Supporting Successful Collaborations Discussion Session

How do we ensure successful collaborations during and after COVID-19?

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Join us for a small group discussion of challenges to and strategies for pivoting and maintaining our collaborative projects and initiatives during and after the pandemic.

When: Thursday, May 14, 2020 from 2pm – 3pm (EDT) via WebEx

Registration will be limited to 8 attendees to allow for a productive and open discussion, so register today!

Nonprofit Success Toolkit

If you are looking for simple, powerful resources for this complex time, check out the Nonprofit Success Toolkit: https://www.nonprofit.ist/toolkit

This FREE resource pack from Nonprofit.ist will help you tackle your biggest challenges with the best thinking from 15 nonprofit experts. We are excited that our Transparent Strategic Planning Guide is included in this super-powered set of worksheets, templates, and tip sheets.

Many of the great tools and tips in the Nonprofit Success Toolkit can be used by other types of organizations.

The Toolkit includes: 

Strategy and Planning
Action Planning Template
Getting Started Using Simple Research
Transparent Strategic Planning Guide
Weekly Plan Template
The Strategy Journey

Fundraising and Finance
Case Statement Checklist
The Ultimate Nonprofit Budget Template
What is the World IS a Culture of Philanthropy?
Your One Page Fundraising Plan!

Operations
Creating Better Meetings
Onboarding and Offboarding Checklist
A Quick Risk Assessment Tool

Board Development
Board Nomination Form

Communications
Build a Better Mission Statement
My Six-Word Reason

Beyond Spending: A Free Webinar

Join Jami Yazdani on Wednesday April 8, 2020 at 2pm (EDT) for a free webinar and learn how to strategically manage your budget!

Register today for Beyond Spending:  An Introduction to Strategic Budgeting

COVID-19 Continuity Support

To help sustain and support our community during COVID-19, it’s my pleasure to donate time to provide continuity consulting to small businesses and nonprofits.  I’d be happy to talk with small businesses, nonprofits, and their employees about ways they can successfully navigate the transition to remote work and practically implement technology to offer (at least some) services online.  If you are overwhelmed with options and unsure of which technologies and approaches might work best for your environment, I can talk through those options with you and offer some advice.

Small businesses, nonprofits and their employees can schedule a time to talk with me over the next 3 weeks at https://calendly.com/yazdaniconsulting/covidtech  (Update: We’ve extended this offer through May 1st)

I’m also opening a Slack channel to help folks share strategies.  Please email me to be invited to the channel.

What to expect:  Once you schedule a call, you will be asked to complete a short Information Form that will help me prepare for our discussion.  Each call is scheduled for 45 minutes and you will receive a call from me at the scheduled time. In 45 minutes, I can hope to learn about the challenges you are facing in responding to COVID-19 and offer some suggestions for technology and approaches you can use.  I won’t be able to walk you through the steps of a technology implementation, but I hope to be able to point you in a direction to help you move forward on your own or to find support. I’m not able to provide legal, tax or financial advice, but I can suggest how and when to implement technology tools.

Also, this isn’t a sales pitch for my services.  I won’t use our 45 minutes to talk about Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation and I won’t suggest you hire me to help you fully implement a technology we discuss.  If folks are interested in learning about my services, they should schedule a different time to talk.  I’m donating my time because I think I have some experience and expertise to offer and this seemed like one way I can help.  And (selfishly), as small businesses and nonprofits are among my targeted clients, I’d like to ensure their sustainability during COVID-19 so that they are still around to do business with once things return to (a new?) normal.

Stay safe,

Jami Yazdani

Founder and Chief Strategist, Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation

Don’t let the Technology Overwhelm the Process

10 years ago, I co-presented at a national library conference on Who's driving the technology bandwagon - the users or the librarians? My co-presenters and I wanted to discuss the pull of new technology and question the practicality of implementing every shiny system that came along.  As my career in libraries and higher education involved leading technology projects and implementations, I had a lot of experience watching organizations and departments chase the next big thing, hurtling after “the system that would improve everything” with only superficial planning and minor (or minimized) trepidation.  I had also observed that these systems usually didn’t produce the dramatic shift that folks were hoping for, instead offering slight improvements with some headaches that were quickly eclipsed by the next new thing. 

Image by Lucio Alfonsi from Pixabay

10 years later, I still see the same dynamic playing out across various organizations, and I continue to argue for a more strategic approach.  While many organizations are set up to quickly adapt to and absorb new technologies (and I’m usually willing to test drive the new technology bandwagon for myself and my business), a greater many simply don’t have that bandwidth.  Implementing a new system pulls time and resources from other priorities and can become another project in a long list of “things we should be doing, but don’t have the time to do well.” 

It is in these low-bandwidth environments that the technology tends to overwhelm the processes.  Rather than carefully planning for how the new system will fully integrate with or change existing processes, implementation is turned over to IT or the vendor, often separating the technology from the people and processes it will touch.  Time is spent installing and configuring the system, rather than constructing the environment that will make the system successful. Training sessions and answers to questions refer to generic user manuals rather than offering concrete examples about how the technology will actually be used.  The focus becomes the features of the technology and not how it will transform the work you are already doing.

So how can we adopt new technology systems and effectively integrate them into our existing environments?

1) Get clear about why you are implementing a new technology.  

Carefully consider the purpose and goals of the new technology.  Is there a strategic or practical reason for moving forward? How will this support or impact your strategic priorities?

2) Identify the people and processes that will be touched by this new system.

Who will interact with this system and when?  What are the inputs to and outputs from the system?  Consider not only people and processes interacting directly with the system, but also those one layer removed (ex. Jo will be using the system to generate reports, but those reports will be used by Susan, who may have some specific needs).  

3) Include stakeholders in implementation planning and execution.

Don’t leave users or key stakeholders out of planning, testing and training.  Those who will be directly using the new system are often in the best position to determine how the new system will realistically interact with existing processes.  Inclusion also tends to boost support for change.  

4) Map out effected processes and identify intersection points.

If your processes aren’t already documented, create workflow diagrams of the current processes that will be impacted by the new technology.  Identify points where the new system will intersect with these processes. Share these maps with stakeholders and IT or vendors to help determine how the new system will be configured and whether changes need to be made to existing processes.

5) Assign a liaison to the vendor or IT.

Have a designated liaison to those installing or configuring the system.  Beyond serving as the main point of contact, this liaison should be able to act as a spokesperson for stakeholders and to advocate for your needs, processes and environment.

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Need support to implement a new system?  Want guidance on planning or improving your processes? 

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Amplify Bookshelf

Join us over at Amplify Bookshelf, Jami Yazdani’s book club for emerging and existing leaders.  Our first read of 2020 is "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear.  Visit https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12330864/ to take part in the discussion.

New Year, New Name

You Can Leadership is now Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation. Our new name better highlights the broad range of support we can offer, from coaching to in-person and online training, to planning and project support and management.

At Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation, we’re still helping leaders at all levels solve management problems, achieve project success, and amplify the strengths of their team. We look forward to working with you in 2020!

You Can Blog (and other old news)

News and happenings from when Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation was You Can Leadership is still accessible at https://yazdaniconsulting.com/you-can-blog