The IllumiLab is excited to bring you another post in this blog series from guest contributor Chelsea Weber. Chelsea has over a decade of experience in organizational design, development, and transformation with private, government, and nonprofit organizations. The IllumiLab’s mission is to equip and empower change-makers to plan thoughtfully, design intentionally, work efficiently, and learn[…]
A messy shared drive is more than a headache. It’s a business process and knowledge management disaster. An organization cannot plan thoughtfully, design intentionally, work efficiently, and learn continuously if it cannot store, find, and use its decisions, plans, efforts, and insights. Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive, etc. are all powerful tools for file sharing and[…]
If we are too busy to plan, too busy to think, and too busy to reflect, we should stop and ask ourselves, “What are we so busy doing, and are we really committed to doing it well?” As Megan and I have been researching our Theory of Change, we’ve been digging into the literature on strategic,[…]
If I had a nickel for every time I heard a nonprofit professional say they were building the plane while flying it, I could buy my own fully-built jet! In the context of program design, what does this even mean? Is “building the plane while flying it” just code for “making it up as we[…]
Nonprofit professionals are do-ers. We are fixers. Heck, we build planes while we fly them, right? Believe it or not, these penchants for action and for fixing can actually interfere with sound problem solving, data-informed decision-making, and continuous improvement. In our rush to make changes and improvements, we skip important steps that shortchange our understanding[…]
In my last post, I argued that this crisis is an opportunity to re-imagine your work. It has the potential to change the way we define our Why, What, and How as organizations. In this post, I want to focus on our How – the processes we use to serve our clients, lead our teams,[…]
Evaluation, performance management, project management, and quality improvement (everything I do) all have at least one thing in common. They start with the end in mind, articulating goals. Before anything else, they ask what the end game is. For example: Evaluation – What do you want to learn from this evaluation? How do you want[…]
Has your organization recently completed a strategic planning process and created a “plan” that is nothing more than a glorified (and long) laundry list? Do you create annual plans full of aspirational goals that never quite get fully operationalized or implemented because no one knows where to start? Did you get a list of feedback[…]
I’ve said it here many times. I hate waste! As a sector that’s starved for resources yet charged with addressing some of society’s most intractable problems, we can’t afford to waste any time, energy, knowledge, or money! We’ve all heard the saying “time is money.” In our sector, time is money, and money is the[…]
Happy New Year! This is the time of year when many of us make resolutions or set goals. Lose weight. Learn a new skill. Build our networks. Save a certain amount of money. I am wired for quality improvement, so I still do this every year. Though, I could benefit from following some of my[…]