I recently had the opportunity to lead a clinic at GSMI's Enterprise Risk Management summit in New York. It was a very interesting and interactive session where we really had the opportunity to "roll up our sleeves" and talk about how risk management works (or doesn't, for that matter) in the trenches.

Did you receive a postcard when you got home from the CLA conference? Our mailing company sent it a week after we wanted, so it would have been hard for you to bring the postcard to our exhibit booth. Don't worry, the offer from the postcard is still good through May 15, 2009.

Columbia Business School's "Ideas@Work" blog had an interesting post last week entitled "The Nonprofit MBA." The premise was that in a time of unprecedented challenge for non-profits, hiring a MBA may be a way for social sector organizations to tap into management expertise that can help them survive. (Since MBAs are a lot cheaper now than they used to be!)

We recently returned from Digital Now 2009, an executive leadership conference focused on association leadership in the digital age. At Digital Now, we presented with Project Management Institute and American Society of Mechanical Engineers on how the Balanced Scorecard can be used to drive change and innovation in associations.

The Winter 2009 issue of Sloan Management Review had an article entitled Does It Pay To Be Good? For those of us in the social and public sector, the answer is "usually not enough." While this article focuses on the corporate sector, and how for-profit organizations are using corporate responsibility as a marketing scheme, it has a few important lessons for us in the social sector as well.

I'm very happy to report that the first-ever Mission Driven Performance Management Summit in Washington, DC, was a smashing success! We had over 80 people in attendance and had incredible discussions about how the Balanced Scorecard can be used to drive lasting strategic change.

A recent article in the New York Times talked about the shift in focus of the Hudson-Webber Foundation in downtown Detroit. For years, Hudson-Webber has been funding organizations in the Detroit metro area. Given the changing philanthropic and economic landscape, however, Hudson-Webber has had to start playing a new role: "picking winners and losers."

Okay, so now we have a new President, and the stock market is down about 9% this year already. This is after about a 35-40% drop last year. The market is a good proxy for the economy. Not only did the economy crash last year, but it is still not looking good this year, even with Hope and Change in the highest office of the country. The President yesterday said that is it is time to rebuild what America stands for and time to recommit to our values (more or less). What I heard, was that is it time for a new strategy. This also applies to your organization.

We've all heard the adage "what gets measured, gets managed." But how do you know if you're measuring the right things? And therefore managing the right things? For many organizations, measurement exists simply for the sake of measurement. And that's a key reason why so few organizations are able to acheive strategic success.

How many times have you attended a "strategy" meeting only to fall asleep halfway through? What is it about strategy that makes meetings so incredibly boring? Well, because most of the time, meetings about strategy are about anything but strategy.Instead, "strategy" meetings are about dry and uninteresting market factiods, a review of last month / quarter / year's operations, inane "visioning" sessions that are disconnected with reality, or some other perversion that only serves to waste precious time. But strategy -- and strategy meetings -- needn't be like this. Because strategy (done right and presented right) is the antithesis of boring. Strategy is about making the difficult choices about how you're going to run your organization and how you're going to make a difference. As we've said countless times on this blog, just having a good strategy isn't enough. It's how you execute on that strategy that is the critical differentiator between successful organizations and organizations that just plod along from year to year (at best) or fail spectacularly. And as Winston Churchill famously said, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." And that's what an effective strategy review meeting is all about. Seeing how you're doing on the strategy and making the changes necessary to set things right. So, without further ado, here's our suggestions on running an effective meeting:

1. Agenda based on strategy A good strategy review meeting is just that: a meeting that's based on your strategy. So craft the agenda based on your strategy map and your set of strategic initiatives. Cover the issues that are critical and acknowledge those that are on track. Stay focused on strategy and don't let the meeting get derailed by operational concerns.
2. Topics outlined in advance of meetings Good meetings don't just happen, they're planned. So get the information out before the meeting happens and make sure people have time to review it. And don't take excuses for why people haven't come prepared to the meeting. Don't tolerate the "question the number" game -- instead make fact-based decisions based on the data you have.
3. Decisions documented Keep a running log of what was discussed and what decisions were made. Also note who was accountable for what and when the action item is supposed to be completed. If the meeting gets off track, use a "parking lot" flipchart to record the issue and schedule another meeting if necessary to discuss that issue.
4. Follow-up monitored How many times have you covered the same ground meeting after meeting? The key is to monitor the decisions that you made in one meeting and to create a culture of followup in your organization where closing out on action items is expected before the next meeting.

Of course, this is not a change that can or will happen overnight. It is a cultural change for many organizations, and therefore requires time to set in. But if you start putting strategy -- and your strategy map -- at the center of your meeting agenda, you'll see an evolution of meetings from tiring to invigorating. If you'd like to check out an in-depth guide, check out How To Lead Effective Strategy Review Meetings.