Issue No. 448 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a twofer (!)—two books on nonprofit leadership—with insights from Jim Galvin and Tom Okarma. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and if you missed it, here’s my review of Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams.
10 Minutes for Management and Governance
At your weekly staff meeting, I encourage teams to invest “10 Minutes for Management.” And in your quarterly board meeting, I encourage boards to invest “10 Minutes for Governance.” Here are two books (a twofer!) that will deliver insightful content for multiple 10-minute segments.
SUMMER SHORTS NO. 5 (two books):
REVIEW #1: Maximizing Board Effectiveness: A Practical Guide for Adaptive Governance, by James C. Galvin
So...recently, I was on a Zoom call with a nonprofit board (big surprise), and the board chair was explaining the distinctions between mission and vision. He stopped—mid-sentence—disappeared from the Zoom screen, and then returned with a new book in his library, Maximizing Board Effectiveness. He then read a paragraph from the chapter, “The Board’s Role in Strategy.”
Not to be outdone, the organization’s CEO repeated the sequence. Blank screen and then the showcasing of—you guessed it—Maximizing Board Effectiveness. Wow. Author Jim Galvin has a nationwide PR team!
As the co-author, with Dan Busby, of four recent board governance books, I welcome this new (June 2020) and helpful book to the boardroom. You can never read enough governance books! Galvin’s book—with a new twist on what he calls “adaptive governance”—is perfect for slicing and dicing during your “10 Minutes for Governance” segment at your next board meeting. (Click here to download the Busby/Pearson chapter, “Invest ‘10 Minutes for Governance’ in Every Board Meeting. We are all guilty of bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience.”)
Galvin describes three types of boards: Managing Boards, Governing Boards, and Navigating Boards. He introduces “adaptive governance” by explaining why boards underperform and what causes so much confusion about board roles and responsibilities. Interestingly, each of the three chapters on the three types of boards includes the same wisdom, “Chairing this type of board is not easy.” (LOL!)
As you know, I first look on page 25 of every book—where the author frequently has finally warmed up and delivered the goods. Ditto here! Pages 25 to 28 include 17 helpful questions formatted on a continuum: “On the one hand…on the other hand.” Helpful!
My five favorite features:
• Page 178: four quadrants contrasting technical complexity with social complexity: Wicked Problems, Tame Problems, Wicked Messes, Messy Problems!
• Pages 184-187: 36 discussion questions (three per chapter)—perfect for your “10 Minutes for Governance” segment
• Pages 198-193: 77 board self-assessment questions (SurveyMonkey compatible)
• Pages 94-96: four prerequisites that must be in place to transition from a Managing Board to a Governing Board
• Page 65: read this one-page chart/summary of John Carver’s Policy Governance® model—or read Carver’s book (latest edition: 448 pages!)
And thanks to Jim Galvin for mailing a review copy to my bunker!
REVIEW #2: From the Inside Out: Leading Where it Matters Most—The How-to Guide to Leading Nonprofits for Impact, by Tom Okarma
There’s a common theme in nonprofit leadership. Galvin’s book warns, “Chairing this type of board is not easy.” Tom Okarma’s comprehensive (but very readable and often humorous) how-to book for nonprofit leaders describes the leadership journey without embellishment:
Change. Is. Hard.
Why is nonprofit leadership so hard? Leaders from the for-profit side, says Okarma, know the business environment ground rules, but when they become nonprofit leaders—there are some surprises. (Okarma speaks from experience.) “…in a nonprofit you have an even tougher job. Not only do you have to manage and motivate your paid employees, but you have another team—an invisible workforce—your volunteers.” Peter Drucker would agree.
Okarma packs serious content into just 259 pages in four major areas:
• Part 1: Leading Yourself
• Part 2: Leading the Organization
• Part 3: Leading the Board
• Part 4: Leading Change
I discovered numerous treasures, including this: “Why are there so many ‘great’ leadership books and yet so few great leaders?” For some discouraged nonprofit leaders, this book will be on-going therapy. Gems:
MAJOR DONORS. Warning! Major donors don’t automatically make good board members. “I wish I hadn’t lived through this, again and again on various boards.”
FUNDRAISING STRENGTHS. Read the 42-page chapter on 20 characteristics of effective board members, including this: “Effective boards know the fundraising strengths of each director and use them accordingly. They clearly articulate the board’s role in fundraising.”
360 TRANSPARENCY. Few authors/leaders showcase their deficiencies. Okarma discusses “four unique challenges that were holding me back”—as revealed in a 360 Review. Is this a blind spot for you too? “I also learned at times I was inadvertently overshadowing some of my staff when we had guests in the building.”
MEASUREMENTS = IMPROVEMENTS. He quotes Peter Drucker, “What gets measured, gets improved.” Perhaps one of the reasons why change is so hard in nonprofits is the lack of SMART goals and measurements—and how to use those measurements to “make critical decisions about the agency moving forward.”
NON-DELEGABLE RESPONSIBILITIES. I’ve never met a for-profit or nonprofit leader who could show me his or her list of “Non-Delegable Areas of Responsibility.” The author explains why this is so important and how to know what to delegate and what not to delegate. For many, this chapter will be worth 10,000x the price of the book. His poke-in-the-ribs:
“You can try and handle all 317 responsibilities you’re currently juggling, or you can give me a chance to introduce a new perspective. I promise, I’ll help you get there, and there will be light at the end of the tunnel.”
FRESH ONE-LINERS. Wow…I’d pay to see Okarma’s massive notes as he was writing this book. Fresh insights—in well-crafted phrases and one-liners—that enriched my lifelong learning journey:
• “Be around, but not in the way.”
• “Success leaves clues.”
• “If you’ve never said ‘no’ to a new idea, your mission statement is probably unclear or misunderstood.”
• “Take time to work on your agency, not just in it.”
• “If you were a business, would you want to buy it, or merge with it?”
This is a perfect (perfect!) book for your “10 Minutes for Management” segment at your weekly staff meeting. Buy five copies and assign sections for the next five weekly meetings.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Tom Okarma learned from his 360 Review that “we needed to celebrate our successes more and that I needed to be a big part of that effort.” During this COVID-19 era, have we dropped the ball in the Hoopla! Bucket? Should “celebration” be one of our core values?
2) In the foreword to Maximizing Board Effectiveness, Bob Andringa adds to the “hard work” theme: “…every board must step up, be more effective than ever, and make the difficult [coronavirus] decisions in a timely manner. No going back.” What board member should read and report on this book for our next “10 Minutes for Governance” segment?
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View Peter Yang's pitch (1.5 minutes).
View This Virtual, Bracket-Style Pitch Competition—and Then Create Your Own!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
The core competency in the Hoopla! Bucket affirms, “We harness the power of hoopla! for celebration, recreation, intentional food and fellowship gatherings, and just plain fun. We thrive on knock-your-socks-off spontaneity.”
Here are four Hoopla! ideas for you. If you appreciated my grandkids’ Zoom review of Peter Yang’s book, The Art of Writing, you’ll be delighted to know that Yang’s entrepreneurial company, Reviewerly, is in the “sweet 16” finals for a virtual, bracket-style pitch competition/tournament.
If—like me—unfilled sports stadiums and arenas are leaving you unfulfilled—here’s a virtual event to coalesce your team around learning, cheering, and pizza!
• Hoopla! Idea #1: Take a fun break and watch the pitch competition online on Sept. 21-24, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT all four days. Register here and vote for Peter Yang’s company, Reviewerly. (My grandkids will be voting—if I provide the pizza!)
• Hoopla! Idea #2: Learn the tools of the trade. Could your organization sponsor a Shark Tank-type pitch competition? Note: This one is designed by LiONS LAIR and they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary as “the leading pitch competition that brings together innovation and entrepreneurship” in Hamilton, Ontario.
• Hoopla! Idea #3: After watching the pitch competition, create your own. With 30 minutes of prep time, invite every team member to give their best “elevator speech” for your organization (or a pitch for a new program, product, or service). Award prizes!
• Hoopla! Idea #4: Check out Reviewerly—and brainstorm how this app might help you promote your next project, book, or cause.
Don’t forget the pizza! And for more ideas in the Hoopla! Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. When was the last time you celebrated with your team? Need hoopla! ideas like Jason’s Big Red Bowling Ball system? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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