Pursue small,
achievable goals to
build team confidence.
When I began serving as board member
and then president of the New York State
Urban Forestry Council (NYSUFC), it was
apparent that reaching consensus within a big
group (34+ folks) on complicated topics was
daunting, and we struggled with inertia. For
monumental tasks, like updating our five-year
strategic plan, it helped to break down each
process into several small, more manageable
tasks, and we celebrated the completion of
each incremental task at board meetings.
Concurrently, we used a series of anony-
mous online surveys and voting to measure
where the majority stood on each topic.
The online voting gave even the most soft-
spoken board members an equal say, which
kept the process fully democratic. As a result,
the board members felt more of a sense of
ownership and vision. With votes counted
and priorities quantified into numbers, it
was very clear how to move forward, and
we were able to keep the process going.
When it came to actually implementing the
five-year strategic plan, we started with the
easy wins, completing them one at a time and
building enthusiasm within the group. That
helped us build our team's momentum and led
to incrementally bigger goals and accomplish-
ments. Within two years, we had completed
or made significant progress on more than
60% of our updated strategic plan tasks.
It can be tempting to tackle complex problems
right out of the gate, but this is a common
pitfall for individuals and teams that can lead
to stress, failures, and eventually, inertia and
surrender. You'll likely make better progress
by setting small, incremental, and achiev-
able goals. When you look back years from
now, you'll see that you've built a reputa-
tion of wins for yourself and your team. >>
Budding Urban Foresters
Moving from NYC to Oakland meant that
David is learning a totally new flora.
From left: Former
New York State Urban
Forestry Program
Coordinator Mary
Beck (Kramarchyk);
current NYSUFC
President Karen
Emmerich; NYSUFC
Past President David
Moore; and NYSUFC
Past President Andy
Hillman. Photo by
Michelle Sutton
www.urban-forestry.com 13
