Veronica LaFemina: Your One-Page Strategic Plan
In a lot of ways, we can see typical strategic planning as a flawed process. Veronica LaFemina shares a more collaborative endeavor, with more staff collaboration and stakeholder inputs, resulting in a more actionable plan with greater decision-making value. She’s the CEO of LaFemina & Co.
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And welcome to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Big nonprofit ideas for the other 95%. I’m your aptly named host and the pod father of your favorite abdominal podcast. Oh, I’m glad you’re with us. I’d be hit with exophoria if I saw that you missed this week’s show. Here’s our associate producer, Kate with what’s coming? Hey, Tony, we’ve got your one page strategic plan in a lot of ways. We see typical strategic planning as a flawed process. Veronica Lahaina shares a more collaborative endeavor with more staff, collaboration and stakeholder inputs resulting in a more actionable plan with greater decision making value. She is CEO of LAFA Mia and company. Finally, we got Veronica La Finna. I’m tired of introducing her when she’s not showing up. She’s here. She’s here on Tony’s Take two Tales from the plane. A new captain’s briefing were sponsored by donor box, outdated donation forms blocking your supporters, generosity, donor box fast, flexible and friendly fundraising forms for your nonprofit donor box.org. Here is your one page strategic plan. It’s a pleasure to welcome Veronica La Finna. She is founder and CEO of La Finna and company working with nonprofits and social impact businesses at the intersection of strategy, change management and strategic communications. She is a strategist facilitator, trusted advisor and certified Change Management professional. With nearly two decades of experience as a senior executive at National US Nonprofits and as a high impact consultant, you’ll find your company at La finna.co and Veronica is on linkedin. Welcome to the show Veronica. Thanks Tony. It’s great to be here. Yeah, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. We uh we chat a lot on linkedin. Uh This is uh this is much better. Yeah, it’s nice to have the chance to chat in person. Absolutely. After we met, uh we had a very nice lunch in uh in uh in Raleigh because you’re in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, right? That’s right. Yeah, it’s great here in the time and it was great to see you as you were passing through. So it’s always great to see other nonprofit folks in North Carolina. Yeah, I love it when, when social media can actually bring us together in person, which doesn’t happen too often. But as I’m traveling, uh it, it doesn’t sometimes does. Yeah, that was, that was a lovely lunch. You’ve got some thinking about a one page strategic plan uh which we have plenty of time to get to the details of. But, you know, let’s start more broadly. What uh what difficulties do you see with strategic planning? What could we be doing better? How do we avoid these things becoming lovely binders on a dusty shelf and that never get looked at again after, after their approval by the board. Yeah, I, so um I’ve been at this a long time and in the beginning of my career when I was doing strategic planning with organizations, um you know, you spend so much time on this beautiful process and you bring people together and over the course of six months, you develop these, these big ideas and these big goals. Um And I saw how much effort and energy and wordsmithing um would go into those plans and then I would see that, you know, it would get back to the organization and it’s crickets, you know, people are confused, they don’t know what’s going on or it just feels like this big pie in the sky Fairy tale and not actually something that we can accomplish as an organization. And so both as a consultant and then when I was working in house as an executive leader, you know, I’m a practitioner, I want stuff that works. Uh And so I started developing new ways of looking at strategy to say, like, how could we be doing this better if this isn’t actually getting us to where we want to go? What do we need to be thinking about? How can we make it easier for the people who work in this organization or the volunteers who are helping do um on the ground work actually accomplish what we’re saying we’re trained to accomplish. Um And so I think, you know, there’s not just one way to do strategic planning, which is a really important recognition. You know, I think a lot of executives in the sector have kind of been doing things in a similar way because that’s how well we were all taught many moments ago. Um But we’re now at this place where the speed of information, like how we get feedback from our communities and how frequently we can get that feedback is much faster than it used to be when we would, you know, convene people once every three years. Um our ability to make different kinds of choices because the technology that may be available to us or our ability to partner with other nonprofits in our community is a bit different. Like we’re not just creating plans for ourselves as organizations, we have to be really mindful of the context and the other partners in the space or others who are working to advance our issue area. Um And we’re not able to be everything to everyone. And so making sure we have a really clear understanding of our own identity as organizations actually makes a big difference then in what we choose to do and the kind of strategy we choose to pursue. So I talk a lot about, you know, the aim is not to build perfect plans, it’s to build strong strategy. And so how can we have a better understanding in our sector of what strategy is and how we use it, um, to achieve the impact we’re looking for, to raise the money we’re looking to raise, to, to bring that, um, impact to life. But how, you know, how can we be? OK, not getting an A plus on the perfect plan process and instead focus on strategy that sticks and it works and gives us the kind of impact we’re looking for. Uh let’s flush out your meaning of strategy because the, the prevailing sentiment and not sent the prevailing professional opinion is this needs to be a binder. It’s gonna be all kinds of tabs about, you know, the five year plan, the 15 year plan, uh the staffing, the, you know, the programs that we’re gonna expand or move into the partnerships that we’re gonna have, you know, this is so to reduce this to a one page actionable strategic initiative plan, it’s still a, it’s still a plan, it just doesn’t have 100 and 75 pages. It’s, it’s reduced to uh to 1, 175th of that. So, so that uh so you’ve, you’ve hit on strategy a couple of times. So what, what, what, what’s your sense of uh strategy? Yeah. So, so at its heart, right? Strategy is a series of interconnected choices about what we will do and what we won’t do to achieve our goals, right? So I sometimes will write that like when I’m doing workshops or presentations as strategy is vision like where we headed plus the decisions that we want to make to get there. Now, that doesn’t mean we have infinitely documented choices or all of the details or task lists in place. What it does mean is that we have enough information, agreed to and documented so that we can keep applying that strategy when new opportunities arise. So, you know, often what happens with those long documents is they become a task list instead of a way of understanding how we work in the world, right? It’s a good strategy, you know, and I, I will also say um the main audience for your strategic plan is your staff, right? Or the people who are doing the on the ground work in the organization and that’s a little bit different, you know, we tend to or in the past, we wrote plans with our funders in mind and with these other, you know, audiences in mind. And that’s great if we want to inspire funders or get people excited and behind our cause. But if our staff doesn’t know what that strategy means or how to execute it, um if it doesn’t make sense to them, then it’s not gonna happen. So we’ve just kind of sold a false dream of where we’re headed. Um So being able to instead really document key choices about who we are, who we serve, where we’re headed what we’re gonna focus on to get there and what it will look like when that success happens, it gives us the flexibility then to make great choices when new opportunities or challenges arise, that we might not have been anticipating. And I think a lot of organizations if you look at um at the COVID pandemic, right, at this moment where there’s a lot of clarity about how much we can’t predict about what comes next, right? None of us is a fortune teller. We don’t have crystal ball. Um And you know, certainly if I did as a strategist, that would be wonderful for me because I could tell organizations do exactly this and that’ll work for you. Um But it became clear that we needed to better understand what is our way of doing this and of making the impact we want in the world. Instead of here is a list of all the programs and, and tasks we do as an organization. So are you describing a process that’s more staff driven or at least staff pa participating more? Because II I to go back to the, the prevailing way of doing this is more like at the board level, at the C suite and board level. Yeah, I’m, I’m a huge advocate for staff being quite involved in strategy development for a couple of reasons. One is staff are living this every day. They’re seeing what’s working and what’s not working. They, they have the real time feedback from the community or the people you serve. And so their uh the internal wisdom of the organization is really important. You know, our board members play such an important role in governance and in enabling um the success of the organization in a number of ways. But most of them have day jobs or have other things that they’re experts in and focused on. And so to ask them to be responsible to make choices that will drive the operations and way of working of the organization is not super fair to them as board members, you know, they need to be involved in the process, but we should be involving staff and their expertise um from the beginning. Um I’m also an advocate of the fact that um sometimes when we go out and gather input from our community, we are doing it with good intention, but we are not necessarily honoring our community’s time, right? So we’ll go out and we’ll do like a big survey or, or deep dive with them on all of the things that they need or hope for or would love to see change in the world. And we as an individual nonprofit may only touch a tiny percentage of that, an important one, but a tiny thing. And so when we’ve asked them to spend all this time with us, sharing everything they need, and then we come back to them when the plan is fully baked later saying we’re only addressing this one little thing and we we it’s a mismatch of expectations and reality. So I think there’s opportunity in our strategic cleaning processes to start with our internal wisdom. Like what do we already know? What do we know about ourselves? Our strengths, our role that we play in this issue and use that to put together some informed hypotheses about where we think we should be focusing over the next several years and then go take that out to folks and talk to them about it to say, what do you think about this? Does this make sense to you? What are we missing? What are we getting wrong? But giving our community the chance to engage with us in a process where we’re setting more realistic expectations about where we can play and contribute as an organization. But also then giving them more say in, yeah, we’re, we’re on board for that. That makes sense. That will actually help us, right? That’s something that we’re looking for or listen. I know you guys want to do this, but that’s no one cares about that, right? What we need instead is this and that gives us more useful uh feedback so that we’re valuing people’s time and their ideas and insights in a way that we may not be able to do or haven’t necessarily been doing in how we’ve been doing that process previously. It’s time for a break. Imagine a fundraising partner that not only helps you raise more money but also supports you in retaining your donors. A partner that helps you raise funds both online and on location. So you can grow your impact faster. That’s Donor box, a comprehensive suite of tools, services and resources that gives fundraisers, just like you a custom solution to tackle your unique challenges, helping you achieve the growth and sustainability your organization needs, helping you help others visit donor box.org to learn more. Now, back to your one page strategic plan. You said the audience for this is primarily the staff, the people doing the work. They’re clearly they’re contributing a lot to the, to this process, to this plan. They’re in the process developing the plan. Um What, what is the role of the board then? Because we’re, we’re shifting from what again, I’m going back to the typical, you know, there’s a weekend uh board retreat and board members spend as much of their time as they can at this retreat. It might be off site even uh to try to get people’s attention and, and keep them away from distractions. You know, we’re gonna do this two night thing or, or it’s on or, or we’re in the office and you come as you can and the people miss miss the introductory section, but then they come to the, the fundraising part, you know, it’s so, I don’t think it’s ideal, but that’s the, that’s, that’s the, the most popular way of doing this. Right. The board bangs something out in over two days. Uh, what, what is the board’s role in, in the way you, you work? Um, so I’m going to answer that question. But isn’t that wild Tony that we, that, that’s the prevailing process, right? We spend two days determining our future for the next 3 to 5. I have a couple, a couple of, a couple of outside speakers, but it’s, and maybe a fil a hired facilitator. Um But yeah, you know, and, and it’s, it’s, I don’t, I don’t think it’s a very informed process, uh because you’re talking about community, you know, community input, you know, so they might get, there might be a speaker, maybe, maybe a 45 or 60 minutes speaker comes from the community. I don’t know somebody on the town council or maybe it’s uh an agency head that works in the area that your nonprofit works. But, you know, we’re, we’re kind of, we’re, we’re like, we’re assimilating all this stuff and then we have to think about how to pay for it as well for the next 10 years it seems, or even just five years, I’ll be, I’ll be even, I’ll be fairer to this typical process. It’s only 55 year plan, but still, you know, like we’re banging this out over a weekend. I, I just don’t think companies, you know, companies work this way. I mean, they spend a lot more time thinking about the next five years than two days of, you know, join us whenever you can over the weekend. Yeah. I mean, it’s just, it’s, and so that’s part of why, um, it’s a partnership, right. So, so I’m not saying the board is not involved. The board is very important, right? They need to be, they have governance responsibility. They need to be excited and for it and behind what we’re doing, but it’s a partnership. So retreats shouldn’t just be board members right there. I listen, I still facilitate retreats where it’s primarily board, but I really encourage organizations that we at least need the staff leadership on board. So if you’re a smaller organization, that might be everyone on staff, if you’re a large organization that might be department heads or division leaders. Um But we need those leaders involved and able to correct misconceptions which come up often, right? In these conversations, um We need them available to talk about what’s working, what are our most effective ways of achieving the impact that we wanted to achieve thus far? Um But also what are we really good at, you know, part of, you know, you brought up like corporate strategy. So in a corporate environment, you don’t see strategy um come to fruition where we’re building something that we are not at all equipped to do, right? So in, in a sense of um like an organization that or a company that is in tech, for example, right? They’re continuing to build on their core capabilities and say how can we keep leveraging these core capabilities with new innovations to build a new product line or create a new service line? Right? They’re not like all of a sudden gonna go into agricultural production, right? Like like but in nonprofit world, we because we are are, you know, givers because we’re trying to take care of the whole humans, right? That are um part of our community that are part of, you know, the issue or disease area that we serve. We sometimes start creating programs that have no overlap in operational efficiency or in our strengths. You know, we, we put out stuff that is an aspirational, that we’re actually not well equipped to run. And so then we keep make like all of our investment financially, then it starts getting thinner and thinner because we’re having to fund all these different kinds of operations instead of really understanding, hey, what are the skill sets or capabilities or operations we’re great at? And how can we keep using those leveraging those building on those to deliver better services or better value or better, better advocacy, whatever our mission may be for the people who are, are cause we serve. And so that’s why that staff board partnership is really important because staff leadership can say here’s actually what we’re really good at, you know, the things that we do better than anyone else, the things we’re able to deliver efficiently or effectively. Um And that we think there’s opportunity to grow. Um staff are also really essential. Um There’s an exercise I do in strategic planning that I think it’s a big gap um that we have in the sector right now, which is I ask leaders, you know, what it could be, executives, could be, board members could be both together to really think about what is our organization’s role in the cause we serve in the issue area. Um And often what happens is we come up with a list of 25 different roles. It’s really hard to be 25 different things really well. And so I ask organizations and leaders to think about what are our three main roles that we play. And the reason that’s important is because who we are shapes, the choices we make about how we’re going to get to our goals. And when we, I I sometimes use a transportation analogy to talk about it, which is to say like if you, if your goal is you’ve got to get from Washington DC to San Diego in the next two days, there are lots of ways to make that happen, right? Not, not infinite possibilities, but lots of different choices. You could make plans for how to get there. You could, you know, hitchhike, you could, you could fly, you could take a bus, you could do a lot of different things. But what will help you make the decision about which route to take is knowing. Are you, do you happen to be a commercial pilot with access to a plane and you can get people there quickly that way? Do you happen to be a bus driver with intimate knowledge of all the routes and the best places to stop? Right. And that’ll get you there. Do you happen to be neither of those things but resourceful and know which partners can help you along the way? Um Because a pilot can drive a bus, but they’re not going to know all the bus routes, right? And a bus driver might be able to get a plane down the runway but not up in the air. And so knowing those roles that we play has a big impact, right, on the choices we make about how we’re gonna get to where we go. I can see how staff are, are important to uh you mentioned, you know, clear up misconceptions on the board. You know, I can imagine a board thinking, well, we do this so to, to provide this additional program or service, it should be very simple, you know, they’re, they’re so close and then you find the the staff member who says no, that they’re actually as much as your intuition may lead you to believe that they’re so close and this would be so easy, you know, we can’t, we can, your intuition is not, is not, right. And to do that means bringing in, I don’t know, additional funds or a new person or, you know what you’re, you’re making a, you, you’re making an incorrect uh assumption about how easy it would be for us to expand what you think is slightly. So these misconceptions, you know, that, that um that even, even the, even the senior leadership may not appreciate but the people doing the work or the people leading the teams doing the work, you know, to them, it’s it comes, it comes instantly to mind, right? And that’s not to say we don’t want to be bold or ambitious, right? We still want to share that vision of what’s possible. We need smart choices, we need to be realistic too about what this conversation, you know, if the conversation is going awry about how simple it would be to do. Uh b because it looks so closely related to a to all the people who don’t do the work of a, you know, then we need to straighten out the conversation and lead it the right way just so, you know, that you’re understanding, well, that means an additional staff person actually because we don’t have anybody skilled in what you’re now talking about. So that is roughly an $80,000 a year job plus 30% for benefits. So we’re now talking about fundraising for roughly 100 and 20 100 and 10, 100 and $20,000 that we don’t currently fundraise for. So, and we made that expectancy from a program like that for 3 to 5 years because we need to build it and make sure we have the right partnerships and resources in place. So it’s the the operations have to inform the strategy, it can’t be done separately. You know, I think sometimes something that happens often is um strategy gets confused for new, right? So what are the new ideas? What are the new things we’re going to do instead of recognizing that strategy is about being really good at getting to where we wanna go accomplishing our goals. And so, you know, when you think about companies that have been placed and in place for a long time, organizations have been in place for a long time. And it’s very clear like this is what they do at their core, they haven’t stopped doing the thing they’re great at, that’s still the base of everything, you know, but they may innovate, they may expand, they may choose a new direction to learn in. Um But they’re not abandoning the stuff before. And so sometimes when strategic plans focus so much on what’s new and leave out, you know, the core aspects of the work, then we have even a bigger divide right between, how are we supposed to accomplish all this when we don’t, you know, we’re, we’re still trying to accomplish this main thing we’re known for or best at or most capable of. And so I find that bringing those bringing staff and board together do a lot to help us have shared expectations, instead of really divergent expectations about where we’re all trying to head together and the kind of impact we want to have, it’s very collaborative uh versus being top down. Um You, you have three critical components to strategy that you think you see most nonprofits. Miss, let’s talk about these. What are these? So if you think about again, sort of the the general process, right, with traditional strategic planning and what we produce at the end of it, right? We end up with our mission vision values, we end up with our goals and the strategy is to achieve those, we might have specific objectives within um that, that align with those strategies and then the tactics um we may have also thought about the budget it takes to get that done. Um But there are, I find are a couple of key areas in there where some additional important detail can really make a big difference in us, not just having a, a big long task list, but instead a way of understanding how we’re going to work and being able to apply those decisions going forward. So the first is when we think about who we are, right, that’s typically expressed as mission vision values that we, we talked about this a little bit already, but knowing our role and stating it clearly is so important and like sometimes organizations will say they want to get really inspirational here, right? They’ll use language that is, that feels really good to say and feels really good to hear. But then when our staff member has to make a choice about an opportunity that comes across their desk and say, is this a fit for us that inspirational role is not as helpful as something concrete? Right? And so, um there are lots of different roles we can play as organizations, but knowing that we are an advocate and convenor rather than a direct service provider, uh is a big difference then, and what kinds of programs we’ll undertake in the way that we’re hoping to change the world? Um So that’s the first one is having a clear understanding of our role in our mission area and the issue or cause or community we serve um or in the lives of our constituents. The second is, you know, we set these big audacious goals. Um And again, if we’re, if we’re doing well, we have financial goals as part of that. Um But there are two areas that we don’t always define that I think are really helpful for a lot of organizations. So one is um being explicit about the investments that we are intending to make. So if we need to, um if, if we need to hit a certain financial target, if we’re going to introduce, you know, some new programs or some new focus areas. Um or we want to be building skills or capability in a certain area. We’re going to need to make investments and it’s not just, hey, we need a new CRM, it’s we need a new CRM and we also need the training and ability to help our team get great at using it, right. So being really thoughtful about articulating what the key investments are to make our overarching strategy possible. Um The other part up there too, um It is what do we want to learn? I find a lot of organizations spend a long time, not entirely knowing what works and what doesn’t work with what they’re doing. So they may have programs that have been running for a long time and they serve a certain number of people and we, you know, get our, our output metrics from them each year, but we’re not entirely certain which parts of them may or may not be working. And so when we know what works, that’s great. And we want to document that when we can identify stuff that we’re pretty sure isn’t working and we want to leave behind that’s good too. But usually there’s this gray area of like what we’re not sure about, right. And so being able to set some learning objectives so that we can gain more clarity on those is important. So those might be related to um we want to learn if the way that we’re delivering this program is um is as effective or more effective. You know, like, let’s say we’re launching a digital component. We want to learn if that works better than how we’ve been delivering this in person in the past. Or we want to understand um if this technology or marketing approach or fundraising approach is helping us get to our goal faster than an alternative, something along those lines. But just being clear about a, we do need to keep learning these things. And b what is it, we were specifically are going to try to learn, understand, get more clarity on over the course of this, this plan. Um And then the last area, you know, is like how we’re going to get there, how do we get to these objectives? What are we focusing on? And so um with those focus areas, um it’s important to, to find owners, right? So sometimes what happens is as an organization here are three pillars and we’re gonna put an equal number of initiatives or priorities in each of them. And then we go on to the list of tactics and things along those lines. Um I encourage organizations instead to think about what are we focusing on over the next few years. Um And doing a brief narrative description of that. So we can have more clarity instead of just like a one word pillar um and defining, you know, so who’s the lead on this and it could be, if we are an organization where we have pretty tenured staff, it could be a specific person or it could be a department um or area of the organization because again, opportunities and challenges will come up and someone will need to be the decision maker or have ownership over how will we need to adjust as things come up over the next few years? So being able to say yes, everyone’s contributing and working towards these focus areas. But this is the person or the department that has um a the accountability to move this forward. But b also the opportunity to make decisions when those decisions you make. Um And so that creates a sense of ownership and accountability and momentum that sometimes gets lost from like the energy of announcing a new plan to then putting it into practice. It’s time for Tony’s sake to thank you, Kate. There’s a new captain’s briefing that I’ve been seeing at the beginning of uh some flights that I’ve taken. And I wanna thank and uh congratulate and shout out these, these captains who have done it. I usually fly Delta because I’m near two small airports. And most of the flights from those two tiny airports are are Delta flights. Uh And these captains have been, this is tails from the plane, by the way, I hope, you know, this is not tails, it doesn’t sound like tails from the gym, right? This is tails from the plane. I forgot to say that these captains have been getting out of their captain seat and coming out of the cockpit and they face us, they’re looking at us from the galley. That’s, you know, uh, the front galley and you can see them as they’re saying, you know, we’ll be cruising at 35,000 ft and might have a little turbulence on the climb out. But, uh, you know, it should be smooth after that and uh, et cetera an hour and 25 minute flight. You know, that briefing, I like seeing the captain. It’s just uh a little bit more reassuring. I, I mean, I, I know they exist because I hear them in the average briefing, but in these ex extra special briefings, uh you know, you get, you get to see the person, you get to see the person who’s flying, you who’s in the, who’s in that left seat, that captain seat. It’s, uh, it’s just comforting. I find very comforting. So I, I did let Delta know on uh X Twitter that uh, I appreciate it. Uh And um I’m sharing it with you. So let Bravo. Bravo to the captains who get up out of their chair and come and look at us, look at us in the eye and give us their captain’s overview. Thank you very much. And that is Tonys take two K. I would like to, I mean, when we fly, when you and I take my first time to go flying. I know that they do that because I would like to know who’s, uh, I was about to say, driving the plane, whoever is flying the plane, like you said, I think that adds more comfort and see it’s reassuring. We’ll, we’ll get you up there. Yeah, just so, it’s not like, I think my fear. Have you seen the, um, the cars that drive themselves? Like the no driver cars? Yeah, I’ve seen those prototypes. Yeah. My fear is like, that’s gonna be our future with like airplanes and all that and it, like, freaks me out that it’s gonna be like A I cars and A I airplane. Yeah, I can see it on cars. I don’t know about airplanes. I, I think that’s a, that’s a, that’s a bridge too far. I don’t think anybody is gonna be comfortable with an, with an nonhuman piloted, uh, uh, air flight. I don’t think so. I think that’ll be going too far. Well, we’ve got vu about those more time. Here’s the rest of your one page strategic plan with Veronica La Finna. I, I, I’m distilling these, I think down to what, what’s our role, mission vision values? What, what do we use? This, this relates to the list of 25 where we need to call that down to two or three things that we do best our role. Um, what do we want to learn and what investments do we need to make and a what do we want to achieve? How are we going to achieve it and who’s responsible, who’s accountable? Ok. Ok. And you know, if you want more detail than that, just rewind and listen to Veronica explain for the past uh several minutes. But I’m just trying to, I’m just calling down to our, to our three. Ok. Um, I, I’m, I’m not here suggesting now that this is something that most organizations miss and, you know, like you should make it four, not go from 3 to 4. But, um, do, does fundraising, you know, the, uh, the funding that’s gonna be necessary. I mean, it sounds like it’s built into the three, I think. I, I think you, you, you talked about investments but, you know, do we need to increase our fundraising staff or, you know, we, we don’t want to just say, ok, well, the development team, uh, they’re gonna be responsible for a new, uh, 100 and $75,000 that they’re not now raising, but they’ll just, uh, have to do more with less or, you know, the, they’ll just have to find, find the extra $175,000 for us to achieve that, that we’re gonna need to achieve what we just, what we just laid out. I mean, how, how does funding all? Yeah, so, so in the goals we set, you know, we should have meaningful financial targets, right? So that might be revenue, it could be revenue pertaining to a specific area that we’re trying to grow. So, you know, it could be, hey, we really a key investment we’re making is in plan giving and we are expecting at, you know, whatever time in the future for that to pay off or, but in the meantime, maybe there’s another area. So yes, that’s definitely part of our targets, right? Is what kind of um financial situation we need to achieve to be able to do this work, but also in the focus areas, right? So three or four focus areas um I prefer that to pillars because pillars sometimes get stuck around programmatic work. Also pillars that give you this um like this feeling that they all need to be the same height and they’re static, right? That we need it, they all require equal investment or care. And that’s just not true in how we work as organizations. So um I always say that at least one of your focus areas should be on operational um or culture work, right? So that is exactly what you’re talking about with. We may need to hire more people, right? So if we’re going to achieve this, we may need to hire more fundraisers or we may need to recognize that this is a build over time where we will need to be bringing in funding so that we can hire more program staff and fundraisers and marketers and whoever else we need to get that done. Um I think that, you know, some people are like, well, the operational plan is different from the strategic plan. But again, uh the strategy is not useful if it can’t be operationalized. And so making sure that that focus on operational or fundraising or, or strategy or sorry, operational fundraising um or culture work is seen in that same level of prominence and priority that our program focus is um is really important to having a successful and sustainable organization. How does the process go, you know, logistically uh when you know, how many meetings do staff and board have together, do you try to condense it into, you know, AAA month long process or does it take longer? And there are iterations as we learn more about, you know, where, where we want to go uh as we make decisions about what, what, what our, what our three key roles are. How does the, yeah, just logistically, how does the process go? It’s different for every organization I’ll say. So, um some of it depends on what resources you have available, what time you actually have available to get it done again as a practitioner. I’m like, what’s going to actually work, right? So it’s not about um a perfect process, but it is about what, what do we need to make this happen? And so sometimes for smaller organizations, um the process looks like me doing a workshop with their board and staff and teaching them about this process and how it works and then they’ll go back right and do a draft and then we’ll come back together and look through it and talk about it and, and uh see where we might need to improve and keep going, then they might go to their community and get feedback and go. So it is more of an innovative process, right? We’re not trying to present this big perfect thing. We are trying to say, how can we bring people along in the process but do it in a way where they’re active contributors to the end product um for other organizations that might need a more extensive um time to get feedback from their community or key stakeholders. Um It, you know, we’ll start in the beginning again with like um some work around. Let’s get our, let’s get what we know on paper, right? Like, let’s not start from scratch, let’s talk about what’s been working, let’s talk about, you know, things that we may need to change or keep the same. So some organizations are, are set with their vision and mission and their values, you know, we might spend some time saying does this still feel true? Is there anything we need to update or make um more meaningful or understandable to people? But then we’ll often spend time on. OK, what’s our role and what are the things we do best and how does that shape our work so that we’re starting to document what we already know. Um So that we can then start to say, where do we need the most feedback? Where is it that we’re not sure? Or we could really use um some different kinds of perspective in this? And so that may mean that next, we’re going to um talk to a broader group of staff, if it’s a larger organization, right, we need more impact, input and feedback beyond kind of maybe the initial planning committee group that involves staff and board members um that might then give us some ideas about how to revise and then we may take that to these stakeholders or to members of our patient community or cause community and, and have facilitated conversations with them about, you know, here’s, here’s who we are, here’s what we’re thinking as we look to the next several years, but we want we need to hear from you to make sure that makes sense and that’s the kind of, you know, service or program or support that you’re looking for and expecting from us. Um And then being OK if they say actually none of that, right, we have to be, we have to be OK being vulnerable a little bit and, and coming to them and saying like this is a work in progress. Here’s where our thoughts are so far, but what will make it better and stronger and the kind of thing that can drive real impact is your, your insights and your input. And so it becomes an iterative process. That then means we can also say, ok, here’s the plan. But if we have to be flexible or revise or adjust, we’ve already started this kind of iterative conversation and connected conversation with our community and our key stakeholders where they’re in on it with us, right? They’re part of what’s going on. And that means that we have a, a better, more meaningful strategy, right? That actually is likely to lead to results and we’ve brought people along the way. So we’re garnering support, you know, from the people we serve, but also the people who power our organization, you know, either with volunteer hours or their funding um or in their connections to other kinds of funding streams as well. I think you’re a very patient practitioner, you must be just the way you describe it, but also the, the process that, that you help nonprofits through. Uh Yeah, I just see, I, I just hear a lot of patience. Well, thanks. I, I hope so. I think too it comes from change management work, right? Which is we don’t just say here’s the plan and all of a sudden we flip a switch and it happens, you know, people, any change requires us to go through a process of letting go of what came before and being ready to begin and accept what’s new. And so if we design strategy or plans that are built with humans and mind, we’re more likely to go farther with impact over time because we’re actually designing it for the people who are going to power this thing instead of designing it for one big pr moment, right? Or one big round of talking to our major donors that then we are not able to deliver results because we didn’t build it in a way that we could actually do it. Yeah, actionable again. Um All right. So we come together through this process which does sound iterative and learning and being vulnerable along the way. Um How strict are you on the uh the one page limit? I suppose we need a page and a half. Is that all right? Is that, is that OK? Well, I mean, I even like I already expanded the margins out to like half an inch, you know, on all four sides and I still can’t fit it on, we still can’t fit it into one page. Um You’re flexible on the one page a little bit. I am, I think, I think a one page template and approach is valuable in helping us like have the behavior of making choices, right? Because sometimes what happens is, oh, well, we’ll do all of it, but we only need three pillars. So let’s shoehorn these things together that don’t make sense together, right? The the aim is like there are trade offs, there are things you are not going to do. And so the point is, you know, not to have a gimmick in one page, but to put ourselves through the exercise of, if we really had to boil it down to what’s most important, you know, and, and when I was an in house leader and on all the teams I’ve ever led a big part of my philosophy is permission to focus. I think if we enable ourselves to focus, especially in a time when there’s so much that could pull your attention to new or shiny or different. But when we enable ourselves to focus, that means we practice and we get better and we keep delivering impact because we’re staying, you know, we’re kind of staying here instead of trying to spread all of our energy out all over the place. And so, um so when it comes to one page, right? It’s the, it’s the exercise of choosing, you know, and can we look at what’s on there and say that we’ve left something out. That’s, that’s another part of the exercise is to say. So, in looking at all this, what does it mean? We don’t do? And a lot of organizations that’s hard to define or sometimes it’s really small and that’s OK, you know, like I had a client that was a um a really impressive animal welfare organization. They’re doing incredible work that is modeling, you know, um approaches across the country and they get asked pretty often to bring an adaptable pet to elementary schools for presentations, right? And one of the things that they were able to say we don’t do is that’s some, that’s not something we do. You know, we are trying to change policy across the country by modeling what it looks like in real life. Um So elementary school students, while we love that they care about animals, they’re not one of our key audiences. That’s not the way we’re trying to change the world. Um And so it can seem small, but actually it saved them so much staff, time and energy. They had, you know, standard email response for how they handle those requests. And so it saved, you know, a lot of just time and staff being away for that and having to make the plans to do it in a safe way. Um But also just the mindset and energy of being, being given permission to say like I can say no to this because I’m focusing on these other things. Permission. Yeah, permission to focus when you say permission to focus, I think of institutional discipline. Uh But I’m not trying to co op, I’m not co op, I’m not trying to replace your, your, your thinking. But it’s a, it’s a, it’s discipline. It, it’s, it’s a, it’s a discipline but it’s a f it’s a focus. It’s, I’m just using a different phrase, same thing, same. Um But yeah, and, and to not. And that’s a tough one too because you don’t want to appear heartless to elementary school Children. How come you’re not helping the Children in our community? You know, they want, they want to relate closer to, to, to animals around them. And how can you not help our, our school Children? So it’s very, I mean, but it’s, and that’s, that takes an emotional toll, right? And in our sector, so many people who work in the nonprofit and social impact space, we want to say yes, we want this to be like a beautiful world where where everyone is getting their needs taken care of. And so it’s not always easy to say no, right? And, and it, it could be a situation like that. It could be a situation for staff members where like a director from a different department all of a sudden has a new idea and is excited and wants people to get on board for it and you know, being an organization and a leader, you know, of that department that’s able to say no, like you have my permission to focus and if someone else is asking you to pull focus for something else, like send them to me, let’s talk about it because it needs to, we need to keep staying committed instead of getting really energized by a new idea and feeling like we’ve got to act on it right in that moment, right? We need to spend the time saying, how does this fit into our strategy? Does this align with our role? Is it in line with the investments we intended to make? Does it connect with the focus areas we’re trying to drive forward? And if the answer is yes, then it becomes. So what else do we need to stop doing then so that we can create the capacity to make it possible? As you said, permission to focus. Where else do you want to go? What, what else do you want to talk about this uh this process that I haven’t asked you about? I think I just would put it out there for folks that um different organizations need different approaches to strategy and strategic planning. So there are organizations that very comprehensive processes involving, you know, broad community input. Um And you know, could be a year 18 months in the making that that’s the right choice for them again, based on their mission based on where they’re headed and based on how they interact with other nonprofits or government agencies in their area. So I am not telling you to throw out processes that work for your organization. What I am saying is that um if, if your strategic plan is coming up, you know, it’s expiring and you’re getting ready to start something new, asking yourself what you need most for your team to be able to drive impact, right? And for you to be able to speak clearly to funders and stakeholders and supporters about what you do as an organization. Um you can be open to these other ways of working. You know, they, it doesn’t need to be just the same taxing expensive process of putting together a plan that then sits on a shelf. So it’s, it’s more um I hope, inspiration and hope for um nonprofit executives that there are other ways of doing this, right? And there are ways that can be a better fit for your organization. Um And it’s ok to explore that it’s ok to be the person who brings that to your organization so that you do get something that provides value for you and your team that helps you and your board be better connected and aligned. Um You know, having done this process with organizations, uh one of my favorite conversations with a board member afterwards was, you know, we’ve been, we’ve been doing this for 15 years. You know, we all have good relationships, everyone’s working hard, but we knew something wasn’t quite working and how we had done these processes before. She’s like, I can look at this one page and I feel more clear about where we need to be focusing our time and energy than I have in 15 years. And so, you know, knowing too that um everyone, everyone is looking for that clarity and that ability to understand where we headed and where we go, where are we going. Um And so it’s o it’s ok to step into a new way of working. Veronica. La Finna, her company is La Finna and company at La finna.co. I suggest you connect with Veronica on linkedin. We’re connected, we chat a lot. Comment a lot. Thank you very much Veronica. Thank you for uh a new way of approaching the way you’ve been approaching something that uh for a lot of nonprofits just is, is, is not working, is not actionable uh is not helpful in decision making. So, thank you very much for sharing all this. Thanks for having me, Tony next week, accepting Cryptocurrency gifts with Pat Duffy. If you missed any part of this week’s show, I beseech you find it at Tony martignetti.com were sponsored by donor box, outdated donation forms blocking your supporters, generosity, donor box, fast, flexible and friendly fundraising forms for your nonprofit donor. Box.org. Our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff. I’m your associate producer, Kate Martinetti. The show social media is by Susan Chavez. Mark Silverman is our wealth guy and this music is by Scott Stein. Thank you for that affirmation. Scotty be with us next week for nonprofit radio. Big nonprofit ideas for the other 95% go out and be great.
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