I sit on the board of directors for a small nonprofit that’s in the process of fine-tuning its mission and strategy. Over the last few months, the organization has done its due diligence—conducting focus groups and surveys; studying program participation; reviewing revenue, expenses, and donor history; checking out its competitors and assessing its differentiators; doing a SWOT analysis; gauging available resources, etc. Not bad for a small organization working within the confines of a very limited budget.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">So all board members could fully participate in the strategy working session, a meeting facilitator was hired. An orientation session with the facilitator, staff and board was scheduled to bring the facilitator up-to-speed on the research and desired deliverables so she could design the flow of the meeting. </span>

<span style="color: #000000;">After listening to the readout, the facilitator’s first response was to ask for a copy of the organization’s balanced scorecard for the last ten years. She also inquired if the organization had worked with an outside consultant firm to create a PESTEL* analysis.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Her questions were first greeted with silence and a few averted gazes, then a few audible sighs followed. Those from the corporate world understood her ask; those from smaller businesses or other nonprofits didn’t.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">“In an ideal world, especially a for-profit one with deep pockets, having those data points in a highly organized way would be helpful,” responded a meeting participant. “Truth is, most of the needed information for the incremental changes being proposed is already here. We just have to dig a little.”</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">“But still, having all the information in a single, organized report would be much better,” countered the facilitator with some emphasis in her voice. “And besides, the six-month timeframe being discussed can’t be done. Strategy work should span three to five years to be done properly.”</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">More deafening silence.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Can you hear yourself asking similar questions? Are you a stickler for data, lots of it and all beautifully organized? Are you a genius at pointing out the reasons things can’t be done? Do you assume simplicity equates to stupidity? Do you like using words that people don’t understand?</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">If “yes,” has anyone ever called you a buzzkill?</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Effort and ideas can be as fragile as grandma’s porcelain tea cup. Drink from them.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Sometimes you have to meet people where they are and start from there. That starting place may not be ideal according to your standards, but at least it’s a beginning.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Sometimes good enough is enough. Most work is beautiful alchemy—part art, part science. Go with it. </span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Securing every last piece of researchable information takes valuable time and may not yield a better solution. The days of working with three to five year time horizons for creating strategy are long gone, and so are the companies that embraced those notions.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Seize the moment, the momentum and make some leadership magic!</span>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">*an external analysis reflecting the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal components of an organization’s macroeconomic environment</span></h6>