Carter McNamara – Page 20 – Management Library

April 19, 2010February 17, 2022

Should You Try Get “Big Names” and “Big Pockets” on Boards?

Two people shaking hands on an agreement in an office

What About “Big Names”?

Many Board members believe that adding a very prominent person to the Board will bring great prestige and credibility to the Board. They believe that funders and other organizations will take those Boards much more seriously. Often, that’s a big mistake.

Rarely do those famous people ever show up to the Board meetings. I know of several cases where the “big names” didn’t even know they were on the Boards – the organizations had simply put their names on the lists of Board members!

Nonprofits often believe that big names will impress funders to contribute to the organizations. Funders are much smarter than that. Nonprofits can severely damage their credibility when they can’t prove that the big names were really on the Boards in the first place.

What About “Big Pockets”?

Nonprofits also often believe that “big pockets” (rich people) are more likely to donate to the organization if those people are also on the Board. Usually, the last thing they want is to be burdened with is the responsibility of attending Board meetings. Many times, they’d rather write a check to the nonprofit instead!

You’re far better off to find Board members who actively participate in Board meetings and committees, and who will help find “big pockets.”

Summary

Would you ever hire an employee because he was very popular (a big name) and then expect him/her to never show up for work? Would you ever donate to a nonprofit if that nonprofit also asked you (a big pocket) to come to regular Board meetings?

A dear friend of mine is a highly respected CEO. She said that one of her greatest moments of learning was when she quit acting like she was lucky to even have Board members attend a meeting. Instead, she realized that her organization deserved to have active Board members.

Don’t seek to find prominent or rich people to put on your Board. Instead, find people with passion for the mission and also the time and energy to be active on your Board. They will ultimately bring credibility and funding to your Board through their good work on the Board.

What do you think?

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

April 19, 2010August 3, 2022

Foundations of Consulting — Part 3: Primary Working Goals and Assumptions of Consultants

Peter Block, in his book, Flawless Consulting, suggests that certain goals and assumptions always be primary for consultants, that is, for individuals working to help people, but not having authority over those people. He suggests the following goals and assumptions.

Primary Working Goals of Consultants

1. Establish a collaborative relationship with your clients

As a consultant, you should work with your clients almost as if you are peers working in a team. This is in contrast to the consultant who always works as an “expert” to direct the client what to do and when. Working in a collaborative fashion with your clients helps ensure that recommendations are accurate, that clients follow the recommendations and that they adopt the changes needed to improve themselves and their organizations.

2. Solve problems so your clients can solve them later themselves

The approach to problem solving in the project should always involve your client’s learning about what is being done and why, so that later on your client might use similar approaches to solve similar problems after you are gone from the project. So it’s important to regularly identify learning during the project, and discussing that learning with your client.

3. Ensure attention to developing the project and relationships

The quality of the relationship between you and your client is a reliable predictor of the quality of the outcome of the overall project. Your clients often judge a project, not so much by the outcomes from the project, but by the quality of the working relationship with you.

Primary Working Assumptions

1. Problem solving requires information that is as accurate as possible.

Information is more accurate if it reflects the full range of perspectives and opinions among clients in a project, so involve them as much as possible.

2. Effective decision-making requires free and open choice among participants.

Free and open choice is more likely to produce the full range of opinions necessary for good planning. It also is more likely to ensure that your clients adopt the changes necessary to bring about change.

3. Effective implementation requires the internal commitment of your clients.

If you give participants little choice about what to do, they will likely do what you direct, but only for as long as you are around – and they will not be vested in the outcomes. They may also blame you if it does not work. In contrast, if you involve them as much as possible in project planning and implementation, they are much more likely to implement the plans completely and learn at the same time.

What do you think?

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Look for the articles in this series, including:

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

Information in this post was adapted from the book Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD. For training on consulting skills, see the Consultants Development Institute. For more resources, see the Free Management Library’s topic All About Consulting .

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 763-971-8890 Read my blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, and Strategic Planning .

April 14, 2010January 26, 2022

Top 5 Tips for Project Management in 2010

From Guest Writer, Simon Buehring of PRINCE2

Already 2010 is upon us, and project managers are facing the challenges of the new year. Obama, super-project-manager of the United States, has announced a new programme to overhaul airport security. The UK government has published controversial plans for a project to cut the budget deficit.

And meanwhile, project managers everywhere – public and private sector, big businesses, small organisations, arts, IT and finance – are struggling to achieve ever greater project goals on ever diminishing budgets. There has never been a more pressing need for excellent project management skills.

1. Define your needs

Too many projects fail because the project manager does not know what need the project must fulfill. Ensuring that you can describe in a single sentence or paragraph exactly why your project is necessary is crucial to project management success.

2. Be honest with your schedule

A certain amount of optimism is crucial for project management success. However, one of the most common causes of project failure is unrealistic estimation of how much time each project commitment needs. If the project runs over schedule, it should be because of unforeseen circumstances, not because the project manager has underestimated the amount of time that the project requires. Setting realistic goals is the key to avoiding unnecessary schedule complications and to ensuring project success.

3. Clearly identify who performs which role(s)

Many organisations will be running tighter ships in 2010. With fewer workers on the project team, it is doubly important to make sure that every project role has been assigned, and that everybody is clear about what responsibilities they have for the project.

4. Brainstorm groups of people to involve in risk identification. Considering formal risk management training

Risk identification and risk management are vital to the success of projects and the survival of organisations, particularly in a high-stakes, less-than-stable business world. Investment in careful risk identification – even simply to the extent of arranging risk workshops that involve representatives from every section of the project team – can pay dividends later on, and will often make the difference between project failure and project success.

5. Invest in training

Professional project management certification is not only an essential feature on any project manager’s CV; it also develops important project management skills and provides a common framework for understanding how a project works. This latter element is particularly pronounced in project management methodologies, such as PRINCE2. A shared pool of concepts and terminology can make the difference between a group of people coerced into a project, and truly coherent project management team.

(Knowledge Train offers PRINCE2 training every week from its training venue in central London.)

What do you think?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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April 13, 2010February 17, 2022

Why Training and Team Building Don’t Fix Broken Boards

Business people having a disagreement in a meeting

Too often, when Board members struggle with attendance, participation or decision making, they simplistically resort to a Board training session or undertake team building to address their problems. Those techniques seldom work to address those problems.

Why Board Training Alone Seldom Restores Boards

It is not uncommon that Board members want a “quick fix” to their issues merely by undertaking a short Board training session. They have the illusion that their problems are the result of members not knowing their jobs. That is like believing that you can stop people from arguing merely by telling them not to do that anymore. If a training session was the solution, then members could easily solve their issues merely by downloading free Board job descriptions from the Web. Besides, if members are not coming to Board meetings, they probably will not attend a Board training either.

Board members rarely struggle because members lack understanding of their legal roles and responsibilities. New information in members’ heads is rarely enough to make a major difference. Instead, members need ongoing guidance, support and accountabilities to actually use that new information. That comes from a combination of activities, for example, evaluating the health of the Board, helping members understand what is required for long-lasting change, Board orientation and Board training for members, refining the organization of the Board, coaching the Board Chair and other leadership roles to drive changes, and then re-evaluating the health of the Board.

Why Team Building Alone Seldom Restores Boards

Team building is conducted to improve the performance of a team, or small group of people. There are a wide variety of approaches to team building. Too often, the approach is to improve performance primarily by trying to improve team members’ feelings, beliefs and perceptions about themselves and each other. That approach rarely works for Boards that have major, ongoing struggles. Actually, that approach to team building can make the situation much worse when the good feelings from team building quickly encounter the same dysfunctional structures on the Board, resulting in even more frustrated – and now cynical – Board members.

We have learned a great deal about what makes for high-performing teams. In addition to respecting themselves and each other, all team members need to have the same clear understanding of certain structures, including:

The purpose of the team.
How decisions are made and problems are solved, and how communications will be done.
Each member’s current roles and responsibilities.
What authority and resources the team has to work with.

Lack of the above structures often is the primary cause of prolonged frustration, blaming and conflicts among team members. Teams can be formed to be self-organizing, self-directed or self-managed, but to be successful, they must ensure that they have the above-listed structures in whatever form the team decides to take.

What do you think?

April 13, 2010August 14, 2022

When Consultants Should Facilitate, Coach or Train

There are strong feelings that consulting, facilitating, coaching and training are very different roles. I believe that a good consultant should be able to use any of the roles for different purposes. Here are some guidelines for what roles to use and when.

When You Might Resort to Facilitating

Collaborative organizational consulting is about working, as much as possible, in partnership with your clients to accomplish powerful, long-lasting change in your client’s organization. That usually requires a highly facilitative role in your consulting. Facilitating is helping a group of people to decide what results they want to achieve together, how they want to achieve them and then helping the group to achieve them. Styles range from directive to indirectly suggestive. The conditions that often exist in an organizational project and require the consultant to fill the facilitator role include:

When the project needs ongoing trust, commitment and participation of clients.
Ongoing contributions usually do not come from clients during trainings or when receiving advice from experts. Instead, the buy-in of members comes from knowing that their beliefs and opinions are being solicited and valued. This can be especially important when a diverse group will be involved or impacted by the project. The essence of facilitation is to bring out those beliefs and opinions and to help members decide what they want to do and how they want to do it.
When working to address complex problems or major goals with clients.
The most accurate understanding of priorities in an organization often comes from considering the perspectives of as many members as possible. The most relevant, realistic and flexible strategies to address those priorities are developed and implemented from the active participation of members. Facilitation is the most powerful role from which to cultivate that participation.

When You Might Resort to Coaching

You might choose to fill the coaching role when the following conditions exist.

An individual in the project seems stalled or troubled.
Coaching can be a powerful means to guide and support an individual to clarify current challenges or priorities, identify suitable strategies to address the challenges and then to actually implement the strategies.
To maximize an individual’s learning from experience.
Individuals learn differently. Coaching can be a powerful means to guide and support individuals to reflect on their experiences and then use that learning to improve effectiveness in life and work.

When You Might Resort to the Expert Advice Role

You might choose to fill the expert role when the following conditions exist.

The project needs general knowledge that would likely be the same in any context.
There are certain types of general knowledge that would likely be the same, especially:

a) General frameworks from which to develop and/or operate systems, for example, performance management systems, financial systems or marketing systems.

b) Guidelines for conducting general practices, for example, planning, evaluation, organizational change, addressing ethical dilemmas, use of capacity building approaches or developing learning plans.

2. The project needs knowledge that is highly specialized and proceduralized. For example, installing computers, conducting market research, conforming to laws and regulations, designing and providing certain program services, financial processes and procedures, or use of specific tools for problem solving and decision making.

When You Might Resort to Training

Training is activities to help a learner or learners to develop or enhance knowledge, skills and attitudes to improve performance on current or future task or job. You might choose to fill the trainer role when the following conditions exist.

Expert knowledge needs to be conveyed in a concise and timely manner.
There may be times in your project where members need to learn certain expert-based knowledge and need to do so in a highly focused and efficient manner. The knowledge might be any form of expert-based knowledge as listed in the above topic.
Knowledge needs to be conveyed to a group of people.
Training is often most useful when a group of people need to learn expert-based knowledge. This can be quite common in projects, for example, when training project members about the nature of organizational change, the project’s change plans or methods of data collection.

What do you think?

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

April 12, 2010February 17, 2022

How to Start Strategic Planning: Plan for a Plan – Part 4 of 5

Two businesswomen planning a strategy in an office

In the previous post (Part 3), we covered questions 7-9 of the 15 questions to address in the “plan for a plan.” This post (Part 4) explains questions 10-12.

10. What Materials Will Be Needed?

For example, think about:

Materials (books about strategic planning, flipcharts, markers, etc.)
Equipment (overhead projectors, flipchart stands, white boards, etc.)
Facilities (conference rooms, retreat centers, etc.)

11. What Terms/Titles Will You Use?

For example:

Will the top-level priorities be called “goals” and subordinate priorities (associated with the goals) be called “objectives”?
Will the objectives, and the responsibilities and deadlines to achieve them be called “action plans”?
Will you refer to “mission”, “vision” and “values” or are there more culturally compatible terms?
What other terms are unique to your culture and organization that you want to use in the planning process, e.g., “trust advisor” rather than facilitator or “team members” rather than planners?

12. How Will You Train the Planners?

Far too often, people jump in to the planning process, expecting to learn about the process along the way. That’s like handing someone a map that the person has never seen before, not saying a word to them about the trip or how to get there, and then expecting the person to efficiently navigate you to your destination. Participants in the planning should get an overview of:

The basic purposes of the strategic planning process.
The planning model being used.
The schedule to produce the plan.
Any special terms being used in the planning and their interpretations in the process.
How decisions will be made during the planning process.
Their role in the process, along with the role of the Planning Committee.

An upcoming post (Part 5) will explain questions 13-15.

What do you think about the “plan for a plan” in the planning process?

April 11, 2010August 14, 2022

As a Consultant, What’s Your Blindside?

A businesswoman having a meeting with a consultant

Watch the following situation occur in conversations among consultants.

Many consultants place extreme value on people’s feelings, beliefs and perceptions. That’s their natural “lens” on organizations. Many of them are from fields of psychology, human resources and coaching. In my experience, they often conclude their clients have problems primarily with, for example, interpersonal conflicts, emotional intelligence and authenticity. It seems this group has grown substantially. Maybe because of the many consultant trainings that focus almost exclusively on the “human” side of things, with very little, if any, attention to the “business” topics. Also, because we’re all human — maybe many of us believe we’re already experts at consulting in this area, too.

In contrast, are the consultants who highly value strategies, structures, plans and policies. That’s their natural lens. Many of them have extensive experience in management. They might conclude that their clients have problems primarily with, for example, strategic planning, organizational design and workflow. (Unfortunately, this is the “business” side of things that seems so lifeless and icky to the other type of consultants.)

Very seasoned consultants have learned to look at organizations through both lens. One of the most useful resources to explain these perspectives is the book, Reframing Organizations by Bolman and Deal. The authors explain how there can be very different perspectives among researchers, writers, educators, consultants and members of organizations.

I highly encourage consultants, especially those who have complete disregard of either lens, to read the book. We consultants – and especially our clients – will be much better off.

Understand Your Preferred “Lens” Through Which You View Organizations

All About Consulting – Types, Skills and Approaches

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

April 10, 2010February 17, 2022

How to Start Strategic Planning: Plan for a Plan – Part 3 of 5

In the previous post (Part 2), we covered questions 4-6 of the 15 questions to address in the “plan for a plan.” This post explains questions 7-9.

7. What’s Your Schedule for Developing the Plan?

Too many organizations do planning by gathering planners into one retreat where they tweak wording on the mission statement and brainstorm fantastic ideas. Too often, that generates a plan that’s full of fantasies with little grounding in reality. Take time to do it right.

Usually, the best time to start strategic planning is near the middle of your fiscal year, so you can produce an updated annual budget in time for the start of the next fiscal year.
If the purpose of your plan primarily is to verify or expand products, then take time to do some basic market research – to hear from consumers. That could add several weeks or months to the schedule to complete the plan, but it’s critical. Otherwise, your plan could build “a beautiful ladder, but on the wrong roof.”
It’s often better to have several short meetings between periods of research, rather than one long meeting for planning that involves little external research at all.
For small organizations, aim to have planning done in several weeks or at most 2-3 months.

8. Who Will Be Involved? How? When?

The contents of the plan are determined in large part by who takes part in planning. Also, the people involved often learn a great deal about the organization. (In Part 1, we talked about who should be on your Planning Committee.) In the overall process, involve:

Those with authority to make decisions – and this should include your Board members.
Those who will primarily be responsible for implementing the plan. This is critical.
People who are knowledgeable about products and services. They ground your plan and make it real.
Someone to champion the process – to keep up the spirits of the planners. Planning can be tedious, especially when strategizing or talking about how to achieve goals.
As much as possible, involve some stakeholders, including some customers, funders and collaborators. Involve them especially when establishing goals about products and services.

9. Will You Need an Outside Facilitator?

Get an outside facilitator if:

You’ve not done strategic planning before.
Your last plan was not implemented.
People struggle to come to consensus.
People believe an outside facilitator will help planners be more open and honest during their participation.
Planners want an objective perspective on their situation.
(A note about facilitators – don’t require your facilitator to know a lot about your industry, products and services. You’re better to have an expert in planning who knows little about your organization, than the other way around.)

The next post will share questions 10-12 of the 15 questions to address in the plan for a plan.

What do you think?

April 10, 2010February 17, 2022

10 Practices for Successful Board/CEO “Strategic Partnership” – Part 2 of 2

Young business professional presenting to the CEO

In the post, Part 1, we reviewed the first 5 practices. This post is a continuation from that post, and reviews the remaining 5 practices.

6. Ensure strategic plan that includes action plans

The action plan part of an overall strategic plan specifies who is going to do what and by when in order to achieve the more top-level goals in the plan. Too often, strategic plans stop short of producing action plans. Yet, one of the biggest reasons for conflict in the workplace is confusion about roles in the organization. Action plans can help greatly to clarify the working relationship between Board members and their CEO.

7. CEO should participate in certain Board committees

The CEO and other managers can provide great value as members of various Board committees, especially those focused on finances, planning, public relations and human resources. Other committees, such as compensation, audit and governance are best staffed entirely by Board members.

8. CEO should provide information to members before meetings

Some CEOs have learned that one of the best ways to incapacitate a Board is by giving members new materials during a Board meeting, so that members are quickly overwhelmed and confused. As a result, members often end up agreeing with whatever the CEO suggests. Seasoned CEOs share materials with members well before Board meetings.

9. CEO and Board Chair mutually develop Board meeting agenda

Far too often, the CEO develops the agenda. This practice can inadvertently cultivate yet more Board dependence on the CEO – a Board that is not effective. The agenda drives what Board members work on. It it’s not on the agenda, Board members often don’t know about it. The Board Chair and CEO should each draft a version of the agenda and then combine them into the final agenda. Each topic should have a time limit for discussion, debate and decision. If members haven’t addressed the topic within that time, then delegate it and move to the next topic.

10. Annually evaluate the performance of the CEO

Board members often don’t evaluate the CEO unless the CEO is not performing well. Then the evaluation is used as some form of punishment. This can lead to a lawsuit for discrimination. There should always be Board-approved personnel policies that, in part, guide how employees (the CEO is an employee) are hired, evaluate and fired. A fair and equitable performance evaluation of the CEO can greatly clarify mutual expectations and enhance the quality of the working relationship between the Board members and CEO.

What do you think?

April 6, 2010February 17, 2022

10 Practices for Successful Board/CEO “Strategic Partnership” – Part 1 of 2

A group of business professionals in a meeting

This Part explains the first 5 practices. Part 2 describes the last 5 practices.

Recent and very public “white collar,” stock-fraud crimes have brought much public attention to how governance is supposed to work, but too often doesn’t. The Sarbanes Oxley Act is one example of new regulations intended to strengthen the transparency and accountability of Boards of public corporations. Consensus seems to be that more independent Board members and less involvement of CEOs on Boards is one solution for for-profit and nonprofit Boards.

Some Board members have over-reacted and dramatically distanced themselves from working with their CEOs. Still, the quality of the working relationship and mutual support between Board members and their CEO is critical to the success of a corporation, whether for-profit or nonprofit. We should not expect CEOs to have to work apart from their Boards members — frequently, it’s the CEOs who support members to do their jobs! Here are some practices that CEOs can do for their Boards without losing the diligence and accountability of Board members.

1. Ensure clear descriptions of roles of Board and CEO

Years ago, a person had to hire a consultant to find suggestions or tools to clarify the roles of a Board and its CEO. Now, there is a wealth of resources available on the Internet and bookshelves. An organization should end up with a document that clearly specifies the types of functions and decisions that are driven by, and even those done by, the Board versus executives and other managers. The document should be reviewed once a year during a brief Board training.

2. Recruit Board members based on their strategic expertise

As much as possible, these people should be independent Board members – members who are not or have recently been employees of the organization, are not relatives of the CEO, are not in organizations which have the CEO on their Boards, and are not major customers or vendors. Instead, bring in members who have expertise to address current strategic priorities and, ideally, have been on a Board of a well-respected organization. (Some Boards might be required by investors or other stakeholders to have representatives on the Board. Strive to have some based on their expertise.)

3. Orient Board members to the organization

Frequently, members can serve on a Board for years and still not really know what products and services are offered by the organization. CEOs can significantly increase the effectiveness of Board members by orienting members to the organization, including its history, products and services, customers, collaborators and successes. Note that this is a Board orientation, not a Board training. An orientation is about the unique aspects of the organization. A training is about the role of any governing Board.

4. Annually train members on the role of a governing Board

Because the CEO remains in the organization working with the Board, while Board members come and go according to their term limits, the CEO often understands the role of a Board more than its members do. The CEO can be very useful, for example, in working with the members of a Board Governance Committee as its members conduct a Board training each year, but should not be taking the lead responsibility in this training.

5. CEO should have strong role in strategic planning

Boards that view its members as attending primarily to top-level policy — especially Boards that have over-reacted to recent regulations about governance — will sometimes make the mistake of determining mission, vision, values and top-level goals without the input from the CEO and other employees. That’s a mistake. The most useful strategic planning sessions often involve information, discussions and suggestions from the CEO and employees.

Part 2 will describe the next 5 practices to cultivate a successful strategic partnership between Board members and the CEO.

What do you think?