Working in a not-for-profit organisation is challenging. There are all the responsibilities of leading staff, meeting government requirements and working with a Board, with much less infrastructure and support.
Not-for-profit organisations depend on their Boards for managing the complexities of organisational ethos, community expectations, legislative requirements, government funding, staffing and resources. People may come to serve on a Board almost by accident. Others are ‘recruited’ because of their specific knowledge, skills or expertise. Some seek election to pursue a specific concern or idea. Working for the good of the whole organisation not just for their particular issue can be challenging. ‘Governance’ and ‘management’ may be foreign terms, and the differences between them may seem unimportant. But Boards are the governing body of not-for-profit organisations and Board members need knowledge and skills in order to perform their legal, organisational and educational responsibilities.
Leaders need to have the attributes, values and knowledge that enable them to set policies and direction, lead the organisation, promote a sense of community, develop partnerships with other organisations and manage resources. They self-reflect, engage in their own professional development and learning and improve their own performances. A leader in a not-for-profit organisation may be doing all this as well as managing projects and evaluating performance. How many hours are in your day?
Learning Conversations offers governance, management and leadership training for leaders in not-for-profit organisations, drawing on our extensive experience governing, managing and leading not-for-profit organisations.
Choose the workshop topics appropriate for your needs, or negotiate your own combination in a series that incorporates a ‘spaced learning model’.
Managing change
Using a framework adapted from Villa and Thousand (1993), this workshop explores ingredients for managing change and the consequences of their absence.
Governance or management?
Governance can be likened to ‘steering a ship’ while managing can be seen as ‘organising the rowing’. In not-for-profit organisation, the board may be performing some of both functions. In this workshop, we explore ‘governance’ and ‘management’ and determine the functions your board needs to perform, those they need to delegate and how to do this effectively.
Organisations as systems
Boards, managers, staff, volunteers and clients are people in a system of relationships focused on the organisation. In this workshop, we explore your organisation’s ‘system’ and the ways in which changes to one aspect of it affect others. We will look to building a robust, compassionate system that grows the capacity of the community.
Managing complexity
Complexity is the range of activities just on the edge of chaos. It is a place of uncertainty, ambiguity and inconsistency. In this workshop, we explore the ways in which leaders can remain in this space, being the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
Developing an organisation’s viability
Viability consists of three inter-related factors: legacy, sustainability and succession. In this workshop, we explore each of these dimensions and their implications for an organisation as a whole, a board and a leader.
Co-creating a vision for an organisation
When a voluntary or not-for-profit organisation begins, there is usually a small group of people who share a common vision for it. Over time, the population changes. Expectations diversify. Staff come and go. Few people have the zeal that led to the birth of the organisation in the first instance. In this workshop we explore ways of recreating an organisational vision so that board, managers, staff, volunteers, clients and community ideas and expectations can be included.
Environmental scanning
In developing strategic and business plans, organisations need to assess the needs of the community in terms of philosophy, knowledge, skills, resources, partnerships and networks. In this workshop, we will explore ways of conducting an environmental scan, collating and presenting information so that it supports planning and the management of change.
Leading from the centre
Leading from the centre involves identifying common purposes, thinking systematically, integrating thinking and doing, engaging everyone, expressing appreciation and offering advice. In this workshop we explore each of these elements and ways in which leaders work with staff, make decisions and improve collaboration.
Supporting leaders
Aspirant leaders want to contribute to the organisation’s directions – but they are not coordinators or leaders, yet. This workshop explores ways in which aspirant leaders can develop and use their own abilities and those of others to support leaders and make a difference to their organisation.
Building relationships through negotiation
In this workshop we focus on the basic elements of a working relationship. Participants explore ways in which they can balance emotion with reason, see things from different perspectives, consult and listen, demonstrate reliability, negotiate and accept difference.
Conducting difficult conversations
Conducting difficult conversations requires adopting a learning stance – a willingness to listen and learn. It requires identifying purposes for a conversation, listening to peoples’ stories, speaking with clarity and power and solving problems. In this workshop, participants will experience a variety of conversations and apply some of the strategies for making difficult conversations productive.
When we are cross, afraid and stressed – managing emotions
Sometimes we are involved in a difficult conversation and find that our own emotions are difficult to manage. We need to be able to use our ‘emotional intelligence’ to think through what we should do, to identify our feelings and to manage them in a socially acceptable way.
Talking together –communication
Listening is more than hearing. Speaking is more than saying things. Communication requires listening and speaking in a relationship.
Building the capacity of an organisation - recognising difference and diversity
People think and act in different ways. That often means the people we work with approach their work, think and respond in different ways from us, and that can make it hard to work with them, let alone support them.
Promoting professional learning
People learn in a large range of ways, formally and informally, in their daily working lives. Maximising organisational knowledge can be achieved by supporting staff to determine what kind of professional learning will meet their level of interest, need to know, knowledge, skills and experience. In this workshop, we develop a process for supporting professional learning.
Managing staff performance
Staff performance management, reviews and appraisals are different and complementary processes that support staff in managing their responsibilities, determining opportunities for personal and professional growth and planning for the use of resources. In this workshop, we explore ways of promoting staff performance.
Meeting formats
Robert’s Rules have become the accepted meeting procedure but they are not always conducive to exploring ideas and negotiating alternative solutions. In this workshop we explore meeting formats that can be used to achieve different purposes.