I’ve written and spoken on many topics close to my heart over the years. Here’s some offerings that you may find useful:

Organizational Structures

• RVC’s self-managing organization structure – The concept of “self-management” can be confusing. Here’s one case study that can help paint a picture of what it could look like for you.
• Transitioning from hierarchy to distributed leadership – Over the course of the nine months while I served as interim ED, TREC transitioned into a self-managing organizational structure with Co-Executive Directors. This case study outlines how that happened and what was learned.
• Reinvigorating a self-managing organization – The Whidbey Institute had been operating under Holacracy for many years, but was struggling to be its best self. This case study explores how to strengthen distributed leadership and deepen equity work during a time of transition.
• Talk on distributed leadership and self-management – What are the foundational practices necessary if you want to move away from a classic hierarchical organizational structure? What kind of organizational culture do you need to build? Watch this talk to learn the answers.
• Transitioning from volunteer-run to staff-run – An often-overlooked stage in nonprofit growth is going from all-volunteer to hiring the first paid staff. Learn what to avoid and what to invest in during this particular turning point.
• Taking a step back and analyzing the organizational landscape – Should for-profit corporations exist? This article invites us to question fundamental assumptions we’ve made regarding how our society operates.

Governance & Leadership

• Exploring shared leadership models – Should your organization move to a shared leadership structure? Roshni Sampath and I gave this talk that outlines what you need to have in place in order for a shared executive leadership structure to be effective.
• Executive Director job is impossible – Putting so much power and responsibility in the hands of a single person can be a set-up. Understand why, and consider some other approaches to running organizations.
• Reimagining Boards – This three-part NonProfit Quarterly series shares a history of how the wealthy took over boards, outlines what it takes to cultivate a liberatory board, and offers a new framework for governance duties.
• Understanding & practicing liberatory governance – Natalie Bamdad and I were interviewed for a podcast where we discussed liberatory approaches to board governance and how to move beyond the classic way of thinking about the role of the nonprofit board.

Decision-Making

• Overview of the Advice Process – Have you heard of the Advice Process of decision-making? Learn how this approach works.
• Decision-making tools – With the right training, anyone can make decisions well. Use these simple, accessible templates to assess how important a decision is, choose the right decision-making process, and make a decision well. You can also watch this talk to learn about decision-making.
• Choosing the right decision-making approach – Consider the pros and cons of individual, group, and Advice Process decision-making approaches, so that your organization can make a thoughtful choice about which style best fits the needs of your particular context and culture.

Operations

• Collaborative Budgeting Creation – This article shares a simple, accessible budgeting tool and process geared towards more collaborative budgeting environments, lowering the barrier to access for everyone to understand and contribute to creating the annual budget. You can also learn how to use the tool by watching this talk.
• 10 Steps Towards a Thriving Organizational Culture – Learn specific changes you can make that will be transformational for building a healthy organizational culture.
• What to do when staff struggle – Do you have a poorly-performing staff member? Not sure what to do? Read this.
• Traits of an awesome supervisor – Learn what skills make a supervisor effective.
• Accidental Operations Manager – Many nonprofits have only one person responsible for all aspects of operations and HR. Here’s some great tools to support you, if you end up in charge of it all.

Capacity-Building

• Transformational capacity-building – Co-written overview of how to engage in transformational capacity-building in communities of color.
• Training curriculum for building leaderful organizations – Shifting your structure isn’t enough. If you plan on distributing power to more leaders, you need to make sure those leaders have the skills to be successful. This piece provides an overview of skills needed to be effective in distributed leadership structures.
• Equitable grantmaking continuum – Foundations need capacity-building too. Use this tool I co-developed with April Nishimura and Vu Le to assess your funding practices and map out a path to move in a more equitable direction.