{"id":18168,"date":"2014-09-12T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T13:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=18168"},"modified":"2024-12-24T20:34:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T01:34:17","slug":"stanford-day-2-scaling-nonprofits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2014\/09\/12\/stanford-day-2-scaling-nonprofits\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanford Day 2 – Scaling Nonprofits"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Stanford University<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Designing for Successful Scaling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Day two started with a great presentation from Lisa Kay Solomon<\/a> of Innovation Studio. She says that scaling is about leading the design of better futures. Scaling includes designing the conditions within the organization that are needed for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start the scaling process by defining the response you want to trigger in other people that will lead to mission success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to your own staff, the people whom you want to be successful in their work every day, Lisa says that people who believe they’ve had a good day are more successful than those who don’t. And the most significant factor in judging whether or not you’ve had a good day is whether or not you feel you made progress that day. So leaders, design your organization and its work so that staff and volunteers can know they made progress every day. Her book,\u00a0Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change<\/em><\/a>\"\"\u00a0describes how to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key points are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Create conditions for discovery. Exploring always involves risk of failure, but the key is to fail productively. Others have said that when you fall, “Fall forward.” Encourage curiosity, zest and optimism among your staff. Have strong ideas to give clear direction, but hold them loosely to encourage creative thinking. Have fun exploring. If everything has been reduced to a Powerpoint presentation, she says little can go wrong, but then little can go right too. Risk exploration.<\/li>
  2. Be an ‘otherish’ giver. Collaborate and set your partner up for success. Engage others outside the organization to think and imagine with you.<\/li>
  3. Think visually. This really helps you to break away from linear thinking and it is much more creative. Dan Roam has two great goods about thinking visually:\u00a0The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures<\/a>\"\"<\/em>\u00a0and Blah Blah Blah: What to Do when Words Don’t Work<\/em><\/a>\"\". She also recommends Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers<\/a>\"\"<\/em>\u00a0because you can’t scale anything if your don’t know its business model. I have this book and it is outstanding! And yes, charities have business models just as much as for profits do!<\/li>
  4. Act like a television or movie producer. They are the people who steward the vision for the show and make sure that it gets produced. You need to ensure that everyone is creatively working on the vision. Don’t let the organization drift away from what you are trying to achieve!! Sometimes we get bogged down in process and perfectionism and lose “the fire”. We lose urgency. Keep the organization stoked, active and committed.<\/li>
  5. Create a culture of hope. This will help everyone get through the tough work of scaling up.<\/li>
  6. Move beyond the “Yeah, but” people. They need to develop a more adaptive way of thinking. They are stuck in a rigid perspective and can’t see past their reservations. So when you hear “Yeah but”, ask “So how can…?”<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Some Lessons on Scaling That Were Shared<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Michael Smith<\/a> of the Social Innovation Fund<\/a> shared some lessons he’s learned over the years about scaling up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n