Using Scenarios Planning for Nonprofits and Community Initiatives in Uncertain Times

Three 2-hour sessions

inquire about offering this course to your group

 

Harbinger is pleased to offer this course with David Moore of Moore Strategic Consulting — a consultancy focused on building high-performing impact organizations that are working to improve opportunities for others.

COVID turned the world inside out for many nonprofits and community-based organizations, and made many felt caught in crisis mode, having to endlessly rethink programs, budgets, and staffing. Many gave up on planning altogether, or felt in limbo, unable to venture a confident guess about the assumptions that would go into their usual planning approach.

The thing is, regardless of uncertainty (COVID-driven or otherwise) we all know planning is critical to the success of our organizations and community initiatives. Spending time on the hamster wheel of planning, replanning, quitting, and starting again can make decision-making difficult, lead to suffering programs and donor relationships, and make it harder and harder to stay on mission.

Scenarios planning works better than traditional, linear planning approaches when uncertainty is high and the future seems unpredictable. This course will help you identify alternate future scenarios and conditions that could shape your work in very different ways; identify action steps that will be effective and relevant in a variety of these alternate situations; gain enough insight to make choices with confidence; and identify key inflection points to help you identify when changes in conditions signal a need to take change direction.

In this course, you will:

  • Learn a straightforward scenario-planning process that you can apply right away, as the course goes along.

  • Practice moving from a reactive, crisis stance to proactive forward-facing leadership.

  • Understand how your organization is impacted by different emerging future possibilities.

  • Identify strategies that can serve the organization well across a range of different future realities.

  • Identify key indicators that may signal a need to change direction.

  • Learn thinking strategies to organize and manage in highly uncertain times.

  • Boost your confidence in your ability to guide your organization in different conditions.

IS THERE HOMEWORK?

Yes! That’s the point. Sessions are scheduled with a week off in between to give you ample time to apply what you’re learning to your own organization and come prepared to explore and deepen your insights.

This might be a solo exercise for you, or you might decide to bring part of your leadership team or staff into the process. We suggest you plan to spend four hours in each of the two-week interims applying the ideas from the previous session to your situation.

 

WHO IS THIS FOR?

This course is designed for decision makers and leadership team members in organizations working to support and improve community conditions, including:

  • Nonprofit executive directors and senior leadership

  • Board leadership

  • Staff and volunteer leaders of community-based organizations

  • Organizational leadership consultants

  • Community development professionals

 

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

David Moore, President, Moore Strategic

David works closely with national nonprofit organizations, local education foundations, community-based organizations, municipalities and research organizations to strengthen organizational impact. He coaches and consults with CEOs, leadership teams, boards and partnership structures to increase leverage, return on investment and community impact. He has been an advocate and partner with dozens of organizations strengthening community engagement, strategic planning, board development and partnership strategies.

David is a trusted advisor providing strategic leadership and facilitation. David draws from extensive experience in a variety of facilitation approaches to guides teams and organizations to produce results.

With an Ed.D. from the University of Cincinnati, an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Capital University, David combines the best of academic and research with practical experience and community knowledge to help shape educational models, organizations and communities.

 

Michele Archie, Principal, The Harbinger Consultancy

Michele draws from long experience with human and organizational resilience training; community dialogue program development and facilitation; and consensus decision-making processes to foster organizational improvement and durable community connections.

Michele helps conservation, heritage and community economic development organizations collaborate with small towns and rural communities to achieve preservation, economic and community benefits. She helps guide the development of regional collaboratives, strategic engagement and community-driven initiatives.

Michele’s approach has always been integrative and multi-disciplinary. She holds an M.S. from the University of Montana’s famously cross-disciplinary and action-oriented Environmental Studies program and a B.A. from Gonzaga University in political science.

SESSION DATES AND TIMES

Three live, two-hour video conference sessions

Inquire about dates or offering this course to your group.

MORE DETAILS

  • Sessions available for replay in case you need to miss a session or want to review.

  • Includes a post-course one-on-one or team consultation session to address your particular situation and needs.

  • $575 regular course fee

  • Discounts for multiple participants from the same organization:

    • $375 each for 2-4 participants

    • Contact us to discuss discounts for 5 or more

SESSIONS

Session 1: Getting Started with Scenarios

  • Approach

  • Assumptions

  • Shaping your own situation

Session 2: Emerging Scenarios

  • Moving from assumptions to scenarios

  • Imagining possibilities and responses

Session 3: Building Strategies

  • Essential strategies in all situations

  • Inflection points and planning for flexibility