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Pruning
Thursday, July 15th, 2010 by richfossRecently I asked one of the farmers at Plow Creek to describe pruning. In February each year he and another farmer or two prune our two acres of blueberries. I assumed that the he and the others are doing a good job because this season we’ve taken off more than four tons of blueberries from the two acre plot.
Pruning is not for the faint of heart. Not only do they remove the dead branches but they also cut substantial portions of each plant in order to produce more fruit.
Another farmer spoke up and said, “The purpose of pruning is to direct the energy of the plant so that it grows in the direction you want it to grow.”
When he said that the purpose of pruning is to direct the energy of the plant I flashed back to last fall when I suffered five compression fractures in my back. I wasn’t able to drive from November through March. In addition, I had a series of lung infections.
The effect was the same as pruning. Suddenly I had very little energy and was not able to move freely and travel. I did the one thing I could do—write. I wrote the first draft of a projected 200-page ebook, Green Light Fundraising: Your Sustainable Fundraising Guide to Raising $50,000 to $500,000 a Year to Light Up the Eyes of People You Serve, completing it in June.
I’m now over half way done with the first re-write.
I don’t know if God was pruning me or not but it sure felt like it. My ability to move was cut way back and I directed my energy into writing Green Light Fundraising.
I wonder whether Green Light Fundraising will bear much fruit in the nonprofit world. Wouldn’t that be nice?
When life stops making sense
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by richfossWhen life stops making sense, I start writing poetry. The first time I began writing poetry was in my late teens when I was trying to make sense out of becoming disabled wit rheumatoid arthritis at age 17.
Occasionally life becomes irrational and it’s difficult to make logical sense of it. I find poetry, which depends on sound, images and emotion, is a liberating way to explore life when it stops making sense.
Several times in the ensuing forty years I’ve had periods of writing poetry. On March 28 I began writing a poem a day for several weeks, exploring my experience of a series of lung infections in 2009 and 2010, five compression fractures in my back last fall, and a flare up of my rheumatoid arthritis.
The medical conditions left me wondering if I could continue at CEO/Teachers Asst. of Evergreen Leaders. I’ve always been a visionary and suddenly I was so depleted of energy that I couldn’t plan.
Also, I began to use a walker when I wasn’t using my wheelchair. I felt shame at being so helpless.
Every Monday morning I send a e-mail the board and staff of EGL, updating them on our work with Evergreen Leaders. To keep in touch, I included former board members, former interns, and former staff on the e-mail list. It seemed like over the winter and spring I was giving endless medical reports. One morning a former intern sent me an e-mail, telling me that her son wast hospitalized for a chronic condition over the weekend and then she wrote the italicized words the wrap up the poem below. To say I was moved by her comments is an understatement.
Here’s a poem where I explored shame.
Shame
“It is better to give than to receive,”
you said, O Lord,
and I said,
“It is shameful to be helpless.”
“Stop being a big baby,”
rings the voices of my childhood.
To be a man, bent and broken,
who needs a hand…
I would rather sit at home.
What say you, O Lord,
of huge and tiny voice?
For one to give,
another must receive.
For one to bear fruit,
another must die.
I was disfigured
that you, bent and broken,
may be honored:
But some how it gives me pleasure and hope
that you always seem to find the strength to go on.
I am impressed and filled with hope.
And it does not happen very often.
You are one of the truly good people I have met.
How honest should a blog be?
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 by richfossIt’s been three months since I posted and, after reading my posts back through November, I can see that I have been studiously avoiding the central events of my life.
I don’t know whether I was being wise or dishonest.
I’ve decided to be more honest, to invite my readers to be part of my journey in a way that I have tended to avoid writing about.
Beginning in March 2009 I began to experience repeated lung infections, one or more a month for the rest of the year. Then last fall I suffered five compression fractures in my back.
In the spring of 2009 the Evergreen Leaders board and I set a goal of raising $40,000 to underwrite the writing, design, and production of a 200-page ebook, Green Light Fundraising: Your Sustainable Fundraising Guide to Raising $50,000 to $500,000 a Year to Light Up the Eyes of People You Serve.
By the middle of November my back pain was severe, I was losing weight, I could no longer drive because my back screamed when I leaned forward to turn the key in the ignition and move the gear shift, and my energy took a dive, probably from a combination of the compression fractures and the repeated lung infections. I became desperate enough that I asked my family doctor to refer me to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
I was beginning to ponder my death. Sarah, my wife, suggested I might have to go on disability.
I could no longer travel to do fundraising.
It was a very dark, grim time.
There was one tiny beam of light left in my work life–I could still write. I decided to write on Green Light Fundraising and resume fundraising later.
More of the saga on another day.
Undercover Boss
Monday, February 8th, 2010 by richfossLast night after the Super Bowl I watched CBS’s new Undercover Boss. The President and COO of Waste Management went undercover in his own company and for a week did frontline jobs ranging from working neighborhood garbage pickup to cleaning Porta-Pottys.
I grew up working class and the show brought back a lot of memories. I grew up knowing that bosses were people who didn’t know how to do the actual work and made life miserable for those who did. The COO of WM had a very hard time doing the work and he saw up close how his productivity policies made life miserable for workers. It was beautiful.
Teaching people how to lead without making life miserable was a big part of my motivation in launching EGL. Perhaps we should launch a version of undercover boss for nonprofit CEOs.
Landing in Haiti an hour before the quake
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 by richfossA year or so ago, Lavonna, a young Haitian woman. began attending our church. She has USA documents but her two young children did not have papers and still lived in Haiti. She worked with the State Department and secured documents for her two children. Our whole church was excited.
We assisted her in securing airline tickets for her to fly to Haiti yesterday, Tuesday, and return with two children on Friday.
Her plane landed an hour before the earthquake struck. Because of the broken communication system we have no news of Lavonna and her children.
I’ve met folks from a nonprofit, Beyond Borders, that works in Haiti. By last night they had heard from a couple of staff members but not from others.
Please consider helping Beyond Borders to respond to this emergency by making a gift to their Earthquake Response Fund. They will work as quickly as possible through their local partner organizations to reach those most effected by this disaster.
To make a donation go to the link on the top left corner of the Beyond Borders Web site at: www.beyondborders.net.
The challenges of an executive director
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by richfossBy Nick Vecchioni, Evergreen Leaders researcher
The biggest challenge? Increase literacy among Chicago’s most at risk kids.
Book Worm Angels (BWA) is the only Chicago program providing in-classroom lending libraries to elementary schools where the majority of students read below grade level. Since its 1999 founding, BWA has placed over a million books in over 156 Illinois schools. I recently met with Mike Ban, who has led this organization for roughly 4 years.
Mike agreed to meet and talk about some of the challenges that he faces as director of BWA. These days, the biggest issue is growth. BWA has more than tripled the number of schools it serves in just the last 3 years. While the program originated in Chicago, it now serves schools outside the city.
In recognition of the pressing need to build a board that can help direct that kind of growth, Mike was thinking of hiring a consultant. So, he reached out to the Kellogg School of Management’s Board Fellows Program. He was pleased with the guidance and resources, including a board matrix tool and pattern questionnaires for use in screening consultants. The consultant who he ultimately chose has been a big help in addressing the board issues.
As a volunteer ED serving roughly 30 hours a week, with only one (!!) part-time staff member, Mike finds himself too immersed in operational minutiae to devote much energy to strategic planning. One strategic imperative is finding ways to maximize the literacy impact of lending libraries. He’d like BWA to gain more visibility to the schools they serve – through programming and evaluation, for starters. He sees building the board and developing dedicated staff as the key means to meeting this goal.
We discussed the importance of understanding the literacy environment and the value of building partnerships. In Mike’s view, one of an ED’s chief responsibilities is networking and building alliances. He gave examples of informal collaborations that have yielded good things for BWA, including a book drive in association with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Mike doesn’t see himself in the ED position for very much longer. He’s thinking about succession. He’s got a rough idea of what his replacement’s salary should be, and thinks it will need to be raised through giving. He projects that the incoming ED would need to work 50-60 hours a week to keep everything running smoothly. When I asked whether his ideal successor would come from the nonprofit or the business sector, Mike thought for a moment before saying that he’d like to see someone from the nonprofit sector. He cited skills such as grant writing, as well as the rich networks, that someone coming in should have.
As Mike himself transitioned to BWA from the business world, there were many things he had to learn. He was lucky, he said, to find an experienced nonprofit leader who taught him the ins and outs of grant-writing. Without ever designating a formal mentor, he found a few other people who were willing to lend support. Formal mentoring is a good idea, he said, and would recommend it to any incoming nonprofit leader. “It’s a lonely sort of job,” he explained. “It helps a lot to have someone who’s walked in your shoes.”
Mike is a fantastic guy and BWA will be lucky to find someone who can fill his shoes. Best to him and to BWA!
1st published 1/29/09.
Beyond Sink, Swim or Lead
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by richfossA community nonprofit would never hire a math teacher to be a social worker and yet nonprofits routinely promote people to supervisory and management positions with out leadership training or coaching.
It’s as if they throw people into leadership positions to see of they will sink, swim or lead.
Evergreen offers affordable, accessible leadership coaching for nonprofit managers using the 7 Paths of Thriving Organizations framework. The 7 Paths allow us to quickly identify key organizational issues.
Once the key issues have been identified, we coach nonprofit leaders to use the 7 Paths as a framework for developing a plan of action.
Here’s a quick summary of the 7 Paths of Thriving Organizations:
- Path 1: Change for the better: Principles of transformation as treasure.
- Path 2: Match strengths and weaknesses: Principle of talents.
- Path 3: Transform lives through people: Principles of humble hierarchy.
- Path 4: Organize to produce the treasure: Principles of smart and friendly systems.
- Path 5: Move across borders: Principles of the ecosystem.
- Path 6: Ride the waves. Principles of daily and seasonal rhythms.
- Path 7. Embrace uncertainty: Principles of the wilderness as a way to discover new ways to produce the treasure.
Contact me, Rich Foss, for your free 25-minute phone coaching session. In just a few minutes you’ll be able to tell if I’m the right person to work with you. There’s no obligation, no pressure, no sales and definitely no hype. Just up front conversation about the leadership challenges you are facing and how I might help.
You can e-mail me at richfoss@evergreenleaders.org to set up a time for your free, 25-minute coaching session.
1st published 9/18/08.
Changing the nonprofit management myth
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by richfoss
According to an article posted on the Case Foundation website by Laura Gassner Otting it’s a myth that nonprofit managers know how to manage.” Here’s her summary:
Nonprofits can’t offer the same professional development as their for-profit competitors. . . . Two main factors cause this. First, many nonprofit leaders are hired for their great vision rather than their experience in implementing internal systems and management. Second, nonprofit resources are constrained, and training often falls by the wayside. For both these reasons, nonprofit employees have to take an active role in their own professional development.
Having spent more that 30 years working in nonprofits I know Otting is right. All too often nonprofit managers make life miserable for their staff because they lack the knowledge and skills to help their organization thrive. And the a nonprofit’s small line item for staff training is the first thing cut in a budget crunch.
Over the next decade Evergreen Leaders, a nonprofit, is out to change this myth and we’re going to start with community nonprofits that serve low and moderate income people. Here are the seven steps we are using to change this myth:
1. We’ve created the 7 Paths as a way to teach every nonprofit manager and supervisor how to help their group thrive.
2. We’re creating a free, online library of 7 Path resources that nonprofit leaders can adapt to their organization.
3. We’re creating a 7 Path series of workshops with plans to reduce costs to nonprofits by licensing staff from local nonprofits to teach the workshops to nonprofit managers and supervisors in their organization and community.
4. We’re creating a 7 Paths sustainable fundraising program to help nonprofits raise the funds they need to thrive.
5. We’re creating a team of consultants to coach key leaders in nonprofits to help their nonprofits thrive by using the 7 Paths.
6. We’ve created an Online Publishing Fund for donors and grantors to make it possible for our staff to create free, online 7 Paths training materials.
7. We’ve created a Scholarship Fund for donors and grantors to make it possible for every manager and supervisor in nonprofits that serve low and moderate income people to have access 7 Path workshops.
1st published 5/3/08.
Applying the 7 Paths to Christian Communities
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by richfossThis morning Charletta and I did 1 ½ hour workshop at the P.A.P.A. Festival on the 7 Paths of Thriving Communities. Many of the thousand Festival goers are part of intentional Christian households and communities. Most are in their twenties.
We presented for an hour and then spent 35 minutes fielding questions and listening to reflections on community life and the 7 Paths.
The most intriguing comment was in response to the humble hierarchy principle:
Humble hierarchy leaders have little personal ambition, an unwavering will to help the organization transform the lives of those it serves, and a passion to create space for all to thrive.
A tattooed young man said that he as been part of several communities. He then said that he thought you would have to be single in order to have an “unwavering will to help the organization transform the lives of those it serves”. If you are married, he pointed out, you put your family first.
Charletta made a good response. She said that the role of humble hierarchy leaders is not to do everything but to be leaders of leaders, making it possible to be a leader and a family person.
I added that for millennia there is one additional option besides single leaders and leaders who are pulled between leading and family–leaders whose children are grown and who can move from focusing on family to caring for the whole community.
1st published 6/20/08.
Welcome, Charletta
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by richfossA couple of years ago an Evergreen Leaders board member observed, “I don’t know whether Evergreen Leaders is an organization or a job for Rich.”
I understood the comment. From the beginning I envisioned EGL as an organization whose ideas and training would reach the world. But I was the only staff member.
Several months ago I began to sense Evergreen Leaders was at a turning point. We had a clear framework for helping organizations thrive–the 7 Paths–and I was getting more and more consulting jobs. We were ready to grow.
On March 18th Charletta Erb came aboard and is working on developing workshops based on the 7 Paths. To say that I am excited is an understatement. It’s great to be an organization helping nonprofits thrive!
Welcome, Charletta. Watch for more posts from Charletta.
1st published 4/12/08.