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Three simple consulting questions that can transform your nonprofit

Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 7, 2011 in Communicating, Effectiveness

1. What’s working?
2. What isn’t?
3. What are your recommendations for change?

I’ll be forever grateful to my graduate program in organization and management at Antioch University New England for revealing these three simple questions. I don’t remember whether it was faculty member Peter Smith or Marsha Greenberg who shared these organization development gems with us, but thank you to both of you. The questions have remained with me and they are at the core of my own work today.

What I like about these questions is that you don’t have to hold a master’s degree in organization development or anything else to use them within your organization to help solve problems, improve programming,  or make operations more effective.

Of course, the answers will be different depending on whom you ask. Each person has a different experience of an issue and a different level of knowledge and expertise. That’s why we consultants gather and synthesize input from many perspectives as it helps us get a well-rounded view of your situation.

In asking, it is critical to be a neutral listener, someone who is willing to put aside their own assumptions and really listen to what is being said. After you’ve synthesized what you think you’ve heard, share your analysis with the people you’ve spoken to and ask them if you understood the situation correctly. You want to reach agreement on your understanding of what is working and what isn’t.

Hopefully you will have many recommendations for improvement. Do some additional study before you jump into making changes, however. You’ll want to explore more fully which recommendations might work best for you. And you’d also be wise to seek out possible solutions that no one raised simply because they didn’t have the knowledge of other approaches.

What questions do you use in your organization to help you solve problems or challenges that you are facing? I’d love to hear from you.

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Becoming a consultant: is this the job for you?

Posted by Gayle Gifford on August 7, 2008 in Upcoming Events, Speaking and Training

Catch Jon next Tuesday, August 12 at 12:00 noon EDT online with the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Jon is one of three consultants who will respond to questions and comments about the switch from a paid job in the nonprofit sector to the life of the consultant.

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Montana here we come

Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 25, 2008 in Big ideas, Communicating, Nonprofit Highlights

I’m off to Montana in a few hours. I can’t wait to get there!

I just started working with Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national, women-centered environmental health and justice organization that works to eliminate or substantially reduce environmental toxics impacting human health and to increase women’s participation in environmental decision-making. You might want to host a Green Cleaning Party to encourage your family and friends to get the toxics out of their household cleaning products.

WVE’s headquarters is in Missoula, Montana. They started as a Montana based organization, but are working on issues that affect the health of women across the US. For example, maybe you’ve wondered just how safe those nail salons are that seem to be on every block in the US. WVE’s report “Glossed Over” exposes the health impacts of products used in nail salons — both on the women who use them and the primarily Asian women who work in the salons and are exposed to the chemicals for hours on end.

I’ll share more with you once I’ve gotten out there. As a New England girl, I’m looking forward to those wide open spaces. The first time I traveled to the West, (well, it was the really the southwest, New Mexico, but I’ve since been to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota) I just was overwhelmed by this big open landscape where you could see for miles and miles. It took me a few visits to get over the culture shock so I’m looking forward to learning more about WVE and its work and enjoying the big sky country.

glg

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