“Carrots and sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose.” That’s the “Twitter Summary” – provided by the author himself – of Daniel Pink’s most recent book, Drive. It’s a good summary, but here are my take-aways along with some of my interpretation added in. Most organizations today are run like … [Read more...] about Quick Tips from the book “Drive”
Videotape Your Next Board Meeting
Okay – I am kidding. But wouldn’t it be interesting to watch if you did? And instructive! The football season is upon us. After every game, coaches and players huddle around TV monitors to carefully review videos of the game. “What did we do well that we need to keep doing? What did not work as well? How can we improve for the next game?” These are important questions … [Read more...] about Videotape Your Next Board Meeting
A Cool Tool
It’s free, it’s been out for about ten years, and yet I think it is still a tremendously underutilized resource. It is the McKinsey/VPP Organization Capacity Assessment Tool. To download your free copy, go to: http://www.vppartners.org/learning/mckinsey-vpp-ocat The OCAT was developed by consulting experts McKinsey & Company for Venture Philanthropy Partners as a … [Read more...] about A Cool Tool
Your Leadership Pipeline
Next week I will be teaching a two day course on Leadership Succession for NeighborWorks America (www.nw.org) in Atlanta. A few years ago the leaders at NeighborWorks – a national network of organizations which work to provide affordable housing across the country – realized that their local organizations needed to be prepared for the inevitable retirements of Baby … [Read more...] about Your Leadership Pipeline
Mission, Vision, Money
Last week I was asked to serve as the opening speaker for the Major Gifts track at a nonprofit fundraising conference. In summary, I said that an aspirational Mission & Vision are the pathways to Money. In fact, this is the most important path to take if you want to raise BIG money for your nonprofit. Mission. The aspect of Mission I encourage nonprofits to focus on … [Read more...] about Mission, Vision, Money