade system (working with a dozen other western states and Canadian provinces) for launch in 2012.
• March 2011: US facilities must report 2010 carbon emissions to USEPA (and annually thereafter).
• 2012: Walmart has a carbon footprint label on every product it sells; myriad carbon-busting rules go into effect in states; regional carbon cap-and-trade markets expand in the US. Carbon now has a price globally.
These are just a few of the key dates to add to your carbon calendar, but if you pay attention to these milestones, everything else that comes from government or commerce will make sense. And if you happen to be in Denmark in December, don’t be surprised when the bar conversation turns from “what’s your sign?” to “what’s your carbon footprint?”
I returned recently from the C3 Summit in Austin TX - that’s the Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism Summit.In attendance were some well known CEOs such as John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods, George Zimmer of Men’s Warehouse, and Casey Sheehan of Patagonia, to name just a few.In addition, we had such luminaries as Jean Huston and Deepak Chopra as some of our keynote speakers.
What do these stalwarts of our capital system have to do with consciousness gurus such as Deepak and Jean?Believe it or not these and the more than 100 other attendees came together because of the common belief that consciousness is the next competitive advantage for business in the 21st Century.
What exactly is consciousness?It exists when we live in attunement with what we at Quantum Leaders call the Context field of energy.This is the field of meaning and purpose, the underlying context for all that we do.For some, this field remains unconscious and therefore unavailable to them.Yet this field is rich in information that when accessed, can guide and direct any person and any organization to the most effective way to achieve their goals.
As one of the attendees described it, we are at a critical crossroads in business today. We are all standing at the center of the intersection of where capitalism intersects with consciousness.This is more than the traditional view of the socially responsible organization or even being environmentally friendly or “green”.All of that is of course part of being a conscious capitalist, but being conscious recognizes more than just the actions one takes.
It begins to draw on the realization that we are all part of a collective whole and as such what we do to others has a direct impact on what happens to us.Hmm, that sounds a lot like one of those spiritual rules often referred to as the Golden Rule.Hence, one of the pillars of conscious capitalism is that we as business leaders are here in service to all our stakeholders.Yes, I said “in service to”.As today’s new conscious capitalists recognize, it is more about those we are here to serve than it is about serving ourselves.
And what guides our service to others? It is the second pillar of conscious capitalism, meaning and purpose.At Quantum Leaders, we call this the Soulful Purpose of the organization; a purpose so core it touches the very soul of the organization and is in fact the very reason for its existence.Like the acorn that recognizes its purpose is to ultimately become an oak tree, each individual and each living organization has a soulful purpose that will guide and direct its success.
The third pillar of conscious capitalism is leadership.To the degree that the leadership for an organization has matured and developed along the three dimensions of functional skills, interpersonal skills and their own intrapersonal skills is the degree the leader will be able to create a consciously living organization.Each of these domains of skills translates to the ability of the leader to manage the organization, to create collaborative team environments and inspire and motivate the workforce to become fully committed and engaged to the fulfillment of the organizations’ Soulful Purpose.
Some might say this is a new beginning; I however believe it is but the next step in the evolutionary process for individuals, organizations and our society as a whole.For those of you who are interested here is a highlight video of the conference. I encourage you to watch and consider your own growth as an individual, a leader, and as an organization.
Be sure to post your comments and please visit our blog to hear additional feedback on this article and read other recent posts.
For years, I have wanted to create a break-out product or business idea that everyone will want to embrace and that will be instantly a success in the sales column of the company, mine or someone else's.
I don't think it works that way. I think that in order to create something that is a blowout success, you have to turn from an internal focus to an external focus.
What the consumer wants is actually very different than what we tell ourselves internally makes a good product. I can't tell you how many power point presentations and internal discussions I have had discussing a company's strengths. I personally don't feel very reflective or concerned with internal strengths. Any product is an act of giving to the customer base. The customers surely don't care what we are "inside". They want to see how valuable they are to us.
Think of it this way, if I have three channels open: a sales department, a sponsorships and exhibits department, and a production department. I may also have a fourth channel open -- a marketing department. So, let's say four.
Channels 1 through 3 -- marketing, sponsorships, delegate sales -- are timed on how much they can get done in a day in terms of contracts out, phone calls made, media partnerships sent out and call and email marketing builds. If they hear something they can pass it on, but it doesn't stay in their bins as a product strategy hint. It immediately goes to the production department for ONE single person to process.
That's a great definition of success, but it's an old version of success. It's very Calvinistic. Good production equals massive reward. Yes, BUT....
In a sense, this vision is myopic, and this mission in that sense is to pass it on with the person with the far range, the production person.
That person is not the person who first heard the criticism, helpful hint, or praise.
In some cases, the people in channels 1 through 3 are not passing on the information, and keeping it until the silos come together at a unified moment of time, which is irregular and spread out far between each meeting.
If a company can listen to the market, and give the market what it wants, then why are the department channels 1 through 3 not given the chance to be equipped with the skills to enable them to understand the market and converse with it in terms that make sense to the market? Why are departments who have the greatest contact with the customer base retreating after that initial interaction and handing it off to some who receives the information second-hand?
A great social value of a company is that it can be immediately responsive to the environment in which it sells and produces its products.
Now, imagine another scenario.
The company works on the web, and as a team listens, collaborates together and with the market, creating strategies with the market to listen better, to find more and deeper layers of information.
What if they become a nexus for information sharing, transfer, and processing? The company could use social networking and graphic interface displays of time and content in the non-linear realm, like Brightkite, so that the individuals are now working virtually outside of their silos, and can see how everyone is communicating with everyone else, and, on task, in a mission critical way, be able to assist each other to take advantage of opportunities, and solve problems as they are developing.That works both in interactions with the customer base and the organization, making them a socially cohesive, trusting unit.
What if, for a brief time, that company's immediate and singular goal was to transform itself into a constantly fluid, multilateral series of channels that are open throughout the year, offering flash forums, instant discussions, webinars, and online interactions that could happen with only one week or three days of lead time? A human google.
Over the past several weeks, I hit the last round of conferences and expos focused on sustainability. My experience was one of joy as I witnessed my colleagues working to improve process, efficiency, costs and environmental impact. Human drive and ingenuity are hard at work, and this was clearly evidenced by the men and women I encountered this month. A year ago, these conferences felt like a collection of people who were interested in play and owning the “green” game. Today, if feels like a smaller and more focused set of business leaders who plan to be around in 5, 10 or 20 years. It’s less about competitive advantage and more about survival. Not only the survival of our individual businesses, but a great understanding of the survival of capitalism and the ability for mankind to integrate growth and abundance into the laws of nature.
My first stop was Opportunity Green on the UCLA campus in early November. I had been asked to lead a panel on “Trends in Green” with some very impressive friends: Adam Lowry, founder of Method Cleaning Products, Fashion Macon, senior manager of partnerships and promotions for T-Mobile USA and Jason Kibbey, founder of Wear PACT. Each of these panel members had much to contribute to the topic of green trends, but the overall takeaway was that we have moved into a more solid position of sustainable operations and away from one-off marketing gimmicks. Trends in green product design are following closely with the LOHAS descriptor of “in me, on me, or around me” which speaks to the overall health and sustainability of a product, as opposed to simply the environmental practices in creating it. Each of these leaders discussed their plans to move toward more intelligent and sustainable design. I look forward to sharing more from these individuals in future blog entries.
My next trip took me to one of the most exciting gatherings of the year, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. I was there with Mohawk Industries, a company who is in the middle of its own renaissance for improved operations and long-term sustainability. (You can read more about the direction of the company from the President of the Commercial Division, Al Kabus, in this recent article in IndustryWeek.
With over 27,000 people in attendance, the Green Building movement is shifting from a standard to the way of building. I was most impressed with the time I spent with my friend Jayni Chase who has been dedicated to the greening of our schools for many years. Jayni, a founder of the Center for Environmental Education, has partnered with brilliant leaders in the space such as Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials and Rachel Gutter, senior manager of the education sector for the USGBC. If there was any big takeaway from Greenbuild for me, it was about partnerships and that leadership occurs in it.
Finally, I spent a few days in Chicago at the 3rd Annual Good and Green Conference. Numbers were smaller this year, but dedication was at a high. Those who were present felt like a strong core of task masters ready to understand the next move for green marketing. From groups such as The Shelton Group, Gfk Roper and Earthsense, the audience learned about the current marketing trends in green. The major takeaways were: Make it Practical, Affordable and Doable. The best way to get your customers, vendors and all other partners to embrace change in retooling and designing their current operations, homes, businesses is to provide solutions that make sense. While people want to care about doing the right thing, it must match up with the ability to make sense for their needs.
So, overall, we can expect to see our “green” leaders become more clear, visible and focused. Many companies will stay behind in the dark while these beacons of change lead the rest of us who are willing and able to view business in an entirely new manner.
We like to view the world in black and white, good and bad, friend and foe. But as industry lines blur,
such clear distinctions become even more difficult to see within our
complex reality. This creates an opportunity for those willing to seize
it. You can befriend enemies.
Vistaprint, the printing giant that I started covering last week, is actively doing this. The company basically deals with four types of competitors:
1.Traditional printers, like Consolidated Graphics
2.Office supply retailers like Staples, OfficeMax, and even FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) with on-site print stations that serve small businesses
3.Home
printing by small businesses that can buy new workstations from
Hewlett-Packard and other computer companies and print on an as-needed
basis
4.Other small technology start-ups that offer competing services
Vistaprint’s
management has found a way to deal with each competitor to ensure its
own success. By keeping a close eye on the small tech companies, it
also uses its scale – two massive printing plants in the U.S. and
Europe – to achieve economies of scale that are difficult for start-ups
to match.
Similarly, it pays attention to emerging home printing technologies. By offering better pricing and better quality than at-home print jobs, Vistaprint takes the guess work, effort and time out of preparing professional marketing pieces for small businesses.
To compete with OfficeMax and its peers, Vistaprint has adjusted its strategy to become helpful. These local, on-site companies seem to be the biggest threat to Vistaprint’s small business target audience, so Vistaprint’s management has used an unorthodox approach to maintain and grow its market share.
Instead of taking these companies head on and trying to attack their turf, Vistaprint has offered a lending hand to its competitors. It has signed agreements with many of these companies to offer Vistaprint’s services as a white label service.
That
means when you go to such stores you may find a kiosk, branded as that
retailer’s own service, that allows customers to design and print
business cards, folders, and other products. But what you do not see is
that Vistaprint is the one taking that order, preparing the files and running the printing jobs. You don’t know it, but you are actually using Vistaprint services.
This is helpful to OfficeMax
and its peers because it allows them to quickly provide a competitive
service at a lower cost. But it also preempts potential competition. As
Wendy Cebula, Vistaprint’s president of North America, explained to me,
“One chunk of the market will be taken by OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, and
the like. But we have partnerships with OfficeMax and FedEx Office and
also with Viking (Office Depot's EU division) … one way for competitors
to get into our space is to partner with Kinkos. So it’s great offense and great defense.”
The
traditional printers operate from an older view of competition and so
naturally adopt patterns of competitive behavior that are fundamentally
different than Vistaprint’s. Where they see scale, Vistaprint sees technology. Where they see direct competition, Vistaprint befriends an enemy. By blending black and white, Vistaprint creates a huge gray space of powerful competitive advantage.
Ask yourself the questions below to see how you can develop an unexpected advantage by befriending a foe.
1.Who are my direct and my indirect competitors?
2.What do we produce that is different or better?
3.Is there a way to share information, products or services with an indirect competitor to attack a direct competitor?
4.Is one of my direct competitors a company that can help mine?
5.How could I partner with my strongest competitors take over our industry?
Boards of directors, comprised of volunteers, have the decision-making authority and power over the direction and finances of nonprofit organizations. Although there are boards that are disappointingly ineffective, I have seen many boards rise to the occasion to lead their organizations to success in service to the community.
The first nonprofit board that asked me to help them with a complete overhaul was a community based nonprofit that served a large immigrant population helping people with language skills, adults with job training and placement, children with after-school care and homework, and families with social services. That was in the 1990's. Since then, I have assisted dozens of nonprofits--regional as well as global--in building stronger boards and establishing the leadership they need to advance strategically and financially to serve the community.
The impetus for change is often financial distress, especially in today's environment with cutbacks in government funding and philanthropy. But some boards and nonprofit executives seek to transform their boards simply because they are proactive. They recognize opportunities for fees for services, collaboration and alliances with other organizations, and innovation in addressing vital matters in education, healthcare, poverty, social justice, the environment, and others areas. They realize that the only way for an organization to advance is to build a strong board with excellent leadership.
How do boards drive change? Change always requires a few drivers, and it takes more than the chief executive of the nonprofit. It takes at least a couple of board members and possibly a funder or two for there to be enough traction to push for change. Then, together with a qualified board consultant, the change-agents can transform the board into a high functioning body.
What's an effective board look like? The board chair is working in partnership (see "the leadership partnership") with the nonprofit's chief executive to lead a group of passionate board members from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to
Affirm, and if necessary, update the mission to ensure that the organization is providing compelling value in service to the community
Create and help to achieve the revenue model for success--and for nonprofits, the revenue model is usually a patchwork of revenue sources, which might include government funds, philanthropic resources, as well as fees for services
Focus board agendas--and the work in between board meetings--in helping the organization to achieve strategic and financial success, including through oversight, and fundraising
Establish board member expectations and a system of accountability
Build the board with people who have the variety of experiences, skills, and networks to help advance the organization, including people with leadership potential
Establish a cadre of board leaders who have the diversity of backgrounds, the experience, and the qualities to lead, while also creating a pipeline of potential new leaders for the future
Provide opportunities for continuous board education on governance, fundraising, and matters of substance related to the work of the organization
The nonprofit sector is not an abstract concept; rather, it is the sum of nonprofit boards. The boards hold the power to make the world a better place. And, it's actually quite doable to help boards become more effective, one board at a time.
