Staffing for Nonprofit Success: Aligning Talent & Vision

Welcome to the bronze badge lessons on nonprofit staff deployment. While “deployment'' sounds like a very formal term, we actually experience employee deployment strategies at play each day. When we search out the appropriate colleague to help with a project or advocate for new responsibilities in our own role, we see deployment at work.

The following lessons encourage you to take the time to think critically about the roles and responsibilities of individuals in your organization. In the bronze badge, we will review what staff deployment is, why staff deployment matters, staff deployment skills, what effective staff deployment looks like, and measuring staff deployment effectiveness.

By the time you earn this bronze badge, you will be able to identify methods to make a difference in staff deployment at your nonprofit, whether you are on an organization’s leadership team, in a support role, or a member of the program team.

Let’s dive in.

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll jump in on an overview of what staff deployment is.

Be sure to download the transcript to begin building your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

Now that you have some basics about staff deployment, let's take a look at why it matters.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at the key skills related to staff deployment. Remember: skills can be learned, practiced, and developed over time, so if you feel that you have a little (or a lot of!) room for improvement, know that you're on the right track!

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

In this lesson, we'll bring together our learning on what effective staff deployment programs look like, and how can we measure them.

In this lesson we'll go a little further in understanding effective staff deployment programs, with an emphasis on how to measure them.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Now that we have identified what staff deployment is, our next step is to figure out how to take action. In this series of lessons, we will start by exploring how to activate staff deployment efforts. Then, we will discuss how to lead efforts that improve staff deployment in your nonprofit, and how to build strong staff deployment improvement goals for yourself and your organization.

You will go from being a learner to becoming a leader of staff deployment efforts and activities. No matter where you sit in your organization, you can be an active participant in improving your nonprofit’s use of staff.

Nonprofits can get stuck in old patterns without a clear growth trajectory for its employees. Your insight and improvement in building deployment capacity can help your organization in your department and beyond.

Let’s begin!

*Remember that a transcript of all audio is available for download below on the lessons below, and you can always turn on closed-captions on the video settings above.

Let’s start with how to activate our staff deployment abilities and go beyond the focused skill-building we talked about in our bronze lessons. We’ll look at more deeply exploring your motives for improvement, managing innovation, and understanding others.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Now that we have a little bit of foundation in your staff deployment efforts, let's think about how we can apply this to your organization.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at how to put staff deployment strategies into practice with a look at how to build and enhance it in your nonprofit.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

In our consideration of how to build up your own capacity in developing and supporting effective staff deployment at your nonprofit, we’re going to consider the principles behind goal-setting.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Setting goals to improve your nonprofit’s overall staff deployment capacity looks and feels different than setting goals as an individual.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

As we arrive at our gold badge for the staff deployment capacity area, let’s take a moment to reflect on what we’ve learned thus far.

We began our lessons with the “what” of staff deployment, why it matters, what skills are involved, and how to measure it.

We talked about the process of assessing our staff needs, how we can identify resources, and designing and actualizing a plan.

To be effective in staff deployment, we need to be skillful in managing complexity, developing talent, and planning and alignment.

Now that we have these skills, we will consider the motivational aspects of deploying team members. In this badge, we will discuss how to get motivated about staff deployment and motivate others. After we stretch our skills in motivation, we’ll review all that we’ve covered in this topic and develop a personal learning plan you can take forward as a capstone to your learning. Let’s jump in!

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll look at how motivation can be supported in building staff development efforts in your organization.

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

In this lesson, we're going to discuss how we can inspire others to get personally motivated about nonprofit staff development efforts, especially those who may be resistant.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this final teaching lesson on staff deployment, we're bringing together all our learning into a capstone video on how we can grow from everything we've covered thus far!

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.