7 Paths Blog

A 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.

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.

This 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.