Paul spoke to an AICD directors briefing on the key skills for the Not for Profit CEO of the future.

 

 

Key points were:

We will continue to face high levels of uncertainty.

We expect the CEO to have a range of skills which is not humanly possible.

The key skills are:

  • Situational awareness and an understanding the framework which the organisation sits inside so strategy is based on understanding the third and fourth order consequences of strategic moves and responses from members of the ecosystem.
  • Understanding context. One of the principles of foresight is to scan widely to see what is happening in other industries, countries and cultures but we need to understand the context within which successful strategies occurred not just copy them.
  • A willingness to Experiment. If uncertainty means you cannot see the future you have to have multiple experiments to see what works and what doesn&rsquot. You need to feel your way forward as much as see your way forward.
  • A calculated risk taker. If we are going to experiment more we are going to take risks. We want to exploit risk at an appropriate level that will not endanger the organisation.
  • A connector. Who can bring a team together, who can involve the board and the stakeholders in thinking about the future, and someone who can bring other organisations into the fold to work on larger problems.

 

As usual our presentations are designed to be an experience for those that attend and do not contain lots of detail (we hate bullet points on PowerPoint with a passion). If you are interested in an online meeting presentation with an overview to see if the presentation might work for your organisation then contact us and we will organise a time for an online webinar.