Party shots

At Greenlights 5th Birthday party Sunday, I was told in no uncertain terms how to write a blog.

Staff, board, founders and friends lolled around the RGK Ranch swimming, fishing, hammock-swinging, and giving me grief about my travels ahead. I explained to Greenlights designer and a hard-headed social work intern about my blog plans for the year, and they were quick to remind me that blogs are tough.

So I got on the web to find out how to make a great blog. Three key items:

1. Declarative sentences. (Fine.)
2. Offer something new (belly button shots anyone?)
3. Amuse your readers (Hmmmm.)

I'll work on these edicts as I move ahead.

The party itself by the way was a terrific opportunity to begin my executive transition process. My goals may not be met (my goals being to step aside from management but continue to be part of my nonprofit doing some of the fun consulting projects, fitting these into my growing international schedule). When people came up to me at the party and say "We'll miss you" I was quick to assert that I'd still be around. I need to appreciate that I won't be around in the same way - that these colleague may really mean that they'll miss my hand on the rudder, my declarative commands (hmmm again), and those administrative aspects of me that I plan to move to the back seat of my car.

This may be a tall challenge.

Speaking of back seats, an amusing opportunity for you: Jetta' s back seat drivers manual, compliments of Abby Williamson. Example of important info for back seat drivers to know: Drink to bladder ration: A driver is only good for 30 minutes with a 32 oz cup of coffee.

Road Maps

As Greenlights begins the journey through an executive transition, we're gathering road maps.

And there are many road maps to learn from. Compasspoint - a Bay Area nonprofit management center has been guiding nonprofit executive transitions for a while. Their resources are the model for Greenlights resources - a strong interim director pool, on-line examples of succession plans, and Tim Wolfred's workshops and writings about board roles in executive transitions.

On the East Coast, Transition Guides is a for-profit firm that has been conducting searches, sharing research and leading workshops to help groups like Greenlights get good at providing assistance in leadership transitions.

Nonprofit Quarterly has been publishing great articles about the issue. Executive search firms locally and around the US are finding the new market of nonprofit transitions to be calling them. And there are new research findings about the health of the nonprofit employment world that are rippling throughout both the academic and practitioner communities. Research that says 5 out of 7 current nonprofit executives will leave their posts in the next 3-5 years. Research that says there's a potential leadership vacuum ahead. Research that says Gen X and Gen Y nonprofit rock stars are shying away from executive work -seeing the frustrations involved in fundraising and multitasking.

And we are collecting "travelogues" from local nonprofits who have gone through a change in leadership with tales to tell.

Greenlights will create a lessons learned webpage for our community. We're also doing a good bit of preparation to help Austin weather these changes ahead. Already we have tips, tools, and articles online that can help fellow travelers

Our intention is to use all these road maps as we chart our journey through the transition ahead.
The challenges we face in the early stage of the journey?
-- creating the transition team
-- creating a timeline
-- setting groundrules
-- getting input

Gonna be fun!

Start spreading the news

Once I described my plan to step down to my Board Chair it was time to announce it to the world. Well, there's a sequence to this that was important - at least to me. I wanted to make sure that my closest colleagues knew first, and knew firsthand from me, about my plans. So Greenlights Board Chair and I visited first with our Founding Chair to make a plan. I committed to telling staff, then Board, and then key donors and stakeholders within the week, inviting comments, and requesting that we embargo the news until I finished my round of calls. My goal? Two days and then the word's out.

Well, easier said then done. I dutifully made my list and started on my calls from A-Z. First calls were easy - when I reached a person. Office-dwellers are less tied to office phones than a few years ago. And the idea of explaining my step down to a person on a cell phone in the midst of interstate traffic made me squirm, so I shied away from dialing those carefully guarded numbers.

And what about voice mail? Well for some people I spoke my message before the beep. For others it felt somewhat abrupt and I just asked for a callback.

Unfortunately my system of marking who I called, what I said, and who I reached was woefully inconsistent, so by the end of the second day of calls - in between other tasks - I was hopelessly confused about who I had contacted and who was left to connect to.

So ultimately I fell back on our current favorite mode of communication - a blast email to the near and dear.

Not a 2-day task, but a week-long task. Finally, tomorrow I will send out the note, and let Greenlights staff know they are free to tell friends about the transitions ahead. Can't imagine it's important news, but it's always easier to avoid secrets.

From the Driver's Seat -

Welcome to a new blog connected to Greenlights for NonProfit Success - a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening Central Texas nonprofits through consulting, education, networking and resources. Since 2001 Greenlights has been helping nonprofit boards and staff think differently about anagement and governance issues. A big issue these days in the nonprofit sector is the changing of the guard - more than 2/3rd of the current ED's leading nonprofits will be leaving their posts in the next five years.

We know at Greenlights that the transition process is a challenge for nonprofits - it's not your everyday cycle of events. What kind of challenges? Well, a board may not have ANY experience with a transition - if it's sudden there's a flurry of uncertainty, if it's planned there's still a flurry of uncertainty. Who will take over? How do we find the right next leader? Will we lose all our funders? Should we hire a head hunter? Where's the money going to come from to pay these new bills? What kind of severance package do we provide? Do we need interim leadership? Is this a good time to merge with another group? Will this slow us down?

This week, after 5 years as Executive Director of Greenlights for NonProfit Success, I have announced to my staff and board that I will step down as ED at the end of the year - six months away. My reasons?
-- I have become involved in international NGO work, which is competing with my focus on Central Texas.
-- My sense of our organization at Greenlights is that we have the people and systems in place for it to grow beyond me, and my leadership is less critical to its success
-- I like change

Since Greenlights is in the business of helping nonprofits with executive transitions, I thought it might be instructive for readers (and cathartic for me) to maintain a blog that chronicles Greenlights (and my) transition.

So part journal, part lessons learned. Travel down the road with me....