Well, Would You Look at That: I Wrote a Book!

An Idea for Consideration

I am thrilled to announce the upcoming release of my book, Strategic FUEL for Nonprofits, on September 25!

The Backstory

A few years ago, I was supporting a nonprofit organization on strategic planning and wrote several emails to the lead client, saying, essentially, All the work we’re doing to create a new strategy might be wasted if you don’t also start working on how to make the strategy live in your organization’s routines.?

It was part of recognizing that having a strategy differs from being strategic and that, for many organizations, the latter is the more critical factor in achieving their goals.???

Eventually, the concepts from those emails, fleshed out through research and numerous conversations with nonprofit leaders, became Strategic FUEL for Nonprofits.?

The Main Idea

Strategy is the world of outlining goals, priorities, and implementation plans. You need a focused strategy that outlines the right destination, tackles the most important opportunities and challenges, and appropriately aligns resources.

But to maximize value from the strategy, you need far more.?

First, the strategy also needs to be understandable because everyone in the organization needs to know what the strategy requires from them. They can only act consistently with the strategy if they understand it.

Second, if you want a strategy to drive progress, it should be embedded in your team or organization’s routines—part of how you work together, make decisions, allocate resources, and reward people.

Finally, because the future never works out how you imagine when setting strategy, you need processes and a team culture that enable adaptability and learning. When a team has that, the strategy can evolve—it is living.?

Strategic FUEL happens when an organization has all four elements. The book is about how leaders can create Strategic FUEL through their strategy planning efforts by designing processes that match their strategic situation and practicing the strategic culture they want to develop.

In many ways, Strategic FUEL for Nonprofits is a leadership book masquerading as a sector-specific strategy book because all of the issues it addresses are related to the human dynamics of driving strategic change. And once one expands their definition of strategy to include both having a strategy and being strategic, it changes how they lead every day—not just during formal strategy efforts.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the book's more interesting concepts. (But I swear, Monday Musings will not become an advertisement.)

If You’d Like to Engage and Support, Here’s How You Can Do So

1. Buy the Book. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon.
2. Share Strategic FUEL for Nonprofits with the nonprofit leaders you know.?
3. Connect. One of the best parts of the writing experience has been talking to leaders and teams about Strategic FUEL and how it might be useful for them—both in informal one-on-ones and workshops. If that would be worthwhile for you or leaders you know, I’d love to discuss it.

Something Fun

Earlier this year, I blocked out a Saturday to finish the manuscript, which was my kids’ only clue that I was writing it.

My daughter asked at dinner, “Daddy, you wrote a book?

Me: “Yes.”

Zola: “Is it a chapter book?”

Me: “Yes.”

Zola: “I wrote a book too. Except I lost one of my chapters.”

So close to the deadline, that thought sent a shudder through my body. I immediately got up from the table and backed up my laptop.

Zola found her missing chapter the next day, crumpled up at the bottom of her backpack.

Thanks for reading!

Charles

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