You want to drive innovation throughout your nonprofit, but you don’t think you have the time or money to try new things. You would benefit from learning about the “Lean Startup” method – which is the current model that businesses use to develop new products and entrepreneurs use to start new companies. Here are some of the key ideas of Lean Startup that apply to … [Read more...] about Nonprofits, Innovation, & Lean Startups
Culture
Seven Habits of High Performing Nonprofits
Mario Morino is at it again – making contributions to the improvement of the performance of nonprofits across the sector. His earlier contributions have included sponsoring the creation of the Organization Capacity Assessment Tool (check this blog for more) and then in 2011 it was writing the important book, Leap of Reason (see this blog for more). Now he has led a group of … [Read more...] about Seven Habits of High Performing Nonprofits
Tug-of-War: Strategy vs Culture (Part 2)
Picking up from Part 1, to align culture with strategy to achieve mission impact, at Bethany College we executed an action plan to build the preferred, new culture keeping the best of the “clan culture” (charming small college) and adding elements of innovative and competitive cultures. As a result, the distance from where we began to where we were going created a … [Read more...] about Tug-of-War: Strategy vs Culture (Part 2)
Tug-of-War: Strategy vs Culture (Part 1)
Mission impact is driven by strategy. Yet there is very little written on the reality that strategy is driven by culture. As president of a small, independent college in mid-America who embraces the teachings of Rob Sheehan in Mission Impact, I'd like to share from the trenches why a nonprofit CEO should not overlook the cautionary adage, “culture eats strategy for … [Read more...] about Tug-of-War: Strategy vs Culture (Part 1)
Maximizing Personal Energy
Recently, I was on a panel at a conference for 250+ nonprofit executives when I suggested that in order to effectively address today’s challenges they need to lead with a sense of urgency because that is what it takes to accomplish important changes required today in the sector. But it’s not going to happen overnight. So they also need to lead as if they are running … [Read more...] about Maximizing Personal Energy