Top 5 Tips for Running a Great Meeting

Meetings.  Your eyes may have involuntarily rolled back in your head at the mere mention of the word.  Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without (hating) ‘em.

Well, I’m working on a customized training for a new Greenlights client, who wants me to help his team think about how to run effective and interesting meetings.

I remember when the light bulb went on for me about how to design and run great meetings.  It was back when I was an organizer for Austin Interfaith. I attended this incredible “10-day Training” for leaders and organizers that happens three times a year, and is put on by Industrial Areas Foundation (a network of fifty-nine multi-ethnic, multi-faith organizations like Austin Interfaith all over the country).

Looking over my copious notes from that time, I was reminded of how much useful stuff I learned then that I’ve been using literally every day for the past fifteen years, including how to rescue us  from painful, boring gatherings.  Sarah Palin may not agree, but for my money, organizers sure do know how to run a good meeting!

So without further ado, here are my top five (IAF-inspired) tips for running a good meeting.

1. Never, ever, EVER “meet to meet.” Why are you calling this meeting?  “The action is in the Reaction,” which means if you can’t clearly state what the desired reaction of your meeting is, don’t hold it!  How should people coming to your meeting feel, think, and most importantly act differently as a result of attending?

1. The most important work occurs well before the meeting itself.

• Meet with yourself and go through the planning process.  Who should be involved?  What issues need to get addressed?  What questions still need to be resolved?
• Hold phone or in-person meetings with key leaders who will attend (e.g. for a nonprofit board of directors, your Executive Committee members or Committee Chairs, or for a nonprofit staff, your managers or others you are cultivating as leaders) to get “buy-in.”
• Design the right agenda. What structure and time is needed (when in doubt, keep it short and simple).  Who will be Chair, or have a speaking role?  Who should be invited, and how can you get them to turn out?

1. Give attendees something concrete to do in your meeting. Want to make sure people show up?  Give ‘em something important to do at the meeting!  Does Adele need to give a committee report?  Could Juan share an important new development for your organization, or lead the group in an activity?  Do people know they will be helping decide or vote on an important item?  If so, they’ll be much more likely to turnout for you.

1. Develop a timed agenda, and stick to it. If you respect peoples’ time, they’ll keep coming back!

• This means starting on time, and ending on time.  Approve the agenda with the group at the start of your meeting, and then hold folks accountable for staying on track.
• Put the most important action items first on your agenda, so you can make sure to address them.  If someone has something new they’d like to discuss, leave a little “slush” time at the end to get to it if you have time.  Next go ‘round, they’ll be more likely to ask you to add an item to the agenda in advance!

1. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Ask some key leaders, if not the entire group, to give you some feedback after the meeting is officially adjourned.  What went well?  What should the group do differently next time?  What did we learn?  It makes sense…if people feel like you’re open to feedback, and are interested in their growth and development as well as that of the organization, they’ll be more engaged and take more ownership of what you’re working on.

What other tips do you have for running a great meeting?  I’d love to hear them.

Summer Reading

Apparently a lot of us (or at least Mary Alice and I) seem to think that summer is a time for reading. My family takes a big vacation each summer, and I’m always looking for good beach reads, which require something that doesn’t take itself too seriously but isn’t trashy. I’m a big fan of Sarah Vowell and John Irving.

The Greenlights Consulting Crew has decided that we’re each going to take on a summer reading assignment for work. We’ll do book reports and everything so that we can all benefit from the information and then, hopefully, share some information with the organizations we work with throughout the year.

If you’ve read a book that you think has important content and ideas for the nonprofit sector, please share it in the comments section to help us with our book selection.

I’ll share my book report with you at the end of the summer.

Setting New Goals

I had set a personal goal of finishing “D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II” by the 65^th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy this June, but I didn’t make it.  I had to reset that goal to July 4^th and for so many reasons reading the final pages on Independence Day was even more meaningful. The book by Stephen E. Ambrose is based on the oral histories of the Allied forces who invaded France in World War II and in the months ahead liberating it from Germany. By the following year, the war in Europe was won.

As I was reading Ambrose’s book, I was impressed with how it took a world community to achieve the D-D landings using ingenuity, the strength of sheer numbers, and infinite passion. Ultimately, I agreed with the author’s assessment. It was adaptability that won the day and the war.

Many things did not go as planned on June 6, 1944. Even the original landing date was moved from the original June 5^th date because of bad weather. Ambrose concludes that the true secret weapon on D-Day and throughout the war was the ability to adapt, “adjusting and reacting to the unexpected where the enemy could not.” General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. realizing that his landing was a mile off the expected mark on Utah Beach is credited with saying, “We’ll start the war from right here.”

There are many aspects about D-Day that correlate to our challenges today. It is taking combined efforts to get the job done. Our ability to adapt, to make “quick and decisive decisions” to help us survive and thrive are once again a key theme. What adjustments have you had to make to reach your goals?

Questioning the Value of Nonprofit Boards

What is the value and appropriate role of nonprofit boards… really?

This question came up recently when I had the opportunity to meet Marek Sedivy, the Director of Greenlights’ equivalent in Prague, who is in the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship.  Nonprofits, or NGOs (non-governmental organizations) as they are called in much of the rest of the world, are a relatively new concept in the post-Communist / Socialist Czech Republic.  Marek is in the United States to learn about nonprofit best practices, and specifically best practices as relates to nonprofit boards.

In the Czech Republic, the government requires NGOs to have 3, 6, 9 or 12 board members; an odd rule, but like here in the U.S., the requirement to have a board overseeing the use of the public’s funds makes sense.  No problem there.

After this, however, the conversation got a bit stickier.  There are commonly accepted best practices for nonprofit boards in the United States.  Greenlights, in fact, includes the Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards (from BoardSource) in our Board Primer handouts.  But as frequently happens when talking with someone who comes from a different culture / point of view, questions are asked, and basic assumptions are tested.  I found myself at one point saying, “You are right.  It doesn’t make sense.  Sometimes I wonder whether our model of nonprofit boards is broken.”  Yikes.

What transpired….

Marek said that because of the government’s requirement to have a multiple of 3 board members, and the fact that there is not a culture of giving or of volunteering in the Czech Republic, his board is an entity that brings no value to him.  So we visited the Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards as a framework for talking about how his board could be a group that provided him value.  Unfortunately, this promptly brought up the question of… “but why should a group of volunteers who don’t have specialized knowledge of NGO needs, be given the responsibility of determining mission, purpose, goals and services for the organization?“  Good question, and I didn’t have an answer.

Other questions that came up:
1. Do boards really fulfill their responsibility of financial oversight? One would hope so, but that presumes that board members have the know-how to interpret nonprofit financial statements, see red flags, and will demand that they be addressed.  The same is true for the legal and ethical oversight responsibility.

2. Does your board really help with fundraising, and how do you get them to do so? I was happy (as Greenlights’ fundraiser) to be able to say that, yes, in fact our board DOES get involved with our fundraising efforts.  Our goal is that 100% of our board helps in some way, and we are at 72% YTD.  That said, it’s not easy; there’s a ton of follow-up required and the need to meet people where they are at in terms of comfort level with fundraising.  And, broadly speaking, if you have people with the right experiential backgrounds to provide value in planning and program development, for most NGOs, they are not the best people to provide a ton of value in terms of fundraising.  This is a common issue for nonprofits everywhere – walking the tightrope between having a board that represents the community you serve and having one that can access the resources of other communities in order to fund your programs and services.

3.  How do you get your board engaged enough to WANT to talk about the organization publicly, to recruit others, and to help fundraise? My one idea (thank god, I had an idea!) for him here was something we do here at Greenlights, which is to invite one of our clients to attend the beginning of our board meetings to talk with our board about how our work has impacted his/her organization.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard our board members repeating the stories they’ve heard in conversations with prospective supporters.

This last question was clearly a key issue for Marek.  Coming from a culture where there isn’t an understanding of the value of volunteerism and “giving back,” he was struggling with how to get his board engaged in the work of the organization to the point where they wanted to help.

What advice would you have given him had you been in the room?

And what are your thoughts about the real value of nonprofit boards?

Finding Inspiration from Founders

I love the Fourth of July. Not because of the parades or the grilling or the beer, although those things are nice. For me, the fourth is all about my weird fascination with Revolutionary Era America. You may not know the words to all the songs in 1776, but sit too close and you may hear me singing them before sharing John Adams fun facts and admitting that Thomas Jefferson isn’t as annoying of a historical figure as I often say he is.

It’s not just that our founding fathers set up the amazing democracy that we live in today that gets me so excited to learn more, it’s how they envisioned something completely new. They said, “Why not be an independent entity from a monarchy? Why not take on a highly sophisticated military? Why not fight for freedom?” I think it is nearly impossible for us to appreciate the audacity of these questions. It took foresight, courage, and commitment to found what we now know as our nation.

Almost all of the glimmers of this kind of bold courage we see today are in the nonprofit sector. It is many of our founders, our funders, our innovators and our mission-driven workers that ask the bold question today, “Why can’t things be better than they are now?”

By now, we have all heard the current recession repositioned as an opportunity to get back to what really matters in our communities. I ask that over the holiday, not only enjoy the bright sparkles of the fireworks overhead, but find the inspiration from our bold founding fathers to return Monday with fresh ideas and a new excitement for asking, “Why not?”

RecognizeGood: A New Marketing Tool for Nonprofits

I recently learned about a great new way for nonprofits to gain more visibility and awareness in the internet community. RecognizeGood is the brain child of the Samaritan Counseling Center and John Bosch, Jr. Basically, anyone can use the site to give internet shout-outs and kudos. The idea is that when someone has witnessed or been the recipient of an act of kindness or generosity, they may want to do more than just say “thank you,” and RecognizeGood offers them a free way to do that. The second, loftier goal is to create an overall change in people’s attitudes and behaviors, fueled by the theory that one act of kindness leads to more acts of kindness. RecognizeGood’s mission is to “elevate the world’s spirit of community by creating a public forum to recognize, reward, and promote acts of kindness and unselfish charity.”

While anyone can use this service for something as simple as thanking a friend for helping them move or thanking their dog for being a great pet, RecognizeGood could be a powerful tool and resource for nonprofits. Nonprofits could use it to recognize volunteers and donors or thank board members, and Executive Directors could use it to show staff appreciation by recognizing the hard work of their Development Director or volunteer coordinator. You could even use it to increase public awareness about an event or new initiative.

Check out the site and add RecognizeGood to your list of ways to recognize donors, volunteer, staff, and more. And gain a little extra publicity for your nonprofit along the way.

To Everything There is a Season

It’s beastly hot outside, and I celebrated my birthday this week.

 These two constants of late June in Texas have got me thinking about the passage of time and seasons, which of course got me thinking about the Biblical passage, “to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” 

 This, then, got me thinking about the famous song by The Byrd’s Turn! Turn! Turn! and the slightly less amazing but still somewhat memorable scene from Footloose, in which Wren confronts the Baptists with the Ecclesiastes passage to argue that there is “a time to DANCE!”

 But I digress.

 My point was really going to be about the need to understand the seasonality in our nonprofit lives as well.

 Greenlights often trains on nonprofit life cycles, and the Consulting Team has been updating our training materials this week.  One of the things I was reminded of is no matter what “age and stage” or season of the lifecycle you’re at, there will be both positives and negatives, vulnerabilities and strengths, opportunities and challenges to be addressed.  Like two sides of the same coin, you simply can’t have one without the other.

 And what a nonprofit needs is different in each season of its life.  There’s a unique energy and focus needed during the start-up phase, for example, when the primary question is one of survival.  This is very different than what is called for during the Stability or Maturity phase of a nonprofit, when the primary challenge is staying fresh and relevant rather than falling in to complacency.

 At an individual level, I think we nonprofiteers would also do well to think about the rhythm and seasonality of our work as well.  There cannot be a time to harvest and reap, for example, if we haven’t taken the time to plant seeds and patiently water and nurture them.

 Maybe it’s just me, but it sure feels like we spend an awful lot of time in nonprofit harvest mode – producing, generating output, focusing on activities, without thinking about regenerating our selves. 

 Do we take time to muse and ponder, to read and attend a good workshop or class or conference that would nourish us in an important way?  Do we allow ourselves to take the vacation we’ve earned and truly disconnect from work when we’re off – to “lie fallow” for a bit?

 Summer is a great reminder to take a break once in a while.  Kids are out of school, the University is sleepier, and it’s hotter than blazes, which means the most comfortable place to be is floating along in Barton Springs.   I say, celebrate the season and take a break from the busy-ness for a while!

 To everything, turn, turn, turn…

“A crisis is a terrible time to waste.”

At today’s Nonprofit Town Hall Meeting, panelist Beth Atherton (Executive Director of Caritas) referenced the statement “A crisis is a terrible time to waste.” A quick Google-search or two later, I can tell you that the saying is attributed to Paul Romer, a Stanford economist.

There were lots of great observations, ideas, and advice at our nonprofit economic summit, but this statement has stuck with me all afternoon. It has the same sense of urgency as “Get thee to a nunnery” and even sounds a bit Shakespearean.

So, stop your dawdling and putzing around on the internet, and get to work!

…

…

…

You’re still here?

OK. Here are some ideas of things to do now:

• Check your cash reserves. Figure out how much time you can cover if no other funds come through.
• Call a long-time donor. Keep relationships fresh, engaged, and informed. If you need help, you’ll want them up to speed and ready to pitch in.
• Be kind to your staff. They are stressed out, too. Personally and professionally. Make some cookies, get someone to give chair massages, and thank them. A lot.
• Grow your volunteer force. All those unemployed folks have time on their hands… and skills in their heads and likely a passion for a cause in their hearts. Harness the resource of free labor. Not only can they provide extra support now, you’ll build stakeholders (and maybe donors) for the long-term.

Alrighty. Now go.

Eventing

I’ve figured out that the June 25^th Town Hall Meeting at St. Edward’s University will be my 19th event to work on at Greenlights since 2004. That represents over 4,420 attendees (and nametags), about 10 different venues, and lots of breakfasts, lunches, and hor’dourves.

As part of the Education team, over the years I’ve participated in:

• 3 Board Leaders Forums
• 6 Board Summits
• 4 Crossroads Conferences
• 5 Sector Connectors, and
• 1 Town Hall Meeting

I missed the 2008 Town Hall meeting last fall as I was attending the BoardSource Conference in Washington D.C. so you can see why I’m eager to attend the June 25th event. See my blog entry about it just as the news of the recession hit.

Work on my 20^th and 21^st events is already underway including this year’s Crossroads Conference and our 2^nd Board Summit of the year. Both are scheduled for the fall.

Management of the various Greenlights events is challenging, but they are definitely much more doable with a few handy tools–even in the midst of all the day-to-day business. Two big tools at my disposal are planning and a trusty calendar. For two items to help you plan, check out the Greenlights Resource Library and download a copy of the Special Event Timeline/Checklist and the Event Marketing Plan forms.

The best advice I can offer is to document all of your deadlines (yes, many of them overlap!) into your calendar. If you’re on a system like Outlook with a reminder feature, use it. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll make every deadline, but I do guarantee you’ll know you have one coming up allowing you the time to plan for any needed adjustments.

2 down and 2 to go.

Entrepreneurship and Collaboration

I was reading an article this morning about Hartwick, a small town in northern Vermont that, although located in one of the poorest rural regions in the United States, is fast becoming a “food-topia” where the farmers and food-based businesses (i.e. cheesemakers, seed producers, restaurants) work collaboratively to create a sustainable local economy… centered around food.  In reading the article, I was struck by how three key factors came together to create what, by all accounts is fast becoming a model for local food economies nationally because of its ability to create jobs, increase the amount of land being productively worked, and increase the “trail” (i.e. multiplier effect) of local dollars:

1. Well-identified need
2. Entrepreneurial mindset
3. Relationships

Well-identified need
If you have paid any attention to the age-old small vs. industrial farm debate, you are aware that family farms have a very difficult time operating in the black when competing against larger, industrial farms.  But family farms tend to operate in more environmentally-friendly, sustainable fashion.  And if there is a way to create a local economy for the produce of the farm, then transportation costs go down, too.  One very startling fact noted in the article – 90% of the dairy farms in Vermont have closed in the past six decades because of the changes in the dairy industry.

Entrepreneurial mindset
The main characters of this story include: Tom Stearns who took his college hobby of growing and selling organic seeds to a multi-million dollar per year operation; Andrew Meyer, founder of Vermont Soy; and Pete Johnson, owner of a local organic farm.  All three were looking for ways to grow their businesses and expand their reach.

Relationships
The three aforementioned men were all friends who met on a regular basis to brainstorm ideas for growing their respective businesses.  Additionally, Hartwick is a town of 3,200, 1,000 of whom are members of the local Buffalo Mountain Co-op.  So 1/3 of the town’s population was already on the same page about the issue.

Because the trust was there, and they each knew what issues the others were facing, it was a no-brainer to share employees, equipment and even loan each other money.  What started as one-off arrangements to aid their individual bottom-lines has since sparked “new dimensions, new participants and new business ventures.”

It seems so straight-forward when summarized in a four-page article, but this sort of collaborative effort leading to substantive, measurable community change is not the norm.  It got me to thinking, are these three factors critical to successful collaboration (i.e. that results in measurable change)?  If so, what is most frequently missing?  And what should an organization like Greenlights do to foster social sector collaboration in Central Texas?

What do you think?