Leading in Uncertain

Times Dahna Goldstein@dahnag

Peter Campbell@peterscampbell

#17NTCUncertainTimesMarch 24, 2017 Photo: https://flic.kr/p/qQLgfX

Collaborative Notes

http://po.st/17NTCUncertaintimes

Leading in Uncertain Times

Who Are We?1

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Why Are We Here?

Leading in Uncertain Times

Q & A

Who Are We?

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Peter Campbell

CIO at Legal Services Corporation@peterscampbell

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Dahna Goldstein

Free Agent@dahnag

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Who Are You?

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2Why Are We Here?

Photo by https://flic.kr/p/aDFzyG

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3 Leading in Uncertain Times

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Actively Navigate through Turbulent Times

• When external conditions change, strategic initiatives need re-examining

• Assess your priorities and adjust business plans as warranted

• Make cuts in accordance with your mission and revised strategies

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Respond Strategically

• Take precautions, but understand the business impacts and adjust plans accordingly

• To misquote Maya Angelou: “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and carefully responsive to anything in between.”

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Communicate Broadly

• Stakeholders, funders and staff might all be worried and making bad assumptions

• Your response to a crisis or change is a story that you need to tell

• That story might vary for different audiences, although the gist of it should be consistent

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Engage with Your Funders

• Your funders should be partners in supporting your mission

• Uncertain times create opportunities to change the conversationImage: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Discussion.png

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Don’t Let Short-term Measures Obscure Long-term Planning

• You should have a three to five year strategic plan in place

• Adjust the plan, don’t ignore it or scrap it.

• Perform SWOT analyses to determine new priorities.

Photo by Xhienne

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Technology Priorities

• Technology becomes obsolete

• Major installations and upgrades should be paced, not bunched

• Keep some upgrades in the tight budget to avoid major costs and disruption post-crisis

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Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst

• Scenario planning can help mitigate uncertainty

• What would we do if we lost X?

• What would we do if we gained Y?

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Prepare for the Worst: Layoffs

• Most NPO budgets are made up of people: 50% to 90% = salary and benefits

• NPO staff often wear multiple hats and aren’t well backed up

• Layoffs can devastate those left behind as well as those laid off

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Layoffs: Recommendations

• Create backups and redundancy for critical duties

• Document procedures. Use a wiki, or Slack, or Chatter. Don’t allow critical business knowledge to live in one person’s head

• Do this by building career paths into your org chart Photo: Michael Havens

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Layoffs: Recommendations (cont’d)• When layoffs have to occur, the more cross-

functional your staff, the more flexibility you have. Maybe someone is ready to retire who, had you not cross-trained someone on their skills, would have been otherwise non-expendable.

• Don’t make layoff decisions in silos. Cross-functionality at a nonprofit should be across offices, so that one departments layoff choices might impact yours.

Photo by Jeremy Keith

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Diversify Funding Sources

• Overreliance on one funding source can be a problem

• Think about diversifying not only funders but different types of revenue

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Get to the Cloud

• Cloud computing is flexible in uncertain times

• Software licensing can be adjusted up or downward as your staffing shrinks and grows

• Office relocations are easier when you don’t have a complicated server room

• Employees can work from home, or workstations can be unassigned (hoteling)

• Disaster recovery costs are lower with the cloud

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Explore Shared Efficiencies

• Identify your organization’s core competencies

• Identify your organization’s needs, and any excess capacity

• Explore opportunities to share

resources with other organizations

Photo: C!...

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Renegotiate Everything

• In a downturn, your vendors will value your continued business even more

• Call and ask them to offer you a better deal

• If they won’t, shop around.Photo by Takashi Hososhima

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Take Calculated Risks

• Small experiments can have big payoffs

• Keep focus on mission, and explore areas to experiment with efficiencies

Image: Cindyli

4Q & A

Leading in Uncertain

Times Dahna Goldsteindahnag@gmail.com

Photo: https://flic.kr/p/qQLgfX

Session Evaluation: http://nten.org/17ntc-evals/

Or in 17NTC App

Peter Campbellpsc@techcafeteria.com