Sarah knew it was time to reinvigorate her organization. She longed to find a way to bring more energy to their important work. But she didn’t know where to start.
After serving as executive director of the local women’s center for the last six years, she felt stuck. She knew she and her organization needed a recharge, some kind of boost of energy. A clearer focus.
“I know we’re doing good and important work,” Sarah told her board chair. “But it feels like we need some oomph, a shot of vitality.”
Sarah began to scan her jumbled bookshelves for answers. Picking up William Bridges’ seminal book “Transitions” she skimmed the yellow highlights she carefully made many years ago.
“Every transition begins with an ending,” Bridges said. “We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new.”
As she leafed through the pages, now yellow with age, she was reminded of Bridges’ basic tenets. His book, published in 1980, says that when we are facing any type of transition in our life, we usually want to start with a new beginning. But he cautions that if something is beginning, something else is ending.
He recommends starting a transition process by evaluating the ending. Identify lessons learned that can be carried forward into a new beginning.
Sarah decided to make a plan.
She would start with the ending by evaluating all current systems and practices. Once that was done, she would work with the board to develop a new beginning that would energize their efforts.
Working with her executive committee, Sarah guided the board of directors through a process that ultimately added clarity to their mission, inspired new levels of commitment and resulted in reenergizing every level of the organization.
As the new year began, they developed a four-pronged roadmap.
Mission: They began with asking themselves why their work mattered. Why they were involved and why supporters should care enough to contribute. They took some time to review their mission statement, ultimately revising it a bit to reflect changes in current community needs.
Visibility: They enhanced their marketing and social media efforts so more people could learn about their important work. Board members became ambassadors in the community, waving the organization’s flag everywhere they went. They wrote articles in the local newspaper and became guests on popular podcasts. Sarah and her board members looked for every opportunity to tell their story.
Operations: Wanting to ensure they had strong internal practices, they reviewed their finances, fundraising and staffing. They evaluated their record-keeping, investment policies and financial projections to ensure they were as transparent and stable as possible.
They examined their fundraising practices and began to put more emphasis on building strong relationships with all donors. It was even decided that this would be a good time for a capital campaign to build up their endowment. They reevaluated staffing to ensure people were being paid at market rate and offered various options for leadership development.
Board: They built a matrix to evaluate the strengths of each board member and identify gaps in expertise and diversity. They reduced the number of committees for a more streamlined work plan and decided to add two additional board positions.
Wanting to help the executive director do her best work, they reviewed their partnership with her and found ways to improve communication. All board members agreed to engage a consultant to conduct regular governance training so they could improve their board’s performance and effectiveness.
Finally, they decided to take a more strategic approach to their work as a board. It was decided that every board meeting would include a strategic discussion focusing on issues that would affect the organization in the future.
They wanted to ensure that their work today would adequately prepare them to meet the needs the future would hold.
Sarah and her board worked on the plan for many months.
“I noticed that, slowly, as we all worked together on these projects, a new energy emerged,” Sarah said. “It was sort of like a rebirth, a metamorphosis into something much more inspiring. Everyone felt it.
“Together, we transformed our entire organization by starting with the ending to create a new beginning.”