Orgforward Opines

Several years ago I had the opportunity to work with a small nonprofit in the local area on a comprehensive organizational identity and strategy alignment process. As they explored what they valued and how best to advance their work in alignment with those values, focus turned to the board and any implications the newly articulated vision and values might have on the board itself. At one point, one of the board members asked if they should start thinking about the board as an opportunity to develop the leadership of young women (a clear extension of their mission and values). This was one of the most brilliant questions I had heard in many years of doing board development work. Not just because it indulged my own passion for developing leadership among young people, but because it also demonstrated a deep desire to have the board be aligned with AND integrated into the vision and values of the organization as opposed to the proverbial steward/caretaker of those values.   In pre...

Many of you may have had an experience with a common strength demonstration activity that I first experienced when my freshman English teacher, an Aikido master, asked me to help him make a point - I honestly don’t remember what the point was…so much for that lesson - but I did walk away with an understanding of strength (hmm, maybe that was the point…) Anyway, he asked me to stand in front of him, extend my arms out straight, rest my wrists on his shoulders, and resist his attempts to bend my elbows. Of course, my first reaction was to clench my fists, flex my muscles, and probably make an awkward anxious facial expression. He bent my arms easily once I ran out of juice and my muscles fatigued from flexing – plus it hurt. Then he said to do it again, but this time, open and relax my hands, don’t flex my arms, and just concentrate on breathing. Again, he eventually bent my arms, but I lasted a whole lot longer and nothing ever hurt. Simple moral to long paragraph – there was gr...