Betsy Garside

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A silo-busting leadership thought from Drew Gilpin Faust

November 1, 2009 in Ideas, Uncategorized by Betsy Garside | No comments

Recently, The New York Times interviewed Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University (and formerly a leader at my alma mater). She told a short story of asking Michael Porter to run a session at a retreat with the deans of Harvard’s various schools, as she sought to “build cohesiveness and integration” across the multi-tentactled behemoth that is Harvard University. Apparently, Porter asked the group, “How does being part of Harvard University give you an unfair advantage?”

Dr. Faust thought this was just the right question, because it asked each dean to consider how his or her school — medical, law, divinity, you name it — was better positioned to succeed because it is one of the behemoth’s tentacles. As Dr. Faust put it, this great question “allocated to [the deans] a self-interest in buying into the larger university purposes but also the aspiration of thinking about how we can all be better together.”

So how could a “right question” like this help you, a leader in your own organization, align interests toward the larger whole? What do you want your “deans” — directors, or managers, or vice presidents — thinking about so that they not only own their own success, but see the larger picture and want to contribute to making it a rosy one?

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Tackling a little-known management issue

October 7, 2009 in Ideas by Betsy Garside | No comments

Steven DiMaio’s latest blog post on Harvard Business Publishing caught my eye. The title is just great: “How to Train Your Pet Peeve.” And he’s tackling something that management training doesn’t traditionally cover: How to manage the little but persistent interaction reactions that can break down a team, a department, a project or process.

It’s a great read, and it got me wondering what would happen if a department had a meeting around their collective pet peeves. What would it be like to write down your top two or three pet peeves, then bring them to a departmental or team meeting? (I say write them down ahead of time so there can’t be too much “yeah, me too” along political or hierarchical lines). Might you find fault lines that you never knew were there, that you can now address because the trigger-points are out in the open?

Somebody try this — and then share what you uncover!

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Crisis communications isn’t just for big corporations

October 1, 2009 in Uncategorized by Betsy Garside | No comments

Recently, WWF here in the U.S. had to handle a tricky situation: An ad, produced for WWF-Brazil — over which WWF-US has no control — got further than it should have in the approval process. The ad contrasted the death-toll of the Twin Towers to the 2004 Asian tsunami, pointing out that the destructive power of nature was more powerful than that of man — possibly true, but brutally insensitive at best, particularly given the time of year.

And though this ad was not produced or even vaguely condoned by WWF-US, the communications clean-up landed squarely in its lap.

That’s the nature of “crisis communications.” Something hits, and you better be ready to swing into action to provide perspective, a spokesperson, a process for managing the media coverage and communications to key audiences. Many nonprofits haven’t thought this through all the way, because it’s hard to imagine what crisis might really hit an advocacy group, or international NGO, or social-service agency. It’s true that most true crises happen to companies: Product recalls, food-borne illness, tampering, fraud.

WWF-US’s experience should give us all pause, though: Could they possibly have predicted this particular issue? No. Could they possibly have prepared? Yes. Think fire drills: It doesn’t really matter what caused the fire, just that you have a plan and you’ve practiced.

So now would be a good time to take out your crisis communications plan, dust it off, and run some scenarios. Is your line of communication clear? Do you have volunteers on your board or advisory council who should be looped in because of their expertise? Has senior management run through the plan in the past year? Is your organization in any new countries, situations or lines of work that require new thinking?

If you don’t have a plan, it’s time for you to make one. Good causes rely just as much on goodwill as any corporate entity does. One poorly managed crisis can take a big chunk out of that goodwill. It’s worth planning now to keep that from happening.

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How to break down marketing silos at your nonprofit

August 15, 2009 in Ideas, News by Betsy Garside | No comments

I spoke at the Bridge Conference here in D.C. in July, tackling something familiar to ANYONE who’s done marketing at or for a nonprofit: Silos, those pernicious, often impenetrable walls that divide and thus limit marketing efforts by development, membership, program and communications staff.

To prepare, I went and talked to several very smart people who’ve been successfully marketing their organizations. “How do you break down silos, or work around them?” I asked. “What causes them in the first place, and does knowing where they come from tell us anything about solutions?”

The answers I got were thoughtful and very pragmatic. And when I arrived at the Bridge Conference, I faced a roomful of people who needed those practical strategies. We turned the session into somewhat of a workshop (it was very early in the morning, and none of us wanted me to stand up there and preach). My stated goal was for each of us — myself included — to walk out with at least one new idea. I certainly did, and the participants told me they did too. The silo-busting ideas in the room were fantastic, ranging from strategies relating to personnel management, organizational alignment and — my favorite — the value of giving something up.

The bottom line is that an organization operating in silos is less efficient than it could be with both its program and marketing dollars. Staff who are thinking about strategic marketing — and those in that conference room ranged from mid-level to CEO — are aware of the missed synergies. They know that they are dribbling away the power of a unified brand every time stories don’t quite match up, or the website and the e-newsletter look different, or the ask from development is different from the membership ask.

So for all of you who want the most power out of your organization’s marketing effort: What’s YOUR latest silo-busting idea?

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