Elisa Pratt With Brewer Pratt Solutions

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:16] Lee Kanter here another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. Today on the show, we have Alisa Pratt with Brewer Pratt Solutions. Welcome.

Elisa Pratt: [00:00:28] Well, thank you, Lee. Longtime listener, first time caller. Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Me. Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Brewer Pratt. How are you serving folks?

Elisa Pratt: [00:00:37] Yes, Brewer Pratt Solutions is an association excellence consultancy. We focus on really a three legged stool of strategy development. So strategic planning, board execution. So making sure your board has what they need. And then future member engagement. Who is in your pipeline? Who is your pipeline to not only membership but to those those next generation of leaders. So that is our our main approach with organizations of all shapes and sizes. We work with both 536 and 583 associations. And it it keeps us busy. It keeps things exciting. And things have never been busier.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:20] Well, one of the first things you mentioned was strategy. How how important is strategy to you in this three legged stool? And why would you think that organizations that have been around for any length of time would need help in strategy?

Elisa Pratt: [00:01:39] Sure. You know, it’s interesting with mission driven organizations that mission is truly your your compass, but you’re changing directions all the time. And it’s that that adaptability. It’s it’s that reaction to change around you, both internal and external, that requires a strategic mind, a strategic focus. And it’s important to to keep asking yourself the hard questions. I believe, and I see often that it’s those well established and long tenured organizations that that get into the most rut. You know, it’s it’s it’s hard to go from good to great, but it’s also really hard to stay great and and strategy can come into play to allow an organization to be flexible, to be responsive and to remain relevant. Really, this is about relevance and ensuring a relevant future. And that requires strategy. That requires a candid look at yourself as an organization, at your your industry and your your membership and and what you believe you can truly achieve within the scope of your your mission.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:51] Now, what are some symptoms that maybe your strategy has gone awry or it’s a little maybe off the mark and it is no longer kind of pointing to that true north that you aspire to?

Elisa Pratt: [00:03:03] Sure. There’s some very, I think, obvious data points and metrics that can start to skew to let you know that things are off. First, our customer numbers, those end users, in most cases, your members, your leadership, when those when retention numbers start to drop, when joined numbers start to decline, when when even attendance and registration numbers start to drop. That tells us that there’s there’s a disconnect that the organization we want to be and the organization we think we are, that’s not what’s what’s getting to the end user. That’s not the experience that they’re having. Financials usually fall in line with that. Obviously, membership and programs and service changes will will affect the finance pieces. But I also like to look at at internal if we’re turning over staff, if if we’ve had a long tenured executive with great success retire and now we can’t seem to keep to keep a new executive in place. That’s that’s a red flag that there’s not not a strategy coming out of COVID. One of the most telling symptoms for me has been the burnt out staff. Many organizations got very lean during COVID and necessarily so. And the staff that have remained have been rewarded for their loyalty and their commitment with more and more and more responsibility. And that does not demonstrate a strategic mindset. That means you’re saying yes to everything you’re piling on, and you are, as some would say, you’re you’re forgetting about the mule and just loading the wagon. And that is a recipe for for disaster. And that tells me that we don’t have a strategic discipline or a strategic focus for the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:54] How do you help the organization where maybe at one time in their market or with their cause, they were maybe the only game in town. And now there’s been others that upstarts maybe that have said, you know what, this is a cause worth pursuing and this is kind of our little take on it. And this is where we’re a little different. And all of a sudden, the cause that. Was exclusively yours is now has several players in it and maybe each appealing to a different group. In that case, the strategy might have made sense at a certain time, and maybe it still makes sense, but maybe you just aren’t the answer anymore.

Elisa Pratt: [00:05:32] You know, I laugh because competition and an expanded and competitive market is something all industries face. Not just associations, not just nonprofits. And where the greatest competition lies is, is really in in the organic user space. The people on the Internet, the people on groups, the people in their own communities that can connect, that can amplify their voices through through unity, that can can make a case that can put on a user group, that can write a paper, that can do a lot of the things that we would traditionally look to to a nonprofit to to undertake. And that’s scary. But if you if you embrace partnership and you embrace collaboration and I think those are two very important strategic attributes you can weave yourself into that diverse marketplace, that diversity of thought. And instead of having competitors, you can have channels of content, you can have you can have channels of influence. And in some ways make yourself even more more vibrant and therefore more relevant.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:44] Now when you’re having a conversation with maybe an incumbent, how are you broaching this? Because that seems like a conversation not many incumbents would like to have.

Elisa Pratt: [00:06:56] Well, you know, it depends on what you’re measuring and how you’re measuring success if if success is being measured through. Status quo through. Through, not, not. I don’t know. I don’t want to say a resistance to change. But we know that many, many incumbents and the boards that they support are resistant to change. The future is coming and you can either wrap yourself around it or it will consume you at your own expense. I think my my clients hire me for my candor. I’m not a yes person. I’m not going to sugarcoat things. And and in many ways, that environmental scan that that we do for our clients will help. I don’t know. It allows us to read the tea leaves. But but the future is coming. The the pace at which it will impact you is different for every organization. And I mean, I have to beg of my my clients to be to be open minded. And many are those that are already innovative, that used the pandemic to to jump ahead, to experiment, to test things, to try new things. They already get it. And it’s really about risk allocation and prioritization, those that are the risk averse, those that that are desperately grasping on to the status quo and talk about the good old days and how things used to be and and want to get back to the way things were. They they need a little bit different motivation. You have to kind of shake them up in a little bit different way. And I don’t want to use fear, but that competition is out there. The the rate at which the world around us is changing not only through technology and science and and innovation, but the expectations of the next generation that is that is speeding up faster than we can we could have ever imagined. And and sometimes you do have to show people the hard truth to get them to to open their minds to. To what their mission and their organization could be in the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:09] I agree 100%, and I think that that is one of the biggest challenges, especially with mission driven organizations at some point is the priority the mission or is the priority the organization? Is it to keep the status quo and the status of the organization and the members of there who have been there a million years and are seen a certain way and have a certain level of authority? Or is it to really solve the true problem of the mission that we’re trying to solve? That’s a different. Those are two different things.

Elisa Pratt: [00:09:38] Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. And there are we talk about the word stewards and I hate to think of of organizations as as steward or as leaders and boards as stewards of their organization, because that forgets that mission, peace. And I like to think as visionaries, I like to go into boards and ask them what they believe possible, not what the organization has done, but what they believe the organization could look like. What impact do they believe they could? They could have? And it’s a most interesting conversation in the trade association space. I spent most of my nonprofit career in 500 1c6 organizations, and there you’re trying to advance an industry. But I’ve never seen an organization where 100% of that industry is represented in the membership. So at some point the organization is having to do things and spend resources and allocate effort in areas that are that are benefiting those outside of the direct membership. And I think that’s where you can start to break down that wall of just the organization. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is who we do it for. You also have this conversation in more of the philanthropic and charitable organizations where where their their vision is is more broad because they are focused on a cause and on a mission. But anyone looking to protect the organization and build walls and ensure rigidity, I didn’t use the term stability, but rigidity, you know, they, to your point, are are missing the forest for the trees.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:22] Now, when you’re working with an organization and say the light bulb goes on and they look at their website and they realize that the people on the website under the leadership and the board aren’t looking like they’re members. And they said, you know what, we want this to change. How do you what are some kind of low hanging fruit? What are some of the things that that organization leadership can do to make that dream come true?

Elisa Pratt: [00:11:48] Sure. It’s important to first recognize that that you have that that challenge, that that who is around your board table doesn’t either represent your current membership, your current industry, your current cause, or even the future of that industry. And I think the first step is, is to to understand where your industry is going. And some organizations embrace this through through DEI initiatives. Other organizations embrace this through a future visioning of where their their industries are going, their sciences, their specialties, their areas of of practice or their professions. I want organizations I want my clients to undertake this as as part of a pursuit of excellence for those who they serve, not just to check a box and stick a new variety of people on on the board. We want to be representative. We want to be we want to be the future of of of our organizations and the future of who is going to be impacted by and have the greatest opportunity to impact these these missions. So I like my group’s to dove into data, understand who are your members now. It’s amazing how many organizations don’t know exactly who their members are now. They haven’t captured demographic information. They haven’t captured maybe not age, but where are you in your career? Where are you in the industry? And first, knowing who you have within your under the tent and knowing who that that is and what portion of the industry you then represent and how you measure against your industry or your profession’s own numbers and representation and diversity. Then you then you can start to measure something, then you can start to put initiatives into place and reallocate your your efforts and your resources to to see and measure change. So many people are just plugging new faces in and they’re not measuring anything. And and I think that is, is it’s somewhat arbitrary. And and it’s it’s I wouldn’t say it’s in. Sincere, but I think it’s it’s misdirected.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:08] Well, if you’re going to do the effort to kind of get the lay of the land, it makes sense. Again, going back to the strategy to have some to know what it looks like when you’re done, you know, at least have something. Okay. How do we know if we did a good job? Should we be high fiving this month or should we not be? You know, you know, keeping track of the metrics are important, but also defining what are the metrics that matter, I think are are more important now.

Elisa Pratt: [00:14:33] So definitions of success are going to be different for every organization and each organization and each each industry is going to define diversity in a different way. You know, it may it may not be racial. It may be more gender specific. It may be age related. It may be a diversity of of roles within within the industry. And and I like I like to break beyond the DEI space to ensure that, to your point, the strategic metric is specific to that organization and who they represent and what their mission states.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:12] Now, you mentioned leadership and leaders. How does an organization kind of keep that leadership pipeline filled? What are some of the things they can be doing to engage? You know, maybe the people that are early in their career as well as the people who are on later in their career that would like to leave a legacy and like to, you know, feel like they’re they made an impact. You know, both sides of the coin have to be addressed and you don’t want to forget anybody.

Elisa Pratt: [00:15:42] Yeah. And, you know, groups have gotten pretty good over these last ten, 20 years at creating future leader committees, young leaders, councils, you know, all of these channels and for for engagement and participation among the young, the next generation, the emerging leader. But then there’s a gap. They don’t have anything for them to do until you you’ve evolved to a board position and they’re losing a lot of those people that they’ve invested in during those gap years. And what I like to help my clients identify and design are opportunities for bridge engagement. How do we bridge them from the early career professional committee or counsel to the board? Are there micro volunteering opportunities that we can plug in along the way that are suited to their where they are in their life cycle? Can we can we adapt things that that are respectful of of parents of of those who aren’t able to come to to evening events because they’re at Little League? Can we customize some micro volunteering opportunities during those interim years that that will keep them engaged until until they have either met criteria or in their own time and profession are able to give time required of of greater leadership roles. Another piece of this is not reconciling young leaders. And however you define that, but not relinquishing that or I don’t know, not not putting them in a box, putting them in in that council or that task force or integrate them within the holistic organization. Let them have a seat on every committee. Let them be a part of board discussions. Now, give them voting rights. Don’t don’t lock them into a box to interact only with themselves so that you can pat yourself on the back and say, Great, we’re engaging the young. Good job. Well, they’re engaging with themselves. But you aren’t you aren’t absorbing them sincerely into into the organization. And therefore, you’re losing their their influence. You’re losing their their expertize. And you’re somewhat, I think, stunting their growth within the organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:14] Right. You’re giving lip service to giving them a voice, but they’re only having a voice among themselves. It’s not really being heard by the people that are making decisions. So that’s the I mean, the balance there. I love how you use the word strategy. I think that’s critical and I love how you use the word design because things have to be designed. You can’t just hope that just because you have good intentions that things are going to work out the way that you’d like. These things have to be really kind of elegantly designed so that they organically lead you to the path you want to be on and grow into.

Elisa Pratt: [00:18:51] You know, having come from the staff side of things, the way I’ve approached consulting, I want to be the consultant that I wish I had had. And for me, being staff minded but member and mission focused is key to the value that I provide my clients. And when we embark on a strategic planning engagement, there’s the standard of discovery and analysis and in-person facilitation and all of that. But I require of my clients an implementation planning phase. I refuse to allow my strategic plans and these clients strategic plans to get put on a shelf. And if we aren’t going through the process with a certain dose of realism and ownership and ultimately bringing it all the way through the design phase to implementation. We have to figure out the how and do so in a way that is tactical, incremental, measured and tied to those key performance indicators that will allow us to report out victories. Part of this is just the PR around around delivering on what we say we’re going to do. And it’s very, very important to me. The design piece is sincere and it is member driven but staff minded and that there is a commitment to and a dedication of time and resources to to the how to the implementation planning, who’s going to own what, what are the milestones along the way and what what’s our measure of success? To your earlier point, how are we going to know when we get there? And that’s something a lot of people think strategic planning is just facilitating a board retreat. And I’ve learned my lesson. I have my own strategic planning scars from when I was a staff person, and that’s how I built my approach and why my clients come back over and over again to undertake a more. Implementation minded. Approach just to to strategic planning.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:57] Now, what is your ideal client look like? What is the size? What is the maybe the niche that they’re in?

Elisa Pratt: [00:21:05] Sure. I love that kind of 10 to 15 person staff, you know, 5 to $15 Million. I do have a special place in my heart for organizations that have chapter and affiliates, because I spend a lot of time in component relations. So whether it’s a national network, whether it’s a state network. Even more so now a global network. I think that’s a very underrated element of strategy and strategic design because people don’t always give credit to or fully appreciate the power of those networks. So I started most of my work in the trade association space, but now have greatly diversified over over the last five years with scientific associations, medical societies, charitable organizations. And and it keeps me I’m learning at every turn. Every every client makes me better. And and we refine our process and evolve that strategic journey for for each each client.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:15] So can you share maybe one of your success stories in terms of what was the problem they had? Obviously don’t name the name of the organization, but maybe share. What was the challenge they had and how? When Breuer and Pratt Solutions came in, you were able to help take them. You solve the problem and took them to a new level.

Elisa Pratt: [00:22:33] Sure. Absolutely. There’s there’s really many groups fall into two categories. And I’ll come into a group and they will have what I call an overgrown garden. And they’re good. They want to get to great, but they don’t realize that it’s it’s having said yes to everyone along the way and trying to be everything to everyone, that really is what’s holding them back. And so coming in with a lean, a lean mindset and also a commitment to candor, using the data to point us in the right direction, but also listening to the members and taking taking what they have to say to heart, taking the ego out of it. That’s that’s very common. More recently, I’ve been working with organizations on on operational assessment. They’re coming through the pandemic. They don’t know who they’re supposed to be moving forward. As I mentioned, they’re very lean on staff and they don’t want to just rehire into the old positions. So they’re calling me in to do kind of an operational and organizational 360. And then with that in place, we can reassess and realign our internal resources in conjunction and in parallel with a strategic planning engagement. And it’s powerful to do those things at the same time because your board tells you they want to prioritize this or this element of the mission is where we want to direct more resources to your operation has to has to align with that. You have to be able to deliver. So I very much appreciate those organizations that are self aware enough to bring in an outside set of eyes to assess and determine, not just. What positions need to be hired for, but how departments are are interacting and how roles are shared among different program models and their and therefore prepare themselves better. It’s almost kind of like a training boot camp. Before you go into strategic planning, let’s make sure that we are strong in the right places so that we can go into strategic planning to deliver to to to exceed the board’s expectations in every way possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:49] Right. If you have the foundation right, then the other stuff gets a lot easier.

Elisa Pratt: [00:24:53] Exactly. Exactly. And doing strategic planning first is very dangerous. And, you know, many I have a handful of clients right now who are coming off of 2018 or 2019 strategic plans. And how much has the world changed since then and how much of those plans had to be either forgotten about, left behind, or completely reimagined? And what does strategic planning look like for those organizations in this new normal? That’s that’s a very common call that we get. Alisa, please help us. We didn’t do anything with our 2019 plan because we were just trying to survive. And and it’s not necessarily about picking up where you left off.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:41] Right. It’s a new world now.

Elisa Pratt: [00:25:43] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:44] Well, Lisa, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website?

Elisa Pratt: [00:25:49] Absolutely. It’s Brewer Solutions dot com. And I’m also very active on LinkedIn and you can find me there either at Lisa Pratt or at Brew Pratt Solutions. But we look forward to, again, any helping any organization that wants to to go from good to great or even great to awesome. Those are those are some of our most fun engagements. And there’s really no client too small. I want to make sure, having come from smaller organizations myself as a staff person, that you two deserve expert consultation and third party support. So if you’re you’re a 500,000 association or $1,000,000 association, you have just one staff person or two staff people don’t don’t think of yourself as as undeserving or or not able to secure support. I love the small and medium associations and I think they often get forgot about in this landscape and their potential for impact is is is truly amazing.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:55] Well, Elisa, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing an important work and we appreciate you.

Elisa Pratt: [00:27:00] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:01] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Association Leadership Radio.