Food for Thought!
Anything that gives us a reason to stop and ponder is food for thought. We know good food when we consume it, but do we really think about what goes into it? We order from the menu and shortly thereafter a creation is placed before us. We eat, converse and, for the most part, don’t give it much thought.
But if you’ve ever sat at a counter overlooking a restaurant kitchen and watched carefully, you know there is a lot involved in successful cuisine. Done right, it is a carefully crafted production of teamwork, planning, and execution.
An effective leadership succession is much like that. As covered in recent issues, the Board of Directors and, specifically, the Succession Team, and Search and Transition Committees, continue their work on the efforts to bring the next Executive Director (ED) to CAMP Rehoboth.
When the founder(s) of a non-profit leaves, the impact on the organization can be dramatic and the transition to its successor, a complex and multi-faceted challenge. Since forming our Succession Team at the start of this year, our goal has been to facilitate a seamless process for preparing CAMP Rehoboth to replace our co-founder and Interim Executive Director, Murray Archibald, with his successor.
While the search is the more obvious part of the process, the importance of the transition is paramount in achieving this goal and has been a significant focus of our overall efforts.
CAMP Rehoboth is fortunate to have a talented and dedicated team in place—the Transition Committee, which is guiding the transition of leadership. This team is composed of community members Beth Cohen, Linda Gregory, and Jon Worthington, and Board of Director members Jack Morrison, Glen Pruitt, and Vice President, Leslie Sinclair, as its Chair.
With the objective of guiding and ensuring a smooth transition of the reins of leadership and operational integrity from the incumbent ED to the successor, the committee first established a framework incorporating three phases of focus to yield the greatest likelihood of a successful outcome.
These phases include: preparation, recruitment and hiring, and post-hiring. Each phase builds on the preceding and failure to attend to the key tasks at any point in the overall process compromises the end result. Conversely, a coordinated approach with inclusive representation from staff, board, and stakeholders, all working together, significantly improves the odds for a fruitful transition.
In addition, looking at areas such as governance, finance, facilities, and more, the Committee is working to ensure organizational information is available to help the new ED set priorities for the future, by understanding past practice.
The team is also defining communication strategies around the transition and developing plans for the welcoming, on-boarding, and introduction of the new ED to the full CAMP Rehoboth community.
The search for the new ED is an important part of the succession. Further thought reveals that the transition to that leadership is much like the kitchen that produces a delicious dining experience… there is a lot more to it than would first appear.
Our work continues and we are committed to its successful outcome. Bon appétit! ▼
Chris Beagle is President of the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors and is a realtor at Berkshire-Hathaway-Gallo Realty in Rehoboth Beach.