Category Archives: General Management

Negotiate or Fight-or-Flight I

General Management, Negotiation, ,

It has been observed that one of the differences between the “street-wise” and the rest of us is that we often negotiate our way out of difficult circumstances while the street-wise rarely negotiate and will choose to either fight or flee.

Robert Mnookin has written a book, Bargaining with the Devil, that gives a formal framework for the negotiate or else decision. He is the chair of the Program on Negotiations at the Harvard Law School, so he is a pretty good source.

His basic framework is that you need to dispassionately (emotions always get in the way of logic) think about five points:

  1. What are my interests and what are my adversaries interests?
  2. What are my alternatives to negotiation and what are my adversaries alternatives? [Understand your, and his, BATNA’s.]
  3. Is there a potential deal that is better than the BATNA for each of us?
  4. What will it cost me to negotiate? Not all costs are in dollars. Time, emotion, reputation, and self-image are also factors.
  5. If we reach a deal, is there a reasonable prospect that it will be carried out? You can always put penalties for nonperformance from third parties in the deal.
Think about these before you make a fight or flight decision.
Impromptu Wedding Toast

How to Give an Impromptu Speech

General Management, ,

We all have had that terrifying moment when we were suddenly called upon to speak in front of others: the wedding host asks us to give a toast, the conference leader asks us to introduce a speaker, the meeting facilitator (or your boss) asks, “What’s your opinion about this?”

You don’t have to run away screaming; freeze in panic; or shrink into a corner sucking your thumb while rocking back and forth. Continue reading How to Give an Impromptu Speech →

Hovering Helocopter

Are You a Helicopter Board?

General Management

We are seeing lots of first-day-of-school photos this week. Most are early elementary, some are first-day-of-college. Some are first-grade to whatever-grade comparisons. All are blessings.

This also the time of year that the dreaded helicopter parents appear. You know them. They are the ones hovering over the teacher or the admissions office, making certain that everything goes exactly according to plan…their plan.

They don’t realize that their hovering is actually working against the best interests of their child. Wise parents want to see their children grow up be fully-functioning independent adults. That cannot happen if the parent makes all the choices and bails them out of every problem.

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” — Will Rogers

The same thing can happen to your nonprofit board. Some boards hover over the staff and question every action and make every decision. But your staff must have the ability to handle routine events on their own. If they are new (and most are) they need to have latitude to make decisions, even wrong ones, on their own. That way they will learn and you can spend your time on strategic issues instead of minutia.

Check out my posts on The Corporate Model, Delegate or DIe, and How to Delegate.

Planning Framework

The Big Picture – Redux

Financial Management, General Management, Strategic Planning, , ,

My prior post, The Big Picture, described the high level view of nonprofit strategic planning and management. Overview of The Big PictureIt showed that all nonprofits start with the recognition of a problem and a vision of the world where the problem is resolved. The mission is the commitment to achieve the vision. The vision and mission are why the nonprofit exists and should never rarely change.

Continue reading The Big Picture – Redux →