I take pride in my work and abilities, but also enjoy the opportunity to showcase another's craft. Larry Sivitz of Seattle 24x7 recently wrote a spot-on review of How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Nonprofit Hell. In fact, his was better than my own.
"Too many nonprofit boards of directors are suffering from an identity crisis. The crisis is that 'who they are' is very often at odds with who or what they would like to become, and the disparity is a pitfall to achieving their charter mission. These split corporate personalities make for interesting, often humorous, and always insightful reading in a new book by Doña Keating that for many nonprofit boards will be like taking a long look in the mirror.
What causes board identity refractions? Nonprofit boards fail to realise their spots and stripes, the kind of coterie they have assembled to lead their organisations. By understanding the 'personality type' of a board, the values and priorities they tend to emulate, nonprofit boards can gain a profound sense of self-awareness and avoid suffering the missteps that are attributable to the wrong kind of group dynamics.
Keating's 'Typical Hell-Inducing Scenarios' each get their own symptom diagnosis and a prescription for remedying. They range among maladies with names like 'Founder's Syndrome,' 'Rambling Meetings,' 'Obstructionism,' 'Silos,' and 'All Hammers and No Saws,' to name but a few. Doña's book is part handbook, part workbook, part case manual and part business diary."
— Review by Larry Sivitz, Seattle 24x7