The Role of the Executive Director

1. The Role of the Executive Director • 10.27.17 David Whisnant, Esq. Director OHSN at DCA

2. Welcome! Greetings and Thanks!

3. As Heard on NPR…. “The fastest path to madness is being an executive director….”

4. Today’s Goal Learn how to create systems to take control of your data utilizing a tried and true methodology that will have your employees as willing partners in this effort so that you can maintain and grow funding into the future.

5. ED does not equal EZ • My Background. I feel your pain. • Why are we crazy? -You can never turn off your job; -You never have the staffing you need; -Pay is bad, so you can’t retain the best staff; -Lose a grant, lose a position… -Your failures are public; -Challenging board members; -Funder demands; -The Gala/Annual Fundraiser – enough said—annual wedding; -Why do all the grants fall due at once?; -Actually doing the work and hitting your numbers; -Workplace squabbles – You are the referee; -The pay her hour is terrible! -The pressure to produce dollars.

6. The New Funding Reality Good Data = Money No Data, or Bad Data = No Money Soon, the ability to write flowery grant applications will mean nothing. HUD is consistently communicating that in a few years, decisions will be made entirely off of data and hitting performance targets. You may not even have to submit an application as we know them today.

7. It Has Begun LSA

8. The Challenge to Getting Good Data STAFF

9. E-Myth Wisdom

10. The Core E-Myth Philosophy Businesses should be systems-dependent, NOT people-dependent. The secret of successful business management--successful people management--is systemization. Systems free your people to pay attention to the things that matter while all the routine things take care of themselves. Systems raise the level of performance of your people. The E-Myth management strategy is the same for companies with 2 employees, with 25 employees, or with 150 employees!

11. Jeopardy Question…. This is commonly thought of as one of the great Systems Oriented Businesses – Although the “product” is questionable….?

12. What is…

13. Why McDonalds Succeeds… • Reliable product each and every time for visitor (clients) • Reliable BUSINESS each and every time FOR franchise owner (Funders) • Depends on systems not employees 95% vs 50%=Value of Systems

14. The “McDonalds” Non-Profit • Reliable PARTNER for funders • Hits goals • Survives staff changes easily • Trains new staff easily • Does not “panic” to hit goals • Allows the Executive Director to take time off

15. E-Myth Works! Serving as an Executive Director, I completely transformed my agency by using the E-Myth methodology across my agency. Less turnover, happier employees, less urgent fires, better data and funding were the result. 50% budget deficit overcome in two years.

16. YOU are a business owner! But I just wanted to help people… The Executive Director is the ultimate entrepreneur. To succeed, you must combine solid business strategies with your non-profit passion.

17. E-myth: Three Sides To Us as Executive Directors • Technician • Manager • Entrepreneur

18. The Trifecta… • The Technician is someone - a bicycle mechanic, computer programmer, cook, etc... - who is an expert in his or her craft.  This often leads these people to go into business for themselves - they're good at what they do, and they know it, so why not reap the rewards of their labor?  The technician is happiest doing the work they are good at and ignoring the rest, which is, in the end, a recipe for failure. • The Entrepreneur is the dreamer, the one who sets out to do something new, who reaches for the stars.  The Entrepreneur lives in the future, thinking about what could be (rather than in the present).  The Entrepreneur is often frustrated by how slow the world seems to move. • The Manager is the detail-oriented one, who dots the i's and crosses the t's, the one who remembers to pay the bills, and wants a well-organized world with no surprises; a world where things happen in an orderly, predictable manner.

19. E-Myth Lessons • Having great technical skills does not mean you know how to run a business. • Imagine your business as a nationwide franchise from day one, then build the first store. • The franchise approach makes sure you build a business based on systems, not people.

20. HMIS and DATA are FOUR LETTER WORDS Your Employees (Technicians): • Do not enjoy entering data; • Do not enjoy updating the system; • Do not enjoy data cleaning; • Do not want to learn how to use a new system… • Do not enjoy APRs, or System Performance Measures They got into this work to help people, not enter data!

21. HMIS and DATA are FOUR LETTER WORDS You (the Executive Director) do not like: • To have staff frantically cleaning data and entering information into HMIS before reporting dates; • To get contacted from funders that your data has issues; • To experience the stress of having data as an ongoing issue that is ignored, fixed, then ignored again. Why do we keep doing this?

22. END THE CRAZY!

23. BONUS What you will learn here will help you “end the crazy” in all areas of your agency!

24. E-MYTH—People Dependency Management Strategy… E-Myth holds that Management Strategy is not based on hiring the “perfect” employees. Rather, it is having perfect systems that are automatic, and can be replicated regardless of turnover. Saying this again, because it is important!

25. The Ugly Question… Do your employees s*ck, or do you?

26. TEST Example of a Common Issue: Executive Director complains about turnover and not being able to hit grant targets as a result. Problem: She has a people dependent business model, not system dependent. New people cannot get up to speed fast enough, and non-profit suffers. True for Data Collection, Programs, and All Tasks!

27. What Michael Jackson Tells Us… Looking at the Woman/Man in the Mirror • Assess what your current system is for data entry? • Does it work? Who is accountable? • Does it create instability in your business such as last minute data entry before APRs, or frenzied cleaning? • Is it even valued as THE core function of your business? Is this even written down? Are you at peace with your data? No? You need a system!

28. Build Your Data Management Strategy TEMPLATE FOR SUCCESS • Specify and name your result • Diagram the system with a description of System Benchmarks & Accountable Positions • Determine Timing • Resource Requirements • System Quantification and Standards • DOCUMENT THE SYSTEM

29. Specify and Name Your Result Write a clear and concise statement of the result the system is intended to accomplish, and give the system a brief descriptive name. Use the word “To” to begin. Example: Data Quality System To create an environment where consistent data quality is valued by all employees, monitored by managers, and where there will be no last minute data entry or clean-up for grants or CoC requirements, and where our numbers and demographics are tracked accurately and consistently on an ongoing basis. To know the status of my data on a recurring basis through timely reports.

30. Diagram the System • Diagram your overall system you have envisioned on paper with boxes and arrows. What is the sequence. Create captions to show what each position is doing, and by when. You could start with [Intake] > [Enter Data] > [Verify Data Quality]

31. Description of System Benchmarks • Each [diagram box] has a number of larger tasks • Restate the work in a COMPLETE SENTENCE that clearly says what must be done. Goal is to make it clear to anyone who jumps in as a worker or supervisor as to what must happen

32. Description of System Benchmarks • Examples: • Case Worker will enter in information into HMIS while performing intake on client. This includes all HUD required data elements • Case worker will review information by COB on day of intake to ensure that it is complete; • Social Work Manager is responsible for the overall Data Quality System; • Social Work Manager will run data quality report before each Friday staff meeting and forward to ED. • Case worker will correct errors in HMIS on the following Monday.

33. Benchmarks Continued • Each month the MSW Manager will prepare a data quality report for HUD required data, the number of intakes, and the number of intakes entered into the system in real time by case worker. • Each month the MSW manager will produce a report showing percentage of case workers who updated client results in HMIS. • Each month, the MSW manager will pull ten random files from each case worker and verify that all information is up to date in HMIS. • Every week, each case worker will certify that he or she has entered all clients into HMIS and updated system performance measures in HMIS. This certification will be delivered to the MSW manager. • All records related to quantification will be stored in a notebook at the front desk entitled Data System Quantification.

34. Accountable Positions • Our benchmarks should identify by position, NOT person, who will be accountable for the system as a whole and who will be accountable for each of its benchmarks. When done, a copy will go in the operations manual for each of these positions.

35. Determine Timing Benchmarks should always be a TIME that something must be done by, and a means to measure whether that actually happened. Make sure to define who is accountable to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to! Difference between just stating that all information will be entered, and requiring a weekly report on data and a statement from each case worker that all clients have been entered or not.

36. Quick Danger Note! If you ask for it, you had better review and respond appropriately…

37. Resource Requirements • Resources are both people and physical assets. • What is required to pull this off? Staffing, Space, Equipment, Supplies, and Information/Training Examples: People: MSW Supervisor is excused from intake on Thursdays to run data reports and follow up with case workers on data entry. Training: Case workers are required to watch HMIS videos. Equipment: For real time HMIS data entry, three new laptops will be required with data card.

38. System Quantification You’ve Set Steps/Benchmarks, but you need more… • How do you know you are getting the result you want from your system? • How can you make decisions if you can’t evaluate how things are working? • What are the precise METRICS we want? • Spend time here, or all is for nothing!

39. System Standards Quantifications need to be closely defined! • Relate to performance. Standards answer questions like: How well? How much? How cost-effective etc. • High Performance requires High Standards. • Use Will Be, and not Should Be • Each benchmark does not have a standard, necessarily. Some standards may apply to multiple benchmarks.

40. System Standards Samples • Missing data will be less than 5%; • 100% of performance incomes will be recorded within X time; • Information captured for system performance measures will include… • Stated grant goal for system performance measures to obtain and capture in HMIS are… • Unaccompanied minors should be limited to no more than X% of data.

41. DOCUMENT 100% of this must be documented! If you are doing everything now based on “oral history,” no wonder it is not working. Lose people, lose proc esses. No documentation = No system. DO IT THE BK WAY

42. Diluted Training Model….

43. People Strategy “Oh, my people won’t do all of this….”

44. The Age Old Question Q: How do I get my people to do what I want? A: You Can’t! You must create an environment where ‘doing it’ is more important than not ‘doing it!’ A: Know that your will must always be greater…

45. GIVE THEM THE…. WHY Grant targets, reliance on data, not having to go through frenzied cleanup and file pulling to document results… There must be an idea behind the work

46. You Set The Values For Your Business Do you really value good data and capturing results? How much time do you spend on that part of your business? How much emphasis? Is it in their performance reviews? If your data is not great, the ED does not value it!

47. Your Attitude Filters Down… • If you say, “Putting things into HMIS is a pain, but we HAVE to do it,” employees will not be motivated. • If we say, “Let’s get the data in to show off all of the awesome stuff we are doing. Let’s blow our own horn!”

48. People Strategy • The people strategy is outlined as a sort of "game" to be played • The 'game' is not simply a condescending way of getting people to do what you want. • Make sure it's something you'd be happy to do yourself; otherwise other people won’t want to participate either. • Allow for rewards and victories, but don't make it so that people can reach the 'end' of the game. Breakfast once a month at staff meeting if everyone does 95% or better on data entry. Would you pay $25 to have clean data? • Be open to change when it's necessary. • It is not self-perpetuating - it has to be nurtured. • It has to make sense.  Weird and arbitrary rules discourage people. • There has to be fun involved - maybe not always, but without it, work is only dreary, something to get away from as early as possible every evening. Summary from SqueezedBooks Blog

49. Hierarchy of Systems • How do we do it here? • How do we recruit, hire, and train people to do it here? • How do we manage it here? • How do we reach our big purpose here? (How do the things you must do in your non-profit add up to reaching the central goals?)

50. THE BIGGEST TRUTHS Horrible But Detailed Implementation of Systems ALWAYS Beats No Implementation of Systems Your Will for Systems Must > Will of Others to Do It However They Want… Your NEW Culture Starts from Day One With New Hires