Archive for March, 2008

Careful Considerations Before Committing to a Non-Profit Organization

Published
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gay
on March 28, 2008
in Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare and Changeology of leadership
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Below is an excellent article appearing in the Wall Street Journal on considerations when joining a Non-Profit Board. Terrie Tempkin is a contributing member of this article and is a principle member of Core Strategies for Non-Profits (www.corestrategies4nonprofits.com)

Joining a Nonprofit Board
Is More Than a Labor of Love

You might accept the nomination out of solidarity with the cause or as a resume-builder, but there’s work to be done.

By ERIN CHAMBERS
Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Since so few of them pay these days, joining the board of a nonprofit is usually more about passion—or resume building—than making a little extra money on the side. And regardless of the organization’s mission, Terry Temkin, founder of Florida-based nonprofit consultancy Core Strategies for Nonprofits, says all nonprofits are simply looking for “bright, dynamic minds” to help get their organizations to the next level.

Your First 90 Days

Follow up on standard public relations efforts. Connect with the organization’s public relations department immediately to ensure they have an updated bio and photo for any standard press releases. Jim Kristie, editor of Philadelphia-based Directors & Boards magazine since 1981, also suggests reaching out to one’s personal network of alumni and business connections with a more casual announcement in an alumni newsletter or personal Web site. “It would be natural to do some self promotion by looking for ways to leverage that new board position in your own network,” he says.

Don’t blow off the orientation. This is especially important if there are multiple new appointments. It’s a mistake to assume that all boards function the same way, says Ms. Temkin. “You need to be there,” she says. And with so few board meetings these days—many organizations have ramped down to meeting just once per quarter—new directors need to take advantage of every face-to-face opportunity with fellow board members.

MORE 90 DAYS
[Board of Directors]

The first board meeting: Observe the group dynamic. “[A] new board member has to find out where the power lies on the board and where the force of gravity is,” says Mr. Kristie who serves on several nonprofit boards. “It’s like any other group. There are cliques, there are leaders, and then there are other directors who aren’t pulling their weight.” Much of a director’s first board meeting should be about deciphering who’s who.

Look outside the boardroom. Find out if any of the directors live or work in your area, and make to plans to meet for lunch. “Try to ride to the airport together,” if you’re both flying in from another city, says Mr. Kristie. Ms. Temkin advises scheduling a one-on-one session with the organization’s chief administrator directly. Casual conversations can be more informative than formal meetings when trying to understand the unique challenges involved in running a nonprofit.

Ask questions. Experts agree that the primary function of any board, nonprofit or corporate, is to ask the tough questions. “Be somebody who asks questions, who doesn’t take things at face value.” Says Ms. Temkin. “What you really require from directors is a community perspective. Someone who is out in the field hearing and doing and seeing things.”

Write to Erin Chambers at cjeditor@dowjones.com

A True Story: Living an Inspired Dream

Published
by
gay
on March 26, 2008
in Changeologists Presents!! and Changeologists Reflections
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The True Story of the Awakening for One Person, (the love, the inspiration, the fear and the determination of one woman giving up everything she has for everything she believes in).

Janet was a flight attendant for a major airline and loved her career and all the exciting people and places it exposed her to. Through the 35 years of her career she balanced being a single mom to her beautiful daughter. Balancing work and motherhood was always a challenging art. Wanting to be home with her daughter and yet having to pack and leave for work.

Five years ago while on a trip, Janet spotted a cute shinning necklace that caught her attention and so she bought it. A week later Janet had a San Francisco layover, while in her room, she received an Inspired message. The voice she heard was clear and strong.

She believed in listening for the “still small voice inside” but this time is was different, no longer the small voice but one of power. This time she couldn’t help but sit up and pay attention.

The Voice said “use the necklace as a tool for “THE AWAKENING!” Wow, what was that suppose to mean? Then Janet was given a VISION… a young barefoot and shirtless Africian boy in the background as CNN’s camera were focused in the foreground interviewing. He was walking down the street, alone, with his small protruding belly, thin and undernourished. The camera man just happened to catch him in the frame of his camera…. Alone and yet he had the biggest smile on his face. He was wearing the necklace!! The light that, couldn’t stay hidden. This necklace of light around his neck was a radiant blue hue. It radiated this young boy’s own inner light, his true self…not the physical self the camera was portraying.

Janet remembers feeling overwhelmed and excited, scared and determined. She knew she had just received her purpose and knew in her heart she was blessed to be given this gift. After all, many never hear their purpose so clearly as she just had.

She called her best friend, Will, and told him of the situation which just happened. He was very responsive and supportive. He knew, knowing Janet’s spiritual heart, that she was on a mission.

After arriving home from her San Francisco trip, she found Will had done some research on the necklace however finding the people who made the necklace were not interested in wholesaling it to them at a reasonable price. Now what?

Here is where the Love Story begins. Will decided to make the necklace and find a manufacturer. Will or Janet knew NOTHING of this type of venture. So he studied, researched, made hundreds of phone calls… he was also determined because he believed in not just the Divine purpose…but also in Janet.

Will and Janet were best friends and opposites in many ways yet saw admirable qualities within each other; a yin and yang of sorts. They had many long discussions to decide how they would accomplish this chosen mission. They decided to form a corporation and the Trinity of the Infinite was formed. However, One small sticking point, one partner wanted on a platonic relationship” and the other partner was already committed in one -sided love relationship with now his business partner.

Two very different perspectives. With time, commitment, communication, respect, honesty, trust and a belief in the Divine mission ahead the old cliché “it takes two” was the choice. And so began their own Awakening, set on their mission of love and service to contribute to the enlightenment of the planet.

Will had a very profitable company. But in order for him to devote his full focus and energy he sold his company to give Azure Circles his full commitment. Not only did he give his time, but invested much of his revenue from the sale of his company to start producing the necklace.

Janet was the sole breadwinner for herself and her daughter and continued to work as a flight attendant. As time passed, patents, trademarks and eventually contracts were reviewed by their lawyer, costs started to mount. The costs were mounting while both Will and Janet tried to learn the manufacturing business.

Money was needed but neither of them had deep pockets. But, Janet had good credit and fully dedicated to her life’s purpose, she chose to refinance her home. As the years continued she took credit card loans in order to continue the research and development for a perfected product to fulfill her INSPIRED VISION. There were times and still are, when fear tried to overtake the Vision. Her debt kept mounting. In lieu of it all, through fear she continued to persevere because she believed the path would be cleared for her, and monies would come.

So with more credit card debt and more time passing, the company had plenty of outgoing funds but no income coming in. Friends, family and even the accountant were concerned. It was hard on the two of them. Through this time however they had become a couple instead of two partners not in balance with each other. Their dates were not lavish, but in spite of the lack of funds they had fun, they laughed, they cried, they argued and discussed the good and the bad, they got to know and love the core of each other with no false pretenses; a personal awakening for each of them.

Individually and as a couple, despite everything the two still trusted in each other’s integrity, love, honesty, commitment and believed in the divine guidance of Source to continue on their mission.

This story started in 2003 and by 2005 they had their first run prototype finished. Now more money was needed for all of those things you need to launch a new product.

As they were getting the necklace out onto the market, a friend of Will’s recommended that they show these necklaces to his very “connected” global marketing friend. A meeting was arranged in New York and it was a hit!

The new patrons loved the necklace and wanted to license and market it to WalMart and many other larger vendors. At last, Janet and Will’s first break in almost 3 years. They were very excited and began negotiating a contract for the licensing of the necklace. Of course once again, more money for lawyers was needed.

As the events unfolded, Will was sent to China to oversee the manufacturing of the necklace. A lot of time passed and still nothing was really happening. Wheels were spinning but no product and no dollars. After 5 months the contract that had been negotiated expired. This was a dark time for them, both financially as well as their hopes in what they thought was going to be the answer to all of their concerns
.
In Spring of 2006 Janet and Will took a trip Disney World with her family. As they all watched the evening parade of Lights, Janet heard Jimminy Cricket telling Pinnochico that if he believed, “the magic was within”. Wow!!! She felt another lightening bolt to her heart. Immediately she turned to Will and said “Our necklace belongs here in Disney!”

So they called their lawyer the following Monday and checked to see if Magic Within was trademarked. It was not, great news… but now more money was needed to trademark another name.

With their new idea, they called the patrons who were going to bring their earlier necklace to Wal Mart and told them of their idea. The necklace in Disney. They thought it was a fantastic idea and so another round of negotiations with lawyers about licensing the illuminated necklace to Disney began again. Exciting yes, while even more money was going out.

As exciting as the Disney opportunity was, it had nothing to do with the INSPIRED MESSAGE, (except it may have funded the true purpose). Will and Janet recognized they had been waiting on this possible venture to move THE AWAKENING forward. But, not any more.

With focused vision and shear determination a new clasp was designed. It was revolutionary in shape and after 5 years of research and development on many levels the Necklace representing THE AWAKENING was created.

Today, the necklace is ready as a vehicle to experience THE AWAKENING. Divine order has brought them to this place in time and it is the time for the debut of THE AWAKENING: NECKLACE OF LIGHT!

Will, with unselfish devotion and love for his woman has dedicated 5 years of his life to create a necklace of light for Janet, the love of his life. It is as beautiful a love story as was the Emperor Shah Jahar of India who built the Taj Mahal for the love of his life.

Will is an example of a remarkable man, who believed in a woman and her life’s purpose. He has helped orchestrate the mission to get her this far. It is now up to Janet to take her inspired mission to the awakening world of consciousness and into the universe’s vibrational harmonies .

The necklace has been created with great love, and great debt including all of Janet’s retirement fund and credit… she is broke. But she is also rich, as she describes her purpose.

Her first stop, Taking herself to the Oprah show on the April 29th taping . Why? She knows and has seen Oprah open up the consciousness of the world over the past several years. What better way to open up the newest vehicle to THE AWAKENING than to be in a space of harmony and acceptance.

Her respect and admiration and deep love for Will abounds in peace and joy as this adventure with limitless abundance and prosperity together. They are Blessed and so it is.

Keen Awareness is One Concept of “Change Capacity”

Published
by
gay
on March 20, 2008
in Changeologists Recommends, Changeology 101, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology for Organizational Performance, Changeology of CHAOS, Changeology of Organizational Learning, Changeology of Systems and Changeology of leadership
. 0 Comments

THE DISTANCE IS NOTHING; IT IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP THAT IS DIFFICULT

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

                                                                                                                                                             Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The first step is ALWAYS the hardest. However, we know that in time and with practice the unknown becomes known, our comfort zone expands and we begin to create some degree of normalization after the event of the first step. 

Think about the “first step” an infant takes. Think about the overall magnitude that motion, forward movement, and the ability to move toward something they want has on the rest of their lives. The first step for an infant is risky, unsteady, and scary…BUT they keep trying until they finally were able to put one foot in front of the other, typically while others cheer on. How proud they are of taking the risk, trying over and over again until they do it. Is it perfect? NO, not by a long shot. 

The first step doesn’t need to be perfect… it just needs to be a first step attached to the willingness to keep getting back up to try again. 

I briefly discussed “Change Capacity” several weeks ago. Prior to understanding change and how it may “function” in an organization or even in our personal lives, the first step was to EMBRACE the concept change is not stoppable. It is occurring in some way and in some fashion every second of everyday. However, the change we refer to most in organizations is change that either immediately or over time and space has some impact on persons and organizations.    

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines change as both a verb and a noun. The verb form is defined as “to make different in some particular” or “to replace with another.” The noun form is defined as “the act, process, or result of changing,” a “transformation,” or “substitution.” Often we use the word to signify what is “different.” Webster goes on to say, “Change implies making either an essential difference often amounting to a loss of original identity or a substitution of one thing for another.” It is this “loss of essential identity” that seems to be of most importance in human systems  ( Schwandt, 2006). 

It is this potential loss that members in organizations must deal with. Often change leads to new roles, different organizational models, and altered power relations that can result in differences in motivation, performance and possibly conflict. “The word ‘change’ produces emotional reactions. It is not a neutral word. To many people it is threatening” (Cartwright, 1951). Just the word “change” in organizations can have immediate effects on people’s lives and organizational effectiveness. 

One concept in an organization’s “Change Capacity” is the concept of first identifying the potential loss or change in an organization’s self-concept (An organization is not necessarily the total whole of the business but can be a department, team, smaller organization or group embedded within the whole). The perceived loss and the reaction to it can be called a “weak signal” (Weick, 2008). This means if “weak signals” go unnoticed the reactions may create undesired actions or accumulated undesired actions. If an organization is prepared to identify “weak signals” more aggressively leading to identifying employee’s perceived losses prior to a change effort, it can increase its capacity for greater change success implementation by planning, communicating  and by increasing intentional awareness to the subject matter. 

A great exercise for any manager to do at the time of planning a change, prior to announcing a change or implementing a change, no matter how small, is to ask, “How MAY this affect individuals, and the whole?” “How does this change impact the organization’s  current  self-concept and its future self-concept?”   It is important to be aware of the perceived current organizational state and the perceived future state (Dooley, 1997) of organizational members. Many times we make changes without asking ourselves these types of questions. Remember, some of the greatest impact from a change is from small incremental or continuous reactions to change that lead to more change having greater impact. 

The hazard we face in management is we “devalue” that even a small change can have great impact. With the right preparation, keen awareness as to potential perceptions and actual reactions to the change an organization’s “Change Capacity” can be increased leading to greater organizational success in implementing the desired change.

This is one small intervention to increase Organizational “Change Capacity” it is in the implementation of doing it well that becomes significant. In the near future, I will discuss further the concept or “Organizational State” (Dooley, 1997) mentioned above.

Until the next time… 

Practice putting your feet in front of the other and eventually that first step will happen… even if you fall, the “getting up” becomes much easier with Practice. 

gay rogers

The “Wired Fundraiser”

Published
by
gay
on March 19, 2008
in Changeologist
. 0 Comments

I attended a networking meeting last week for Non Profit Executives. A representative from Network for Good, Stacie Mann was the speaker.

Now, if you have been on the curb regarding your fundraising efforts through technology, Stacie delivered a convincing message to those resistors and to those who just needed a few new ideas.

Her firm works with the Kevin Bacon non-profit Six Degrees.  Here is some of the information she shared that day:

White papers http://www.fundraising123.org/NFG/The_Wired_Fundraiser.pdf and http://www.fundraising123.org/article/young-and-generous-study-100-million-online-giving

For more information in general go to http://www.fundraising123.org/; a great resource for training, research, best practices etc. All the teleconferences have audio + transcript.

For Google Alerts sign up at http://www.google.com/alerts; remember use quotation marks and experiment with ones to monitor

For searching where people congregate online (i.e. passionate constituencies that may be interested in your cause); search blogs at http://www.technorati.com/

For setting up a charity badge go to http://www.sixdegrees.org/ and http://sixdegreesdotorg.blogspot.com/2007/06/can-person-person-fundraising-help-your.html

Stacie Mann

www.networkforgood.org

ALSO… Another great resource for Non Profit fundraising , and Non Profit Expert Advice is: www.corestrategies4nonprofits.com

Have a great St. Patty’s Day… Remember Life is for CELEBRATING and this is just one of those days to sing and laugh.

gay 

Verbal Abuse: the latest management strategy

Published
by
gay
on March 12, 2008
in Changeologists Recommends, Changeologists Reflections, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology for Organizational Performance, Changeology of Organizational Learning, Changeology of business Culture and Changeology of leadership
. 0 Comments

Blog for Workforce Management 3 12 08:  This blog was in response to Workforce Magazine’s Editor’s Blog Site:  http://www.workforce.com/wpmu/bizmgmt/about/March 7th, 2008

Verbal Abuse as a Workforce Strategy

I’ve worked few a few screamers in my career—and for some over-the-top, intimidating bullies, too. The worst one was this short, stocky guy who used to love to stand and glare, clenched fists at his side as if he was ready to punch you. He didn’t scream much, but when he did, it was a full-on string of your typical obscenities delivered in a full-throated roar.

As a bad manager, he was the complete and total package.

All of this came back to mind as I was reading a story in the Rocky Mountain News about a former assistant for Dish Network who was dismissed from the company after six years of work and is suing “because of alleged gender discrimination and retaliation. Her claims of a hostile work environment and breach of contract were dismissed this week.” The jury trial is continuing on the remaining causes of action before a U.S. District Court in Denver.

According to the newspaper account, a “Dish Network executive screamed at his assistant Sharon Baker numerous times and in one instance called her a ‘f—— stupid b—-,’ jurors were told in the closing arguments of a federal discrimination case.

The satellite TV company failed to act on Baker’s complaints and ignored its own policies prohibiting crude behavior among managers, Thomas Arckey, one of Baker’s attorneys, told jurors. Instead, top executives routinely engaged in screaming, swearing and sexual jokes, he said. Arckey described the company’s ‘trademark’ policy as ‘hear no evil, see no evil, investigate no evil, correct no evil.’ ”

As stunning as all of that is, what’s even more amazing is the response from Dish Network. It essentially comes down to this: Yes, we were verbally abusive to her, but we didn’t discriminate because we’re verbally abusive to everyone.

 “In the company’s closing arguments, Dish Network attorney Meghan Martinez attacked Baker’s credibility, maintained there was no evidence of gender discrimination and told the jury that the case simply ‘doesn’t belong here, and you know that,’ ” according to the Rocky Mountain News story. “Martinez acknowledged that Dish Network executives, including Baker’s boss, Executive Vice President Michael Kelly, yelled and swore at times. But she said the screaming equally was ‘male to male, executive on executive,’ and that Kelly denied ever using the word ‘b—-.’ Martinez also said witness testimony showed Baker ‘uses profanity and is comfortable with it.’ ”

There you have it: verbal abuse as an accepted part of a company’s workforce management strategy. In other words, Dish Network embraces a corporate culture where it is OK to swear and verbally abuse people in the workplace, and it’s not discriminatory to do it since everyone there does it all the time.

I’ve written a lot about boorish behavior from the top boss and a workplace where sexual harassment was tolerated and ignored, but I’ve never seen one where out-and-out verbal abuse was condoned and defended at the highest levels.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I predict that Dish Network won’t have much legal success in defending verbal abuse as an acceptable workforce practice. It will be interesting to see how the nearly all-female Denver jury will see it.

Posted by John Hollon on March 7th, 2008 at 9:45am in Legal Issues, Motivating Employees, Corporate Culture, Management Skills | | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Workforce Blog Entry: 3.12.08 by gay, changeologists, inc.

Workplace Abuse: How does this inpact “Respectful Interaction: of trust, trustworthiness, and self-respect” and Radical Change?

 

The question I have is:  How long has “verbal abuse” been the accepted culture at Dish Network?

During the hiring process, are prospective employees made aware of the “accepted culture?” If they are, does this mean they have made a contractual agreement of accepting employment knowing they will be subjected to “workplace verbal abuse?”

Turning the page on these questions, my first thoughts are of course with the formal leadership of the organization.

How is this culture affecting productivity, systems improvement, financial performance, the ability to hire and retain good people, the ongoing engagement and commitment of employees to the vision and goals of Dish Network?

Leaders or those we place into formal leadership positions, are responsible for facilitating understanding in the organization. Karl Weick (1979) speaks of this as Sensemaking.

Formal leaders’ influencing role in Sensemaking is: 

  1.  To set the social relations that are encouraged and discouraged
  2.  To set the identities that are valued or derogated within the organization (Weick,2008). 

So, what is it saying for these Leaders, if they have encouraged the social relations of “verbal abuse?”Is the Dish Network Identity one of “little respect for the value of human interaction?”Another concept of Sensemaking for Leaders is to facilitate “Respectful Interaction: trust, trustworthiness, and self-respect” In other words, the Leadership of Dish Network and those who accept to stay in this environment may not possess self-respect. If they don’t possess it, how can they give it to others?Living within this type of environment is toxic to our humanity, both within and without the business environment.How will Dish Network’s organizational culture change even if the Leadership doesn’t intend to change it?  The article in Rocky Mountain News has possibly started a RADICAL CHANGE EVENT from an external source moving within and into the organization.

Radical events can be one large scale action through an external event or an internal event OR a series of small events occurring in rapid succession creating radical change (Plowman et al. 2008)

If Dish Network were going to change its culture, despite the formal Leadership, it will be done through employee action, one at time in a continuous process that would allow for a Radical Impact for change to occur.

So, Let’s believe on the integrity of a few folks  to encourage”Respectful Interaction” within Dish Network.

gay 

  

   

Laughter & Business : a compatible couple

Published
by
gay
on March 5, 2008
in Changeologists Presents!!, Changeologists Recommends, Changeologists Reflections, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology of Organizational Learning and Changeology of leadership
. 0 Comments

When we deliberately inject humor into the workplace, organizational dynamics begin to shift, cooperation is more prevelant,  innovation occurs, and there is less defensiveness and tension.

  

This article by the Director of Everything at FUNsulting provides us with great suggestions on how to intentionally add humor into our workplaces … try it,  you may like it!

Prescription for Humor10 Tips for Adding a Bolt of “Lighten”ing to the Healthcare Workplace  

  1.       Use HUMOR in communicating information through emails, memos and presentations, discharge instructions, etc.
  2.      Start all staff meetings, team meetings, nurse’s reports and case presentations with a bit of HUMOR to create a relaxed atmosphere.
  3.     Create a FUN committee to help plan parties, celebrations and recognition events for staff.
  4.     Create a HUMOR Bulletin Board in the nurse’s station or staff area where you can put funny cartoons, jokes and pictures to share with other staff.
  5. Hold a LAUGH Lunch once each month where, over lunch, staff have a chance to share jokes, stories, embarrassing patient care moments and other funny things.
  6.    Collect HUMOROUS books, tapes, and magazines to be made available to patients and their families to relieve stress.
  7.  Create a FUN Stress Relief Area for staff that includes stress balls, candy, Koosh Balls, etc.
  8. Cut out a famous person’s picture from the newspaper and put it over the photo on your name badge.
  9.  Give a FUN prize each week to the staff person who had to deal with the most difficult patient, family or colleague.
  10.   Keep a copy of LIGHTENing Bolts at your nurse’s station or staff area (See below).    

  Ron Culberson, Director of Everything! at FUNsulting, etc., is a former hospice social worker, middle manager and senior manager whose mission is to help healthcare staff and leaders achieve a new level of excellence through humor.  As a speaker, humorist, columnist and author, he shows people how to have more fun while maintaining the integrity of the work they do.  You can find out more information about Ron’s programs and services in addition to subscribing to his free printed newsletter HUMORoids by visiting www.FUNsulting.com.