Author Archives: Susan Low

College of Applied Biology

In April 2012, Susan co-planned and facilitated an action planning session for the College of Applied Biology, a regulatory body overseeing the qualifications and professional credentials of Registered Biology Professionals (RPBios) and related designations. After the session, we received this glowing review from a participant:

Thanks for your work Susan.  Like I said to you at the meeting, that was one of the very few SAPs that I’ve actually felt like we accomplished what we set out to do.  Your skill at being able to keep the discussions on task were invaluable.  Really looking forward to working with you again!

We’re excited about working with the College too. Biologists are fun!

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Lifelong learning… or how I learned not to waste a moment

This has been a nice quiet week at Directis – I’ve just wrapped up final reports on a few projects and I’m waiting for a couple of new projects to begin next week. In years past I would have used a week like this to go shopping, stay home and read novels, or surf Facebook. I guess I must have grown up sometime in the last 12-18 months because this week I’ve actually been just as busy as when there were five projects in the cooker.

Here are some of the topics I’ve been researching and working on this week:

  • industry research – getting to know the lay of the land in two new industries where I have customers or prospects, so I can respond intelligently to their business challenges and opportunities.
  • business governance (as opposed to non-profit governance) – finding ways to translate “corporate” governance models from the land of the Fortune 500 to family businesses or just small businesses.
  • Certified Management Consultant designation – I have started compiling engagement summaries from the past few years to present my qualifications for the CMC designation.
  • Appreciative Inquiry as a basis for strategic planning – if you got my newsletter you read the article about building from your strengths.

I’ve been a busy little beaver! I know that in a couple of months it will be time for my annual Birthday strategic planning retreat, so I’m also looking at my strat plan and reflecting on what’s been done, what is outstanding and what became irrelevant as the year wore on and things evolved. In short, I’m doing outstandingly well on my goals and there will be some key strategic decisions to make this summer about how I take it onwards from here.

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ROI and Social Media

On this fine Saturday afternoon, I am sitting on a bench overlooking an arm of the Fraser River, across from the Olympic Oval in Richmond and just within wifi range of Harbour Air’s terminal. I’m reading a BCBusiness magazine, and there is an article about viral videos.

The article brings up the subject of how much money companies may (or may not) be spending on social media, and the fact that there are apparently companies popping up whose market offering is their expertise in measuring the effectiveness of social-video advertising.

Frankly, I think that anyone who purports to give you an adequate measure of the “effectiveness” of your social media is pulling one over on you. I have yet to see a reasonably disciplined, reliable and valid method of demonstrating the value of social media and, many experts have opined, on marketing as a whole. There’s the old nugget “we know that 50% of our marketing is working; we just don’t know which 50%.”

I am open to being corrected, but I think that consultants claiming to show you ROI on your social media budget (counting both time and money) are going to, at best, describe some qualitative signs that your brand perception has shifted. Hopefully they will have a sample size of customers that is statistically significant, and they will have employed some kind of valid research techniques including control groups etc. to tell you that there is a causal relationship between your social media activities and increases in your revenue. Because frankly, having people “feel good” about your company isn’t worth diddly-squat until it translates into dollars paid. From what I’ve seen, most social media practitioners/consultants are unable to make that link conclusively.

I’m not advocating for people to ditch their social media, just that they not fool themselves that it is a speculative and unproven thing to spend your money on. Back there in business school we were taught to look at what the ROI and “return period” is for an investment, and decide what is a reasonable time frame for the results of a decision to yield a positive gain over the amount spent. Social media hasn’t really been around long enough to conclusively show that it has a positive ROI for many of not most companies who are making those investments. That doesn’t say you shouldn’t do it – but caveat emptor. And don’t believe anyone who can tell you they can measure your results – they might give you a # of hits or click-throughs but only YOU can measure the result in your bottom line.

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What’s a mandate? Should we have one?

A few organizations I’ve worked with recently have discussed adding a “mandate” to their strategic plan to describe their purpose with a little more detail than their “mission statement” which they wish to make short and memorable.

This points to the problem of SEMANTICS which is haunting strategic planning, and turning into an icky mess of word-smithery. This is really more a non-profit organization issue more than a small business issue, because most entrepreneurs don’t have to coordinate a decision-making group like a board, so strategic planning is more direct and less inclined to get into lengthy debates over mission statement wording.

Let me say two things:

  1. Call it whatever you want it, but make sure your organization is very clear about its purpose and how it will be relevant to everyone involved.
  2. Mandate, as officially defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “an official order or commission to do something.” Read further into the definition and you’ll see that a mandate comes from somebody else, usually with official authority or law-making capacity.

Technically, all non-profit organizations do have an official “mandate” because they are granted the right to incorporate as a Society under the Societies Act for a specific, stated purpose. Some societies receive charitable registration status which further defines their boundaries (you have to name a charitable purpose on Q11 of your application form). One could say that those are official orders or commissions to do something.

The trouble with using the Society purpose or CRA charitable purpose as part of your strategic plan is that when you register with these official bodies, it is to your advantage to be as vague as possible to give plenty of room for adaptation and flexibility throughout the (possibly eternal) life of your organization. They are definitely not useful statements when it comes to strategy, which is all about making choices of how to use limited resources to achieve the most benefit.

So if you have a “Mandate” written in your strategic plan that does not equal your Society purpose or CRA purpose, you might feel a little worried. Don’t be. Assuming you haven’t just ditched that purpose and gone off in a completely different direction, the chances are strong that you’re still staying within the boundaries of your official mandate.

But now, what to do with this part of your strategic plan that you’ve nicknamed your “Mandate.” Well – is it clear? Does it tell people what your organization does and who it serves? Consider just dropping the “Mandate” title and wrapping it into your mission statement. Call it whatever you like if it is useful and serves to focus the organization. Just remember that “mandate” has a definition related to an official order or instruction, so people outside your planning group may interpret your words accordingly.

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POSitec Solutions Inc.

Sue Low has helped us several times to improve our Strategic Direction. She has an unique way of working with my managers to get the very best results from everyone. Our success is in part due to her guidance and direction. I am happy to make this recommendation.

Brian Joel, CEO

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Victoria Foundation Community Advisor Program

Susan has led strategic planning and social enterprise consultations for several charitable organizations upon our referral, to positive and enthusiastic reviews. She also co-facilitated two workshops to assess our own Community Advisor pro bono outreach program. She asked piercing questions gently and affirmatively, helping us to focus our objectives towards achievable outcomes that yielded immediate results. She is a friendly, caring catalyst for positive change, and a deep thinker about how lives can be improved in our community. Susan, you are making a difference. We are very proud to connect people like you to causes that matter!

Marg Rose, Director of Community Initiatives and Grants

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Intrepid Theatre Board of Directors

Susan did two Board retreats with us in 2009 which were very helpful. We really benefited from Susan’s clarity of thought and organizational skills.

Ian Case, General Manager

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Creatively United for the Planet

Susan and I spent an enjoyable day together working on a social initiative I’ve been trying to get off the ground known as Creatively United for the Planet. Working through the details with Susan brought clarity to the project that I hadn’t enjoyed up until we met. Susan made it a fun experience and matched my enthusiasm for the project in a way that was very inspirational. Thanks Susan for your input and direction!

Frances Litman, September 2010

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Do-it-yourself Board Governance design?

Board governance topics have come up a lot for me lately, and I’ve been reading a veritable flood of books and papers on the subject. Two things have occurred to me: first, board governance authors seem to write in either overly academic language, or they try to dumb things down to the point of patronizing. As a language and writing nerd, this bothers me.

The second and much more important thing that I have observed is how prescriptive each model or expert seems to be about the role of the Board. The Board’s role is either to create the strategic plan, OR it is NOT to create strategy but rather oversee and approve it. Huh? Whether you look at working boards, policy boards, Policy Governance boards, or whatever model you want to dredge up, there are differing but very definitive prescriptions for how Board members are to connect (or not connect) with staff, leadership and customers.

Frankly I’m getting kind of tired of the back-and-forth… makes me feel like I’m trying to decide whether or not a glass of red wine is good for me. (I usually decide on “yes”).

I’m beginning to feel that Boards should build their own governance model based on the age & stage of their organization, the personalities and skills of the people involved, and the needs of stakeholders. Don’t forget the operating context either. There are so many factors that are at play in determining whether a Board using XX Board Model Trend Of The Year can be successful in helping an organization move forward and be useful.

This reminds me of one of my favourite facilitation questions when people are trying to make a decision: “What would be most useful in helping us move forward?” The other relevant question is “What is likely to actually work given our situation and resources?”

The long and short of it is, I believe, Boards need to design themselves. Use the best practices out there, but take no model at face value.

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Keeping Score & Measuring Impact: Part 1

As the old adage goes, “what gets measured gets managed.” This is entirely true for almost every human endeavour we can imagine, and it gives rise to a healthy discussion around what one measures.

In business school, my management accounting professor told us a cautionary tale of a city works department that began measuring the amount of asphalt used by their pothole-fixing-crews as a way of checking on how productive the crews were being. My professor, who at one time had been a shovel-wielding road crew member, asked us to imagine what kinds of results that measurement would have. Did more potholes get fixed when asphalt use went up? Nope… but the holes dug on each pothole got deeper. Be careful what you ask for, was the moral of the story to our class of budding managers.

If measurement is such a key part of managing, in the for-profit or not-for-profit sectors, how do we do it well, so that we encourage the intended outcome? And how do we measure things without putting a load of bureaucratic nonsense in the way of getting things done? Read on for a few thoughts about this. read more…

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