leading in uncertain times
Post on 05-Apr-2017
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Leading in Uncertain
Times Dahna Goldstein@dahnag
Peter Campbell@peterscampbell
#17NTCUncertainTimesMarch 24, 2017 Photo: https://flic.kr/p/qQLgfX
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Actively Navigate through Turbulent Times
• When external conditions change, strategic initiatives need re-examining
• Assess your priorities and adjust business plans as warranted
• Make cuts in accordance with your mission and revised strategies
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Respond Strategically
• Take precautions, but understand the business impacts and adjust plans accordingly
• To misquote Maya Angelou: “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and carefully responsive to anything in between.”
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Communicate Broadly
• Stakeholders, funders and staff might all be worried and making bad assumptions
• Your response to a crisis or change is a story that you need to tell
• That story might vary for different audiences, although the gist of it should be consistent
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Engage with Your Funders
• Your funders should be partners in supporting your mission
• Uncertain times create opportunities to change the conversationImage: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Discussion.png
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Don’t Let Short-term Measures Obscure Long-term Planning
• You should have a three to five year strategic plan in place
• Adjust the plan, don’t ignore it or scrap it.
• Perform SWOT analyses to determine new priorities.
Photo by Xhienne
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Technology Priorities
• Technology becomes obsolete
• Major installations and upgrades should be paced, not bunched
• Keep some upgrades in the tight budget to avoid major costs and disruption post-crisis
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Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst
• Scenario planning can help mitigate uncertainty
• What would we do if we lost X?
• What would we do if we gained Y?
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Prepare for the Worst: Layoffs
• Most NPO budgets are made up of people: 50% to 90% = salary and benefits
• NPO staff often wear multiple hats and aren’t well backed up
• Layoffs can devastate those left behind as well as those laid off
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Layoffs: Recommendations
• Create backups and redundancy for critical duties
• Document procedures. Use a wiki, or Slack, or Chatter. Don’t allow critical business knowledge to live in one person’s head
• Do this by building career paths into your org chart Photo: Michael Havens
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Layoffs: Recommendations (cont’d)• When layoffs have to occur, the more cross-
functional your staff, the more flexibility you have. Maybe someone is ready to retire who, had you not cross-trained someone on their skills, would have been otherwise non-expendable.
• Don’t make layoff decisions in silos. Cross-functionality at a nonprofit should be across offices, so that one departments layoff choices might impact yours.
Photo by Jeremy Keith
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Diversify Funding Sources
• Overreliance on one funding source can be a problem
• Think about diversifying not only funders but different types of revenue
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Get to the Cloud
• Cloud computing is flexible in uncertain times
• Software licensing can be adjusted up or downward as your staffing shrinks and grows
• Office relocations are easier when you don’t have a complicated server room
• Employees can work from home, or workstations can be unassigned (hoteling)
• Disaster recovery costs are lower with the cloud
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Explore Shared Efficiencies
• Identify your organization’s core competencies
• Identify your organization’s needs, and any excess capacity
• Explore opportunities to share
resources with other organizations
Photo: C!...
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Renegotiate Everything
• In a downturn, your vendors will value your continued business even more
• Call and ask them to offer you a better deal
• If they won’t, shop around.Photo by Takashi Hososhima
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Take Calculated Risks
• Small experiments can have big payoffs
• Keep focus on mission, and explore areas to experiment with efficiencies
Image: Cindyli
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