La Piana Consulting Blog

Comments on: Puzzle or Mystery? http://www.lapiana.org/blog/2007/01/puzzle-or-mystery/ Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:10:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: David Gray http://www.lapiana.org/blog/2007/01/puzzle-or-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-5047 David Gray Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:48:05 +0000 http://www.lapiana.org/blog/?p=101#comment-5047 As a practical application... when looking at a possible nonprofit consolidation we can make projections as to what the financial picture will look like in the future... this includes elements of a puzzle, what specific cost savings will we create, but also elements of a mystery, will the world really continue to want or need our services in the future. Board members often feel that we should definitively answer both questions with authority. I find this particularly true in the arts where changing usage patterns (i.e. the slow demise of subscriptions) makes meaningful projections all the more a "mystery." Do you feel that defining what elements are part of a puzzle and which are a mystery will help Boards move forward? Won't the admission of so much mystery paralyze the decision making process. As a practical application… when looking at a possible nonprofit consolidation we can make projections as to what the financial picture will look like in the future… this includes elements of a puzzle, what specific cost savings will we create, but also elements of a mystery, will the world really continue to want or need our services in the future. Board members often feel that we should definitively answer both questions with authority. I find this particularly true in the arts where changing usage patterns (i.e. the slow demise of subscriptions) makes meaningful projections all the more a “mystery.” Do you feel that defining what elements are part of a puzzle and which are a mystery will help Boards move forward? Won’t the admission of so much mystery paralyze the decision making process.

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