Developing on the Fly...is that really a good idea?

I ended my last blog entry with this statement:

"Our first order of business will be to craft our mission statement, create our bylaws, recruit our board of directors, handle our incorporation process, and develop our funding streams...but we'll have to do those things 'on the fly' as we already have 15 kids signed up and ready to begin."

Now I'm sure some question the wisdom of doing things that way.

There are a couple schools of thought about how to begin any new venture:

1. Lay the ground work first - before you open the doors for business (and)
2. Just Do IT - and learn as you go

Based on my first post, you've probably figured out the thought-school of which I'm a student. (And, if you know me personally you've learned that multi-tasking is my middle name.)

Yes, I'm a proponent of strategic planning: setting goals, charting the plan to reach them, developing business plans (inclusive of marketing strategies,) and writing comprehensive program proposals. But I believe the best way to do that is while you're taking action - doing 'something' to bring the final result into being.

Let me explain.

When I took the reins as Executive Director of the non-profit organization I'd been part of for 15 years, I had personal support and mentoring from the last four Executive Directors who had preceded me - and one of them gave me three pieces of advice (up-front) that proved invaluable as I felt-my-way through the learning curve of my new responsibilities - much as a blind person would in an unfamiliar room.

He said:

1. "Your biggest handicap will be that 'you don't know what you don't know.'"
2. "Here's a box of historical files. If you're really smart, you will study everything in here until it becomes part of who you are."
3. "You will find that 'those who have all the answers, have no clue what the questions are.'"

Prior to sitting in the executive directors' chair - I thought I knew our organization and its program inside out. After all, within the scope of 15 years I

1. had hands-on experience in every job description within the organization
2. had created two positions the organization needed but did not have
   
3. was intimately familiar with the contractual obligations we had with the state agencies we served
4. had played a significant role in organizational budget development
   
5. had written winning grant proposals (to private foundations)
   
6. participated in developing responses to State and Federal RFPs (Request for Proposals) and IFBs (Invitation for Bids) and could explain the differences between the two
7. had edited multi-authored segments into 'single-voice' documents (and)
   
8. had ghost-written fund raising letters and staff communications for the last two E.D.s

In my mind, I knew what it would take to continue the work we were doing and grow it to the next level. And, for the first year in my new assignment everything ran smoothly - ah, life was good. Then the first crisis hit and I discovered something that I hadn't known that I didn't know. My instinct for 'on the job training' took over at that point. I had to scramble for information as I needed it...and I needed it the day before yesterday.

That's when I took my mentor's advice, dug deeply into the box he'd handed me - and proved the truth of his words: If I had really been smart I would have already known about the crack in our organizations foundation that we had just fallen into: we had three sets of bylaws, each with vastly different parameters, none of which were dated - I had no clue what the prevailing 'rule of thumb' was for the situation I faced. But the situation had to be handled immediately - there was no time to wait until the bylaws could be sorted out. And, besides all that, none of the bylaws versions directly addressed the situation although each of them hinted at the possibility that such an issue could arise.

It sounds like I just made the case for attending the first school of thought, doesn't it?

But there's another lens through which to view it:

Had I faced the need to fix the bylaws without knowing 'the question,' any set of bylaws I would have created still would not have contained 'the answer' - because the issue was a situation that I would never have seriously anticipated having to address.

Ultimately, I drew on information gleaned from a Restorative Justice course (I'd completed) that could be applied 'outside the box' and resolved the situation. Then I took the bylaws issue before my board of directors for revision, consolidation, and certification (by date) of its authority as 'the' ruling document - now they include the pattern I'd set for handling the issue that had presented itself (and won me major points with the board for how I'd resolved it.)

To apply that lesson learned to the venture Philip Sacco and I are now embarking upon, we have a general umbrella under which to operate (in Accolade International Ministries) that allows us to begin the work with the students at hand - and as we learn 'what the questions are' to which we will need answers, we can develop the tools that will become the new NPO's ruling documents, simultaneous to doing the work itself.

I'm sure that we'll hit many questions that will send us scrambling to find answers - but that's just part of the challenge that allows us to call this our latest Adventure!

Philip's motto is: "To Live the Ordinary Life in an Extra-Ordinary Way."

Stay tuned - we're off to a good start!