I love hearing about how much progress you’re making in the work you do. And wow, do our clients do a lot of long term, amazing changemaking work.

Last week, a new acquaintance shared with me his organization’s year and a half long strategy to support communities in securing for more public funding for youth programs. In addition to a full analysis of funding streams, coaching on how to find additional funding and a clear, easy-to-read data dashboard, the organization also provides in-depth support for a community-based leader so they can build internal capacity to move the work forward.

Genius!

Like us, they do not want our clients to rely on consultants in order to continue their work.

We want our clients to be able to get the skills and information, mindsets and networks to move the work forward themselves. We don’t want them to be reliant upon us. We don’t want them to hire us (or any consultant) again and again. We want them to move forward, confidently. And we want their work to advance. To grow. To make a difference. To do the thing it was meant to do.

But, what happens when: a lot of time, energy, effort and money has been invested in building one individual’s capacity to lead the work and then that person wins an all expenses paid trip around the globe? <Gasp!>

That person leaves. And then… People are upset. Funders are annoyed. The project stalls. Documents are lost. Relationships stale. Frustration abounds.

>>Not so helpful to moving the needle on change.<<

So how, do you continue changemaking work when the individual people come and go? Keep reading 👇👇👇

Accept that changemaking work by its very nature requires change.

In your place-based community initiative, one thing is constant—any you know what that is: CHANGE. I’m always surprised when clients are surprised that everything in their initiative has changed. It’s supposed to change! That’s what we’re doing here: We.Are.Making.Change. So embrace it. And navigate your work with that expectation.

That means that the situation, the context, the environment, the partners, the players, the funding, the investments, the locations, the community, the resources, the interest, the passion, the policy, the media, the darlings and the despised will, absolutely 100% change.

Commit to a vision and values, but release your grip on the strategic plan.

It's time to ditch the old-school strategic plans and dive headfirst into living by your guiding values. While strategic plans offer structure, they often buckle under the weight of uncertainty and hinder creativity. Embracing guiding values, on the other hand, provides a flexible and authentic approach to navigating change.

By letting go of rigid plans and staying true to values, you unlock innovation, adaptability, and a deeper sense of purpose. It's like trading in your clunky roadmap for a sleek GPS that recalculates your route in real-time—empowering you to thrive in the ever-changing world. Read more of our thoughts on values and strategic plans!

Remember that this is not about you; it’s not even about your organization.

When you have such deep passion, deep commitment and investment, it can feel like the success of the initiative is fully centered on your organization. When that feeling comes up, notice it and let it go. Changemaking work at community and systems levels must place the overarching mission or purpose in the center and consider all organizations, agencies and partners as a constellation of players working toward realizing that purpose. Even if you are a convener, your organization is not in the center. There is not one leader in changemaking work—there is a network of leaders.

Jane Wei-Skillern and friends write extensively about this networked approach to leadership. The illustration below shows how most organizations tend to see themselves at the center of universe, with many potential stakeholders situated around them that they can collaborate with to help further in their mission.

The essential shift is to see ourselves as part of a larger, interconnected system of different actors and organizations working to further a shared mission. The illustration below shows what the networked system looks like when the shared purpose is centered.

When you keep the focus on creating a constellation of supporters to achieve a shared purpose, the leadership, responsibility, ownership and momentum is spread across the initiative, rather than concentrated into one person or one organization. Then, when individuals move in and out of the initiative, you don’t come to a full stop. Others can pick up the activities and carry the momentum forward.

Support this work through transformational capacity building.

Capacity building is the secret weapon to ensure sustained systems change work. Through a transformational capacity building approach, you “build and strengthen the systems, structures, cultures, skills, resources, and power that organizations need to serve their communities” (Nishimura, Sampath, Le, Sheikh, & Valenzuela, 2020). Intentionally structuring and facilitating capacity building offers the opportunity to mirror and model the ways we want leaders to interact with staff, staff with young people and families and cross-sector partners with their partners and participants.

We think about transformational capacity building through three lenses: WHO does the work, HOW they do it and WHAT they do or produce. For most of our clients, this means that we support them by empowering leaders, maximizing resources and strengthening programs and services so they can continue their systems change work even in light of staff transitions, leadership and funding changes.

Take your best next step now.

You know the saying:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”

If you want to sustain your changemaking work, even in light of transitions, you need to act now—not when the transition is impending.

You’ve got this. Keep going! ❤️