Investing for the Long Term

First of all, sorry for the absence. I got taken down by a cold (probably from the stress of a new job) so I haven’t been able to get any thoughts in order lately for public consumption.


The big news to report over the last ten days is that the executive committee of my organization has done an impressive thing – they have put aside the immediate in favor of the strategic.

After three weeks on the job, both my directors and I observed that I was getting inundated with projects. Sending photos to publishers, preparing promotional packs, organizing contact lists. This was not what they hired me for. Certainly these things needed to get done and eventually they would be my responsibility. But this was not what they hired me for.

So we all sat down and returned to their vision for this position – someone who develops strategy for better advocacy, who understands the issues and the field, who can see the best directions to go in. Executing the strategy is part of the job, but it is not the most important part. My value to this organization lies in the big picture arena.

So the executive committee did a bold thing. They declared that my responsibility for the next 3-6 months was to learn. Not to produce or execute, but to learn. They passed the pressing and immediate communications tasks to other staff to do on a part-time basis and opened my calendar to any and all opportunities to read, network, attend seminars, review materials, explore ideas, and develop my understanding.

While the organization is pressed for help with daily communications tasks, they understand that dumping all that on my plate would just be a short-term solution to an immediate problem. Allowing me to embed myself in the field for a while will pay off in the long term with much richer, deeper communications strategies that will have more impact.

In this stressful climate, when our organization like many is counting its pennies every month and fearful of layoffs, it is impressive for this committee to make a long-term investment. I suspect that this is the kind of choice that has made this organization successful over the years. It makes me happy and proud to work here.