Our Trainings
We offer a range of highly practical trainings about developing and restoring
Boards of Directors, strategic planning and facilitation, leadership and supervisory
development, renewal for leaders and supervisors, how to detect and recover
from founder's syndrome, and how to guide change in organizations. We're one
of the few firms to offer a development program in which to learn how to guide
change in organizations. Many of these trainings reference our award-winning
publications.
Each of the following workshops and services can be customized for you. Participants
can include nonprofit leaders, consultants, funders, community leaders, etc.
The following are training sessions -- however, they can be customized as
consulting services, depending on your needs. If you are interested, contact
us toll-free at 800-971-2250. NOTE: The courses are not scheduled as
regular public offerings, rather they are held if there is sufficient attendance.
We Customize The Following Trainings for You
Implementing Your Strategic Plan - Ready or Not? (for nonprofits)
Anyone can write a strategic plan document, but successful
implementation depends on the quality of the planning process
and the completeness of the plan document. We lead planners in
your organization, or nonprofits in your community, through a
comprehensive assessment process where each participant assesses
the quality of their strategic planning process and their plan
document. Participants develop action plans to ensure that they
fill in the gaps in their plans before moving on to implementing
those plans. Each participant gets our Field Guide to Nonprofit
Strategic Planning and Facilitation.
How to Facilitate for Realistic, Relevant and Flexible
Strategic Plans (for nonprofits)
In many communities, there are not enough skilled strategic
planning facilitators. We train people who have basic group experience
to become skilled facilitators who can employ a variety of strategic
planning models in order to meet the unique nature and needs
of each nonprofit client. The emphasis is on a collaborative
and customized approach. Each participant gets our Field Guide
to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation.
Building Better Boards, Fixing Broken Boards (for nonprofits)
It isn't enough to practice "best practices" -- you
need to practice them naturally and in a style that suits your
Board. We cover different ways to structure Boards, how Boards
and the CEO can partner for effective Board leadership and operation,
and the six most common types of broken Boards and how to fix
each of them. We include numerous assessments and step-by-step
materials for every aspect of Board operations. Each participant
gets our Field Guide to Developing, Operating and Restoring
Your Nonprofit Board.
Holistic and Focused Capacity Building for Your Most Challenged
Nonprofits
Challenged nonprofits need more than one-shot trainings in
specific topics. For nonprofit service providers, we deliver
a customized package that a cohort of your most challenged clients
(usually 4-6 clients) go through together. The package includes:
1) a brief, practical organizational assessment for each client;
2) a concentrated 1.5-day training on Boards and strategic planning
for the cohort group; 3) customized, 3-hour, one-on-one organizational
action planning sessions for each client; and 4) follow-up and
coaching for each client over a period of 6-12 weeks after the
trainings. Each participant gets our Nonprofit Capacity Building
Toolkit that includes four of our guidebooks, including about
Boards, strategic planning, leadership and supervision, and program
design and marketing and evaluation.
Stocking the Pool of Nonprofit Consultants in Your Community
(for nonprofits)
While there may be varied skills in the community, there is often
a gap in how to apply those skills to the nonprofit world. We
have a proven program that can turn business practitioners and
volunteers into nonprofit consultants. We cover the role of the
consultant, collaborative consulting process, guidelines for
successful consulting, the nature of nonprofits, and guidelines
for identifying and addressing each of the most common nonprofit
issues. Each participant gets our Field Guide to Consulting
and Organizational Development With Nonprofits.
Burnout and Renewal for Leaders and Supervisors (for for-profits
or nonprofits)
Passionate people working in a organization can become isolated,
tired and even cynical. Our peer coaching groups are proven to
address burnout and provide renewal for leaders, while providing
professional and personal development. We help you design your
own on-going, low-cost, peer learning program that you can provide
your clients to address their burnout and renewal. Each participant
gets our Authenticity Circles Program Planning Kit.
Founder's Syndrome: How to Detect It, How to Address It
(for for-profits and nonprofits)
Do you know of organizations that are led by personalities, rather
than by plans and policies? We cover how to detect Founder's
Syndrome and we specify actions for Board members, the founder
and employees to take to allow the organization to effectively
address it. This allows the founder to leave a legacy, rather
than a disaster.
We Also Provide "Nuts-and-Bolts" Trainings On These Topics
