The Strategic Solutions Project
Training for Consultants

An important element of Strategic Solutions' mission was to train a cadre of consultants in the specific skills and tools that are required to successfully facilitate strategic restructuring projects with nonprofit organizations. There are specific processes we have found to be particularly helpful and important elements of a successful effort. Though many of the necessary skills are similar to those employed in other types of consulting work — strategic planning, board development, and conflict resolution, for example — there are others that are more unique.

Research has shown that very few consultants have experience in this area. As more and more nonprofits pursue strategic restructuring, the need for skilled consultant-facilitators will grow. There is already much greater demand than supply, and we have heard from countless nonprofits who would like to find a strategic restructuring "expert" in their own region. Our goal was to help meet this need through expanded training and support for those consultants who wish to take on that challenge.

To this end, Strategic Solutions developed a Three Phase Training Program for consultants interested in facilitating strategic restructuring efforts with and for their nonprofit clients. Phase I is a full-day session that provides a basic overview of our method for negotiating a strategic restructuring process. The second phase of our program is an in-depth three-day training based on an extended role-play. Phase III is a "learning community" for training participants, enabling them to share their experiences with others as they begin to work in the field of strategic restructuring and brainstorm approaches to the challenges they may be facing.

We are no longer offering consultant trainings through the Strategic Solutions project, but La Piana Associates is available to conduct trainings on a fee-for-service basis. If you are interested in sponsoring a consultant training in your region, please contact us at info@lapiana.org . More detailed information on Phases I & II of our training program follows below.

Phase I

Phase I is a full-day training session for consultants interested in learning more about how to help clients navigate through a strategic restructuring process. These training sessions have been held all over California , as well as in Atlanta , Chicago , Columbus , Dallas , Denver , Honolulu , Seattle , and Washington , DC . We prefer to limit the group size to 25.

The one-day interactive training covers the following topics:

• What is strategic restructuring?
• What characteristics make a nonprofit more likely to succeed at strategic restructuring?
• How do you assess an organization's readiness for a strategic restructuring effort?
• What are the financial ramifications of such a move?
• What are the legal considerations?
• What is the role of funders, and the possible effects on future fundraising?
• How do you facilitate an effective negotiations process?
• What are the challenges inherent in working with multiple clients?
• How can you best act as a liaison to the third parties who will be affected by the outcome of the negotiations?
• How can you prepare your clients to successfully implement their restructuring and integrate their organizations?

Phase II

The second phase of our training program is for consultants who have completed Phase I, and who wish to go more in-depth in their exploration of how to successfully facilitate strategic restructuring efforts. This three-day training is centered around an extended role-play, giving consultants an opportunity to "become" a nonprofit organization looking to merge with another, and giving both "organizations" the chance to play out the processes, challenges, and conflicts inherent in this process. Because of the participatory and experiential nature of the curriculum, the group size is limited to 16.

The training also goes into detail on the following topics:

• How can you most effectively develop a proposal and contract for a strategic restructuring process?
• What are the most common human resource issues that arise in strategic restructuring, and what HR issues must be addressed at each stage of the process?
• What key challenges and processes characterize negotiations for each of the different types of strategic restructuring?
• What are the legal options for implementing a strategic restructuring process, and what do you absolutely need to know as the consultant?
• How can you help nonprofits implement their strategic restructuring decision?
• What have strategic restructuring "survivors" learned from their experiences?