Nonprofit Culture - Facet Reminders
- Tom Iselin
- Oct 13, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 26
In this video, you'll learn why it's important to remind board and staff about the nonprofit cultural facets you've developed. This will help keep your culture front and center in the hearts and minds of staff and board.
by Tom Iselin
“America’s Best Board Retreat Facilitator”
Hi, Tom Iselin, here . . . and welcome to First Things First.
This is Day 19 of Boot Camp—A Leadership Guide to Building a Gold Standard Nonprofit. I hope you’ve been enjoying this series on how to build a “Get it Done!” CULTURE.
In the last episode, I talked about how you can improve staff culture by offering flextime and unexpected time off. Today, I want to talk with you about why it’s important to remind staff and board members of the culture they’ve decided to adopt.
Let’s get started. Once you establish a culture, you must nurture it by reminding people. Why? People forget . . . it’s that simple. If you don’t remind people of the culture facets you’ve adopted, and the culture statement you’ve written, it will eventually collect dust, just like many strategic plans do.
You must keep your culture front and center in the minds of board, staff, and volunteers. To that, your staff should hold meetings to discuss the effect of your culture on operations, administration, fundraising, and programming.
Board members should discuss the topic of organizational culture, board culture, and staff culture at board meetings and during strategic planning sessions. And during orientation and training sessions, your volunteer coordinator should ensure volunteers understand your organizational culture and how it applies to their work.
It’s seems trivial, but I found staff and board members appreciated cultural reminders. Sometimes I would send an email to staff with one of our values written in it, along with a blurb about what it meant to a particular project we were working on.
At other times, I would facilitate board culture discussions at board meetings to remind members to work with staff on a volunteer project or to host a social activity to deepen personal relationships.
You’ll find that the more you talk with staff, board members, and volunteers about the values, beliefs, and facets of culture your nonprofit espouses, the more likely they are to adopt and uphold them.
Perhaps the best cultural reminder is the manifestation of your culture in the lives and actions of your leaders. If a facet of your culture is “openness” and your supervisors are willing to share personal goals, work challenges, and professional aspirations, you can expect your staff to follow suit.
If your board has a culture where board members are required to spearhead an initiative, they will be more likely to fulfill their obligations if they know the board chair is fulfilling her obligations by spearheading an initiative.
In the end, sustaining a culture and all its facets isn’t a top down or bottom-up thing; it’s circular. It’s your responsibility, and the responsibility of your leaders, to draw the circle early on, and continue tracing it throughout the life of your nonprofit. So if you want your culture to remain front and center in people’s minds, find ways to remind them!
That’s if for today. In the next episode, I’ll tell be talking about ways your can reflect and celebrate your culture. Until then . . . Who-ya!
Tom Iselin
“America’s Best Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Facilitator”
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About the Author
Tom Iselin is recognized as one of America’s leading authorities on high-performance nonprofits. He has built nine sector-leading nonprofits and two software companies, written six books, sits on multiple boards, and has been rated one of America’s Best Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Facilitators. His work on nonprofit strategy, board leadership, and culture has been featured on CNN, Nightline, and in Newsweek.
Tom is the president of First Things First, a firm specializing in board retreats, strategic planning services, fundraising strategy, and executive coaching for nonprofit CEOs.
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If you’re looking for a board retreat facilitator or strategic planning facilitator who has been in the trenches and understands real-world nonprofit challenges, Tom can help your board gain clarity, build alignment, and create an actionable plan that improves performance and impact. His sessions propel organizations to the next level of performance and impact . . . and they're fun!
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