My Two Cents_05B

I have to credit United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) for always fueling my fire. I literally get upset every time I visit its site.

I thought it would be helpful all the way 'round to start this section by recommending its Mission Driven Business consulting services, which the national office offers its affiliates and other nonprofits (outside the network) in areas such as finance, strategy, and leadership. Two would-be advantages of engaging MDB vs. one of the previously mentioned consultancies? I'd expect a higher level of understanding of what it's like to operate within the CP sphere. And -- at a lower cost. Probably much lower.

In true UCP fashion, however, online references to this offering haven’t been updated in years. Crawl the web the way I just did and you’ll get...

Crickets. 

Pathetic.

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Doing more with less and working smarter -- not than, but -- with the next guy will be dominant themes of this series. As I've written before, "Our CP community may very well be under-funded, under-appreciated, and under-other-things. But those of us in it don't have to be under-ambitious, under-clever, or under-hard-working." There are other, less-expensive ways to take advantage of the leading consultancies' stocks-in-trade. 

For examples, they write books and white papers. They host webinars. And I still like -- for tips and tools you can put into practice right away -- newsletters. (digital) I say you can't go too far wrong subscribing to these four (4) today: The Bridgespan Group's Knowledge Letter, TCC Group's E-News, FSG's eNewsletter, and The Management Fix by The Management Center.

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Who are you gonna call, on the other hand, if you want to become a more effective special needs parent? Probably not the wise guys and gals I've been referencing. You could, however, get up to speed with David Allen and his Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Mr. Allen is a management consultant and coach, and, since the publication of his first book in 2001, a "personal productivity guru". I'll have a lot more to say later about the personal productivity of the millions of us. For now, you may want to explore his company's various offerings @ gtd.com.

My Two Cents_05A

There are so many avenues for learning what the best and brightest management thinkers may have to teach us. Let me start with consultants and what they offer.

BTW: I’m no consultant myself, nor do I play one on YouTube. However, I do keep fairly close tabs on 'em -- like a political junkie in some ways -- and believe some are doing compelling, interesting, and promising work.

What do consultants do? Generally speaking, they:

• study how individuals and organizations address key challenges and opportunities 

• look for and help bring about success stories  

• rub elbows with top managers and academics

• create frameworks, tools, and techniques for others to use (to get the favorable results they seek).

We'd be foolish not to avail ourselves of the good ones' know-how and know-what.

Ideally, I’d like to see rich, vibrant, and ongoing exchanges between the CP and consultancy worlds. We should be clamoring to build relationships and to make connections, specifically with big-time, reputable firms that specialize in nonprofit management. If we want to get better faster, we should engage the services of a Bridgespan Group, FSG, The Management Center, or TCC Group. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Any could swoop in and help our organizations or multi-stakeholder networks adopt "better ways of doing." 

What’s to hold us back? Well, the cost for one. 

Consultants’ services come with high price tags attached. They go where the money is. And none of us seem to have it, which may explain why we don’t seem to be on their radar and vice versa.  I haven’t done an exhaustive study, but I've never come across a consultant's case study or white paper to the contrary, and I see very few even casual associations. (The Bridgespan Group “likes” The New York Stem Cell Foundation on Facebook. There's one.) 

So, what do we do? Just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, too rich for our blood?"

Nope.

We learn from them in other ways.