“Unsticking” A Small Nonprofit
Nonprofit leaders are tired. The work of their small mission-based organization is increasingly important, participants are enthusiastic, but what to do next is ambiguous, and relationships among the leadership team are fraying. And did I mention that everyone is so so so dang tired?
I recently conducted a pocket-sized 3-hour session to help a 3-person leadership team unlock their strategy (and relationships) using a protocol based on human intelligence, the bare minimum of tech, and good snacks. Two months later they are still energized and have momentum - so I thought I’d share it. This protocol is in a style that is a bit “facilitator shorthand” - so I’m happy to talk if you are interested in more detail or want to discuss how you might apply it to your nonprofit or small group 🙂
Context for this team
Three people had stepped up over the past year to save a beloved literary organization when the current ED suddenly left (approx. $30k operating budget)
The 501c3 of the original organization was tangled up and they had a lot of bureaucratic tasks in front of them
They were coming off a hugely successful program year with the highest attendance yet
None of them wanted to step into a long-term leadership role again
PREP
Materials: flip charts, post-its, markers, 11x17 paper, miscellaneous project materials (pipecleaners, tinfoil, little figurines, etc)
Participants (10-15 min): Used google forms to document what they were hoping to get out of the session (could easily have been via email but they wanted to test out google forms)
Google Form Questions
What are your goals for the upcoming session?
Why are these important goals to you?
If you had a magic wand and could be 100% sure one of these was still true a year from now, which would it be and why?
Anything else on your mind about our upcoming session?
Facilitator (60-90 min): Reviewed context docs and participant input, created agenda and flow, created a simple “workbook” for people to take notes, doodle, etc. (FYI this was SO low tech - a piece of paper folded in half), spoke with some participants before the session to get a sense of any unvoiced opportunities or barriers to meeting goals.
I also looked for “covert” facilitator intentions, e.g. no one mentioned group norms and relational dynamics as a goal for the group, but my observations showed a low level of group cohesion and some tricky interpersonal dynamics
GOALS
Overt (what I shared): align on the vision of the org, articulate the roles people want to play, and identify clear next steps over the coming 6 months
Covert (what I did not share): unstick some interpersonal dynamics, surface the existing degree of alignment and use a strengths-based approach to shared objectives and create stronger collaboration
FLOW (3 hours)
Opening (30 min)
Key Facilitation Moves
Opened in a friendly but brisk tone to immediately articulate their common ground and move them into a first activity: “You all stepped up to make sure an organization you love was able to continue - you all “caught the baby” when it was in danger of being dropped. You are all here because you love this baby and are coming off a great program season, but have not yet caught your breath or know what is next for the organization”
Acknowledged there was a lot of history, but “I am going to move us quickly over conversations of what has happened in the past so that we can focus on the future”
Posited that the way they worked together today would set precedent for how they work together going forward, which kept the stakes high for good behavior as they wrestled with the actions to take
Opening Activity: Tinfoil Gifts
Prompt: Why did you personally step up to help this organization again?
Activity: using tinfoil and other craft items, create a vessel for someone else that helps them “catch the baby”
Goal: build empathy and collaboration by getting them out of the cerebral
Flow
Worktime (silent/solo) - use the workbook and post-its to capture thinking
Present (round robin) - 3 minutes to share with others prompted to ask curiosity questions “can you tell me more about …” but not move into validation statements “I know how you feel about …”
Worktime (silent/solo): each person was assigned to make a vessel for someone else
Present (taking turns): each participant presented their vessel following the prompt “NAME, I made this vessel for you to help you catch the baby because you feel EMOTION and want to GOAL”
During the activity I was intentional about how I assigned the “creator” and “recipient” for each pair. In this case, I had the highest social “power” person make the gift for the one with whom they had the most conflict so that they could start to shift their dynamic
Covert objective #1 unlocked: we had tears and bonding by minute 15 🎉
Present: How we are going to work today
Objectives (based on their pre-session input)
Agenda
Norms (I came with a suggested list and had people add to)
Bike Rack (I use this instead of “parking lot” for emergent ideas we agree need to be captured but may not be resolved during this session - what can I say, I live in the Bay Area)
Visioning (40 min)
Key Facilitation Moves
Ran two 15-minute prompts, each with solo think time, presentation and discussion with a synthesis activity
Prompts work together to surface categories of work to be used for the rest of the session
Visioning Prompts (15 min each)
Who is this organization for?
Activity: note one audience per sticky; post the stickies on the board; discuss and reflect on the themes they are seeing
What does success look for this organization in 2030?
Activity: one idea per sticky; “snowball” the stickies where participants take turns sharing out one idea and everyone else who had something similar adds theirs so that categories of work accumulate on the board; as a group, confirm and adjust any categories - e.g. this group came up with the themes of People, Audience, Program, Operations, Financial
Covert goal #2 unlocked: participants were pleasantly surprised how aligned they were on the goals and impact they wanted the organization to have 🎉
Defining Roles (20 min)
Key Facilitation Moves
Ran three 5-minute prompts, each with solo think time, presentation and discussion with a synthesis activity
Create prompts that work together to create visibility into how this team of three might divide and conquer on the work in a way that keeps them all energized
Defining Roles Prompts
Flow: Ran prompts sequentially with 3 min each to solo brainstorm on stickies; once participants had had chance to solo brainstorm all 3 prompts, posted stickies to the board to discuss and reflect on the themes they are seeing
What role do you want to have in this organization in 5 years?
What are three things you personally want to contribute this year?
Is there anything you have been doing that you don’t want to do anymore?
Covert goal #3 unlocked: the team saw how what they each wanted to do contributed to the whole, and some grunt work that was feeling “hidden” was surfaced so it could be shared 🎉
Planning (40 min)
Key Facilitation Moves
Used a mash-up of strengths-based and KanBan approach to fill out a 6 month calendar using the categories of work created in the Vision section of the agenda
Ran three 5-min prompts, each with solo think time and presentation
Created a large grid to make the work visible
Moved into very active facilitation and pushed people to be specific
Planning Prompts (15 min)
Flow: 3 min each for each for brainstorm/post in each of the 5 categories of work
What is going well (that we can build on) in this category of work (ie People, Audience, Program, Operations, Financial)
What else might we do or improve in this category?
Discussion
Flow: open discussion to prioritize what is most critical to meet the longer-term goals; created a big
What are we going to do - what is most critical - between now and January?
E.g. issues with moving over a 501c3 need to be ironed out; need to fill a critical role before next season of program can happen, etc.
Closing (30 min)
Key Facilitation Moves
Created a “slush fund”of time in the agenda (more time that I thought we might need) so that we had enough time to go back to some of the messier parts of the discussion (and visit things that we put in the “bike rack”)
Didn’t let people off the hook - anything that surfaced as needing to be done needed a name and a date by which it would be completed
Facilitated structure - e.g. “it sounds like the two of you need a weekly meeting for the next month to get your hands around the 501c3 paperwork - if you agree, who can schedule that?”
Closing Activities
Created a shared “will do” list on a clean flip chart
Scheduled the next meeting before leaving the room
Celebrated the work done in the room today
POST
I spent about 60 minutes post-session to help the team keep momentum
Emailed summary with next steps, summary, and session photos the next day
Did some light tech support and helped to organize the Google Drive folder they were using - including pulling the 501c3 docs from a large zip drive into their shared Google Drive folder