I have come to recognize that organizations go through lifecycles that look like this: Gear up – Set Direction – Drive Change – Sustain Action. And, while all this is going on, the organization needs to constantly refresh itself, to regenerate its people, its enthusiasm and its ideas. As all of you know, this is not particularly easy. Following are some of our latest thoughts on direction and regeneration.

Setting Direction

Over the last 3-5 years we’ve retooled our business model (what we do, why we do it, and how we meet our funding challenges – click here to see a handful of slides that describe it), and set some ambitious goals in the areas of housing (20 units/year) and community stewardship (being the go-to organization for stewardship results).  Upon reflection, we’re still pretty comfortable with both sets of decisions, and happy with the progress made on our goals. 

We’ve got some more questions to answer over the next 18 months:

• What major goals should we be setting for ourselves in our other 2 areas of focus – Community Development and Economic Development?  Audacious goals help focus and align our resources. It’s time we raise the bar on ourselves in these two areas.
• What is the end-game for our Center for Community Stewardship?  We’re off to a good start, and our initial experiences suggest we can make a difference statewide. But just because we can doesn’t mean that we should. We need to re-examine the role this Center plays in helping us address our mission, and where we want to be with the Center by the end of the decade.

While there are always new sets of questions to be asked, we feel like we’re in a position of strength as we answer them.

Regeneration

The regeneration of people, done right, will provide us with renewed enthusiasm, commitment and passion. The importance of this is borne out by this Chinese Proverb:

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.”

This applies to organizations as much as it does to communities.

We’ve made a good first step. New, and younger, staff have been a blessing. The fresh eyes on initiatives, the fresh energy and enthusiasm, and the different perspectives have all been good for us.

But this is only the first step.  While we are confident we have the right people on the bus, we’re still open to exploring what the right seat for each is. Matching instincts, skills and needs requires us to understand each other very well.  We feel good about that progress.

But regeneration is a whole lot more complicated than hiring the right people and finding their niche in the organization. It is about regenerating and sustaining (and retaining!) the passion and enthusiasm of long-term staff, and about training and mentoring the more recent hires.  To be honest, we haven’t scored a perfect 10 on either of these, and for good reason: we’ve never been in this position before.  Now that we are, we’re committed to figuring it out.

While the needs of long-term staff and newer staff are very different, the strategies might complement each other.  Long-term staff need a way to reflect, to replenish their juices, to get a fresh perspective, and to find a reason to redouble their commitment. Newer staff need skill development and, most importantly, mentoring.  Might the needs of one group be a part of the solution for the other group?  We’re going to explore that.

While we undergo this metamorphosis, what will remain unchanged is our commitment to do our part to grow a successful region.  The faces may change, but the commitment is constant and enduring.