(Oct. 24, 2024) warns you that
to see book recommendations in all 20 management buckets (core competencies).
Warning! This 20-Question Assessment Might Be Risky!
When our son,
Jason, and I published
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books in 2022, today’s book had not yet been written—
so now in 2024, we have a problem. Should we edit the title so it reads
“Mastering 101 Must-Read Books?” Or…maybe I’ll go out on a limb here and add it to my Top-20 book recommendations (see
Resource 5.2). Either way…if you understand the power and the importance of nonprofit organizations, this is a must-read:
This book is a complete package—and packed with practical next steps. How practical? The author recommends you ask your “Direct Supports” (his term for “direct reports”) this question from Kim Scott,
“What could I do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me.” (Warning! Don’t ask this question at home!)You’ll find even more gut-checks in this compact book—including
a 20-question organizational assessment. (Warning to all inflated egos.) For each question, rank where you are as a team on a scale of 1 to 5:
1 = Yea, we really need help on that.
2 = We’re not good at this one.
3 = It could go either way.
4 = We’re doin’ pretty good on this one.
5 = We are rockin’ this!
Go ahead—rank your organization: •
Q6. “Everyone in our organization knows the most important things we need to accomplish over the next quarter to be on track to achieve our one-year goals.”
•
Q7. “Every team member has access to a simplified version of our storytelling strategy, and they understand how we are communicating with our core audience(s).”
•
Q9. “We are excellent at attracting and retaining the most talented team members.”
Are you gutsy enough to answer all 20 questions in this organizational assessment? If so,
click here—and good luck!
I could have—and would have—used this brilliant book in my nonprofit leadership years and also in my consulting/coaching years—had it been written back then. Now today? My best suggestion:
order enough copies for your “direct supports” and your board chair.
The “operating system” is organized into four complementary components: 1. Team Unity
2. Compelling Vision
3. Right Strategy
4. Disciplined Execution
I confess. I read Chapter 10 in the “Disciplined Execution” section first. “The Weekly” aligns beautifully with this eNews and my
Meetings Bucket—and Lambert gives away the store revealing how he and his leadership team conduct purposeful weekly meetings.
They are evangelists for weekly meetings. (Preach it, friends!)“The Weekly is the backbone of implementing the Next Level Nonprofit system,” Lambert writes. “We created the term ‘The Weekly’ for this critical, 90-minute meeting with your Executive Leadership Team, because it MUST take place on the same day and time every single week.
Every leader must be present, without any distractions (no emailing, texting, or doing other work during The Weekly). Always start on time. Always end on time. As the expression goes, ‘Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!’”
With a nod to Patrick Lencioni’s
Death by Meeting wisdom, the Next Level Nonprofit system details how to conduct weekly, quarterly, and yearly meetings and off-sites, plus info on leveraging “The State of the Organization Gatherings.”
(You do all this, right?) Here’s their
10-minute video detailing the agenda for the 90-minute weekly meeting:
View this 10-minute video on “How to Run the Weekly” and learn how key team members describe each segment (and the time allotted): Highs & Lows, Focus Time, Scoreboard Review, The W3s (What, Who, When), Quarterly Priorities, Opportunities/Next Steps, and Wrap-Up.Lambert suggests you use the final five minutes of your 90-minute weekly meeting to summarize three things:
• Recap the W3s (What, Who, When)
• What info needs to leave the room?
• How did we do as a team today?
That last question reminded me of the short feedback exercise I learned from a client a few years back, “
Five-Finger Feedback.” See Tool #4 in
ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board.
ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATING SYSTEM. When you read Lambert’s story, you’ll discover that—like many inexperienced CEOs—he couldn’t keep up with the needs and the growth of Life Remodeled, the nonprofit he founded in 2010 in Detroit. He intuitively knew he needed an “organizational operating system”—but one designed for nonprofits. Thus—Next Level Nonprofit was born (the book and consulting) with three audiences in mind:
• Nonprofit leaders
• Future nonprofit founders
• Generous givers and raving fans of nonprofits
When other nonprofit leaders asked Lambert about his “secret sauce”—how Life Remodeled had grown from 2010 to overseeing more than $43.5 million invested in Detroit neighborhoods between 2014-2022—he realized there was an opportunity and a responsibility to share the applicable principles of his “operating system.” (View his
2015 TEDx Talk here and a recent interview
here.)
This book is so, so encouraging. It will give you hope! With little background for taking on a massive and ongoing project in Detroit,
Chris Lambert launched Life Remodeled after serving as a community organizer in Liberia, and pastoring a church in Detroit. He writes, “…at the time, our church had only $8,000 in the bank, fewer than 200 members, and no connections to people of influence.”
Lambert's faith journey is remarkable and he enjoys telling colleagues: “I intentionally founded Life Remodeled as a non-religious organization; however, as a person of deep faith, my first response is usually to give all the credit to God.
When this response is met with eye rolls or follow-up questions, I share about our ‘no-so-secret sauce.’” (He then talks about their organizational operating system—specifically designed for a nonprofit.)
I urge you to buy at least five copies of this book—to go deeper on: • Why Lambert uses a
“3 strikes” approach with team members. (And speaking of strikes, Go Dodgers!)
• Why many 360 review attempts fail miserably (
Hint: lack of humility at the senior team level).
• The 38 questions on the
Annual 360 CEO Review! (Warning! Will your CEO dare share this with your board and staff?) • “For Coaches and Direct Supports, I stand by the principle of praising publicly and critiquing privately. The only exception to this rule are the CEO and COO.”
Read why he urges all team members to give him “constructive criticism on the spot”—even when others are in the room.
(I warned you, right?!) •
(Did I mention he gives away the store?) See pages 88-89 for a sample job description for their Chief Development Officer.
•
Core Value Trophy. Read how Lambert keeps core values top-of-mind with quarterly awards to team members, nominated by the senior team, demonstrating—with a compelling story—how that team member exhibited the core value.
•
Book-of-the-Quarter. Imagine—a team that values reading and listening to that quarter’s assigned book.
They do this! (Some awards include
$50 Amazon gift cards.)
•
Ideal Balance of Affirmation and Challenge. See the 2x2 on page 101: High and Low Affirmation and High and Low Challenge. The “high/high” is labeled, “Thriving Culture.” But maybe…your people are in the “Stressed Culture” quadrant?
•
Hoopla! Bucket. I thought I had already included all the good ideas in my
Hoopla! Bucket. I was wrong! Lambert lists six fabulous ideas in the section, “Trust-Building Activities.” My new favorite: “The Book About Me.”
“You are supernaturally informed
that you’re going to die in the next 24 hours, and you’re given the opportunity to come up with the title of a book that will be written about your life. What do you want the title of this book to be, and how do you want the Amazon description to read?”
ONE OR TWO PAGES? •
2-Page Strategy Document. David Schmidt, my consultant friend, mentored me on the power of a
one-page strategic plan placement. Chris Lambert prefers two pages and I’ll allow that (as if he needs my ok!). See Chapter 8, for his page one, “Where Are We Going?” and view his
strategy document here, including his page two, “How Do We Get There?”
What else do I love about this book? The alignment.
Next Level Nonprofit aligns beautifully with the business literature and gurus—but also adapts that wisdom to the in-the-trenches messy world of nonprofits. You’ll appreciate numerous references to
Jim Collins, SMART Goals, the priority of execution, Lencioni’s work, organizational charts,
Scaling Up, and
The Power of Moments.
Listen to the final chapter, “
Conclusion” (3 minutes, 44 seconds), on Libro.
And remember—I warned you!TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for
Next Level Nonprofit: Build A Dream Team + Increase Lasting Impact, by Chris Lambert. Listen on
Libro (4 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:One of the 20 questions in the
Next Level Nonprofit assessment includes three sub-questions. Rank each on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is high):
“If I asked everyone in our organization these three simple questions, I would receive nearly the same responses from each team member.”#1. What does our organization do?
#2. Why do we do it?
#3. How do we do it?
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books
Part 17: “Nonprofit” Is a Tax Designation, Not a Management Philosophy!
Book #95 of 100: Managing TransitionsFor your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #95 in
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Managing Transitions:
Making the Most of Change
by William Bridges
Books #92 through #96 spotlight five helpful books for nonprofit CEOs, senior staff, and board members. When this book was first published in 1991, it was recognized as the definitive guide to dealing with change. Now one million books sold later, it still holds that position. If it’s not in your organization’s resource library, it should be.
•
Read my review.
• Order from
Amazon.
• Listen on
Libro (6 hours, 15 minutes)
•
Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson).
William Bridges identifies three critical steps in managing transitions.
Step 2: Enter the neutral zone (the no man’s land between the old reality and the new). Some will abort in this zone, not wanting the pain. But it’s also the place where creativity, renewal and development will often occur. “The neutral zone is thus a dangerous and opportune place, and it is the very core of the transition process.”
CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN
