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No More Homeless Pets Forum
December 8, 2003 Reaching Your Dreams |
You've got big dreams, but can you reach them? Bert Troughton, Director of the ASPCA's Imagine Humane program and author of a practical business-planning guide for humane groups, will answer your questions and offer advice on how you can inspire action and achieve your goals through planning.
Introduction from Bert Troughton:
A lifelong, loving home for every cat and dog. Yes! You know where you want to get to... it's getting from here to there that's the challenge. And just to make it more interesting, you want your whole organization -- board, staff, and volunteers -- to go there with you! This is a job for strategic planning.
Strategic planning answers three simple questions:
1) Where are we?
2) Where do we want to go?
3) How are we going to get there...together?
Join us this week as we take a positive approach to strategic thinking and strategic planning to make our efforts on behalf of animals more successful... sooner.
Questions
The role of the E.D. in strategic planning and assessing the community for support
Surveying the community for needs
Putting the vision into action
Looking at ways to help animal control
How to set goals
How to get groups to the table when there is animosity
Getting staff viewpoints to be considered by the Director
Can the San Francisco model work in other communities?
Can groups really get together and focus on the positives instead of the negatives
Tips on what should be included in strategic planning
Getting groups to give up control so a coalition can succeed
Developing common language rather than divisive terms
Getting staff involved in making changes when they have become jaded
Member comments
The role of the E.D. in strategic planning and assessing the community for support
Question from Pat:
Timely topic! I have a few questions:How do you set strategic direction with an ever-changing Board?
What is the role of the Executive Director in setting direction - key supportive day-to-day operations, so the Board can handle the bigger picture issues?
How do you assess the market to see if the region we're living in can financially support the bigger picture?
Response from Bert:
Wow, great questions! Now here's a caveat - there are several schools of thought out there about the role of the Board and the Executive Director in strategic direction (I like this term!). I think there is merit to each "school", but I can only speak directly to what's worked best for me. Here goes...Specifically, because Boards are ever changing, I have found it critical that the E.D. play a key role in strategic direction. Ideally, strategic direction is always looking at least five, if not ten years into the future. In that time frame it's conceivable to have had five or more Board Chairs and a complete turnover in your Board. That's good, because it's always bringing new energy and perspectives into your organization (as well as connections to new financial resources!). But your strategic direction should be holding steady and that will take someone who has continuity. Additionally, I personally like to involve staff in strategic planning, because these are the folks who will have to fulfill many of the details of the plan. Often they have a more realistic perspective of the day-to-day issues that could trip up creative plans. By being able to work with those issues in the planning sessions, you can make more viable plans, plus implementation flows more smoothly because the people who have to "do it" were part of the planning for "how" to "do it"
The perfect combination in strategic planning, for my money, is to have the E.D., the full Board, and the full staff participate together in some portion of the planning, such as creating a shared vision for the future. The Board and the E.D. (and perhaps other senior staff depending on the size of your organization and your staff roles) can then work on setting specific strategic objectives, especially financial targets. Once the strategic objectives are set, the actual project planning for "how" to achieve those objectives should include the staff who will be responsible/involved and the E.D. Project plans are then reported back to the Board for their review, suggestions and approval
In this field it's common for Boards to still be in a state of evolution. Many animal protection Boards are operational Boards, because the organizations haven't yet achieved the financial resources to be fully staffed. Ultimately (and this is where nearly all schools of thought actually agree) Boards should be responsible for the fiscal health of the organization (i.e., approving a responsible budget, holding the E.D. accountable to the budget, and fundraising to meet the budget) and policy governance. Everything else belongs in the E.D. and staff job descriptions. Until a Board has reached that point of evolution, however, they may be wearing both Board hats and volunteer hats, in which case they would be involved in all of the planning meetings.
Assessing the market to see what they'll support is often people refer to this as "feasibility study". But I like your terminology better, because it implies a more iterative process. I think "assessing" the readiness and "creating" the readiness are sometimes simultaneous processes.
The best way to assess your market, whether you're doing it yourself or hiring a consultant to conduct an actual feasibility study, is to study your own data, study the context, and talk with your community
Study your own data: take a look at everything you can infer about how supportive your community is currently from things such as the number of (paying) members/donors; number of volunteers; daily traffic flow through your facility; total of annual donations; total of foundation and corporate gifts; number of community leaders on your Board, in your donor base, as volunteers; etc. For each of these, is the number steadily increasing, decreasing or staying flat?
Study context: how many people live in your community; what is their average income; how is the local economy; is your community generous with other nonprofits; do your strategic plans appear to be in line with the strategic plans of other nonprofits who have been successful; etc?
Talk with your community: (this is my favorite part!) Put together a handout and a "spiel" about your plans. Create a list of four or five open-ended questions to gather opinions and advice. Share your plans with the different opinion leaders in your community... politicians, newspaper editors, business leaders, school Board Members, the Director of the United Way (whether or not you receive UW support), college deans, etc. To get people to meet with you, assure them you're not looking for money. Let them know that all you want to do is share your plans and get their input. Do the same thing with all of your major donors and potential major donors. By the time you and your Board Members have had 30 or so of these lunches (or coffees), you will have a very good sense of how well the community will back your plans, AND you will have already taken the most important step to improving their understanding of you and increasing their support. Rule number one in fundraising: ask people what they think. In fact, I would bet money that every donor you visit will subsequently increase their giving to your organization without any further prodding. I know, because I've seen it many times! Go get ‘em!
Surveying the community for needs
Question from Charlotte:
Can you share ideas on how to do a survey of the community? We would like to know more about what people think about our shelter and our services. Why don't they adopt from us or spay/neuter? We don't have a clue on how to begin to put the right questions together or get people to answer. We have looked into having a few businesses do this for us, but the cost is outrageous! Can we do it on our own or cheap?Response from Bert:
Three cheers for you, Charlotte! Finding out what your community thinks is a fantastic way to test your plans, understand your strengths and challenges, understand the community's strengths and challenges, and build community support. And luckily for you, help is just a click away. Check out "Community Assessment and Planning for the Movement" (pdf) on the Best Friends site. It's a free and fabulous document that walks you through every step of surveying your community. (And no, we don't get paid to do these advertisements.) ;-) You can also find a chapter on community assessment in the "Business Planning Guide for Shelters" available from the ASPCA National Shelter Outreach. Also Caryn Ginsberg teaches an incredible online course in social marketing for Humane Society University.And by the way - three more cheers for you, because while community assessment is critical and time consuming, it doesn't have to cost what those for-profits want to charge you. AND you're going to learn so much more by doing it yourselves, PLUS in the process you'll be developing relationships that will pave the way for successful fundraising down the road. Have a blast!
Putting the vision into action
Question from Jill:
We are working on putting together a coalition. We have done a great job getting all the major players together and setting up committees, a steering committee, and our mission. We are getting stuck is on actually taking some action and putting together programs. We just don't know where to go from here and everyone is getting frustrated, because we don't want to see of our hard work fall apart. We need some direction on how to go from just having a vision to putting it into action.Response from Bert:
Jill, what great work so far! I have a few ideas for you to move your group from dreaming to doing. If you haven't already done so, you're going to need a community assessment. Some people roll their eyes at this idea because they see taking the time to conduct assessment as still not really doing anything. Others roll their eyes because they think they already know the needs and resources of their community. But until you ask, you really won't know exactly where the animals are coming from, why people aren't spay/neutering, why animals aren't getting reclaimed, what the community really thinks, etc. So get one of your committees to download "Best Friends' Guide to Community Assessment" (pdf), read the whole document. Set a target date for when they will have assessment completed, and start assigning the tasksIf you have already done your community assessment, it's time to sort out the major issues your assessment highlighted. Usually these will include things like the volume and kinds of animals coming into the system, the reasons they're coming in, etc. For each of these major issues, set a long-term (5-year) measurable objective. Then create 1-year measurable objectives as milestones along the way. To figure out how aggressively to set those objectives, do some comparisons with organizations you admire that serve communities similar to yours.
Hopefully you have a committee who will handle each of these major objectives. Once you've all agreed on the targets you're trying to reach, it's up to each committee to brainstorm ideas for reaching the targets, research those ideas to figure out which one will work the best in your situation, and then create the plans for implementing. For help with research, contact the outreach folks at national organizations: American Humane, ASPCA National Shelter Outreach, Best Friends, and HSUS. They'll be able to point you to organizations in your area of the country that can be good role models for you. They can also give you sage advice about the ideas that stand up best to scrutiny.
When you get to that point of plans for implementation, keep everything as short, simple and practical as possible: "who" will do "what" by "when". Break the work down into 30 - 90 day cycles, so that every time you convene you'll see that progress is being made. Your group will be encouraged by the momentum. The people at Imagine Chicago (www.imaginechicago.org) have done some incredible work in helping concerned citizens come together around shared issues, convene in small work groups, draft practical plans, and get the work done. Search their site for the downloadable documents. They're well worth the read!
And one last word of advice, the more time you spend planning, the faster and more successfully you'll reach your goals. So while it is important to move from "dreaming" to "doing", the first phase of "doing" is still largely talking and documenting and more talking. Help your group see the progress they're making by mapping out a time line of where you've been and where you're going. Celebrate every step along the way, no matter how small. While you're in all those meetings something wonderful is happening. You're deepening the relationships between all those people and organizations - and the stronger those relationships, the more successful you'll all be in the long run. Cheers!
Looking at ways to help animal control
Question from Katie:
I am one of a small but dedicated group of individuals trying to help a rural animal control facility. Already this animal control has done some great things. We recently had a Parvo scare and were able to test many of the dogs. We save all but 4 of them. For the first time they offered to release 2 Rotties to rescue only, instead of having them euthanized. Currently they are about 30 dogs behind what they were at this time last year. We want to help this animal control to achieve even more goals like spaying/neutering and testing of all dogs, extending the time that dogs have (from 2 - 5 days) to much longer, getting funds to expand the facility to include an isolation room for puppies, better spacing between cages and more cages, facilities for cats, spay/neuter facility, etc. As you can see, we have pretty lofty goals. One of the biggest problems that we are facing is that most of us do not live anywhere close to the animal control facility. In fact, a lot of the people who want to help do not live in the same state. I would love feedback as to our next steps from here.Response from Bert:
Wow! Clearly there's something extraordinary about the combination of players here, because your animal control is making great strides and your organization is really creative and proactive despite your geography challenges. I have a couple of thoughts for you.First, I'd start by compiling a list of all the things you have been doing that are working. Take a look at why these things are working - what are your particular skills and resources that are driving some projects down the fairway. This will give you clues about other similar projects you will be good at. In many cases, strategic improvement is a matter of keeping what's working and ditching the rest.
An additional possibility would be to gather all parties together for a planning session. Even though people are in different geographies, usually with enough lead-time people can gather from long distances. With everyone together, you can do some important relationship building and celebrating, while also doing a combined assessment of your successes in order to plan for next projects. It's not uncommon for animal control personnel to be unable to attend outside meetings due to budget constraints. Try to schedule your meeting in a place and time that will work for them. But if they absolutely cannot attend, get their input ahead of time by meeting with folks to ask for their ideas about what's already working well, what they'd like to see more of, and what they'd like to do next. That way their perspective can be in the room even if they can't be there physically. Be sure to report back, too!
Finally, I'd stretch beyond animal protection for some good models. Howard Dean's campaign comes to mind. There is no limit to the possibilities for creative organizational structures these days with the Internet and conference calling capabilities. What do other multi-geography organizations do to be successful? What kinds of communications have they found necessary to sustain growth? What kinds of projects have they learned can work long distance... and what kinds can't? I hope there's some way you can keep the forum up to date on your work. It sounds exciting. Rock on!
How to set goals
Question from Karen:
How do you know how to set reasonable goals? Obviously, our ultimate goal is to get to a point when we aren't killing any healthy animals. But we are looking for guidelines to help us set annual goals like how much to increase percentages, numbers, etc. in relation to spay/neuter, adoptions, and donations. We are afraid of setting goals that are either completely unrealistic or too easy.Response from Bert:
Yikes - it's my first day and already the hard questions! Thanks for asking this Karen. It really gets to the heart of good strategic plans. I have two pieces of advice. The first is to do as much research as you can. You're looking for organizations and communities that are ahead of you in placing all healthy animals, but enough like you in other regards that you can make fair comparisons. What was the rate of improvement that they achieved? This will give you a ballpark for determining your goals.My second piece of advice is, when in doubt - aim high. I have personally witnessed the power of a goal that is quite a stretch becoming an incredible motivator to staff, volunteers, and Board members. Everybody wants to play to win. In Appreciative Inquiry they call it "the power of the positive image". For example, professional athletes learn to tell themselves they are going to "make the shot". More often than not, they do! We had a vet tech where I used to work who would come to the adoption counter at noon, when we opened, and say, "Today I'm going to get so-and-so adopted" or "Ok guys, we're sending six cats home today"... and nine times out of ten, it came true. We all loved it, and we loved working with her because of her positive, inspiring attitude!
If you want to dig further on the issue of goal setting, check out the "Business Planning Guide for Shelters" available through the ASPCA's National Shelter Outreach. There's a whole chapter on goals. Also Caryn Ginsberg, an expert with goal setting and strategic planning, teaches online courses through Humane Society University. Good luck!
How to get groups to the table when there is animosity
Question from a member:
I liked your comments about Appreciative Inquiry, but I wonder how you go about even getting the groups to the table when they don't like each other? I don't know who in our community would be able to organize a meeting and ask everyone to come, and actually have them show. There is animosity between ALL the groups! What would you use to entice them to even get to the table to begin talking?Response from Bert:
This is the most common question I get. It speaks to the desire that so many people have to find ways to work together, and to the depth of some of the divisiveness out there. Let's see if we can capitalize on the former and be respectful of the latter.First things first, be sure collaboration is right in your situation. There are lots of fantastic reasons to collaborate, but collaboration is no magic bullet and it requires a TON of time. Check your own goals first. What specifically are you trying to accomplish, and how will collaboration specifically help with that.
If you decide collaboration is a must, plan on it being a major initiative in and of itself. In other words, someone needs to be responsible for mapping out a specific plan to surveying all the organizations, building rapport, developing projects to share, creating a communications system to keep all parties informed, addressing problems along the way, actually implementing the projects, tracking and reporting the progress, checking the marketing with all involved before its release, etc. If you're talking about collaboration between multiple groups/organizations with previously difficult shared history, you could easily be looking at a 20+ hour per week endeavor for someone for a good long time.
Start simple and concrete. Often, even in contentious situations, if the requests are clear and specific enough, people can and will work together. In the process, a relationship begins to form that can grow into something bigger and better. For example, maybe several of your local organizations will be doing something for Spay Day. You could share that information with each other in order to do some joint advertising. Whatever specific project you choose to work on together, be sure to take time when it's over to look at what worked. Celebrate it - thank people - and build from there.
Now, specifically to your point about enticement, which by the way is such smart social marketing, the answer lies with each of the groups. The best way to find out what it would take to get someone to come to the table is to ask them. I don't mean this to sound flip. It's not an easy conversation to have in some cases. I recommend the conversation guidelines and tools available at www.publicconversations.org. These folks have been studying and facilitating dialogue (including a successful long term dialogue with leaders of the pro-choice and pro-life movements) for several years. Their site is a treasure trove of helpful stuff.
Finally, there are many folks in the Appreciative Inquiry circle (and I'm one of them) who has a lot of faith in the "law of two feet". In a nutshell, whoever shows up are the right people. So work with them. If you do so in a positive way, have lots of fun, celebrate your successes, and keep a standing, sincere and welcoming invitation to others to join...eventually, most people won't resist. If for no other reason than self preservation, I prefer to spend my energy working with the people who want to work with me and trust that other people are getting what they need elsewhere.
Getting staff viewpoints to be considered by the Director
Question from Joan:
Our shelter is currently a limited admission shelter. However, our Director wants to change it to open admission, and has been holding meetings to get the Board in agreement with this as part of the long-term goals. The problem I see is that they didn't invite staff (which I am). So we have had no input and don't want to go open admission, because it will mean just killing a lot more animals. We don't have a spay/neuter program in place, or any behavioral counseling, or any structure to help lower the numbers being killed. Our Board isn't very hands on, so they pretty much listen to what the Director advises.We can't, as staff, go above our Director to talk to the Board. So how can we get our feelings across about this decision before it becomes part of the five-year plan?
Response from Bert:
If I had a magic wand, I'd make it a law of the universe that the people who are impacted by decisions get to be part of making the decisions. And now... back to reality.First, I want to emphasize your point. You need a good spay/neuter program (and arguably one that's been running for some time) and a behavior counseling program. And I would add a thriving foster care program, increased adoption options, and a strong core of volunteers as well for transitioning to open admission without dramatically increasing euthanasia. Interestingly, I would say the exact same thing for transitioning in the other direction. No matter what the philosophy of an organization, saving lives is accomplished through good programs and lots of paid and volunteer labor.
Your situation underscores some of what I said yesterday about the value of having staff involved in the long range planning. Perhaps it's not too late to add that value here. First step would be to talk with your Director. Approach her/him with a sincere desire to help. It's always a good idea to begin by emphasizing with what you agree on. If you look, there are probably many things in this category... serving the community well, saving as many lives as possible, having a financially strong organization, etc. Then ask some open-ended questions to get detailed information about the short and long term plans and how your Director hopes the transition will go. And practice your best listening skills. Perhaps there are more to the plans than you've been informed. Ask for an opportunity to share your concerns, and for her/his help to figure out a way that this transition can work well for the organization and especially for the people and the animals. The Public Conversations Project is a great resource for planning such a conversation. Another tried-and-true classic for orchestrating win/win conversations is "Getting to Yes" by Fisher, Ury and Patton.
If your Director won't meet with you or the meeting goes badly, in most cases there is a redress option to go the Board of Directors. Usually it's only forbidden to go around the Director, but if that channel fails you can talk with someone from the Board. I hope it won't come to this, but nonprofit bylaws are public information, so you are entitled to learn about your redress options and to use them. Bear in mind you will probably not be meeting with a friendly Board if you're doing so against the good wishes of your Director. So it will be especially important to hone your dialogue and diplomacy skills for such a meeting.
Finally, perhaps a neutral third party could be of some assistance here. American Humane, ASPCA National Shelter Outreach, Best Friends, and HSUS all have animal protection people who consult onsite with organizations. Under a variety of circumstances they offer information, guidance, ideas about resources, etc. Find out who your organization has a good relationship with, and see if they can help facilitate a constructive conversation.
Hard as it may be, whichever route(s) you attempt, stay focused on your ultimate concerns, the welfare of the staff and the welfare of the animals, which comes through loud and clear in your question above. Don't let yourself get side tracked by the frustrations of closed power structures, lack of communication, or bad plans. I can honestly say that in over twenty years of working with families, groups, and organizations, those issues are almost always the result of ignorance rather than bad intentions. The more positive, helpful and hopeful you can keep the conversation, the safer it will be for others to acknowledge what they might not be sure about, so that you can begin to make the plans better, together. Good luck.
Can the San Francisco model work in other communities?
Question from Melanie:
I am very impressed by the San Francisco model and what they have done there. I have gathered a lot of information and presented it to our local shelter, but they say that San Francisco is so different from most areas that it is unrealistic to assume we can do it in the Midwest. Do you think that the San Francisco model can duplicated nationwide?Response from Bert:
I share your enthusiasm for the San Francisco model, Melanie. Since I'm one of those people who loves to prove the nay-sayers wrong, I guess I'd lean towards a short answer of "anything's possible". Now let's dig into the San Francisco model a bit, because there are so many pieces to it that surely some of it will fit anywhere.First and foremost, San Francisco put a lot of time into the planning for a new public agency, known as Animal Care and Control. They included government officials, the SFSPCA, the police and health departments, activists and community members in their planning. Representatives of each of these groups met regularly for more than a year to design and implement the transition process. The person who would be (and still is) the head of the Department, Carl Friedman, was a key player in the planning. Carl's position was created in 1989, as a City Department Head. This means that Carl has the same level of authority as other department heads. He can lobby directly for the needs of his Department, rather than being a portion of the budget for the police or health departments, which is more typically the case. Once the Department was created and the agency opened its doors, it was another five years (1989 - 1994) before the famous adoption pact went into effect.
During all that planning and transition time, the SFSPCA was busily and creatively spaying and neutering every animal who's people wouldn't get it done without help - to the tune of some 10,000+ low or no cost surgeries for several years. Spay/neuter is still a high volume operation for them even today
It was the split between public and private services that enabled the SFSPCA to reallocate resources toward prevention (aggressive spay/neuter and collaboration with feral cat advocates). This allowed them to finally take a significant whack at the raw numbers. This put both agencies (the public animal care and control and the private SPCA) in a better position to save the lives of the animals coming through their doors. By making the distinction between open door operations and limited admission operations, they were able to further their progress, because instead of duplicating efforts, they could each specialize - which saves time and money.
One thing they still both do is adoptions. And they both do exceptional work in this area, including convenient hours and multilingual, knowledgeable staff - and have high adoption rates
Probably everyone who knows him would agree that Carl Friedman is an extraordinary leader and public servant. He is clear about the mission of his agency and unwavering in his conviction that animal care and control is an important, needed service that the public should fund. As a result, SFACC is probably one of the best funded ACC's in the country. I believe this has less to do with demographics and more to do with Carl's leadership. If it were demographics, every wealthy community in the country would have a well funded ACC. That is clearly not the case!
There's no question that there are unique factors at work in San Francisco. Their geography makes community definition relatively simple. Their SPCA has been blessed with bigger-than-life visionaries and fundraisers. Their politics make fertile ground for lots of creative ideas to be winning ideas (like Rich Avanzino's infamous "Bucks for Balls" campaign. And they have a lot of wealth in their community. But I think it's a little too easy for the rest of us to write off what's been accomplished, because it was accomplished in San Francisco. In fact, the folks in Richmond, Virginia, will tell you that the model can be successfully imported to another community. And even for those who can't or don't want to adopt the full San Francisco model, who among us could argue with some of the mechanics: spending time to plan well, investing in high volume spay/neuter, increasing adoption options, and leading the community so that they value and pay for animal care and control services?!
Can groups really get together and focus on the positives instead of the negatives
Question from Rebecca:
One of the links in your bio talks about appreciative inquiry. I have heard a very little bit about that. I wondered if you could give the cliff's notes version of what it is and how it works? We have a lot of groups in our area that we have a hard time even getting in the same room, let alone agreeing on anything. It sounds great, but I wonder if it will work with groups that have had long histories of not working together and bad blood?Response from Bert:
One of my favorite subjects - thanks for asking! Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a positive, proactive approach to creating change that asks what is already working and how do we build on it? In other words, AI is positive reinforcement applied to group process and planning. It offers a refreshing break from our propensity to focus on problems.As the name implies, the two basic tools of AI are appreciation (attention, focus) and inquiry (asking good questions, searching for meaning). The questions make it possible for people to communicate differently than they have in the past, so they can reach new understanding and work together well.
It's a great approach for animal protection because...
The basics of positive reinforcement are familiar to the field, so AI is easily learned and practiced.
It's a great tool for a variety of organizational improvement activities, including team building, customer service, and fundraising.
By starting with positives, we reduce the likelihood for guilt, blame, and defensiveness getting in the way of communication and progress.
With AI everyone involved has a voice in creating the vision and the plan.
By involving everyone, change is faster and more sustainable.
Now, specifically to your question about long histories and bad blood, it depends on whether the players are motivated to end the bad blood and move forward. I've worked with a number of contentious groups using AI, and the results can be absolutely extraordinary... to the point that people leave amazed at how well they got along and how much they got accomplished. But in every case, these people wanted to get to that point. My advice is always work with the people who want to work with you, and leave the door open so that others can see what you're up to. Give an open invitation to step in when they're ready. Your local groups may have had enough of the negativity and may all be ready to find a way to move on, so you can be successful for animals. However, if they're still invested in attacking one another, start with the groups who want to collaborate.
One more thing about AI - sometimes people are turned off by AI. They think it's naive... denying the existence of problems and calling things "great" when they're not. Besides the fact that the success of the model is grounded in tons of research from many disciplines (which you can read about at the AI Commons on the Case Western University web site), AI is simply a way of starting from your strengths. That means allowing you to be better at overcoming obstacles. Just like if a dog is jumping on people, you might take his springiness as an opportunity to teach him to spin, and then add a cue so that he spins in the presence of visitors instead of jumping on them.
Comment from Jeannette:
How can we ever expect all rescue groups to work together for the common good of the animals when, clearly, so many groups have the opposing goals. Sure, everyone claims they want to decrease the animal overpopulation, stop the killing, stop the abuse, and on and on. However, if most of these same people would stop and analyze the effects of many of the things they are doing, they would see that they are not only working against themselves and their goals, but also doing a grave injustice to all animals. I see the two major problems causing harm to animals as 1) the majority of the human population not seeing that animals are sentient beings, creatures of worth, and creatures worthy of respect, protection, and rights; and 2) the breeding of more and more of them.There are rescue groups who work in conjunction with businesses who buy and sell animals from breeders. Some even work directly with breeders. There are rescue groups who exploit animals themselves with the types of events they put on.
Many people think it's perfectly harmless to have little contests where animals are dressed in costumes, or have agility and whatever sort of contests. This practice helps instill in the public that animals are toys or things for pleasure.
There is nothing about any animal wearing a tutu or sunglasses that is natural or educational. Anyone wanting to play dress-up or push *something* around in a baby stroller should get a doll. All this does nothing to educate the public about the animal. It does nothing to instill in the public that animals are creatures of worth and worthy of our respect. All they see is, "How fun!" "How cute!" And, again, it only helps keep a market going for breeders.
True story... I had a guy doing yard work for me. He asked me if he could *borrow* one of my baby potbellied pigs to take to Mardi Gras. He said he could dress the pig up in a costume and everyone would have a great time.
I said, "Sure in exchange, I'll *borrow* one of your children and do the same thing."
He looked at me with surprise, and then got insulted. I told him that his suggestion was no less appalling to me than mine was to him. It took him a minute to recover, but it made him think. He ended up getting the message, which is that living creatures are not toys and not here for entertainment. People say to help the program we have to have fun and keep it entertaining, and we should only involve ourselves in that and not bring the animals directly into it. At that point, we are exploiting the animals and decreasing their worthiness. If you asked the animals what we consider fun and what they consider fun, it would be two entirely different opinions.
I strongly believe there are reasons why, after over a hundred years of trying to stop animal abuse, and after billions of dollars and hours spent to rescue animals and save lives, we continue to have millions of them to this day suffering and dying. All of those reasons can't be blamed on lack of legislation or lack of caring by the general public. As a matter of fact, much of what we do has prevented us from getting the much needed legislation and public awareness. We help instill the wrong ideas into everyone about what animals really are and how they should be treated. So how can we all ever work together? More importantly, whether we work together or continue working separately, we must all concentrate on working in ways do not cause more harm to the animals. If we all concentrated on the latter, we wouldn't need to work as one group. We would automatically become ONE group, and the animals would finally win as a result.
Response from Bert:
I think I know how you feel, Jeannette. I have days where I think we have so far to go before we all see and treat animals as sentient beings that I just want to get back in bed and pull the covers over my head. Since that neither helps animals nor earns a paycheck, I've realized I need to find a way to meet people where they are. I need to see how I can help them take the next step towards "enlightenment". Because I realize that I was once one of the more irresponsible dog "owners" on the planet, I have hope that if enough of us practice positive reinforcement we'll teach people to be humane towards animals (and others), making the world a better place for all... everyday. Keep the faith.Tips on what should be included in strategic planning
Question from Debra:
I'm interested in learning more about strategic planning. In addition to your book that I assume is available on the HSUS website (if not please let me know how I can receive it) are there any other books you recommend. Also, what is the number one mistake that shelters make when planning, and what is the number one thing they should always include?Response from Bert:
Hi, Debra, you can get "Making Plans to Make a Difference" by emailing outreach@aspca.org. My very favorite book on strategy is "Built to Last" by James Collins and Jerry Porras, with a close second being "The Fifth Discipline Field Guide" by Peter Senge. You will also find some amazing (free!) articles on every aspect of strategic thinking and planning and check out Appreciative Inquiry (AI) strategic planning at the AI Commons.Hmmmm, number one mistake... how about if we look at some challenges and optimal outcomes?
First, strategic planning takes a lot of time. Don't cut corners. It's worth every minute, as the planning not only gives you a well thought out plan, but it builds your organization's knowledge and teamwork in the process.
Strategic planning should include all of the stakeholders (i.e., all the people who will affect or be affected by the decisions). It may be hard to have so many hundreds or thousands of people in one room. So bring their voices and perspectives into the planning process by taking the time to interview samples from each group ahead of time. There are some great interview guides available in the tools section of the AI Commons site referenced above.
The best strategic plans are those that are dog-eared. In other words, a strategic plan is a working document - and many pieces of it will change as you work through it. If your plan is any good, it will be written as the result of the efforts of many people. It will be in plain language with lots of bulleted lists and clear targets and dates. And, it will have lots of fingerprints, coffee stains, and side bar notes all over it. Oh... and you'll see copies of it (equally dog-eared) in just about every office at your place!
The process of the planning is as important as the document (maybe more so). Getting your team to think and plan together builds mutual understanding, better communication. It also increases the likelihood that you've considered everything you need to in order for the plan to actually "work". If you don't already have your organization working together like a happy, well-oiled machine, look for a facilitator who will help you with a strategic planning process that builds great teamwork along the way.
Finally, strategic planning is fun... at least it should be. Oh sure, there are parts that are hard and parts that are tedious, but overall, successful strategic planning is a fun and energizing process. If yours isn't fun and energizing, get yourself a facilitator (or a new one), because, just like in training dogs, the more fun we make it - the better results we'll get (and the fewer gray hairs in the process). Enjoy!
Getting groups to give up control so a coalition can succeed
Question from a member:
What is the best way to convince individuals and groups to give up control so that collaborative efforts can succeed?Response from Bert:
And can we start this conversation with general acknowledgement that our field is a bunch of control freaks? First, before anyone gets too mad, I include myself under that label. Second, we - as a field - are accountable for the very lives of the beings we care for (and about. When the stakes are high, the desire for control is understandably high!So, in answer to your question, control generally stems from one of two places. It can be fear or anger. For example, "I'm afraid this is going to be a lot more work that I don't have time for," or "I'm afraid my Board will blame me if my organization doesn't get top billing," or "I'm mad that you left me hanging when my organization needed you, and I'm not going to be vulnerable to that again."
To keep control from getting in the way of your efforts, go around it. Deal directly with what's important to people (see below). Once the fear and anger are resolved or diminished, people find it a lot easier to gradually relinquish control. Note that I said gradually! When you are ready to get your collaboration working on shared projects, start with small, simple, low stakes projects. Celebrate your success, and build from there.
Getting beyond control issues:
Since we've talked a little this week about Appreciative Inquiry, here is a sample Appreciative Inquiry format to help people feel comfortable loosening control. You can use this to think about your own issues, to help people talk in pairs, and to encourage small group discussions. Note that it works from a positive reinforcement point of view. Rather than concentrating on what isn't working, we concentrate on learning from what has worked in the past. Sometimes this is enough to move groups forward. If more work is needed to deal directly with negatives, this conversation provides a healthy foundation from which people can talk about negatives more comfortably. Good luck!
Why did you decide to get involved in this collaborative effort? What are you hoping for? When you let your imagination run, what do you dream could be possible by working together?
Tell me about a time that you think of as a group effort "highpoint" - a time that, in hindsight, has been a moment of great meaning or learning in your life, either personally, or professionally, or both. Perhaps this was a time of great achievement, or when you had to trust others more than you'd like. Perhaps you had to really challenge yourself to stay involved in this effort. What happened? Who was there? Why does this moment mean so much to you? What did you do that made this highpoint possible? What did others do to make it possible? What is your insight about working well with groups as a result of this experience?
Without being humble, tell me what you value about yourself as a person. How about what you value most about working on behalf of animals? What do you value most about your group or organization? What has your group or organization added to your life... to the world?
As you look around our community and our field, what new directions and trends do you see emerging that give you hope for the success of our collective efforts?
Lao Tzu said, "Every journey begins with a single step." What is one step you want to take in order to make this collaboration a successful effort for all of our groups, and especially, for the animals.
Developing common language rather than divisive terms
Question from Cindy:
One of our biggest challenges in getting the local groups to work together is developing common language. We have found that "no-kill" is very divisive to some, but those that are proud to be no-kill are offended if we suggest not using it. This discussion has resulted in a bunch of heated meetings that have gone nowhere. If we can't even decide on terminology, how can we ever start putting programs together?Response from Bert:
Boy Cindy, have you touched on a hot topic! Language is so powerful. We humans base our knowledge, opinions and feelings on the meaning we derive from words.When I was a family therapist I learned that the words a family used to describe their situation made all the difference in the world for their child's sense of identity. For example, "Jimmy is a terrible child" versus "We need help with Jimmy". Later, when working our Humane Society adoption counter, I learned to stop asking, "Why are you surrendering Sadie?" and start asking, "How can we help you with Sadie?" The net result of changing a few words turned a number of potential surrenders into salvaged relationships. For the animals who were still ultimately surrendered, the more open question led to better conversations about the real needs of those people and those animals. Before this country was officially a country, Jefferson and Franklin spent weeks in heated debate as to whether the phrase should be "God given rights" or "unalienable rights". Their care with language, and the time they spent on it, is much appreciated.
All this is to say that I think you're on the right track in spending time and having meetings on language. I think all you need now is 1) clear acknowledgement that language IS important and willingness from all parties to take the time needed, and 2) a good process (structure) for your conversations.
Where people usually get tripped up in conversations about language is in rushing too quickly to suggestions. This encourages everyone to take a position and defend it, and/or reject others' ideas. Whammo, loggerheads!!! Instead you want to back everyone up to focus on their own ideas and feelings about the meaning of the words in play. When we start by getting clear about our own ideas and feelings, it's then easier both to speak calmly and to listen to others fully. The next step is to understand what is important to all concerned. Then finally, you can begin to talk about possible options for language that will work for all.
Often people find they ultimately end up with language that was suggested right from the start. Does this mean the process was a waste of time? Nope! In the process of understanding ourselves better and feeling truly heard by others, most of us find it easier, even desirable, to compromise.
If you decide you want help with structure and facilitation, look for a facilitator trained in dialogue, family therapists, mediators, and some religious leaders are a good place to start.
Also, earlier in the week I mentioned the Public Conversations Project (www.publicconversations.org) and the extraordinary work they've done with leaders from the pro-life and pro-choice movements. You may find it interesting to read these leaders' own statements about the importance of taking the time to find words that worked for all of them You'll also find helpful guidelines for having these kinds of conversations on that website.
Finally, everything seems easier once at least someone - somewhere - has accomplished it. Three cheers for the Denver Alliance and its groundbreaking work in developing acceptable language and shared definitions for its participating organizations!
Getting staff involved in making changes when they have become jaded
Question from Nancy:
How do you get the staff excited and involved in finding ways to save lives when many of them have been there a very long time and are set in their ways? I just started working as a volunteer coordinator at a shelter. Whenever I ask about trying something a new way, I get the reply, "We tried that 3 years ago and it didn't work" or "That would be too much work." I keep telling them we have this great volunteer database that could help with things, but they don't think volunteers are reliable. As a result, our volunteers feel completely unwanted by the staff and often don't come back.Response from Bert:
I have been where you are and it's not a pretty place. When people lose hope, they start to close the door on all kinds of great opportunities. The whole thing becomes a terrible downward spiral.In my case, I was the new boss. So I was in a very different position from you, as I could "make" the staff attend training, try new things, etc. But honestly, I learned the hard way that once people have lost hope, they need professional intervention or they need to move on. Fortunately in my case, my Board was willing to invest in our staff. We hired an organizational development consultant who worked closely with us for four years. We did everything from team building, to staff training, to communications training, to reorganization, and full scale strategic planning. It's not for the faint of heart, but the good news is our staff learned to adore volunteers and embrace new ideas. I tell you this not to brag, but so you know it's possible.
Now you'll need a different strategy since you don't have the same authority as a volunteer that I had as a Director. But what you do have is the freedom to do what you want (within reason) without Board approval. I think the best model might be to move far enough away from the shelter staff that you don't need them for much. But stay close enough that they develop more and more trust in you and enthusiasm for what you're doing. This sounds like a job for an auxiliary. I would contact the outreach folks in your region from the national organizations, American Humane, ASPCA National Shelter Outreach, Best Friends, and HSUS. Ask them whom they know in your region that is running a "friends of" group for their local animal control. "Friends of" groups started as a way to provide added help (in efforts and dollars) to municipal organizations without violating union or funding rules. Many of these groups around the country run very successful fundraising events, animal promotions, and foster care programs. Some have become the darlings of the organizations they sponsor. Get in touch with a few in your area and find out how they got started and how they operate.
I do not intend to imply here that you should have to work so hard just to help. You shouldn't, but usually, and unfortunately, people have closed down because of bad experiences much like many of the dogs and cats who have learned to fear people. We don't turn our backs on these animals; instead we learn how to rebuild their trust if it's possible. It's good practice for us to do the same with people. Good luck.
Member comments
Comment from Alex:
I thought this might also help regarding meetings. I just went through Project Management Training for work, and we had a whole unit on meetings. Much of it is covered below.One suggestion is to appoint an appropriate person (personality wise) to be the timekeeper. Literally use a bell, gong, gavel, or whatever works to keep the time. Eventually people will realize there is no choice but to follow the rules.
Also, we learned from our instructors that allowing 'bad behavior', such as talking over people, showing up late, any other negative habits is encouraging that behavior. Until this behavior is deemed unacceptable and negative consequences result, the bad behavior will continue, as it is human nature. So yes, it will take effort from everyone, but Bert is right in thinking that this might be the perfect time to change/establish the ground rules for more productive meetings.
