Facilitation
NGO managers and leaders need to convene at times for strategic deep dives to survey the future, consider choices, decide on change agendas, or re-evaluate past efforts. Skillful facilitation by somebody who has sector-level perspective, knows peer experiences, understands leadership perspectives, and can highlight potential blind spots is crucial for success of this type of exercise.
CASE STUDY
Translating an anti-racist organizational commitment into practice
A client organization had publicly stated a commitment on anti-racism after the murder of George Floyd and other African-American persons in the US in 2020. But how to put this commitment into practice?
Tosca, together with a colleague-consultant, devised an education platform with resources on anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion. They also facilitated an all-staff weeklong virtual retreat during which anti-racism was mainstreamed into the retreat agenda. And they did a review of organizational systems, processes and culture to recommend needed changes.
The client organization’s staff increased their cognitive awareness of what anti-racism entails, developed broader buy-in and agreed to introduce a set of new organizational practices.
CASE STUDY
Helping NGO leaders understand big challenges to their sector’s effectiveness, relevance and legitimacy
CASE STUDY
It can be hard for NGO staff and leaders to develop a bird’s eye perspective towards how the sector is perceived and where it has to renew its relevance
Tosca offered speaking engagements where she presented her co-authored book ‘Between Power and Irrelevance: the Future of Transnational NGOs’
NGO leaders’ motivation was deepened to continue their necessary organizational change journeys
Managing a shift in the paradigm
A mid-size NGO which was undergoing a major paradigm shift, including new ways of working, needed to articulate its 10 year strategy framework and negotiate this between the board and the extended leadership team which in the recent past had drifted into less than helpful dynamics
Tosca co-designed and co-facilitated several joint board-executive leadership team strategy sessions over a timespan of 8 months
What had been a tacit strategy framework in the past was now made more overt, and most importantly became more rigorous in content. The strategy also subsequently was operationalized more systematically.
CASE STUDY
Providing thought leadership to ensure the future-fitness of ‘influencing’ NGOs
An NGO well known for its ‘influencing’ work felt the need to forecast for itself, and for its peer influencing-type NGOs, whether and how it could remain relevant and legitimate well into the future.
Tosca provided analytical input into a provocative ‘kick-off’ concept paper. She also provided project management support to the senior NGO leader who spearheaded the first phase for this initiative.
The project’s scope was clearly delineated, its sector-level relevance was secured, and the data that needed to be collected to provide a foundation to produce a rich, sector-level debate was secured.
CASE STUDY
Helping NGOs look change right in the eye
An influential NGO, which is undergoing big disruptions and faces a wrenching need for change, needed to hear a frank and well-respected, external sector-level voice as speaker for its organization-wide staff. In a similar vein, an association of INGOs needed to provide timely content relevant to its members in their need to grapple with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic
Tosca was invited to speak to organizational leaders about leadership under crisis, leading change, organizational culture, and virtual team leadership skills
During a time of crisis when social sector organizations should leave nothing off the table and when it’s all-hands-on-deck, leaders were supported in making critical choices and in modeling skillful leadership behaviors
CASE STUDY
Testing a competency model
A major human rights NGO was revising its behavioral competencies based on worrisome findings coming from several staff engagement surveys. It needed its group of senior managers and leaders to validate the proposed competencies during a Management Team gathering.
Tosca co-designed and co-facilitated the session, and in that process also highlighted various informal but important ways in which the competencies could become embedded in the organization’s daily habits and behaviors.
Although training and formal performance management processes are important, the competencies are more likely to become every-day lived values by reinforcing them in informal and personal ways.