Webinar: March 12, 2024 (10am-12noon PT)

Catalytic Thinking & Your Board

Transform your board into leaders for Community Change

Your organization deserves a board that is making a difference – in your organization and your community. 

  • Is your board 100% focused on creating as much impact as possible in your community?
  • Is your board engaged, energized, reaching for their potential?
  • Is your board community-driven and inclusive?
  • Is your board creating what is possible?
  • Is your board a true asset to the organization and the community?Board table with 2 Black women and 2 white men, all smiling and raising their hands.

If you wish this was your board, then this webinar is for you.
Catalytic Thinking can make the difference between a board that is stuck in old roles and responsibilities and a board that is energized, engaged, and enthusiastic. A board that is always reaching for what is possible. An impact-focused board.

While the world has changed dramatically since the 1970’s, ideas about “good nonprofit governance” haven’t changed much in that time. The result? Governance experts are still addressing the same problems everyone complained about 50 years ago!

Board meeting with 5 people sitting around a table, chatting happily togetherYour community deserves better. Your team deserves better. And your board deserves better.

  • A board for 2024 and beyond.
  • A board that creates the future of your community (and in the process, your organization).
  • A board that creates smooth and effective board/staff relationships.
  • A board that is focused, first and foremost, on the impact you are having in your community.

In this webinar, we will apply the powerful questions of Catalytic Thinking to transform your board into an energized, engaged, force for visionary community change.

The problem with boards…
The reason your board is NOT a force for change is because they have been taught to focus on reactive, internal minutiae instead of community change. That model has led to both board and staff feeling frustrated and stuck.

Your board members want to make a difference.

This webinar will teach them how!

It’s time to move beyond…

  • Beyond the tired lists of roles and responsibilities that focus on organizational minutiae
  • Beyond listening to reports on what happened in the past (staff reports, financial reports)…
  • Beyond rehashing staff work (and maybe micromanaging?) instead of doing work that is actually meaningful…
  • Beyond asking, “Where’s the money going to come from?” instead of building on strengths and community…
  • Beyond the narrow focus of their legal obligations (duty of care and loyalty to the organization) vs. advocating for the community
  • Beyond encouraging staff to be more business-like
  • Beyond playing it safe and focusing more on the balance sheet than your impact in the community

The questions of Catalytic Thinking provide a VERY DIFFERENT WAY to think about your board’s role and their effectiveness.

What You'll Learn:

  • Why legal accountability is just a bare minimum, and how to instead lead towards what is possible
  • Why boards micromanage. Why they get disengaged. Why they are bored, don’t show up, or any of the other common problems of boards, and what to do to aim your board towards their potential

Fiduciary duties are not the main job of the board. They are the bare minimum.

The main job is more energizing, more exciting, more engaging. The main job of your board is to ensure your organization is making a difference in your community.

  • What real inclusion looks like – at the board table and throughout all your work
  • How "accountability for community impact" encourages boards to soar far beyond "accountability for the money" (and how to DO it!)
  • What does an impact-focused board do, and how do they do it?
  • How your organization’s values and vision can transform your board’s work
  • What it means for your board to be a force for change in your community – and how to do it
  • Why focusing solely on oversight actually prevents boards from being their most rational and creative – and what will free your board members to be their best selves
  • The role of trust and relationship in building a highly functional board
  • And so much more!

It’s time to free your board to be their best selves!

How It Works (and What this Learning Opportunity Includes)...

This unique learning experience will combine a "flipped classroom" approach with live instruction.

The flipped classroom will provide content about both the theory and practice of this approach. That information will be provided the moment you register, to give you time to absorb the material at your own pace. We find this makes the live portion of the webinar far more effective, as you have slow time to think about how you might apply the material to your own situation, and to formulate questions, all at your own pace. The content includes everything listed below.

Then during our live time together, we will have a full 2 hours for Q&A and discussion. The live portion will be recorded and provided to you in both video and audio-only.

After the webinar, you will have the open invitation to ask our faculty any quick questions that can be answered in an email - the kinds of questions that arise while you are putting what you learned into practice. And that invitation extends FOREVER!

Here's what you'll get...

  • 1+ hours of video classes to watch at your own pace
  • Handouts to help embed your learning
  • Readings: Articles that dive deep into the subject
  • Copies of key slides from the videos

After you've watched the videos on your own, you'll be part of a 2-hour live session where we will answer questions, share stories and reflections, and explore what is possible. The live session will be recorded in both video and audio, for you to listen / watch again.

The live portion of the program will happen via Zoom on March 12, 2024 at 10am Pacific time / 11am Mountain time / 12pm Central time / 1pm Eastern time. If you are not able to be there, it will be recorded for you to listen / watch forever.

Our faculty will answer any question that can be answered in an email, to help as you implement what you are learning.

Tuition

In the spirit of Collective Enoughness - that together we have everything we need - YOU will determine the tuition for this webinar!

On the registration form, you’ll see a "suggested" tuition. You will also see the ability to choose a different amount that is entirely up to you.

No less than you believe it’s worth,
and no more than you can afford.”
Gayle Valeriote, founding board member, Creating the Future

No one will be turned away.
Because we never want money to stand between you and learning approaches that will help to create a more humane, healthy future for our world.

Your Instructors

Gottlieb, Hildy

Hildy Gottlieb

Hildy Gottlieb is a social scientist and asker of powerful questions. She is the co-founder and Chief Boundary Pusher at Creating the Future, the creator of the Catalytic Thinking framework, and a strong advocate for the power we have together that none of us have on our own.
Justin 2024

Justin Pollock

Justin Pollock has dedicated his work to helping people expand their leadership capacity within their communities and organizations, to advance equity, dignity, engagement, and a healthy environment for everyone. "Our ability to shape our world is astonishing. When individuals are able to identify the values, beliefs, and actions that create change and align their decision making with that understanding, they can change the world. So too can organizations and communities."