Taking Your Organization to the Next Stage: A Conversation with Patrick Lawler and Eric Schwarz

Originally posted February 2007

The work of Citizen Schools and Youth Villages is markedly different: Youth Villages utilizes scientifically tested programs to help troubled young people overcome behavioral and emotional issues and function successfully in school, at home and with peers. Citizen Schools, however, provides middle-school youth with challenging, hands-on apprenticeships (led by volunteer “citizen teachers”) that are aimed at improving the academic performance of young people so they are able to reach high school and beyond.

Nonetheless, these two organizations share a common goal: to increase the number of young people who receive effective programming that makes a demonstrable impact in their lives.

In the interview below, the executive directors of these two organizations, Patrick Lawler of Youth Villages and Eric Schwarz of Citizen Schools, share their experiences with expanding their programs to reach greater scale.

EMCF: What are some of the unexpected challenges you faced when you tried to expand your programs in the past?
Patrick Lawler : Early on, we mistakenly thought that expansion sites could be managed from a distance. We have since learned that we must have highly capable leaders on site and embedded in the community. A successful expansion requires exceptionally strong leaders with a thorough understanding of our processes and the ability to recreate our “culture” in new environments. Consequently, the impact of poor leadership in a new market is devastating to the stability of the site, as well as to future growth as a whole.

EMCF: And the need for good talent extends beyond leadership?
Eric Schwarz : Yes, a big challenge with Citizen School’s expansion in the past was turnover, both internally and among our external partners. When you form a partnership with a new school system, a new corporate partner, or a new service partner, it’s important to develop multiple champions within the organization so that if your prime point of contact happens to move on, you already have a relationship with other key leaders in the organization.
Internally, we have been lucky to have relatively low staff turnover and a lot of stability in the organization; but growth stress tests an organization. Even if only one or two out of ten leaders turn over during a growth process, your attention is pulled into the lengthy process of hiring, on-boarding, and developing replacements. This may cause you to lose focus on key goals.

EMCF: How do you address turnover problems?
Eric : One, build in some excess capacity so you’re better able to absorb the inevitable departures. Two, build as many cross-functional teams as possible so that your senior leaders can step in and cover for their colleagues if they’re out on an interim basis (maternity leave, for example), or if they leave. It also helps to have an ever-replenishing pool of new talent. At Citizen Schools, we created a Teaching Fellow program that allows us to hire 50-plus new young leaders every year, recent college graduates with great track records and lots of energy. After a two-year fellowship, many of these leaders are ready to step up in the organization, allowing for a positive cascade of opportunity at all levels.

EMCF: So when do you know you’re ready to expand?
Patrick : There are three important indicators of our readiness to expand: leadership and talent, resources, and success. First, organizations that want to grow must have capable leaders who are able to manage a successful program.

Eric : That need for talent not only extends to all levels of the organization, but it also includes talented partners, talented board members, and talented volunteers. At Citizen Schools, as we enter our next round of growth, I’m encouraged by the number of external partners as well as staff who have expressed their eagerness to grow with us.

Patrick : Second, the organization must be financially prepared to withstand the initial financial losses associated with expanding to a new area. For Youth Villages, new programs generally lose $300,000 - $500,000 before they break even, so it is necessary to ensure that existing programs are financially stable.

Eric : To cover the deficits new sites create, we at Citizen Schools are raising what we call “opportunity capital”–large multi-year investments from supporters that want to help us build the capacity to grow our program across the country before these new sites are to tap sustainable revenue streams.

Patrick : Last, growing organizations should continually evaluate current successes. At Youth Villages, we know that if we are able to deliver successful outcomes while successfully managing the finances of our operations, we have the necessary processes in place to successfully expand.

EMCF: What staffing and infrastructure needs should be in place before growing an organization?
Eric : At the top of the list you need a great cadre of program leaders and a system for continuous program improvement. That system needs to include a clear theory of change, ways of measuring your progress, and, most importantly, a culture of organizational improvement that connects the ideas and practices of your front-line leaders with the senior management team.
Second, you need great systems for recruitment and cultivation of donors, partners, and staff and you need leaders overseeing each of these efforts. A recent mistake we made that we’re now recovering from was to launch a phase of our growth that involved lots of hiring without a senior-level leader dedicated to overseeing that effort.

Patrick : Moreover, it is important to prepare other departments to support the changes that come from expanding an organization. As new sites open further and further from corporate headquarters and the number of staff in the organization increases, departments such as business development, finance, and human resources must have a plan to adapt to the new situations in order to perform at peak efficiency.

EMCF: Once your organization is ready, what do you look for when you decide to expand into a new geographic area?
Patrick : States that border existing areas are of particular interest because of the potential they bring for swift expansion, including the ease of relocating or reassigning staff. However, not all states that are in close proximity to our existing locations need our services, or are able to fund them. Other factors taken into consideration include funding changes, legal issues, and changes in leadership.

We also look out for changes in a region’s political leadership, because new officials usually bring new ideas, new initiatives and new strategies. For example, a new governor brings new people to key leadership positions across various departments, such as social services and juvenile justice–areas of particular interest to Youth Villages. If the governor or those he or she appoints are particularly focused on evidence-based practices and/or in-home services, we will be interested in introducing our services to the state.

EMCF: How do you create local "buy-in" to support your expansion?
Eric : It’s important to have clear evidence of external demand. In earlier stages of our history, the impetus for the growth came primarily from us. Now we have more energy coming from potential partners–new school districts, new funders, new partners who have started to hear about Citizen Schools and want to know more.

Going forward, we’re looking to enter states where we can build a critical mass of programs, giving us the opportunity to create a platform for future growth and to also influence the larger after-school sector. For example, as we enter a new region, we also create a local “Council of Champions.” The Council is a group of local leaders that advocates for Citizen Schools to come to the community; helps raise money; helps secure school partnerships; and even helps to recruit the volunteer Citizen Teachers that are at the heart of our program.

EMCF: Finally, how can boards support an organization's expansion? Patrick : It’s very important to have a board that is committed to keeping services of the highest quality during times of program growth and expansion. Quality of service should remain the board’s number one goal, and it should never become overly focused on growth for growth’s sake. Youth Villages’ board plays an active role in helping monitor our “key indicators.” These indicators measure program performance to help ensure that our desired outcomes are not diminished by excessive growth.

Eric : Our board has played two main roles in our growth. First, they have provided strategic counsel, asking hard questions of me and my staff to clarify and improve our strategy.
Second, they have played the role of cheerleader and connector. They have helped provide connections to business colleagues and friends in new communities across the country and they have been advocates for our growth. Growing effective programs is necessary to improve conditions for low-income kids in this country; but growth is hard. It’s important for the board to not just sign off on the strategy but also be a cheerleader for it and provide steady support and encouragement as the plan is implemented.

Patrick : It’s extremely beneficial to have board members whose ‘sphere of influence’ goes beyond the local community, especially if it touches specific geographic areas that are being targeted for growth. In Youth Villages' case, we have several board members who help lead large companies whose business operations share similar geographies with our targeted expansion areas. In addition, we have board members who have personal relationships with key business and community leaders in these same communities– leveraging these relationships is critical.