Nov 8, 2022
Posted Under: Leadership Development President's letter
Whew! Decisions. Every day in every way. Life changing and insignificant – each one is called the same thing, but wow are they different. Sometimes the sheer volume of them can make even the insignificant feel hard. As humans, of course, we are always making choices – even choices that don’t feel like a choice. For many of you, your choices have a significant impact on people’s lives or on the stability of your missions. These are the choices I am thinking about at the moment – when our responsibility is always to be in a space of “leaving it better than we found it” – when all is as it should be – bigger than a person, a point in time, a single idea. These are the choices in our volatile and uncertain world I am thinking about. So how do we make these decisions in ways that reflect our job as mission stewards?
I am wrestling with this myself and so is every group we are talking to right now. In this space between what was (pandemic life) and what is to become (a new beginning), we are what scholars often call liminal space or the neutral zone. Here lies a world of possibilities and an equal number of dead ends. And our work is just this – to help people who are stewarding missions move forward from exactly the place they are. So I thought I would share a few tools you can use in your own decision-making with your team.
- Unpack it: We love a decision matrix in our sector. Truly, in my many decades in this work, I have seen a matrix for so many things. Why do we like them? Well, because they help us unpack the challenge not just for ourselves but in a way that a group of people can dive in together and discuss their perspectives on how they see the issues and topics playing out in their collective space. The gift is not just in the categorization but in the dialog. Please hear that part especially – it is not just you at your desk unpacking things into quadrants or categories, it is the group journey that is essential. There are so many examples to choose from, but two we use are The Cynefin Framework and the Money/Mission Matrix. I encourage you to click on the Money/Mission Matrix article we published in 2018 for a step-by-step guide to using the tool. At the heart of the definition of complexity, the Cynefin Framework offers us the opportunity to understand that not all challenges are the same and, therefore, not all decisions are the right match. In its simplest form, the framework asks us to categorize our challenges so that we can then match the right amount of time, money, resources, and decisions to find a solution. I still remember my biggest “a-ha” moment upon being introduced to the framework came when I suddenly understood why so many decisions that nonprofit board and staff were making were not providing the expected results. Indeed, they had been – unknowingly – applying the same set of tools and resources to very different kinds of problems. This is the gift of so many matrix tools – the ability to dole out our energy to the places that matter the most. When in doubt, matrix it out.
- Picture it. I love words, and in planning and decision-making they are often our go-to source of expression either in conversation or in writing. But words are imperfect because they can miss the essence of our intentions or the energy about why that decision matters to our work. So when faced with a decision, another tool is to show a picture, or paint or draw a picture that indicates what it would look like if your decisions resulted in success. This can be done by everyone finding or creating their own picture of what that success looks like for the mission and then sharing the common traits, or it can be the culmination of everyone’s ideas into one picture. You can also use this idea to track progress from where the organization is now to where you want to go together. This tool is a wonderful way to weave in a cultural context and core values and to engage everyone in the energy of why the decision matters. When in doubt, draw it out.
- See it as a progression. Two examples might serve as our best way into this idea. First, a group has more money in savings than is prudent. A conversation begins about what to do with it. Then the conversation quickly shifts to considering an endowment. At that point, people in the room who know what that means are overwhelmed while others become frustrated. This is the perfect spot to turn the decision into a progression. In this example, we can move from a decision that jumps from one extreme to another to understanding the choices between them and viewing those choices as stepping stones from one to the next. To be more specific, the progression is savings – to a board reserve account (also a shorter-term savings but with board restrictions and policies on how it’s spent) – to longer-term investments (also with policies and spending intentions that may need advice from an outside investment professional) – to a true endowment that is held in perpetuity and where only a percentage of interest earnings are available for spending. Pulling apart the choices helps the team ask essential questions like “what are the short and long-term definitions of success,” and “how does each choice serve our mission.” It also helps the team avoid jumping too quickly to solutions and tactics that they may or may not fully understand and may be choices that differ from one another. Second, a group is interested in diversifying their board, but every time they recruit someone new they don’t stay. This group often speaks about “DEI” but has not, like many, done the deeper work to know what these words mean to them or their environment so they are frustrated that “it isn’t working.” First, of course, this is a journey that only begins and never ends – a journey for everyone on the planet and a journey for every organization. What that journey looks like for each organization and every person is different. That said, pulling the conversation into a progression can help identify where the organization can focus and find their way. Specifically, understanding the progression of inclusion to welcoming to belonging is often an eye-opener. For brevity let’s say that inclusion is about creating or holding space where people are fully able to participate, welcoming is the environment we create that people experience as inviting, and belonging is a feeling someone has about being in the environment and with the people. For most, this progression creates enormous opportunities to go deeper and ask questions that lead to different decisions than when we just smoosh the whole thing together. When in doubt, step it out.
- Envision it. One of the trends we are encountering right now is the hesitancy to look too far ahead, and yet, as we have talked about before in a discussion about living in liminal space, it is actually envisioning the longer-term destination that helps us take the necessary leap. Every day we see the propensity to think incrementally – to fix what is immediate and in front of us. But if we are to be the best stewards of our time, money, and energy, we need to make decisions with the larger destination in mind. Engage the team with crafting (in words or pictures) a short definition of long-term success. Envisioned futures are not vision statements or goals, they help us know why success matters for the people or community we serve. It drives us forward with energy and strength. It propels us to thrive and not just survive as we move from our immediate transactional decisions closer to the transformational change we seek. When in doubt, vision it out.
- Be it. It is also true that sometimes the best decision is to wait so you and your team have time and space to think, to grieve (if needed), to celebrate (if appropriate) – to just be where you are right now. When in doubt, space it out.
There are more ways to get to where you want to go. These are just a few. Give them a try or call us. This is the work we love to do with you.
–Laurie
