The Nature Conservancy, the nation’s largest private conservation
group, provides an excellent case of how aligning an organization’s
aspirations can enhance its impact.  Under the leadership of John
Sawhill, a former McKinsey partner and senior government official,
the Conservancy undertook no less than three major capacity
building initiatives during the 1990s, all focused on aspirations-
level issues.  One effort rewrote the mission statement; the second
produced a new conservation vision and approach; and the third
set concrete organizationwide goals.
 
On the surface, the organization that Sawhill inherited in 1990 was
thriving, having posted record revenues, membership, and number
of acres acquired.  The organization’s basic strategy – protecting
rare species of plants and animals by buying land – was time-
honored and very attractive to donors.  Despite these successes the
Conservancy’s organizational design harbored a flaw that was
diluting its social impact.
 
Although legally a single 501(c)3 entity, the Conservancy looked
and behaved more like a federation, with each autonomous state
office setting its goals and priorities separately and raising its own
operating funds. As a result, it was very difficult to allocate
resources effectively, to mobilize resources for institutionwide
priorities, or to assess organizationwide progress toward the
mission. With no common objective for the entire enterprise,
operating units found it difficult to cooperate on conservation
initiatives that crossed multiple geopolitical boundaries.
 
The lack of internal cooperation was especially troublesome
because advances in conservation science were driving the organi-
zation to rethink its basic conservation approach.  In particular, it
was clear that the mission demanded that the Conservancy protect
land on much larger scales than ever, making the old capital-
intensive approach of buying and managing natural areas economically unfeasible over the long term.  The future of conser-
vation would depend upon cross-border collaboration and
partnership – qualities notably lacking from the Conservancy’s
organizational skill base.  Sawhill recognized that the Conservancy
would never reach its potential until it started to act as a single
institution.
 
Preaching the gospel of “One Conservancy,” Sawhill was careful to
work with and not against his organization’s fiercely independent
culture in rolling out his capacity building initiatives.  He
recognized that the organization would balk at any heavy-handed,
top-down effort, and so from the start, he appealed to the organi-
zation’s competitiveness, challenging it to raise the bar and increase
its collective impact.  Even the most independent-minded managers
couldn’t argue with that.  From there, it was not such a great leap
to secure organizational consensus that the best way to the next
level of effectiveness was to focus all of the Conservancy’s resources
on a common vision, conservation approach, and set of goals.
 
Nailing down the exact details of the vision and approach was an
agonizing, lengthy process.  Many parts of the organization resisted
surrendering local control, even in exchange for increased impact.
But by 2000, after a decade of capacity building, the Conservancy
had executed a remarkable makeover.  Where once its mission,
vision, goals, and strategies were completely disjointed, now the
Conservancy has attained a large degree of strategic alignment,
with every operating unit aware of its role in advancing the overall
objectives of the organization.
 
These efforts at aligning the Conservancy’s aspirations have had a
dramatic impact on its conservation effectiveness.  Having aligned
aspirations, the Conservancy was able to develop new
organizationwide initiatives such as Last Great Places, improve the
recruiting and retention of top talent, and conduct more
coordinated and aggressive fund-raising campaigns.  As a result, in
the decade since John Sawhill started down the capacity building
path, the Conservancy has improved its performance on
Aspirations biodiversity indicators, and its revenues, staff, and number of
offices have tripled.  Membership has more than doubled.  Its
traditional land protection activity – both through acquisition and
other protection tools, including partnerships – now exceeds a
million acres a year.  Thanks to the unified goals and the common
vision of success, the protection programs focus only on lands
identified as organizationwide priorities.  The Conservancy
continues to expand rapidly, and is already well on its way to its
goal of launching 500 new large-scale project offices by 2010.