The Art of Being Ready
Chances are you’ve been inspired at one point or another by a motivational quote having to do with preparation and planning. Things like:
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin
“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.” – Diana Ross
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success” – Alexander Graham Bell
Intellectually, these quotes make sense. The better prepared you are for a variety of situations, the more capable you’ll be when the time comes.
But practically speaking, our days are full of challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed right now. Knowing how to prepare ourselves for a future we can’t foretell and making time to do that preparation are both big roadblocks for so many leaders I know.
And yet without that preparation, we’re setting our future selves, teams, and organizations up to be in the same position we are now – maxed out; head down in the work, unable to look up and take in current realities; and doing good work but knowing there’s got to be a better way to keep growing the impact of our mission.
Getting out of this pattern requires us to get better at being ready for what’s next.
This is an intentional choice leaders need to make – to create the habit of being ready. And as with any new habit, the path starts with small, manageable steps. Here are some of the exercises I use to help nonprofit and social good leaders begin taking the steps needed to improve their approach and discipline around being ready:
Understand Your Energy
Every leader and organization has different strengths, but what we all have in common is that we can’t be 100% productive all the time. As individuals, we each have times during the day when we’re at our peak productivity, when we hit a low in our energy, and when we recover our energy or get a second wind. This week, record your observations about how your energy follows this pattern.
Then, for the next several weeks, block off time during your peak energy zone every workday to focus on an important project that is at least 3-6 months away. Try to start with a 30-minute block of time and build from there (though even a 10-minute block will work if carving out 30 minutes feels overwhelming right now). Remember that 30 minutes a day is only about 6% of a 40-hour workweek, so there is still plenty of time to deal with this week’s urgent work.
Leave Some in the Tank
In nonprofit strategic planning and operations, our dreams are often bigger than our budgets. We frequently pack our long-term and annual plans with tons of existing and new programs, using up every spare staff hour and dime available to us. This may seem like we’re getting the maximum value out of our resources, but it actually means we have no room to respond to new opportunities that arise.
As you go into your next organization or department planning cycle, ask yourself – what would it look like if we left 15-20% of our capacity available to pursue a new opportunity we don’t yet know about? Think critically about what could be removed from the current workload or expectations so that the energy and resources saved could be put toward more exploration, designing new opportunities or partnerships, or responding to new demands or challenges that arise out of nowhere (like, say, a global pandemic). If you’re already running on empty, you’re reducing your capacity to be ready for these inevitable scenarios. Do yourself a favor and leave some in the tank.
Prioritize & Standardize Your Communication
In the nearly two decades I’ve spent helping organizations design and implement transformative change, I’ve learned that everyone underestimates how much time and intention it takes to effectively communicate with their staff, volunteers, supporters, and communities. This is a problem because big changes don’t come to fruition by putting words on paper or making one decision in a room – they come from everything you do after deciding on the change to help the people who power your organization shift into alignment with that decision.
One of the best things nonprofit leadership teams can do to be ready for any change is to create a standard approach that helps set expectations about when, how, and who will communicate certain kinds of news. I build re-usable toolkits and templates for these scenarios that include timelines, stakeholder lists with corresponding messengers, talking points, frequently asked questions, and sample emails, and I train senior leaders on how to use them. The toolkits are used as a complement to a robust, reliable internal communications approach that uses a variety of communication channels and helps staff know how often to expect key updates and information.
———
Being ready is an ongoing practice, but you’ll know you’re getting there when your team has the capacity and desire to take on a new opportunity that aligns with your organization’s strategy without sacrificing their other work, their personal health and wellbeing, or the team’s culture. It can feel like a deep breath of fresh air, pride in work well done, or the ability to see a future beyond this current moment. It’s a habit worth cultivating because the payoff is substantial – often increased mission impact, increased revenue to fund the mission, and a supportive, rewarding and engaged organization culture.