Vulnerable to external change?

The other day, a colleague described an experience with a new nonprofit client to create a strategic plan.

She said that while enumerating external conditions that may have an impact on the organization, my colleague added to the list the conclusion of President Biden’s term and the next four years of the incoming administration.

“You think that will affect our organization?” the leader asked my colleague. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

How to Know If Your Organization is Vulnerable to External Change in 2025

Let’s cut to the chase. If you are not actively paying attention to what’s happening around your enterprise—as well as what’s coming in the future—and evaluating what the impact may be, you are vulnerable.

Obviously, we cannot know everything. We can recognize enough to eliminate surprise. 

When your organization is vulnerable, you can be surprised, often negatively, by something that happens that causes a setback or that limits your ability to seize a market opportunity. 

Even if you’re aware of potential change, you might not be imagining the impact.

For example, during the Great Recession in 2009, many nonprofit leaders were caught off-guard when foundations changed their funding strategies away from general operating funds to supporting organizations that support society’s most vulnerable.

We all can have blinders on, focused on the work right in front of us—the next meeting, the next event, the next board meeting, etc. Let’s face it. We tend to make incremental improvements to how we’ve always done things.

Having an external thought partner can help

• nudge us out of our comfort zone,
• share what other organizations are doing,
• provide insights gleaned from patterns and observations outside our organizations, and even
• intentionally jostle our thinking.

‘Gail, you scared the hell out of me.’

Believe it or not, that piece of feedback from a client was a huge compliment.

His organization is in a new era—unchartered territory—following a significant change. The organization finds itself metaphorically playing chess with another organization it does not trust but cannot avoid.

In our strategic planning process, I designed a game using scenarios, forcing two teams to make decisions fast and in real-time. 

They were ready when their opponent assumed they’d be saying “checkmate” in a situation that occurred two months later.

Scenario Planning

My best clients are developing scenario and contingency plans to minimize risk. 

How about you?

• What will you do if droves of users exit Facebook and Twitter/X?
• How will you respond if one of your corporate partners suddenly faces a public media crisis for a stance it did—or did not—take?
• What’s your back up plan if a major funding source vanishes into thin air?

Leaders of financially resilient organizations welcome questions like these.