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Helping Organizations Thrive 
February 2015 Edition
Welcome to my February 2015 email newsletter. 

The mission of Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting is to make the world a better place by helping mission-driven organizations thrive.  I do that by assisting my clients with strategic planning, campaign planning, coalition building, fundraising, communications, and other organizational development challenges.

To keep people informed about my work, I set up this monthly (mostly) e-newsletter.  If you want to unsubscribe, just look for the link at the bottom.   My most recent edition can be read in my archive.

For a complete lists of the consulting services I offer, check out my website.
What Works

Most editions of this newsletter contain a section I call "What Works." 

In this edition, I'm offering up Lesson 13 in a long article entitled: Why Organizations Go Off Course.  The article details a series of lessons I have learned both as an Executive Director and as a consultant working with dozens of other organizations. 


This series offers a counterpoint to the lessons in another series: Why Organizations Thrive.

 

Why Organizations Go Off Course Lesson Thirteen is: Avoid getting the wrong things done.


More than a few times, I've encountered Executive Directors who accomplish tasks very effectively. Their writing is cogent. Documents they produce are always well-formatted. They are well-spoken in person, laying out clear ideas. They get a lot of stuff done. Many, many tasks get crossed off the to-do list. They clearly work a lot of hours.
 

Yet, their organizations are floundering.


Almost always, it's because they're getting the wrong tasks done.


By wrong, I don't mean they are doing tasks that are inherently counterproductive and take the organization backwards. It's that they're doing tasks that should be priority 6 through 10 when priorities 1 through 5 are crying out for more attention.


Peter Covey wrote extensively about this 50 years ago in his seminal book: The Effective Executive.


How can an executive stay focused on the top priorities in order to be more effective?

 
Read the full article.

Download the article as a PDF.
 
Recent Success Stories and New Clients

In February, I facilitated strategic planning retreats for the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council  and Better Eugene-Springfield Transit (BEST).  In both cases, I'm now working with them to turn our research and retreat decisions into written strategic plans for board adoption. 

I continue to work alongside Mary Fifield of Kaleidescope Consulting in delivering a combinaton of development and communcations services to the YWCA of Greater Portland.  My current focus is drafting plans for the YWCA to reengage expired major donors and acquire new supporters.

I contiune work with the Earth Law Center  to plan for major donor fundraising and refine their marketing positioning.

I'm in the process of launching a strategic planning process for the Vancouver Watersheds Alliance

On March 4th at 3 p.m., I'll be leading a workshop entitled Effective Major Donor Meetings at the Hatch in Portland.  It's not too late to register.

Check out my website for a complete list of all my clients.
Recent Blog Entries

Note: I am actively looking for Guest Blog submissions.  If you have some thoughts to share on any aspect of organizational development, shoot me an email and we can discuss length, timing, etc.

Guest Blog: How to Become a Thought Leader

Guest Blog:  How to Refresh your Brand

No Magic Words, but Themes Matter

A Goal is not an Activity

To Follow your Dreams, Learn to Say No

The Science behind Storytelling

Why you Lead Matters

A Blog about a Frog on a Log - Updated

Should your Nonprofit Get a Drone?

Why Don't Groups Do Strategic Planning

Guest Blog: Grant Writing as a Team-Building Exercise

Looking for one of my past blog entries on a particular topic?   I have now categorized my past blog entries.  Just go to my website and hover over the "blog" link on the navigation bar and you can see the topics and choose from among them. 
Contact Information
Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting
jonathan@poisner.com
phone: 503-490-1234
http://www.poisner.com


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