upgrading your strategic planning process with Jennifer Riel
03/07/22 • 35 min
Strategic planning is one of those seemingly boring things that we need to do every once in a while to have a vision and clarity around where our organization is going. But I've never seen it done as an exciting or innovative process in most small organizations.
In today’s episode, Jennifer Riel, IDEO’s global director of strategy (and probably one of the smartest people I’ve met), talks about how you can actually use that process to think about innovation and really have a strong impact on your organization.
Myths that Jennifer wants us to walk away from:
- Strategy is about updating old plans: Doing the status quo may look risk-free, but it may be extremely risky because the world has changed, or we lack the capabilities, or whatever the case may be. Holding the same standard hinders us from seeing other possibilities that could lead us to where we want to be.
- Strategy is all about budget and a thick binder full of initiatives: Strategy is a set of choices. And a choice means yes to some things and a no to other things, giving things up, trading things off. Real choices. And those choices are about how you are going to try to win in a particular way.
Jennifer’s thoughts around Strategy
- “Winning” for nonprofits: Strategy is about making choices that will allow you to win and for nonprofits, winning means achieving ambitions and creating the change that we want to see in the world. Jennifer encourages not for profits to think of choices about what they can uniquely do and what should they uniquely do to create the change that they are after?
- Start with human-centeredness: Understanding the context in which you are operating is important for nonprofits. You need to know what's happening in the community, what are the folks that you are working with, and what is it that is working for them or not? And use that to define the problem to be solved.
- Competitive advantage: For nonprofits, the competitive advantage is a reason a donor would give you the dollar instead of someone else, a reason to believe that you can achieve the outcome you're after more effectively or less expensively than someone else could.
- Knowing Your Capabilities: You need to know the capabilities and systems that you will need as an organization in order to implement your strategy. Be honest about where you are.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favorite quote on social media to share with us!
“The starting place is to use your existing understanding of the world, your collective wisdom as a leadership team to say what is the problem we need our new strategy to solve. Start there, then explore the possibilities. So don't try to get to that answer right away, diverge a little bit and explore different playing fields, different potential sources of advantage. Those are the two fundamental questions. “
Resources from this Episode
Playing to Win by Roger Martin
Jennifer Riel Twitter
The Good Partnership
Strategic planning is one of those seemingly boring things that we need to do every once in a while to have a vision and clarity around where our organization is going. But I've never seen it done as an exciting or innovative process in most small organizations.
In today’s episode, Jennifer Riel, IDEO’s global director of strategy (and probably one of the smartest people I’ve met), talks about how you can actually use that process to think about innovation and really have a strong impact on your organization.
Myths that Jennifer wants us to walk away from:
- Strategy is about updating old plans: Doing the status quo may look risk-free, but it may be extremely risky because the world has changed, or we lack the capabilities, or whatever the case may be. Holding the same standard hinders us from seeing other possibilities that could lead us to where we want to be.
- Strategy is all about budget and a thick binder full of initiatives: Strategy is a set of choices. And a choice means yes to some things and a no to other things, giving things up, trading things off. Real choices. And those choices are about how you are going to try to win in a particular way.
Jennifer’s thoughts around Strategy
- “Winning” for nonprofits: Strategy is about making choices that will allow you to win and for nonprofits, winning means achieving ambitions and creating the change that we want to see in the world. Jennifer encourages not for profits to think of choices about what they can uniquely do and what should they uniquely do to create the change that they are after?
- Start with human-centeredness: Understanding the context in which you are operating is important for nonprofits. You need to know what's happening in the community, what are the folks that you are working with, and what is it that is working for them or not? And use that to define the problem to be solved.
- Competitive advantage: For nonprofits, the competitive advantage is a reason a donor would give you the dollar instead of someone else, a reason to believe that you can achieve the outcome you're after more effectively or less expensively than someone else could.
- Knowing Your Capabilities: You need to know the capabilities and systems that you will need as an organization in order to implement your strategy. Be honest about where you are.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favorite quote on social media to share with us!
“The starting place is to use your existing understanding of the world, your collective wisdom as a leadership team to say what is the problem we need our new strategy to solve. Start there, then explore the possibilities. So don't try to get to that answer right away, diverge a little bit and explore different playing fields, different potential sources of advantage. Those are the two fundamental questions. “
Resources from this Episode
Playing to Win by Roger Martin
Jennifer Riel Twitter
The Good Partnership
Previous Episode
leveraging LinkedIn with Dee Boswell-Buck
LinkedIn is known for being a professional social media platform that can help you find a job and make stronger connections with individuals in your industry. However, it’s also a great place for nonprofits to make new connections or do prospect research, or find people who can help or volunteer.
In today’s podcast, Dee Boswell-Buck, Digital Marketing Strategist and Consultant of Boswell-Buck Creative, will talk about how nonprofits can leverage LinkedIn to advance their mission and grow visibility online.
Myths that Dee wants us to walk away from:
- LinkedIn is only good for job seekers: LinkedIn is also a great way to build a business, share your content, connect with individuals who are aligned with your organization, start a conversation and move those conversations off of the profile.
- You can’t create meaningful connections on LinkedIn: If you are looking to build your online network, LinkedIn is a great place to start. In building meaningful connections, you have to be genuine with your message and engage intentionally with your audience.
Dee’s thoughts around leveraging LinkedIn
- Optimize Your Profile. Choose a great image for your profile picture. Include some important keywords about what you do in your banner or headline. In the summary section, highlight keywords about how you help, what your skills are, or other relevant services you offer.
- Build genuine connections. With LinkedIn, you can make connections with individuals within your industry or who share similar interests. You can engage with them by learning more about them before you send personalized or intentional messages.
- Be active and consistent. Dee suggests sharing content in your profile at least four times a week, by sharing relevant posts, and spending time to engage with your connections.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favorite quote on social media to share with us!
“There's no set of rules, but you want to spend time on LinkedIn where you're actually engaging with those who you have connected with, or, you know, when you're surfing through engaging with posts that you like, because when you are engaging on content of others, and even if you're not connected with them, then that opens it up for others to connect with you. ”
Resources from this Episode
Next Episode
reclaiming your passion with Shilbee Dhalla-Kim
These days it's easy to feel like we're not passionate about our work. Very often we get into the sector because we are passionate about changing the world. And then something happens over time and we lose that passion. And now we layer over COVID and isolation (and now a new global conflict) and all the other things, and that passion feels like a very distant memory.
In today’s episode, Shilbee Dhalla-Kim, Passion and Social Enterprise Coach, talks about how we can reignite the fire within us and find balance in doing our passion without burning out.
Myths that Shilbee wants us to walk away from:
- Passion is always a good thing: When there’s only one thing that makes us feel good and we give all our energy to it but less energy to other important aspects of our life, this kind of passion becomes obsessive and not harmonious.
- Passion is always about your profession: Very often we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions can also exist.
Shilbee’s thoughts around Passion
- Harmonious vs Obsessive: To recover from passion burnout, you need to identify which of the passions in your life currently, or passions that you had before, may have lost their essence. Which of these passions would you describe as harmonious? Or obsessive?
- Practice detaching our identity to the passions: Attachment of our identity to passion can prevent us from seeing other things that we might be passionate about. When our passion is so linked to our identity, it can create fear and prevent us from doing something new or different. We must be mindful of how our realities and beliefs might come up to prevent us from exploring other things that we are passionate about.
- Embodied values: We need to identify what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world. Passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values. We need to ask ourselves, what's the value that I'm willing to fight for?
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favorite quote on social media to share with us!
“So we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions also can exist, like me drinking this tea and drinking it mindfully and enjoying this to me, activates passions. But I think we don't give ourselves permission or that time and space or the language to call it that.“
“ We need to shift those values in order to create systems and structures and policies and laws and cultures and relations that can ensure that all of us can not only survive but thrive. And so, what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world? I believe passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values.”
Resources from this Episode
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