![]() ![]() ![]() The backbone organization should ensure the MSC succeeds by growing and expanding its influence and continually attracting the people and money that amplify its impact. MSCs that fail to demonstrate a personal and collective return on investment-a return on investment (ROI) on people’s time and money-run out of money. MSCs that fail to provide adequate individual and collective growth and development-continuous opportunities to experiment, learn, grow, and innovate-run out of steam. Human sustainability and financial sustainability are inextricably linked. MSCs offer individual participants exactly that, but to keep and hold their interest and involvement, partnerships need to constantly attract money and people to sustain action and impact. The American Society of Association Executives Center for Association Leadership conducts an annual survey of people who join organizations to find the answer to one basic question: Why do people join? Year in and year out the answer remains: To be part of something bigger than themselves. Principle 2: Driving Long-Term Momentum and Growth The backbone organization should do likewise for internal and external communications. They use humor, sharp writing, and edgy formats which encourage people to easily and widely share their content. There’s a reason why publications like TheSkimm and BuzzFeed get more shares than a family holiday e-newsletter. Great partnership communications should leave partners feeling freed, fueled, and inspired, giving them a basis for learning and action. Principle 1: Clarity of Purposeįacilitating effective communications across the partners provide one way of keeping that connection strong. Why the difference? The high-functioning partnership closed the gap between vision and execution by building itself around the following six principles. The other goes on to lead a transformational conversation over decades. Both have clearly written strategies, well-organized governance documents, and detailed metrics. Both unite companies big and small, national and local governments, and leaders from across civil society. A full listing of our 27 recommended practices is available in our manual for practitioners, “ Backbone Organizations: A Field Guide.”Ĭonsider a tale of two partnerships. Within each principle, we describe one specific practice. In this article, we present six key principles for backbone organizations to follow to maintain alignment, drive impact, and create continuous learning throughout the life of a collaboration. While that research focused on making the case for why MSCs need backbone organizations, our research focuses on the how of running a successful backbone organization. To address this gap, other researchers have already articulated the need for a “backbone” organization to hold the center on collective strategy. A gap opens between collective strategy formulation and collective strategy execution. They suffer when the original altruistic vision meets the hard reality of the daily grind. Most MSCs excel at vision and fail in execution. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |