Mission creep, or something else?

Mission creep is infamous in the not-for-profit world. It’s when an organization does a project outside its mission. Because budgets are tight and most of us run project to project, you do the project because you need money. In the process the organization dilutes who it is and weakens the brand.

But what if taking on different projects isn’t mission creep. What if instead it’s part of every organization’s evolving identity? That’s the question I’ve been playing with over the last week, particularly after a recent lunch meeting in Saint John.

Lately we’re being asked to consider and increasing amount of projects with the goals of enabling policy change. We usually say no. Our work focuses on developing the best leaders in Canada by building hard and soft skills, and knowledge of the context in which those skills are applied. Policy isn’t what we do and only tempts mission creep. That’s what I used to think.

I’m now wondering if 21inc can pursue its mission – to develop and inspire Atlantic Canada’s new and emerging leaders – with greater impact by not only using our programs to develop skills and knowledge, but also further create opportunities to exercise leadership. Our growing alumni, now at 118, have told us they’d like opportunities to influence the direction our provinces and region are taking.

The Aspen Institute in the United States does this. They’ve always been a model for us and maybe this is the road they took. Even if we eventually follow them, we still need to walk it ourselves.

2010 Reflections

It’s not my habit to spend much time looking backwards. True to form, for the last month, since the Emerging Leaders Summit and Ideas Festival in November, 21inc’s Board of Directors and I have been thinking about 2011-2014. But unable to sleep last night because of a stupid decision to drink a late coffee, I found myself lying in bed reflecting on 2010. Some of you might be interested in this, so below are my top three highs and lows of 2010.

2010 Highs

Atlantic Programs

No question, our biggest high of 2010 was the launch and successful execution of our first regional leadership experience. It started in the fall of 2009 when discussions began with the Government of Nova Scotia about what 21inc does. There was much interest and more stakeholders were brought to the conversation. We approached several of our partners, including ACOA, Scotiabank, Colour, Emera , Stewart McKelvey, and Ernst & Young, who all saw real value in a regional approach. With each Atlantic Province committed as a partner, the Emerging Leaders Summit was launched in June. The results were excellent. Working with our alumni across the region in 2011 is going to be a blast.

The Ideas Festival was also a highlight. This was our second Festival, which happens every two years. My colleague and co-conspirator Julie Breau told me after the Festival that a part of her wanted to know if the success of the first one was luck. It wasn’t. Pamela Scott Crace of Progress Magazine said she “loved” the inaugural Festival and didn’t know how we could top that. Her answer was we did, “by a lot.” I’m most proud of the greater regional representation and increased French content of the 2010 Festival. And the limbo contest.

Partnerships

Partnerships aren’t easy and we learned that this year. I guess we always knew it, but from now on we’ll enter partnerships having earned an education from the school of hard knocks.

Board changes

We spent the summer drafting policy, creating systems and updating the board structure. We added new members and for the first time, recruited them from outside the alumni. We still need to put some specifics to the systems and add two more members, but the momentum 21inc is experiencing at the board level is very positive.

2010 21 Leaders program

Our second 21 Leaders cohort graduated in May in Bathurst. They are an inspiring group. Two companies were started, several of the Leaders found placements on prestigious boards. And NB Debates was formed out of the Community Solutions Projects.

2010 Lows

Partnerships

This is both a high and a low. The highs are the lessons learned. The lows were the pain endured while learning those lessons.

Workload

It never gets lower. Murphy must have a law about this. Hire people, gain experience, purchase fancy tools, and enter into partnerships: new work displaces the old.

Noah Augustine

Canada lost a significant leader when Noah Augustine died in a car accident this fall. Noah was a big supporter of 21inc and met with the 2009 cohort. I was cleaning out my inbox over the Christmas holidays and found an email correspondence we had just one week before he passed. His shoes will be difficult to fill.