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.