SDSVP Investees Utilize Questions to Tackle Tough Issues

By SDSVP Partner, AmyK Hutchens and SDSVP Board Member, Christopher Bush

For many philanthropic organizations it's about the check. Money is indeed quite helpful and appreciated, but what if you could take $1 and magically make it worth $9? SDSVP knows how to wave that magic wand with each and every Investee by focusing on engagement. Engaged partners are at the heart of the organization. With diverse backgrounds in business, law, medicine, human resources, finance, philanthropy, and the arts, to name a few, SDSVP leverages each dollar with our time and expertise. The engagement opportunities lead to rich dialogue, better decisions, and healthy outcomes.

In July, the Executive Directors from each of the Investees were invited to an educational roundtable discussion on leadership led by SDSVP Partner and international speaker, AmyK Hutchens. Utilizing question-based tools to raise the level of critical thinking, participants immediately tackled tough issues such as facilitating cultural change, overcoming economic challenges, restructuring a business model and how to maximize their relationship with SDSVP. Through the lens of Socratic Methodology, Partners and Investees framed specific operational and strategic issues so the problem could be better evaluated, reflected upon, and successfully solved.

There are six main types of critical thinking that the brain can perform. However, when it comes to organizational leadership, there are three levels of thinking that yield the most profitable results: reflection, evaluation and prediction. Unfortunately most leaders often ask low -level (recall) questions that simply require memorized, regurgitated responses. Very little critical thinking takes place. However, when a leader asks a more reflective, evaluative and predictive type question, critical thinking skyrockets as does the quality of solutions. For example, if a leader asks, What is our goal this year? and everyone shouts out, To raise 1 million dollars in funds, that was an easy question…too easy. If the leader changes that question to, How might we meet and exceed our 1 million fundraising goal?, now respondents have to think. They must reflect on where and how money was successfully raised in the past, they must evaluate where they are now in the process including the current environmental and legislative changes, and they must predict what their first several steps and collateral consequences will be in successfully moving toward their new fundraising goal. A simple change in the quality of your questions can exponentially raise the quality of your answers.

In an interactive workshop format, triads of Investee Executive Directors and SDSVP Partners put the Socratic Methodology to good use by evaluating their working relationship. They then identified critical factors that would contribute to healthier, more measureable outcomes. Groups closed by sharing their ideas/tweaks that SDSVP Partners and each Investee could make, that when put into practice, would create an even stronger benefit for both organizations.

Participants at this forum included ARTS, Tariq Khamisa Foundation, ElderHelp, Community Resource Center and Corporation for Support Housing. This forum was so successful that SDSVP has already scheduled Part II which will include more of the Investee staff members. For more information about SDSVP's Executive Directors Roundtable and our upcoming events, contact Mandy Sherlock at mandy@sdsvp.org.