by Molly Penn A meeting is a terrible thing to waste – don’t we all want meetings that work? How often do you leave meetings resenting the time spent there or the outcomes? Or worse, feeling like your voice wasn’t welcomed in the space? Have you ever left a meeting thinking “Well that was a […]
by Molly Penn Finding the right consultant can be daunting. Consultants have different styles and approaches. What is “good” for you may be bad for someone else. The first step is to identify what feels like the right style for your needs, and to ask the consultants you are evaluating about their approach. Some projects
By Molly Penn It is human nature to crave control, avoid uncertainty, and envision a tidy future. Even after a two-year rollercoaster of disruption and chaos, many organizational leaders are still looking to their strategic plans and SMART goals to keep them on a clearly crafted course toward a too-specific future. NYU professor of strategic
by Molly Penn Strategic Planning is a term that gets used fairly frequently, but not always to refer to the same work. As an example, lately we’ve gotten requests for strategic plans ranging from budgets of $15,000 to $150,000. This describes a completely different scope of work. Consulting is a time-driven business – we charge
“I am deeply moved by our ambition and desire to be seen and heard and valued in our full embodied excellence.” —Tema Okun, professor at Duke University, author, speaker, and writer As a white accomplice leading a diverse consulting firm that provides diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) services, I am keenly aware of how
By Molly Penn The end of one year and the beginning of another is a good time for reflection on your values. Certainly, the events of the past two years have given us all much fodder for reflection: how did we care for our staff and constituents throughout the ongoing pandemic; where did we land
By Molly Penn Reflecting on all the work we do with incredible clients, and the many, many conversations we have with prospective clients, I find myself noticing some natural tension points that arise as we try to move away from transactional relationships towards more transformative ones. Here are some examples as food for thought and
Today there are increasing discussions around these power dynamics in fundraising, accelerated by the social justice movement of 2020. This article will explore how approaching grantmaking through a lens of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) helps to dismantle traditional power imbalances.
by Molly Penn How do we ensure that planning = intentional and strategic change? Simple. Every good planning process needs to be rooted in a set of powerful strategic questions. Do your change initiatives feel like business as usual to you? If so, you are missing an opportunity to think about planning as an opportunity
by Molly Penn We’ve been going over all of our “traditional” organizational development practices with a fine tooth comb to build the IDEA lens into everything we do with clients. This article focuses on strategic planning and how to rethink the process of planning so the result is a plan that furthers the organization’s IDEA
by Marita Phelps and Molly Penn Many of us are asking ourselves, in both our personal lives and professional roles: What can I do to end racism and create equity for people of color? Last year, many formerly complacent Americans woke up. The deaths of people like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Tamir
By Molly Penn and Sofiya Cheyenne “They’re a great culture fit.” Have you truly considered what you mean when you play the culture fit card? The notion of “culture fit” has been exposed for what it is – a way of upholding white supremacist, ableist culture in organizations. By definition, culture refers to the collective
by Molly Penn and Marita Phelps To what degree is your leadership structure the result of intentional design? Change—even forced change—is good: It makes us reimagine our future, innovate and adapt, and learn new skills to thrive. It is difficult for many executives to emerge from the daily hustle and take a step back. One
By Janice Shapiro Last year, in a matter of days, our world changed without warning. Within months of the pandemic we found ourselves faced with a new normal, and we had to figure out how to sustain our organizations when everything shut down, how to protect our employees’ jobs where we could, how to address
By Mairta Phelps If you manage a team in 2021, it is likely you are faced with new challenges. Forty-two percent of the American workforce continues to work remotely, and an estimated 27 percent will still be working from home through 2021. This is an 87 percent increase in the number of new remote workers
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