One of the most common tensions we hear when working with organizations (and one that we’ve personally experienced throughout our careers) is the strain between leadership (those who hold and set the strategy) and front-line staff (those responsible for executing the strategy).
Those in leadership often complain that front-line staff can’t see the big picture, are “too tactical,” or are resistant to change. Those doing the front-line work say that leadership doesn’t understand what it takes to do the work, doesn’t trust them when they say what is needed to do the work, or when a strategy is good in theory but not realistic in practice.
This causes needless friction and mistrust, contributes to burn-out and retention challenges, and wastes time and resources.
This has to change because the world is on fire right now. If we care about social justice, we can no longer keep working within these patterns.
“We’ve always done it that way” is a dangerous phrase. Especially now, as the systems, programs, and policies we’ve worked so hard to build crumble in front of us. We have to learn to work differently.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” ~ Albert Einstein
To help illustrate why this is essential to accomplishing our missions and visions, we can learn from emergency crisis management:
Imagine a large wildfire burning out of control. The fire captain strategizes that the best way to control the fire is to surround it from the south. This was true at the exact moment the captain set the strategy, but it is no longer true 30 minutes later when the wind shifts direction. The fire captain sees how real-world conditions are impacting their vision. To move forward, the captain must listen to and trust the front-line firefighters to develop an alternate strategy that will work, and the captain must listen to and trust what the front-line firefighters say they need to control the fire.
We need to learn to work this way.
We can take a page out of the book of emergency crisis professionals by incorporating the following practices into our organization’s leadership, strategy, and resource allocation:
Active listening. Be open and honest about naming the existing power imbalances within your organization and establish multiple channels for feedback to ensure all voices are heard. Listen to hear and understand rather than listen to respond. This builds trust and allows both leadership and those on the front lines to adopt strategies and approaches that work.
Incorporate real-time data and feedback into strategy and decision-making. Build relationships and communication channels to incorporate day-to-day insights and experiences from those most impacted by the work. Don’t disregard the day-to-day challenges and opportunities experienced as too tactical, and don’t be afraid of what you hear. When people tell you what’s not working, that means they trust you. While organizational leaders may have access to different information, those on the front lines have expertise, too. Place value on and incorporate real-time qualitative and quantitative data in the form of lived expertise into your strategy and decision-making. Value this data as you might value outside academic expertise and consultant’s reports (and we’re saying this as consultants!).
Use front-line input and lived expertise to inform immediate and direct service delivery and long-term strategy and policy decisions. Create clear roles and expectations for leadership and front-line staff, as well as policies and procedures on how you will listen to and engage your community and clients. Leverage the insights and experiences of the front line to understand the impact of decisions. Allocate the resources necessary to support the work and invest in pay equity practices to demonstrate value for direct and lived expertise.
Build trust and transparency. Acknowledge challenges and uncertainties, and communicate openly. Build partnerships and ask for help and insight from those closest to the work. Ensure the engagement is person-centered, trauma-informed, and relational over transactional.
These aren’t just feel-good or aspirational best practices. They are sound strategic and leadership principles that allow organizations to:
Respond to rapidly evolving and real-world circumstances.
Improve outcomes, service delivery, and policy change.
Understand the challenges, needs, and opportunities, resulting in a more effective use of human and financial resources, as well as strategy design and implementation.
Leverage authentic insights that can’t be replicated through academic or theoretical analysis alone and can lead to creative and entrepreneurial programs, policies, and practices.
Build leadership and skills that retain and empower those closest to the work, allowing for sustainable and enduring change and leadership succession.
At Just Possibilities, we are passionate about guiding organizations in putting their values into action at every level of their work, from strategic plans to internal policies, service delivery, community engagement, and day-to-day decision-making. We work with organizations dedicated to the social good in their values and equity-based strategic planning, organizational assessments and recommendations, values decision-making rubrics, and leadership and change management efforts.
Just Possibilities is passionate and committed to providing values-based strategic planning services to organizations with limited budgets. We strive to ensure our services are accessible, fair, and equitable to both our nonprofit partners and us. As such, we are happy to negotiate the pricing and scope of service offerings to best fit your budget and needs.
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