Succession Planning for Non-Profits

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Wisconsin Idea: UW President in 1904 – everyone in the state should have access to the resources and knowledge of the university. This is our staff in each of the respective areas. We are called Cooperative Extension because our office supported by a cooperative arrangement between the County & the state. We provide free or at-cost educational programming on a variety of topics, accessible to all county residents in your home, school, farm, workplace, and community.

Everyone in here is your teacher today, and you are also a teacher. Please take advantage of this time you have all set aside to learn from those around you.

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As you know, succession planning, retirement plans, intentions to seek a position elsewhere or internally, talk of sudden emergencies can be very delicate matters. Some people will be more comfortable with this than others. Discretion and tact are always needed. Please offer your peers a trusting, caring environment here today. This is place where everyone is encouraged to explore new ideas and think through some tough situations. Keep their confidences. Likewise, please share only what is necessary to share and respect others who are doing the same.

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Survey was in 2004 with 1080 nonprofit leaders in MKE, Waukesha, WA, & OZ counties. 350 responded to the survey. Annie E. Casey Foundation references a national study that found out of 1900 nonprofit leaders, 75% of them planned to leave their posts in the next 5 years.

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Survey was in 2004 with 1080 nonprofit leaders in MKE, Waukesha, WA, & OZ counties. 350 responded to the survey.

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Survey of 1080 nonprofits in the MKE metro area in 2004. These are rare, and so important for stability and maintaining high quality services.

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What is included in your plans? Do they include loss of key leaders? This is how the organization I’m going to talk about next frames their planning, as just another thing to be prepared for like fire or theft.

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• Adult Day Services • Senior Day Services • Rehabilitation Services • Early Intervention Services • I Am Going To Work • Vocational Services • Support Services:

• Transportation, Therapy, Recreation, and Service Coordination • Industries:

• Cleaning Services “Clean Sweep” • sub-assembly, packaging business “TTI Industries”

From their website: “The Threshold Incorporated is a 501©(3) not-for-profit organization that provides community rehabilitation services to children and adults in Washington County, WI and surrounding areas. Our central mission is to create opportunities for individuals with disabilities to lead fulfilling lives through the provision of services that promote employability, independence and full community inclusion. Incorporated in 1963, the organization offers a wide spectrum of services to community members of all ages who have cognitive, mental or physical disabilities or are otherwise socially disadvantaged. We are committed to providing meaningful service options that meet individual needs and promote self-determination.”

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Board Recruitment: • Specific and purposeful • Wait with open positions if they have to, to make sure they have a diverse set of

skills represented. • Philosophy: Something is more desired if it is harder to get. They create a sense of

exclusivity on their board. Rather than waiting for the next live body to show up…which is so tempting.

• They have a two-year expectation for board leadership positions too, so that people can learn and then have a year to know what they are doing before rotating off. Gives people a chance to truly lead and not be in catch-up mode continually.

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Beer Truck List: • ED and 15-18 other key staff have all made these to explain what they do. • This is useful in the case of an emergency, and it is also useful for onboarding new

staff. • It is different from the job description in that it is more detailed and gives the day-to-

day picture of the job. “Here’s what the job description really means.” • Each person works with others around them in the organizational structure and

named on the list to make sure they understand what each item means. • This is a sample from the ED’s Beer Truck List. People who are in line to succeed someone in the case of an emergency (“on the Beer Truck List”) know this will be their role and work with that person to learn the tasks ahead of time. For example, the Assoc. Director takes over for the ED in an emergency and when on vacation, etc., and also during the six-week time The Threshold experienced between ED’s.

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Executive Director: • helps his direct reports make their Beer Truck Lists • finds out about people’s retirement plans • works with the board to structure the overall Risk Management Plan - a portion of which is succession

plans. • The ED does NOT help with the candidate search or Succession Planning Committee. That is the

Board’s work. The Board has developed roles for a Search Committee to find candidates for the open ED position AND an ad-hoc Succession Planning Team which then developed timelines, communication plans (what, to whom, by when). When Tom announced his intentions to retire in 2 years their first step was to do a strategic plan, which set the direction and goals for the organization. It also informed all of their other decisions such as how to update and revise the ED’s job description. They noted that it is tempting to want to hire someone ‘just like’ the outgoing person, especially if that person is the founding ED. But the needs of the organization have likely changed since that person was hired. Maybe a strong technical knowledge of the field was needed before, and now a relationship builder and fund-raiser would fit the goals better. Board then set a timeline for recruiting, gauging internal interest in applying, and ideally having some overlap with the current direct before he left. When John was hired, there was a contract made with the outgoing director for him to write a big grant that was due in those first 2 months and to be available for weekly consultations and as needed. He also

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made introductions with John to the key donors, funders, and referral sources, as did board members. This worked well with clear “Leader” and “Consultant” roles spelled out and communicated.

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Time: They emphasized multiple times the importance of having a Beer Truck List. Everyone is important in the organization, no one is irreplaceable, and the beer truck could come at any time. Get this process started now. Their intent is to have enough information to cover for an unexpected, temporary absence of 5-6 months. Once you are made aware of a planned departure, it is wise to work on it two years out. In their case of the last director retiring, the ad-hoc Succession Planning Team for 18-24 months. The Succession Planning Team was a different group from the Search Committee because of the different skill sets needed. It is also different from the Executive Committee. A few members overlapped based on their skills and interests, but not many. John and Dan both consider this type of plan the “basic infrastructure of the organization” and it is part of their risk management plan. Loss of key leadership can be just as devastating to an organization’s services, staff, clients, and funder relationships as a fire, flood, theft or other circumstance.

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Not only did they get a successful Executive Director found and hired, they were able to secure the largest single charitable donation in the history of Washington Co. at the same time. As Tom was retiring, a local family was in the process of making a large donation. They do everything with “trust and a hand-shake.” If these elements had not been in place (a diversified, strong board, Beer Truck list, role clarification, and time) this deal could have fallen through. Instead, the relationship improved and grew trust.

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Look at “Building Leaderful Organizations: Succession Planning for Non-Profits” by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, available online at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aecf.org%2F~%2Fmedia%2FPubs%2FOther%2FB%2FBuildingLeaderfulOrganizationsSuccessionPlann%2FBuilding%2520Leaderful%2520Organizations.pdf&ei=aodOU4GKKZKkyATQ3YLACg&usg=AFQjCNGrMA8L_oVBdhUM1LsrEskq2We1jQ&bvm=bv.64764171,d.aWw P. 5 is a Succession Readiness Checklist. Talk in your small groups about the items in this list. 3 or more that you do best. 3 that you need to work on.

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This is the “beer truck” scenario that can happen to anyone at any time. This applies to all key leadership positions even though I’m using the Executive Director as an example.

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3 months or more

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Retirement or resignation

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Annie E. Casey Foundation says: “Whatever attachments to the old leadership remain when the new ED starts will detract from stakeholders’ abilities to embrace the new leader. To provide time and space for those attachments to dissolve with the departure of a particularly dominant and charismatic leader, some agencies have found it very helpful to bring in an interim ED. The failure to provide for an interim breathing period is one primary reason that so many EDs who succeed founders survive less than two years. They unintentionally become interim directors.” p. 11

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For The Threshold, “risk management” is the lens that works well. Here are some other ways to talk about this. Annie E. Casey Foundation: p. 5, 7, 8

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30 minutes to work together as an organization on your succession plan or associated processes.

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One of the best things a leader can do, whether in a staff or board capacity, is recognize when it’s time to go. The Annie E. Casey Foundation calls this the “leadership of letting go.” It’s the responsibility of people in key roles to work through own situation: loss of identity, status, control, financial situation, etc. As the Threshold has done with the Beer Truck list, define the role. Especially in founding situations and small organizations, key leaders may do “’whatever needs to be done.’’ This results in the ED performing the equivalent of more than one job and makes replacing him or her nearly impossible. An administrative restructuring may be in order, which could include the creation of a new management position to take on some of the functions of the current executive.” –Annie p. 11 Example from another small local organization: • weekly staff meetings where everyone learns about each other’s jobs. • Rotation of staff representing the organization at key functions in the community. • All staff supported to be in service clubs and build relationships outside the

organization. See p. 15 of “Building Leaderful Organizations”

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The Annie E. Casey Foundation calls this the “leadership of preparing the way.” The mission and vision of the organization are ultimately bigger than any one individual, and it is the Board’s role to guide to organization and ensure quality continues, regardless of which individuals come and go. Good to do an assessment of board members: do any of them plan to leave when the current ED goes? How long do they plan to stay? Are there term limits? A sustainability audit is a good place to start. Where are you most vulnerable? See Sample Board Self Assessment on p. 37 of Executive Transition Initiative/Greater Milwaukee Foundation Strategic Leadership Development Toolkit: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leadingtransitions.com%2Fpdfs%2FETIToolkit_4.pdf&ei=nY1OU5nGN4yfyATDx4GgDg&usg=AFQjCNH0p_5t2XOC2cv5bC2_uYysOKhj_Q&bvm=bv.64764171,d.aWw Professional development doesn’t have to be expensive – maybe it’s a job shadowing day. Maybe it’s asking 2 other staff to prepare the budget with you this year. Maybe someone else helps you write the United Way grant. Maybe you have a Beer Truck Meeting and share your lists with each other. Eating lunch together weekly to communicate about daily life in your position is another way to do this. P. 30-31 gives

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examples of how to cross train employees.

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The way we usually approach these questions is represented here. From “Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation” by Peter Block: If we answer these questions in the form in which they are asked, we are supporting the dominant belief that an alternative future can be negotiated, mandated, and controlled into existence. They call us to try harder at what we have been doing. They urge us to raise standards, measure more closely, and return to basics, purportedly to create accountability, but in reality to maintain dominance. The questions imply that the one asking knows and others are a problem to be solved. Questions that are designed to change other people are patriarchal and subtly colonial, and in this sense, always the wrong questions. Wrong, not because they don’t matter or are based on ill intent, but wrong because they have no power to make a difference in the world. They are questions that are the cause of the very thing we are trying to shift: the fragmented and retributive nature of our communities.”

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As you know, building engagement among staff and volunteers is also a cultural job. It’s creating an environment where people can take risks, be rewarded for trying something new (even if it doesn’t work out the first time), and are encouraged to continue learning. This is something the ED and Board can model, call out, and reward. And it’s something that happens all the time, regardless of what the topic is officially for a meeting or interaction. From “Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation” by Peter Block: “The dominant belief system is that the task of leadership is to set a vision, enroll others in it, and hold people accountable through measurements and reward. The shift is to believe that the task of leadership is to produce engagement. To engage groups of people in a way that creates accountability, which is to care for the well being of the whole, and commitment, which is to make and fulfill a promise without expectation of return. What this requires is a change in thinking. We invite you into a conversation that creates the possibility of both a change in thinking and the tools to bring this to others. This experience in itself is an example of its theory, and so the tools of building accountability and commitment are every moment available.”

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Please let me know if you’d like any of these materials emailed to you. They are all electronically available for free. Feel free to contact me with more questions.

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