Nonprofits - Taking a Risk in Sharing Resources

Watching nonprofit directors, staff and board members over the last two days at the NC Center for Nonprofits Statewide Conference . . . I see energy and passion for the services we provide . . . I see anxiety about funding . . . I see competition and collaboration. Yet, one story stands out to me, a story about a cluster of organizations that made lemonade out of lemons!

They could not afford to rent space in the downtown area of Charlotte where they most needed to be, where they could be close to their client base. When they did find affordable space (class C office space - not great!), it would be sold out from under them to developers and they were forced to move again and again.

One evening, while gathered in a casual atmosphere over drinks, a few directors began to talk about joining forces to get the space they needed - it was all about space issues and money. It was not about blending or sharing services; the environment was somewhat competitive and "merger" was a bad word. However, this conversation evolved into a 50-year lease agreement with the town of Charlotte, a separate nonprofit charged with the management of the building, and an amazing development in collaboration among the partner organizations. The new building oversight organization is called Children & Families Service Center (CFSC - not because it was the intent to bring together specific services for children & families. It just worked out that way).

CFSC has a board made up of representatives of each nonprofit agency sharing the building and an equal number of community at large members. Today they continue to provide unique services per agency while they share resources in finance, human resources and technology. They have formed relationships, shared values and work collaboratively to provide a more holistic range of services for children and families than anyone dreamed possible. The executive directors meet weekly around collaboration opportunities and board members stop and talk in the hallways. It is no longer all about space issues and money. It is about supporting each other with a common mission.

It all started with sharing the issues, looking at the resources right across the table and being willing to take a risk.

Who are your neighbors? What resources have you not considered? How can competition make way for collaboration in your world?

Processes that Work

End homelessness . . . Ensure a quality education for all children . . . Provide health care for all . . . Eradicate poverty . . .

These are lofty visions that ignite emotion, dedication and unity of purpose. However, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of it, our diversity begins to shine and sometimes so does our contempt. The reality is, there is no easy way to move from here to there . . . or wouldn’t we be there already??

So, how do we even move forward at all? These worldwide social issues such as poverty, health care, and education change with the culture and with the generations but they remain steadfast in our faces as hurdles to overcome. Our organizational and community-wide visions may drive us in a big broad way but to make an impact, we have to have clear processes and priorities as well. The current health care debate is a clear example of how difficult it is for us to agree on a process!

I believe it all begins with knowing ourselves, each of us as individuals having a clear sense of our own values and guiding principles . . . and being able to articulate these principles as they apply to the situation. Your core self is that part of you that does not change as the wind blows and does not morph as you hear the views of others. This true self can be hard to uncover. While some people may stand on solid ground, others struggle to find their center. We give it away. We choose to value the opinions of others more than ourselves. We don’t trust ourselves. We are swept with emotion and fear causing us to lose our sense of who we are.

But sometimes, we find ourselves! We discover something that is uniquely ours – a belief or a value that is uncompromisable! And when you find such a nugget of truth, take the time to explore it, claim it, and as you are able, speak it.

It is these spoken values that will be heard above the sensationalism and polarizing scare tactics. It is these spoken values that come from our core that reach out to the souls of others and bridge our schisms. And when we begin from center value, even though each is unique and uncompromising, we discover boundaries that show the way to processes that work.

From Fear to Hope

"The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear." (Verna Dozier, The Dream of God, 1991)

These economic times are fearful. Organizations and churches are facing serious financial crisis and cut backs in staff and programs. In states and local communities, government officials struggle to make budget decisions that will likely cut funds for education, early childhood support, mental health, public health and other programs and services that support some of our most vulnerable citizens. Nonprofits, United Way agencies and churches that depend primarily on individual and corporate giving are seeing huge discrepancies in income. Anxiety is high. Every day on the news you hear of an increasing unemployment rate and everyone knows someone who has been affected by recent job loss. With increased fear there may also be an increase in conflict - in families, in churches, in workplaces. Fear tells us to flee or fight . . . to hunker down, hide, escape or to attack. Faith tells us to hope and to create.

Faith is (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faith)

• having confidence or trust in something or someone
• belief in God
• belief in anything
• the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person or belief

Faith is not intellectual or physical – it is spiritual. It is rooted beyond our physical response of fight/flight and beyond our analytical response of pros and cons. Faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in your company or your church or your family, faith in friendship, faith in community, faith in our government, faith in humanity, faith in possibility, faith in the future, faith . . . is what moves us from fear to hope. And hope is what inspires creation. And creation births new life, new ideas, new solutions, new growth, new innovation, new reasons to have faith. Hope is the motivation to stay connected without fighting or fleeing. Hope is the avenue to intentional rather than reactive responses to the crisis. Hope gives reason to work for something better. Hope gives strength to endure change and the time of chaos that always precedes the new beginning.

Keep the faith!

On the Cutting Edge: Best Practice in Organizational Planning & Coaching

I have been fortunate throughout my career to be surrounded by some of the most cutting-edge, best practice leaders in human services in North Carolina:

• Community Partnerships (then Specialized Services for Children) was one of the first programs in the area to provide support for preschools in creating fully inclusive environments for children with significant developmental delays and disabilities . . . when others were still saying it couldn’t be done. http://www.compart.org/
• The Orange County Partnership for Young Children, was an early leader in the Smart Start initiative to improve the quality of child care and increase accessibility to early childhood education and family support services so that children arrived at kindergarten ready for success. Smart Start, now a state-wide program, has won national awards for its proven success and is being replicated in many states across the country. http://www.orangesmartstart.org/
• Though the mental health system in NC has faced unquestionable struggles, Durham County was at the front of the line bringing together community partners to develop a nationally recognized System of Care for struggling children and youth. In collaboration with schools and the criminal justice system, youth were kept out of detention facilities at an amazing rate and surrounded by evidence-based community services allowing them the opportunities to get healthy, redirect their lives, and stay at home with their families. http://www.durhamcenter.org/
• PLM Families Together is currently the only program of its kind in Wake County, providing short-term housing for homeless families with an 80% success rate of families obtaining permanent housing. At PLM Families Together, families stay together – even Dads and teenaged sons – because they provide apartments rather than group living. And they believe in the power of families being together in tough times. http://www.plmft.org/

Now I continue this tradition in joining organizational development consultants and coaching professionals who have discovered the cutting-edge of appreciative inquiry/appreciative coaching.

The basic concepts:

1. Where we focus and how we use language creates our reality – so let’s put our focus on what we want to work (our vision) and the assets and resources we have to move us there, rather than on what isn’t working and what we need but don’t have!
2. Emotions, both positive and negative, tend to be contagious. Recent research in emotional intelligence and positive psychology shows that positive emotions can be antidotes and even undo the effects of negative emotions (Sara Orem, Jacquelie Binkert & Ann Clancy, Appreciative Coaching, 2007). Plus, positive emotions open the doors to creative thinking, intrigue and curiosity as well as feelings of safety allowing a person or group to explore in deeper more productive ways.
3. As all researchers, evaluators, therapists and interviewers know, questions drive thinking processes! Asking the right questions makes all the difference in the world and can lead to a powerful critical thinking process bringing new meaning to past experiences, new understandings about today’s reality and new excitement about the future dream.
4. Our lives and the lives of our organizations carry the powerful success stories that we need to move into the future we strive for.
5. Our vision of the future guides our current behavior. Hope makes all the difference in the world!

What does this appreciative approach to strategic planning or coaching look like? It looks like remembering and telling the stories of our successes, discovering and embracing our assets and resources, dreaming about the future and pulling the threads through that tie together our stories of past successes with our vision for future success . . . and then making it happen!

Big Change

I was once a new member of the management team with an organization that downsized from 200 to around 50 employees over a 3-6 month period while overhauling the entire internal structures of management, departments, functions, processes and even the basic purpose of the organization. The change was devastating for most - the loss of jobs, of friendships, the insecurity of changes in job responsibilities and new managers with new expectations. This organization did not have the luxury of implementing change over time - the change was mandated. Sometimes big change comes real fast.

There were some members of the organization who seemed to have a sense of stability, grounded among the chaos of the big change. You could almost see an aura around these individuals, linking them with others and creating pockets of stability where morale picked up quicker and business began to develop again. Talking with them, you would not feel the intense anxiety that pounded the pulse of the organization in those days. Instead, you would see a steady sense of purpose that transcended the immediate tensions connecting solid values from the past with hopeful glimpses of the future.

Wherever these pockets of stability resided, change moved more readily.

What a paradox, that within stability, change is more readily embraced – even big change.

Learning Leadership Through Rollerblading

I am learning to rollerblade at age 41! My husband and kids gave me new skates for Christmas. They were not out to get me; I actually had skates on my list. With all the hoopla around the holidays I finally had an opportunity to try them out a few days ago.

I chose a smoothly paved walking trail that seemed to be on flat ground. First my daughter, and then my husband, walked along beside me, holding my hand as I wobbled fiercely and scrambled to regain my balance. I haven’t done this since I was in high school and I was mediocre even then. I kept my head down, watching the ground pass under my wheels – looking up, I would stumble. I held tight to the arm that supported me at every shift in the road, a curve, a slight incline or decline, a bumpy spot. At first, I did not even notice as others walked past.

Gradually, I began to lift my eyes from time to time and see a little farther down the road. Slowly I recognized the rhythm and sway of my body that allowed for longer strides and a sense of stability. It became clear that I would have to let go of the arm that supported me and give in to the rhythm if I were ever to maintain balance for more than 30 seconds.

Wow . . . I did it!! Before the end of the day, I was looking forward and swaying from side to side, swinging my arms, feeling the wind in my face. My family cheered, and in fact, so did the couple across the way, walking their dog.

As I coasted to the bench and took off my skates, excited and tired, I thought– there is a leadership lesson in this experience. Here are some that come to mind.

1. I am not too old to learn new tricks (I mean skills)! Leadership is a skill, not part of your DNA. It doesn’t matter if a person is an introvert or an extravert, a thinker or a feeler . . . it is not about having a “leader personality”. The real skill of leadership is learning to listen to our inner self and act on that rather than reacting to emotional triangles, tangles and webs.
2. This would be so much harder if I didn’t have support. I might even quit or never really give it a shot. Smart leaders need strong people to surround us, support us and encourage us. A wise friend from my church once said – if you are leading a ministry all by yourself, you should re-examine what God is calling you to. God sent us out in pairs and teams, in community. We are not designed to work alone.
3. It takes courage, knowledge and trust to let go and look towards the horizon. I had to feel the sway, learn to trust the rhythm of my own body and then . . . I had to let go and live into what I knew to be right even though I thought I might fall. I knew I would never learn to skate . . . and we can never learn to lead, if we are too afraid to look ahead and trust our own rhythm. Each of us has a rhythm that is unique. We have to discover our pulse, the heartbeat of our inner self that tells us who we are – that place where God communes with us and gives us strength, energy, life, power, and direction. And then we have to let go and live into that rhythm.

The next time I go skating, I’ll take a strong support person along and I’ll know that I have to trust my rhythm and take a chance. And maybe in learning to skate again, I can strengthen my leadership skills along with my leg muscles and sense of balance.