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Uh, what? Now, try reading the title of this article backwards, starting from the far right and reading to the left. It likely took you a few seconds to do that, going letter-by-letter to make the title out: "Riding a Backwards Bicycle".

You know, you've spent your whole life paving pathways in your brain to read from left-to-right. It's a well-ingrained habit that is difficult to change.

What about another ingrained habit, like riding a bike. What if a bike was set up "backwards" in some way? Could you ride it?

Take a few minutes to watch this entertaining video to learn more. You'll find the time well-spent and may even want to share it with your friends.

So what does this all of this have to do with strategic planning, leadership, management, and running a nonprofit? A ton. Essentially, building your organization's capacity is often about overwriting old habits with new ones. Just like learning to ride a different type of bike.

What are some of those old habits that you might like to change? Try these:

• Writing strategic plans but not implementing them.

• Waiting to the last minute to complete grants.

• Doing more work in the evenings and weekends than you'd like.

• Viewing funders as people that support you (versus people that you support too).

• Providing the executive director with sporadic performance reviews.

• Doing everything yourself and not delegating very effectively.

You may not view these as habits, but they are. They're individual and organizational habits. And, like the guy in the video, with some insights and a committed practice, you can change them.

Which brings me to an excellent resource for you if you'd like to learn more about changing habits: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and In Business by Charles Duhigg. I read this book last year and have meaning to write about it ever since. It's fascinating. Duhigg provides a fantastic overview of how habits form and how you can change them. So, if you're serious about making changes in your life or organization, the concepts in this book are gold. The ideas will even help you ride a backwards bicycle if you'd like...

Charles Duhig - The Power of Habit

Your Teeth are Going to Fall Out

I WANT YOU TO FLOSS YOUR TEETH

About 1-1/2 years ago I went to my dentist for a regular check-up and teeth cleaning. Toward the end of the visit he gave me a wake up call when he proclaimed "your teeth are going to fall out!" He was being dramatic to make this point: I needed to floss. You see, even though I was a fabulous brusher, I was absolutely horrible at flossing. I had never developed the habit and I was paying the price.

What followed over the next eighteen months was a flossing adventure that provides a wonderful metaphor for strategic planning. In fact, the lessons I learned were remarkably similar to some of the critical strategic planning lessons I share with our customers...

Lesson 1: Use the Right Tool.  I walked out of my dentist's office that day with this flossing tool in hand. Quite simply, this ingenious device has made all the difference. What used to take several frustrating and messy minutes of me fumbling around with dental floss now took about 30 seconds. In the strategic planning world, you need the right tools too. Like Mission Met Center, our software that makes it easier to create and track your strategic plan.

Lesson 2: Create Urgent Accountability.  When I left my dentist's office I had a mandate to floss. I also had an appointment to return in three months to assess my progress. Knowing that I had 90 days to get my flossing act together created an urgent sense of accountability. Frankly, I didn't want to let my dentist and his hygienist down. The result? I created a new flossing habit that had evaded me for over 40 years. That type of accountability -- short-term due dates and reporting progress to others -- is the secret sauce to catalyzing your strategic planning success.

Lesson 3: Praise Creates Momentum.  At my 90-day visit I was praised for the obvious improvement in my teeth and gums. I still had a long way to go but the positive feedback I received helped reinforce my new habit. The same goes for strategic planning. So often teams make the mistake of focusing on the goals they didn't hit. I've found that my clients that are the most successful in implementing their plans focus, instead, on what they do right. That emphasis creates a positive strategic planning culture that encourages even more involvement and effort.

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I'm proud to say that today my teeth and gums are the healthiest they've been in decades. I floss twice per day and my dentist is thrilled with my turnaround. And, oddly enough, the experience has even helped me reinforce my perspectives on strategic planning!  

Your One-sentence Mission Statement

If you get ten nonprofit consultants in a room and ask them how to write a mission statement, you may get ten different answers. Writing a mission statement tends to be more art than science. Which can lead to a lot of frustration.

A mission statement needs to do two things:

1. Briefly describe what you do.

2. Briefly describe the group you do it for.

To me, a one-sentence mission statement does this best.  The brevity of the statement helps to ensure that the statement will actually get used and not just posted on the wall in a nice frame.

Turns out that lots of others feel the same way. Check out this list of 50, one-sentence nonprofit mission statements.

If you like the one-sentence approach, here is a worksheet that you can use to create your own mission (and vision!). I got this worksheet from the Top Nonprofits website.

All of that said, a one-sentence mission statement doesn't do a good job of describing the depth of an organization. With that in mind, some organizations present their mission statement and then follow it up with additional information. Check out these sites to see what I mean:

• Vida Verde Nature Education

• Audubon Society

• Ducks Unlimited

Hope this helps you in your mission statement efforts!

(Also, check out this video called How to Write Mission Statements That Don’t Suck. It’s from the author of one of my favorite books!)

The One-page Revolution

About ten years ago I was introduced to an intriguing idea: what if you captured your strategic plan on just one piece of paper?

Like most people, I was used to seeing large, multi-page strategic planning documents. I thought that a one-page document would be too simplistic and “dumbed down.” My thoughts were wrong. I’ve learned that the one-page approach is one of the most important components of successful strategic planning. It forces a team to focus and prioritize, greasing the wheels of implementation. Simply put, one-page plans are an especially effective tool for teams and small organizations.

I’m not the only one that believes this. Take a look at these authors that argue the same thing:

The One Hour Plan for Growth: How a Single Sheet of Paper Can Take Your Business to the Next Level by Joe Calhoun
The One Page Business Plan for Nonprofits by Jim Horan. (Visit Jim’s site where he notes that his one-page “methodologies are becoming a “best practice” around the world.)
Silos, Politics and Turf Wars by Pat Lencioni. Lencioni describes the “thematic goal” approach whereby he helps leadership teams simply focus on one strategic goal over the period of several months.
60-Minute Strategic Plan: Planning and Problem Solving for the Real World by John E. Johnson and Anne Marie Smith
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish. Although I absolutely love Harnish’s book, I think his one-page planning template is just a little too complex for most small nonprofits to start out with.
Simplified Strategic Planning: The No-nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast by Robert W. Bradford and J. Peter Duncan.
Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler. This book is different than the others on this list in that it’s about personal leadership. That said, Ditzler’s approach helps you create a one-page version of a personal strategic plan for your life. Learn more here.

And, in the next few years I plan on releasing my book where I’ll present my version of the one-page plan. Stay tuned...