I recently worked with an organization that, by all external measures was doing great. The number of people they were serving was growing, their “brand” was improving in the community and they were building great partnerships with other organizations to expand their reach.

Here’s what those outcomes didn’t show:

❌ The staff were burnt out
❌ Mid-level leaders had gotten too good at improvising on the spot because the ED would make changes on the fly
❌ A senior leader felt frustrated that he wasn’t able to prepare for longer term projects
❌ The volunteer manager constantly felt out of the loop because the ED would inform volunteers of changes directly without informing her

None of this came from a bad place.

Everyone was beyond committed to the mission, and they all truly liked working with each other.

They even really liked and trusted the ED, which is why they were more than willing to go with the flow and help him carry out the work.

And the Executive Director wasn’t sending out commands from an “ivory tower”.

He was always willing to jump in and help out wherever needed.

Let’s diagnose how unsustainable this really was.

Workarounds are not meant to be the process

How did they get to this point?

1. The Executive Director’s biggest strength was visioning, but terrible at planning. So, he had a great vision of where to go and how to get there.
2. He assembled a team of folks that were really good at making things happen.
3. They all recognized he wasn’t great at planning, so just created their own workarounds to help each other get the information and stuff they needed.
4. But, now that as their organization was growing, it was putting pressure on these workarounds, and things that worked when they were smaller were starting to crack and put extra stress on everyone.

This Executive Director admitted that he was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, which he was able to manage somewhat with medication, but he continued to just avoid any planning activities unless it was absolutely necessary.

When we first started talking, he felt there was nothing wrong except some minor scheduling things that needed to be worked out.

His team also started out the conversation that way, feeling that everyone worked well together.

But one question was all it took for them to start sharing their frustration with the way things where:

“What’s one thing that could be improved that would make your team even more effective?”

What had started as a conversation about how great their teamwork was evolved naturally into how they wished there was more structure and empowerment.

One by one they were able to start talking through how the lack of planning and structure was making it hard for them to manage volunteers or manage their own time and work.

So, while I could have easily done a training for the staff on basic project management and communication – that’s not what they needed.

Instead, I worked with the Executive Director to change one thing.

Learn how to empower the team

When I first brought this back to the Executive Director, he immediately felt 2 things:

• He felt bad that his staff was feeling this way and hadn’t told him
• He immediately pushed back saying that he wasn’t good at planning and would only be a drag on his team

I told him there was good news:

His staff was already talented at doing the planning, they just didn’t have a container.

He didn’t have to do the planning by himself – he only had to create a container where they could do what they did best.

For him, it flicked a switch that he never even realized was there.

He didn’t have to do all the planning by himself, he merely had to facilitate his team through the process.

And he was a great facilitator, he just never realized he could use it here.

And so that’s what happened, he began to hold monthly meetings with his senior leadership team to start planning out future events and projects.

Recently one of his senior leaders reached out to tell me how thankful he was for my help. He talked about how those monthly meetings solved all the problems he was frustrated with. Now he was able to plan his work around longer-term projects knowing what the deadlines were and how to allocate his own time.

This Executive Director summed it up best when he said, “It’s incredible how much easier things are when we take just a small amount of time to plan for the future”

How can this work for you?

Look – as a consultant, I’d have no problem selling you a workshop. My mortgage would thank you.

Here’s the reality, when you’re running on thin margins or under budgetary stress, a $5,000 training is a luxury.

And the reality?

It’s probably not what you need anyway.

When you’re doing work that feels so vital and urgent, everything can seem like a priority.

And planning feels like one thing you can skip, especially if it doesn’t come naturally for you

It’ll feel like pulling teeth to get you to sit down and think ahead.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

The good news is you don’t have to do it alone.

In fact – you shouldn’t.

All you need is one meeting on a regular frequency with your team to look ahead and see what’s needed.

That’s it.

60 minutes a month or every other month. Maybe it’s 30 minutes every week. Maybe 15 minutes every day.

There’s no one right answer – it depends on your work.

But making sure it happens will make a world of difference.

What meeting do you need to make happen to change everything?

Cheers,
Chris