Note: a version of this briefing was published in Hand to Hand, the journal of the Association of Children's Museums, Spring 2003.

Play!

Children's Museums have shown how important play is to learning. Through play children develop skills, express creativity, discover the larger world, and learn to work with others.

Recently I've been reading about an adult form of play: professional basketball. Phil Jackson, who coached the champion Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, has written about that experience in Sacred Hoops. Jackson's challenge was to take a group of extremely talented individuals—Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, and others—and turn them into a team. In an environment of big egos, big salaries, and media hype, he used spiritual concepts—Zen, Lakota Sioux, Christian—to enable the players to subsume their individual ambitions for the good of the whole.

Few organizations, regardless of the industry, have been as successful as the Chicago Bulls were from 1990 to 1996. They won the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship an unprecedented three times in a row, 1991-93, then reinvented themselves and in 1996 had the greatest season ever of any team, with 72 wins and only 10 losses. The story of their success has useful lessons for the leaders of any organization, including children's museums.

The Bulls used planning and strategies to prepare for each season. Instead of a roadmap—as we tend to conceive of strategic plans—they had a playbook which embodied:

• A vision: to achieve greatness by tapping into the players' need to connect with something larger than themselves.

• A set of values: surrender self-interest for the greater good; experience the joy of working in harmony; compassion toward your teammates and your opponents; and others.

• Goals and objectives: win enough games to make the playoffs, and win the playoffs.

• Strategy: the triangle offence which, in contrast to power offence where star players control the ball, opens up the game with passing to lure the defense off balance and create a myriad of scoring opportunities for all players.

To execute the plan successfully required practice. No one assumed that the players, as technically proficient as they were, would automatically coalesce as a winning team. They spent hours on the court, in team meetings, and socializing to build the bonds of friendship. Not only did they practice the offensive strategy, they learned to meditate, to listen, to speak of their feelings, and to talk about ethics.

A key tenet of their approach was to experience the joy of playing. Often in a highly competitive game, players focus too much on winning. When things are not going well they become hyper-critical of themselves and others. Instead of flowing with the game, their minds get wrapped up in second guessing and plotting revenge. The Bulls worked to avoid such distractions through the practice of mindfulness—paying attention to what is actually happening at the moment.

People

The story of the Chicago Bulls makes clear that a plan is only as good as the people who create and execute it. This echoes a point made by Jim Collins in Good to Great, a study of businesses that consistently outperformed their competitors by at least a factor of three over a period of at least fifteen years. When Collins asked the leaders of these companies about their plans, a typical response was:

"Look, I don't really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great."

Thus, when one asks how to manage the execution of a plan, and how to know when it's time to revise a plan, the answer lies in the people.

Who are the people who make an organization's plan happen? Continuing to use the Bulls as a model, we might say:

• The team coach is the Executive Director. She leads the development of the plan and strategies, and she works to create a winning team, with the talent, skills, passion and motivation to achieve the vision.

• The players are the board members, volunteers and staff. They participate, in varying degrees, in the creation of the plan, and again in varying degrees are the ones who execute it.

• The team's scouts are the consultants who bring into the organization information and insights about the world outside, the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, opportunities and threats on the horizon.

• Coach Jackson also had his own personal coaches - friends and colleagues who helped him see things more clearly and make changes at key moments. In a nonprofit, this role may be played by a trusted member of the board, peer directors at other organizations, or a consultant serving as an executive or organizational coach.

Each of these people or groups plays a distinct and crucial role in planning.

Plans

In working with nonprofit organizations, Qm² uses a life cycle model based on the work of Ichak Adizes, especially Corporate Lifecycles (1988). Susan Kenny Stevens, in Nonprofit Lifecycles (2001), provides a similar construct. Organizations, regardless of whether they are nonprofit or for-profit, progress through stages from the initial idea, through birth, growth, stability and aging.

One can conceive of a plan as a guide to move the organization from one life cycle stage to another. An organization needs different kinds of plans, depending on where it is and where it is headed. Similarly, the life cycle stage determines the kinds of people, or at least the optimum qualities of the people, in order to make a successful transition from one stage to another.

The First Transition: from an Idea to an Organization

To become a viable reality, and not simply a good idea, a young nonprofit may need several plans: a business plan, a fundraising plan, a marketing plan, a facility plan, and a program plan. More than planning, however, it needs the passion and drive of committed individuals:

• A head coach—the founder, and eventually the executive director - who is persistent, persuasive and passionate.

• A coach and players who are eager to learn and willing to admit that they don't have the answers; willing to listen and learn from outside experts; willing to take incremental steps and learn as they go.

• Scouts—outside experts—who bring information, experience and insights, and teach the players what they don't yet know. Experts help them to understand their potential audiences, how to make their business work financially, how to build or renovate a building, how to raise money, and how to deliver programs and exhibits.

• Players who are eager to be out in the community, delivering programs and serving families and children. They recognize that creating an organization is not an end in itself, but a means to provide value to the community. Even before opening, they have an overriding desire to reach the children. In so doing, they build community awareness and confidence. This is called practice.

Note that at this stage the coach and players are heavily dependent upon outside experts, and so they must choose wisely. It is helpful to talk to other nonprofit founders and directors who have made the transition from idea to start up successfully. It is crucial to engage experts who not only will deliver reliable data and advice, but who also can help the coach and players learn how to use the information strategically.

Moving from Infancy to Growth

To make this transition successfully, the organization may develop an operating plan, a master plan, a governance plan, or an expansion plan. The characteristics of such an organization include:

• A coach—the executive director—who wants, more than anything else, to create a great team. Like a good coach, the director leads in the development of the plans and strategies, inspires the players and holds them to high standards, and ensures that they practice. But when it comes to playing, she's on the sideline. Her satisfaction comes, not from executing programs, but from making it possible for the players to perform at their best.

• Players who possess two important qualities: creativity and self-discipline. They practice creativity within a framework of well-thought plans, strategies, and procedures. They like to brainstorm and test new ideas, doing so with clear goals, measurement, and efficient use of resources.

• With practice the players mature into a well functioning team. They develop mutual respect, trust and support. They learn to value their diversity, eager to explore differences of opinion, able to reach operational consensus in order to move forward.

• The team continues to recognize the need for outside experts to bring in data, information, and expertise. From time to time they may commission a marketing study, go to visit other successful organizations, or conduct staff training and development. Unlike the earlier stage, they are now better at assessing data and information, and they are able to pick and choose what will work for them. The team also becomes proficient in generating its own data, through regular audience feedback and program evaluation.

• Team learning comes from planning and doing. As the team executes the plans, it monitors results, assesses the external environment, and makes revisions. A good procedure is for the team to make small adjustments along the way, formal revisions on an annual basis, and start a whole new plan when members deem that external changes have undercut a plan's basic assumptions. That is, significant changes in area demographics, community needs, the economy, or other such forces may require new goals and a wholly fresh strategy. A well functioning team will know when its time to change plans.

• In high-growth organization, the pace is fast, passions are high, and there is a natural tension between creativity and discipline. Even the strongest teams and leaders feel the need for outside counsel from time to time. Consultants may serve as facilitators, to help the team gain clarity and make decisions.

Yet, things happen to push an organization over the crest and down the slope. People may get tired and lose the creative drive. They may relax and lose their discipline. They may discount information about external changes, believing that their past success will carry them through.

After a time of sustained growth it is not uncommon to see a change in personnel. The director or key players may move on to new challenges. If the personnel transition is gradual, the organization can hire replacements in tune with the vision, plans and team culture. Even a new executive director should be a good fit for the organization at this stage in the life cycle. However, if the transition is abrupt, involving the departure of a number of key people at once, the organization may need a fresh look at its vision and plans, taking advantage of new expertise and perspectives.

Moving Back to Growth

Organizations that are stable, or have begun to decline, need to reinvent themselves. They have passed the stage of simply tuning up their strategic plans. They need to plan for radical change to fundamentals. They need:

• Leaders who have the courage to face reality, to face the brutal facts. The sooner they do this the better. Unlike in earlier stages, the news isn't good. Attendance is flat or declining, the deficit is growing, etc.

• Leaders who accept responsibility for the current situation. They seek to understand the situation, so that they can make changes, not to place blame.

• Leaders who have the courage to say no, to stop doing activities and functions that no longer generate revenue or meet the mission. They must abandon costly or ineffective programs.

• Leaders who can re-instill in the organization a desire to learn, to try new things. New ideas may require new people, more diversity of ideas and styles.

• Outside experts who can provide them with data and information. More than ever, it is crucial to get accurate, honest information.

• A facilitator/coach to push them, and at the same time help them support one another through a tough transition.

• Perhaps a new executive director. Often a director is brought in to reinvent an organization in decline. Unlike the situation with a growing organization, where the board would look for a new director who is in tune with the existing vision and plan, in this case they need someone to push the organization off the dime and challenge old assumptions.

There is no doubt that nonprofits that plan their work do better than those that don't. It is equally true that nonprofits that create a culture of teamwork, and build strong teams do better than those that don't.

Phil Jackson, and a lot of children's museum directors, would add that those who have fun doing the work do better than those who don't. One of Jackson's players, John Paxon, put it this way after he scored a 3-point jump shot with 3.9 seconds left to win the game: "You know, it's just like when you're a kid. You go out to your driveway and start counting down, three, two, one..."

Plans will come to nothing without the right people. And the people will do great things if they can make the work play, a time to develop skills, express creativity, discover the larger world, and enjoy working with others.