Hi! I’m Allison and I’m an evaluation and organizational learning consultant. When I work with organizations, the first thing I do is take a look at what they’re already doing. This allows us to celebrate your success, and to build on it by finding some quick wins.

I had a really busy week this week. I think we’re so afraid of booking things in March, knowing that it tends to be really busy in non-profits as we move toward fiscal year end. So we’ve moved to booking events, communities of practice, and other deadlines into late February to try to avoid added pressure.

I remember when I started working in non-profits there were still down times. You worked hard in March but April might be a bit quieter. Now it seems like that’s not the case. A lot of the organizations I work with lament being busy year-round.

There are opportunities to slow things down, but they take intention and awareness. As you’re working through this month, open a note file or grab a post-it, and track what’s taking the most time. Maybe you’re manually counting something that you know you could be tracking better throughout the year. Or perhaps there are some documents (receipts, reports, etc.) that are saved in different locations or owned by different staff, and with a bit more coordination you could have one source instead of many.

I rarely work with an organization that doesn’t want to learn about their work or improve the services they offer. Desire isn’t the problem - it’s time. It’s so important to think about how you’re spending time so that you can create processes that save you time.

With one client, we developed a process for storing data that would allow them to access it quickly in the various ways they needed to. One of my favourite professional moments was when I came back to this organization a couple of years later, and they showed me their process, completely forgetting that I had helped them develop it. It was customized enough to be realistic in their context and fit seamlessly within their workflow.

If you’re feeling the fiscal year end crunch, make a commitment that 2024 is a learning year and plan for things to be better next year. Ask your staff about what they’re feeling and use it as a baseline to understand whether the changes you try make a difference for next year.

Are you overwhelmed this month? If yes, what’s keeping you up at night? If not, what’s your secret sauce for keeping things more manageable? Hit reply and fill me in!

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