Strategy in Action: Building Capacity

Organizational capacity is what enables work to get done, missions to be achieved and impact to be delivered.

When times are flush, organizational capacity helps organizations achieve next-level growth. In times of depression and disruption, capacity plays defense against risk and uncertainty.

To succeed in light of or in spite of any and all factors, organizations must make capacity a perpetual objective; always on leadership's radar.

Organizational capacity is so important that we've been writing, speaking and advising our clients on how to assess it, the strategies to use to build it and how to effectively manage and assign it for years.

To assist you with building capacity for your organization, here is a roundup of the most valuable and actionable articles we've ever published on the topic.

Organizational Assessment Overdue?

Conducting an organizational assessment of your strategic assets is critical for gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This article will help you identify the capabilities and assets you can deploy to get work done, execute on your business strategy and satisfy your customers. Read the Article

How to Prioritize Your Capacity Building Efforts

It's important to align capacity building efforts to the lifecycle stage of your organization because as an organization moves through the cycle, its mindset and capacity needs change. This article outlines what type of capacity should be prioritized and built at each stage. Read the Article

Capacity Building for Goal Achievement

Balancing strategy with capacity is a delicate dance. In fact, a common trap is to pursue the next shiny objective without considering the capacity building required to support the effort. This article explores the value of focusing on capacity and strategy in tandem. Read the Article

Don't Underestimate this Growth Strategy: Maximizing Organizational Resources

Pursuing a growth strategy doesn’t necessarily require investing in new tools and resources to execute. In some cases, maximizing existing organizational resources is a great way to grow. This article recommends four areas to mine for additional capacity first. Read the Article

What's Holding Back Your Organization's Growth?

Speaking of growth...this article will help you avoid one of the biggest pitfalls we see clients run into when growing and scaling their organizations – pursuing big goals without first addressing challenges standing in the way (especially those preventing existing capacity from being effective or even deployed). Read the Article

How to Build Organizational Capacity through Board Development

Boards are a powerful source of capacity capable of driving progress exponentially and becoming an organization's secret weapon for rising to the top of the competitive heap. This article is a guide to tapping the capacity often overlooked and lying dormant within your board. Read the Article

A Holistic Approach to Setting Strategy & Planning Key Resources

Developing high-level strategy while considering the organizational shifts required to achieve it results in a plan that both achieves strategic goals and defines the building blocks of the business model. This article illustrates how the holistic approach works with a real-world example from our client files. Read the Article

Our Planning & Resource Alignment Checklist

Knowledge and insights about capacity building are useless unless put into action. We developed this simple tool to help you more thoroughly consider your organization's capacity needs and think holistically about how to align key resources to achieve objectives. Read the Article + Download the Checklist