You know about the benefits of good governance – a shared commitment to mission achievement and organizational sustainability. But how do you evaluate governance? How do you know if your governance is great?
Governance includes a wide range of activities, such as financial oversight, strategy formulation, and securing resources required for long-term organizational health. The tricky part of evaluating governance is that great governance is particular to each individual organization. The key to assessing your organization’s governance is determining what your organization needs from the board of directors and evaluating how well the board is meeting those specific needs. (more…)
There is just over a week left to apply for our three-day Strategy seminar. Next Friday, August 27, is the last day we will accept applications to attend this October 28-30 Nashville presentation. Apply now »
This seminar will provide your leadership team with a rich learning experience and retreat-like working session. Leading management professors will engage your team through case studies, class discussions and extensive team exercises. You will gain tools to analyze your organization’s environment, articulate the relationships between key stakeholders and integrate programmatic and economic choices so you’re able to better focus your resources on pursuing your mission. By the end of the three days, your team will have a shared understanding of what makes your organization unique and a plan for how to maximize your mission achievement in a financially responsible way.
Leadership teams of three-to-five participants will attend with an Organization Fellowship covering the $1250 tuition. A simple application process will be used to identify a diverse mix of medium and large organizations with clear goals for their participation. Additional travel support will be available to all teams from outside the Nashville area to help with the cost of travel and lodging.
Strategic Governance is the final seminar that we’ll be presenting with the 2010 Organization Fellowship. This seminar provides senior leadership and board members with the opportunity to strengthen one of the most critical capacities of any nonprofit organization – governance. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to work with your most important allies to make the organization you each care so much about as strong as it can be.
During this two day working-session, you will learn how to create conditions and build relationships that can react to change, contribute to good decisions and, in turn, to good governance. By the end of this seminar you will have:
An advanced conception of how boards and executives work together for organizational success
A more sophisticated understanding of the functions and elements of governance
A framework for analyzing governance performance in an organization
An advanced self-evaluation instrument that can be employed for annual evaluation and continued governance improvement
Strategic Governance will be presented in Chicago, December 2-3. All teams will attend with Organization Fellowships covering the full $1250 team tuition. Teams from outside the Chicago area will also receive up to $600 per person to help with the cost of travel and lodging. The deadline to apply is October 8.
There is only one month left to apply to bring your leadership team together off-site for our intensive three-day Strategyseminar. Presented in Nashville, October 28-30, this rigorous working session will provide your leadership with a vocabulary to talk about who you are, what you do and why you do it. By the end of this seminar, you’ll be able to:
Evaluate the critical features of your organization’s external environment
Identify the unique value your organization can bring to your community
Balance artistic and economic choices
Ensure your organization’s resources are being used to support your most valuable initiatives
Leading professors of management will engage your team through the analysis of real-life cases, class discussions and team exercises to give you both a theoretical and a practical understanding of strategy development. By the end of the seminar, your team will have completed a structured analysis of your organization and will have an articulated path of action. See a detailed description of the seminar sessions »
All participating teams will receive Organization Fellowships covering the full $1250 tuition for a team of up to 5. Participants from outside Nashville will also receive up to $600 per person in travel support to help with the cost of travel and lodging. The deadline to apply is August 27.
Let’s start with what strategy is not. Strategy is not a strategic plan. It’s not a mission, vision or goals. It’s not programming, marketing or finance.
Strategy is an organization’s integrated set of choices about what to do – and what not to do – using available resources. Strategy addresses how an organization pursues its mission using available resources and how it continues to attract the resources it needs to achieve its mission over time. A strategic plan documents how an organization intends to use its resources to implement its strategy over a set period of time. While mission and vision comprise a social logic for the organization’s existence, strategy can be described as the economic logic that complements the social logic. (more…)
The NAS Strategy seminar features two leading professors on strategy development and strategic management, Professors Violina Rindova, and Robert Wiltbank. Professors Rindova and Wiltbank will lead teams of arts and culture leaders through class discussions, case studies and team exercises as they analyze and articulate why their organizations do what they do and what makes them unique. (more…)
Sixteen teams will be attendingCreative Alliancesin Detroit July 22-23 with a 2010 Organization Fellowship. All fellowship recipients were selected through a competitive application process and will attend the seminar at no cost. In addition to the $1250 fellowship covering the full-tuition for the seminar, participants from outside the Detroit metropolitan area will also receive up to $600 per person to help offset the travel and lodging costs. Fellowship recipients include:
One of the biggest challenges leaders face when trying to develop strategy is getting away from the day-to-day demands of running an organization. NAS’ three-day Strategy seminar gives leadership teams the tools, time and space to reflect on and discuss their organizations’ big picture.
This retreat-like working session will enable your team to create a shared vision and focus on how to best use your limited resources to achieve your mission and create a healthy organization. Outstanding faculty will lead you through case studies, class discussions and team exercises as your team analyzes and articulates what makes your organization unique and explore how to leverage that to deepen your relevance within your community.
Strategy is being presented in Nashville, October 28-30 for leadership teams from arts and culture organizations across the country. All participating teams will attend with an Organization Fellowship covering the $1250 team tuition. Additional travel support will be available to all teams from outside the Nashville area to help with the cost of travel and lodging. A simple application process will be used to identify a diverse mix of medium and large organizations. Applications must be received by August 27 to be eligible.
This Friday – May 21 – is the application deadline for Creative Alliances. Bring your team to this timely seminar to focus on two critical questions: under what circumstances are alliances appropriate for your mission, needs and environment? And, if undertaken, what form should these initiatives take and what factors will aid their success?
This two-day seminar will engage your team in case study analysis and class discussions that will help your team rethink your approach to collaboration. You will gain frameworks for identifying and analyzing potential alliances which you will apply in interactive exercises with your team. By the end of the session, your team will have the tools to more effectively identify and pursue mutually beneficial partnerships. See a detailed description of the seminar sessions »
In order to build effective alliances, you need to have the right network. You (and your organization) need to be connected to the right mix of people and organizations including those critical individuals who can make things happen and extend your reach throughout your community. But how do you know if you’ve got the “right mix” in your network?
Visual representations of your network – network maps – can help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your network so you can identify opportunities and relationships that you can leverage and build on. Network maps, like the one below, are especially valuable when assessing organization networks which typically consist of layers of individual networks. (more…)
