Nature's Keepers

With more than $3.7 billion in assets and annual revenue of $800 million, the Nature Conservancy has generated staggering growth that would be the envy of any business.

Incorporated in 1951 by a small circle of concerned ecologists, the Conservancy has grown financially into the world's largest environmental organization. It has one million members--up from 500,000 in 1990--and 3,500 employees operating in 50 states and 28 countries across the world.

Nature's Keepers offers readers an inspirational leadership tale and management chronicle, as it goes behind the scenes and details the inner workings of the Nature Conservancy. Highlighting the efforts of nine extraordinary leaders, Nature's Keepers examines the organization's culture and management, strategy and decisions, and courageous and ingenious individuals who have dedicated their lives to conservation.

Author Bill Birchard reveals how the Conservancy's sometimes controversial business practices--entrepreneurial approaches to preserving ecosystems while meeting human needs--have earned the praise of management gurus such as Peter Drucker. The Conservancy's way of operating, though not free of failings, is both widely emulated in the nonprofit community and greatly respected by business scholars and CEOs nationwide.

PREFACE ix

1 NO CRISIS UNANSWERED: How the Nature Conservancy Masters Challenges and Change 1

2 THE COURAGE TO LEAD: Revamping Leadership to Renew Performance 9

3 MISSION FOR LIFE: On Being Systematic, Not Opportunistic 31

4 WE CAN WORK WITH YOU: The Care and Feeding of a Dynamic Culture 53

5 WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: The Road to Realizing New Ambitions 79

6 THE POWER OF “WE”: Engaging Every Constituency for Breakthrough Results 105

7 MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS: Teaching the Organization to Work as One 129

8 MANAGE THYSELF: Leadership in a Shared-Power World 153

9 GLOBAL DYNAMO: Taking the Organization International 179

10 THE SENATE IS CALLING: Accountability and Governance in the Face of Crisis 207

EPILOGUE: Unsung Heroes 235

AUTHOR’S NOTE 239

INDEX 241

THE AUTHOR 251

THE AUTHOR

Bill Birchard is a freelance journalist who has been writing about management and the environment for more than twenty-five years. His work has appeared in Chief Executive, CFO, Fast Company, Strategy + Business, and Tomorrow magazines. He has also written for the Appalachian Trail Conference, the Montana Department of State Lands, and the U.S. Forest Service. He is the coauthor of two previous books, Counting What Counts and The One-Minute Meditator. On the web, see www.natureskeepers.net.

NATURE'S KEEPERS

With more than $3.7 billion in assets and annual revenue of $800 million, the Nature Conservancy has generated staggering growth that would be the envy of any business. Incorporated in 1951 by a small circle of concerned ecologists, the Conservancy has grown financially into the world's largest environmental organization. It has one million members—up from 500,000 in 1990—and 3,500 employees operating in 50 states and 28 countries across the world.

The story of the Nature Conservancy is a story about people building a top-tier institution—one of the most successful organizations in the world. Although ultimately it is a story of success, it is also a story about men and women confronting crises and challenges. Nature's Keepers captures the behind-the-scenes story of people taking courageous steps to transform and improve the way they work—and continue to log achievements that count. It reaffirms that people who weather and profit from difficulties, sometimes the most daunting or nerve-racking of their careers, separate organizations that thrive from those that do not. Indeed, the people appearing in Nature's Keepers emerge from crucibles of learning that force them to rethink behavior, rewrite rules, reconfigure processes, and reinvent the way they work.

In Nature's Keepers, the leaders of the Nature Conservancy overcome countless challenges—mission confusion, conflicts of organizational culture, an obsolete business model, weaknesses in governance, "ad hoc" management, homegrown international expansion, a crisis in public accountability—and time and time again transform and improve their organization. Their riveting story offers lessons and role models for creating an organization that has the drive, commitment, and spirit to succeed. As Nature's Keepers shows, the Nature Conservancy's practice of supporting innovative approaches has produced successful leaders determined to mold, rather than just manage, the world they leave to their children. "Nature’s Keepers is a remarkable book about a remarkable organization—and a ripping yarn about groups and people who make a difference against all odds. Beyond that, it is a matchless tale of a half century of organizational growth and renewal—replete with missteps and subsequent vaults upward. Told as a series of nine fast-paced sagas of extraordinary leaders, it holds lessons of the utmost importance for every variety of reader."
--Tom Peters