No, I’m not talking about what boards are supposed to DO. Leading is not about “doing” but about “being” and “thinking.” What do board members need in order to BE leaders?

This is not just an academic question for us, as we are right now in the process of building Creating the Future’s founding board. And so I wanted to share something I created for our board, to help them lead.

ED’s Keep It All In Their Heads
One of the most common attributes of entrepreneurial founders and CEOs is that they have the whole organization – all its programs, all its funding sources, all its plans – all of that is in their heads. Those leaders see the organization’s interrelated pieces as one integrated whole, understanding instantaneously not only where each piece fits into that whole, but whether or not new information fits at all.

Not surprisingly, CEOs don’t always take the time to explain all that complexity to the board. It’s not just a lot to grasp, but it’s also all interrelated. Start explaining one thing and that leads to another thing, and before you know it, the board’s eyes have glazed over.

Feeling overwhelmed, board members grab onto the few pieces they DO understand, frequently asking relentless questions about those few issues. EDs / founders are often left wondering, “We have SO much more important stuff to talk about. Why are they so stuck on this one stupid little thing?”

What I Did for Our Board
Creating the Future is a brand new organization with a brand new board. Dimitri and I have been running the show on our own for over a year now, looking forward to having a board to help us make the decisions that will indeed create the future.

If we are to accomplish our mission and lead this sector to its potential, we need to transition from “The Hildy and Dimitri Show” to a highly coordinated and far more distributed movement for change. For that success to occur as quickly as possible, the board will need an almost instantaneous transmittal of all the data in Dimitri and my heads.

Sadly, I never learned the proper technique for the Vulcan Mind Meld. And so, for the past 2 weeks, I have been creating the next best thing – a status update on every single project we are doing, within the context of WHY we are doing it all.

The report starts by providing context.

• Here is the vision for what we want the world to be like because of our work
• Here are the conditions we intend to create in the world, to ensure we are walking towards that vision.
• Here is our short term mission, focusing on just one of those conditions, to shift it dramatically in a defined period of time.
• Here are the groups whose work we intend to influence.
• And here are the programs that will influence them, as well as the necessary infrastructure for making it so.

These two graphics were included at the beginning of the report, to show the board visually how it all fits together.  (Sorry about the quality for reading purposes – but mostly I just want to show that it’s nothing fancy – hand-drawn flow charts.)

Then, for each of those groups, I created a chart with the following info:

The resulting report was 30 pages and counting (still not entirely done). And while that took a lot of work, board members can now, at a glance, instantly understand not only the breadth and depth of what we are doing, but the context – the WHY of what we’re doing. They see how it all fits, just as an ED might do in his/her head.

And now, every month we can just fill in the “status” column with updates.

Benefits
There are so many benefits to a tool like this, not the least of which is that board members understand why CEOs and EDs and founders often feel overwhelmed. The first thing Creating the Future’s board members wanted to know was when we find time to eat or sleep. That’s actually not a small thing; board members often call consultants around the time of an ED’s evaluation, confessing they have no clue what the ED actually does.

From there, though, imagine new board members joining the board, wanting to come up to speed as quickly as possible. What a great thing to be able to share with them!

It is also a great tool for ensuring the organization is succession-ready. Because none of us knows when our time is up, if we really want the mission to be accomplished, that won’t happen if everything is in the CEO’s head when the meteor hits.

Most important, though, this is a tool that allows the board to get their heads out of the weeds, and to see the whole forest – not just what we’re doing, but why. They can see the plan and see where everything fits. By inserting graphics, they can not only read the plan, but see it as instantly as the CEO sees it in his/her own head.

So what do board members need in order to lead? A big part of the answer is all about context.

Give board members a long list of all the things you are doing, and they will focus on the doing.

But give them the context for WHY you are doing that work, and they will begin applying that context to other issues that arise. As it is with the ED/CEO, they will be looking to see how everything fits.

I just wanted to share this with you all, as it was so well-received by our board. Several of them noted, “Nobody does this. It would be so helpful!”

So what do you think? Does this look like something that might be helpful for your org?

The report I sent to the board is not completely complete yet. When it’s done, we will be posting it to our site, along with a short video explaining a bit of the context. And the graphics will be more readable, so stay tuned!

Last week at Creating the Future, something happened that couldn’t wait till the board’s next meeting. Stuff like this just happens sometimes, at every organization, everywhere.

So we did what boards do when stuff happens. We chatted on the listserv, texted and direct messaged to arrange a conference call, chatted on the phone for a bit until we had a game plan, then followed up with each other via the listserv.

Nothing unusual, right?

Except that 100 years ago, this would have been impossible. The only available approach back then would have been a standing committee, whose job was to convene to deal with these sorts of things as needed.

Yup – the Executive Committee.

In 2011, we have so many ways to connect that people wish they could find a place to hide. And yet the Executive Committee lives on.

Yes, they still deal with issues that arise between meetings. But when so much of that work can be handled by a group-cc’ed email, Executive Committees are now the place where agendas are developed, issues are hashed out prior to the meeting, problems are solved, relationships with the ED are strengthened. These days, Executive Committees tend to be highly engaged places where the good stuff of being a board takes place.

The problem is that that’s the stuff the whole board should be doing – governing, getting excited about issues, planning what to talk about next.  And it is absolutely the stuff for which the board as a whole is accountable, not just several select members.

It is therefore no surprise that there is a highly predictable inverse correlation: the more engaged and energized the Executive Committee, the less engaged and energized is the board as a whole. And it makes perfect sense – the Executive Committee gets to the do the good stuff, and the rest of the board is pretty much expected to rubber stamp whatever the Exec Committee says.

The Stuff Happens Committee
Regardless of all the problems it causes, many boards still insist they need an Executive Committee.

So here’s what I’m thinking. If your board still believes it needs an Executive Committee to “handle stuff,” let’s just rename the committee. Let’s call it the Stuff Happens Committee.

Calling it the Stuff Happens Committee will instantly let folks know its role. “No, it’s not about determining the agenda or hashing out all the issues. It’s just the group that deals with stuff that happens between meetings.”

And to those who say, “Yes, but the Executive Committee is part of our leadership ladder,” let’s use the Stuff Happens Committee to REALLY develop leadership – in everyone. Membership in the Stuff Happens Committee can rotate every six months, ensuring that all board members get to deal with the stuff that happens between meetings.

Getting Real
Once we even jokingly call it the Stuff Happens Committee, we quickly see the real reason boards don’t want to let go of their Executive Committees. It is not a matter of function; it is a matter of image.

Being on the Executive Committee is a reward to those who chose to be leaders. They get their own special meetings – fun meetings, engaged meetings. They get to call themselves by an esteemed name – Executive Committee. (Or as many groups call it, simply “Exec,” as in “The board meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month, and Exec meets the week prior.)

Even when boards realize it is an antiquated construct; even when they understand that having this committee is actually harming the level of engagement and active accountability for the board as a whole – even with all of that, many boards insist that this is a committee they still need.

So let’s make it easier for boards to break free of the chains of self-image and prestige. Let’s make it clear, by calling it what it is, that this is a committee whose time has passed.

And maybe, just maybe, board members will agree to finally put this buggy whip where it belongs – in a museum of days gone by. Because the one place this committee does not belong is in a modern organization, led by a modern board, doing its best to stay energized and focused on making a difference in a its community.

Photo: Courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia – via Wikimedia Commons

We’re excited to be launching a new program in the next few weeks – a program that readers here, and colleagues at Facebook and LinkedIn all said would be a huge help.

Board education in digestible chunks.  20-30 minute audio classes for listening in your car or with your board. Going deep into a narrow topic, with thought-starters to move you from “listening” to “discussing and making it your own.”

Easy, convenient, affordable ($9.95/month), practical education, aimed at making organizations as effective as possible at creating extraordinary community change.

From the insightful and encouraging advice you all provided, both here and at LinkedIn and Facebook, we will be starting the Flash Class program with Governance and Planning classes.  Which leads to the most important question:

• What topics are the most important to cover?
• If you could get your board to spend 1/2 hour talking about any education topics at all, what would those topics be?
• What topic, if it were presented, would you say, “Oh thank goodness – our board really needs that!”

We will assemble all the responses we get, and those will become the topics of the classes.  So what do you need? What will be most helpful?

We can’t wait to get started!!!

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/04/04/what-do-you-wish-your-board-would-learn/feed/ 3 http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/04/03/board-orientation-do%e2%80%99s-and-don%e2%80%99ts/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/04/03/board-orientation-do%e2%80%99s-and-don%e2%80%99ts/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:05:26 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=4484 I was thumbing through our Board Recruitment & Orientation workbook this weekend, looking for a particular form. (I shouldn’t confess how often I’ll be almost done creating a form, only to do a palm-smack to the head, remembering that the exact form I need is in a book I wrote. Not that that’s what happened here… Ok, it’s precisely what happened here. But I digress…)

Anyway, while paging through the book, I found this and wanted to share it here.

Board Orientation Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t focus on the operational / fiscal oversight issues to the exclusion of the reason the organization exists – the difference you intend to make in your community.

Do strike a balance between oversight issues and leadership issues – how board members can be effective leaders towards the difference your organization intends to make.

Don’t let decisions about content be entirely staff-driven.

Do have board members themselves determine what new board members need know, with input from the CEO. Do set aside 15 minutes for the board to answer this question: “What do you wish you had known when you joined the board, that would have made you more effective more quickly?” If their responses focus entirely on oversight issues, do ask, “What do you wish you knew about our mission? What do you wish you knew about the difference we are making?” Use that list to determine the content of the orientation session.

Don’t allow the orientation activities to be entirely determined by the staff.

Do have the board’s Governance Committee use the board’s brainstormed list to create the day’s agenda. Do have the committee determine which portions the staff should present, and specifically what content they want presented at that time. That will help alleviate situations such as a staff person waxing eloquent for ½ hour about his/her program.

Don’t make your orientation program a whole day of lectures and reports. And don’t consider the day “interactive” simply because you provide time for Q&A after those reports.

Do have board members spend time in discussion about the passion that led them to this organization and this board.  Do have them share the path in their lives that brought them to the board, the difference they are hoping to make by being part of the board.  This will not only provide context for the oversight issues they will be learning about; it will immediately engage them with each other’s hearts and minds.

Don’t wait until orientation to provide a tour of your facility(ies).

Do have the tour occur as part of the getting-to-know you of the recruitment process. After all, how can someone say “yes” to governing the organization if they are not certain what they will be governing? A tour with deeper information may be a great part of the orientation, but don’t let that be the first time your board members have become physically familiar with the place!

Don’t put off the orientation until board members “have time.”

Do calendar the board’s whole year’s activities, from adoption of the budget to election of officers / annual meeting, to the annual orientation. That will give everyone notice a year in advance of the orientation!

Don’t think just because someone holds a professional position in their “real life,” that they necessarily understand financial matters. A great number of board members from all walks of life make financial decisions without completely understanding the core financial issues at hand.

Do include a brief review of 101 level finance in your orientation. Do have the treasurer offer to privately mentor anyone who is embarrassed that they don’t understand financial matters.

Don’t think orientation is just for new board members.

Do have the board annually determine what all board members need to learn in order to govern, and have them all attend orientation every year. You can call it “Orientation and Board Re-Training”!

Don’t stock your board manual so full of “stuff” that it is no longer useful.

Do ask the board what materials would be helpful to have with them at all times, and use that list to build your manual.

Don’t forget boards need ongoing education, all year long – both on the specifics of what the organization does, and on overall themes related to Governance.

Do consider making some of your “orientation” an ongoing year-round learning process, perhaps just 15 minutes at every board meeting.

Don’t forget the simple introductory things that make the human side of boards work more smoothly.

Do wear name tags at all meetings. It helps new people feel less new, and helps outsiders address board members by name, instead of “The gentleman in the brown sweater.” And do have food, even if it’s just popcorn – people work better together when they’re fed!

Don’t make your annual orientation all business.

Do have a light dinner immediately following your annual orientation. Boards work best when they know each other better, and the orientation will give board members much to talk about over dinner afterwards!

And most of all, DO have fun!

But beware: If your orientation program is fun, board members will expect to have fun at board meetings. (Which seems like it is leading to a Do’s and Don’ts post for meetings, now doesn’t it?!)

Now it’s your turn – what Do’s and Don’ts would you add to this list?

This list has been adapted from Board Recruitment & Orientation: A Step-by-Step, Common Sense Guide (3rd Edition).

What if “what boards need”
is help with uncorking and putting to use
the wisdom they already have
just from living life?

What if “what boards need”
is encouragement to trust the life experience
that is the reason they were recruited
in the first place?

What if “what boards need”
to complete their legal oversight role
is just a checklist -
not training, just a to do list?

And what if what boards DON’T know -
how to do the actual work of the organization,
how to fundraise…
what if that is the job of the staff?

What if it is really that simple?

Photo info: Tequila! January 2011

Not that our efforts haven’t been “real” so far. It’s just that we have always felt like we’ve lived in two worlds.

On the one side, we have always believed in our hearts that the Community Benefit Sector holds the keys to creating a healthy, vibrant future for our world. And yet we weren’t actually a full-fledged, tax-exempt, Community-Benefit organization ourselves. Somehow it has felt like we were looking in from the outside.

All that is changing, and we are so excited – the seat of our souls feels well-seated for the first time in a long time. Every single day we feel as if we are home.

Because we have vowed to share what we are learning along the way, we wanted to take some time to catch you up on our doings. It seems we are turning even the seemingly dull “legal and financial infrastructure issues” into tools for aiming at this organization’s fullest potential. How cool is that?

Building the Legal Infrastructure
It has been a kick so far, building this organization by transparently engaging the wisdom that is around us. One result of that effort is that we’ve found an attorney who wants to help us build that way of being into the legal infrastructure that will “be” the organization!

Ellis Carter is perhaps the most creative, innovative and knowledgeable attorney this sector could know, and we feel honored to have her guiding us in this process. Her Twitter name is @CharityLawyer and there is no more apt name (except perhaps CommunityBenefitLawyer, but that would take up almost all her 140c!) If you need both information AND wisdom, subscribe to her blog, follow her on Twitter, or better yet, hire her!

We have been working with Ellis on all it will take to file for tax exemption – describing the core purpose of Creating the Future, defining our fundraising plans, our budget.

But then there is the part that is the most exciting – the part we will be sharing over the next few months. And that is the whole issue of governance structures.

Some of what we are hoping to build into the bylaws are the answers to questions such as…

• Is it a good idea to build recruitment criteria into the bylaws, to guide future boards with some of the wisdom you all have shared at this post here? And if so, how to do that?
• How do we build into the bylaws the process of openly engaging the world at large in all major strategic decisions, as we have been doing all this year?
• How do we build into the bylaws provisions that prevent the organization from being hijacked by a powerful individual – something virtually every governance consultant has experienced, along with the sinking feeling that comes with having no choice but to helplessly watch as disaster unfolds?
• How do we ensure that core values will guide the decisions of future boards?
• And many more questions and issues that each of us has encountered in so many organizations.

As we tackle each of these issues, we will be coming to you for deep discussion (and if you have thoughts now, let’s hear them!). The result will be samples that will be freely available online, where we intend to share the final product of our own bylaws as well. After all, you will have helped create them!

Our first step in this process has already garnered 20 comments and growing – the question of what criteria we should use for recruiting board members. If you haven’t read that whole discussion – especially the comments – there is a rich resource of information, ideas and wisdom in the thoughts people have shared. Go there now and read it, or at least print it out for future reference. (Tip – if you make a brief comment, you can then click to follow as additional comments are added. With a thread like this, I would absolutely recommend that!)

Financial Infrastructure
Another brilliant mind is helping us build the financial accounting side of this organization. Carolyn Sechler doesn’t just dabble in accounting for this sector; she is the CPA to 300 organizations! She is creative and wise, and she finds deep joy in cutting straight through the BS (yeay!).

Also, she is wacky and whimsical. Yes, a wacky, whimsical accountant. Totally takes my breath away.

Carolyn is setting up the initial books for Creating the Future, and she is advising on other simple things we can do to create financial policies and other necessities. Carolyn believes in using and sharing as much free stuff as possible (you can see a ton of stuff at her site here), and so again, as we develop policies, we will be asking for your experience with these same exact issues. And then we will share back out with the world whatever we develop!

The exciting news for us, though, is that we now have an EIN number and a bank account, and yes – a PayPal account just for Creating the Future, so we can officially accept donations. And that is just in time for the projects I will be sharing in the next few days, where yes, we could use your help!

Operating Transparently
This sector has, in the past, kept discussions about finance and legal issues behind closed doors. While our experiment in operating openly is still very new, we just want to report that so far, we cannot find one good reason to hide – and we can find many many reasons to openly engage.

We hope you are learning along with us on this adventure. If you have stories to share about your own efforts at working transparently, especially when it comes to finance and legal issues, I hope you will share them here. We want to learn along with you!

Yes, exciting. It’s exciting because a board means this organization is real (not that we don’t already have programs that are extremely real, and all the other stuff that says, “we’re real,” but a board is a big “real” step!).  It’s exciting because we will be surrounding ourselves with brilliant minds, passionate about the work of creating a healthy, vibrant future for our world.

And ok, I admit it is exciting because I am a huge governance geek.

The fact that I love this stuff is no secret. The bazillions of articles and posts I’ve written over the years, the books, the workshops - when I think of boards, their boundless untapped potential gives me goosebumps.  (Yes, I know, it’s a sickness. I’m ok with that…)

So here’s the really fun part – we’ll be using the process outlined in the best-selling Board Recruitment manual at Amazon as the guide for this work.  Yup – mine.

The Process
In our experience, board recruitment often starts with brainstorming a list of names. Sometimes before brainstorming that list, someone whips out a canned “matrix” that says every board should have X number of people from X walks of life (as if every board’s needs were the same, or as if recruiting board members as pro bono help was even a good idea...)

And it is precisely that experience that leads boards to recruit “warm blood and a pulse” or worse – board members that are a bad fit.

The process we are about to undertake will instead consider three critical sets of qualities:

• The Must-Have Qualities: Those qualities we want to be sure every single board member has.
• The “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” Qualities: Those qualities it would be nice if some had, but they don’t all need to have (money, connections, expertise in specific areas of the mission, etc.)
• The “Never in a Million Years” Qualities: Those qualities that, without being explicit about them, we are often willing to overlook as we seek folks in the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” category. (i.e. “He’s loud-mouthed and has ego issues, but heck – he’s got money…”)

Transparency
Before diving in, it’s probably important to share a bit of background. About a year ago, as we prepared to build this organization, we realized that we have a unique opportunity to be our own demonstration project, modeling what it would look like to transparently engage all our constituents in all our major decisions.  We realized that process alone could be a beacon, a role model, and an invitation to share learning.

What that means is we will be asking for your wisdom, your ideas and your experiences as each major decision arises along this path.  We will document the results of that process to the best of our ability to do so.  And we will see what happens from there!

(To see our first example of transparently engaged decision-making, check out the series of blog posts that led to our name, Creating the Future, up to and including the decision to purchase the domain names!)

Let’s Get Started
As we dive in to build our board, then, we are hoping you will help us brainstorm the qualities that will help this organization move forward. Initially I thought I would ask for one category at a time, but knowing human nature, I knew we would wind up with ideas all over the place – the boon and bane of good brainstorming!

So all I ask is that you tell me which category the qualities you are thinking about fit under.

Must Have: What qualities must every board member have for this creative new venture?

Wouldn’t It Be Nice: What qualities would be nice if some had, but not everyone needs them?

Never Ever Ever: What qualities should we steer clear of, that might tank our ability to reach for this organization’s potential?

Our Thoughts
Because we have been thinking about this, I thought I might get the ball rolling with a few ideas we’ve been playing with.  Please let me know if you don’t think these are valid. None of this is set in stone, it’s all just ideas.

Must Have
• Must “get” the essence of our work and be passionate about its potential.

• Must have time to commit to being a board member (while we don’t know yet how much time that is, this will be a founding board, and we’ll probably chat a lot via listserv in addition to formal board meetings, so…)

• Must have integrity as in “wholeness of being” / must be “wise” and not just smart.

• Must embrace open-source / transparently engaged decision-making

• Must embrace the values noted here

• Must be comfortable with ambiguity, as we are seriously building this plane while we’re flying it.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice
• Connections with people throughout all levels of the sector – academics and researchers, funders and philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and grass roots organizers, and etc.

• While everyone needs to have a comfort level with ambiguity, it would be nice to have some folks who are cautious in their approach to that ambiguity.  On the flip side, it would be nice to have folks who are courageous explorers, who love venturing into the unknown with confidence that things will all work out.  We’ll need some of both.

• Board members from various countries around the world would help ensure the work is infused with cross-cultural sensibilities.

Never in a Million Years
• Folks who are fearful, who are set in their ways, who are focused on why things can’t work vs. how they can.

Ok, that’s my list so far. As I said, a work in progress, so please both add to it and question what is already there.  I can’t wait to see what we come up with – and then start to to find!!!

I am so looking forward to your thoughts!

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/10/12/recruiting-our-board/feed/ 31 http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/06/29/giving-boards-time-to-think/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/06/29/giving-boards-time-to-think/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:03:09 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=2716 Yesterday I lamented that we all feel we don’t have time to think. And that the reason we don’t have time to think is that we don’t make time to think. Which is to say that we don’t value thinking near as much as we value doing.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the board rooms of Community Benefit Organizations.

Last week alone I was coaching two different board chairs who were concerned that their boards did not want to discuss “vision.”  In both cases, their board members had told them outright that they thought the discussions of vision would be a waste of time; instead, they wanted to focus on DOING something.

In both those cases, the chairs chose the road less taken. They both stepped back from “doing” to facilitate the question, “If we were 100% successful, what would our community look like? What would be different? For whom?”

In both cases, the meetings were more energized and engaged than either of the groups could remember being.

And in both cases, the groups said afterwards, “We needed this. It provides context. It is a different way of thinking, but that is precisely where we need to be.”

This goes directly counter to what “experts” tell boards they are supposed to be focusing their precious time on. Boards (and many governance gurus) see such discussion as a luxury they wish they had more time for but “our board members are so busy and we have so little time together that we have to focus on what’s important…”

It may be fine to consider such exploratory, open-ended conversations at the beginning of an annual retreat, but boards insist they cannot afford to spend time every month on this “touchy feely” stuff.

And you know, I would be ok with that if the current means-and-doing-focused board work were actually creating results. But we all know that is not the case.

(If you are viewing this in email, here is the video link.)

So where can a board even start? What first steps can a board take, to begin to change the “means and doing” focus to a focus on the difference they want to make in their community?

The simplest step is to start your meetings with a meaningful question. Spend even just the first 10 minutes discussing that question. Not a report, not a speaker – real discussion. Time to think. Time to focus.

Start with energy about the difference you want to make. And let that guide the rest of the board’s conversations.

Some of the most interesting consideration of Boards as Learning Communities happens at Debra Beck’s blog. I recommend it as a great source of inspiration for boards who want to spend more time thinking.

The conversation I shared yesterday, with a young social change agent trying to find his path, brought up for me an issue that is glaringly absent in almost all discussions of “best practice” in the social change arena.

This sector’s work is about compassion, resilience, health. It is about vibrancy, humanity.

Our work is about caring for children, for the elderly. For people living with illness, poverty, disability. Our work is caring for the abused, the downtrodden, whether that means abused and downtrodden people, animals – or our planet.

Our work is to make whole what appears to be broken, to find strength in what appears to be weak.

Our work is also to celebrate what is creative, artistic, intellectually curious about us. It is about learning, exploring. It is about science and art and history. It is about our past and our future.

These things are our job.

It’s not an after-school project. It is what we get paid billions and billions of dollars to do. It is what our communities, our countries, our globe could not get along without.

So then how did it come to be that we shy away from words like these?

compassion
humanity
possibility
spirit
joy
potential
social change

In The Pollyanna Principles, I note that if you want to get a “sophisticated board” like a hospital or university board to act like 9 year old boys being told they have to dance with girls, tell them it’s time to talk about vision and values. “Ewww! Do we have to?”

In every public workshop and every consultant immersion class I’ve done for so long I can’t remember, at least one person asks, “What about boards who don’t want to talk about vision or values? What about boards who see it as…

Touchy feely?
Airy fairy?
Not based in reality?
Not practical?

And dear God, please don’t use the word “spiritual.” Please don’t talk about what is strong and resonates in each of us, connecting us to each other.

Whispered tones: “My board isn’t going to like the vision stuff. Could you tone it down?”

Listserv question: “Aside from principles, do you teach boards anything practical like worksheets and agendas?”

In our workshops and our classes, here is how we answer the question:

If they think vision is airy fairy, ask them what success would look like in their community. They will want to answer that.

If they think values are touchy feely, ask them when they have tough decisions to make, what they want to base those decision upon. They will want to answer that.

We translate. We make it accessible.

But why should we have to do so?

It is no stretch – not even a teensy weensy one – to say that our work is about taking care of and nurturing what is good and whole and strong and filled with spirit and goodness in each other. That’s our JOB. It’s what we get PAID to do.

It is no stretch, not even an atom’s worth, to say that we are not about what’s wrong with our communities, but about making it right. About making things first livable, then beyond livable to comfortable, then beyond comfortable to joyful, great, amazing, incredible.

So what would it look like if every corner of this sector embraced the joyful, the possible – those strong powerful words of potential that are not only what this sector is about but what WE GET PAID TO BE ABOUT?

What would that celebration of possibility look like in your organization? In your clients’ organizations?

And what would it take to make that our reality, and to not be afraid of words that say so?