Government is being pulled in every direction—shifting priorities, political pressures, and ever-changing public needs. In this environment, leaders must move beyond check-the-box strategic plans and set a meaningful direction for their city, agency, or department. The most effective leaders don’t just react—they make deliberate choices that drive real progress. Achieving this level of strategic clarity isn’t just possible—it’s within reach.

The key is making deliberate choices that define direction. This comes before and informs the strategic plan. Patrick Lencioni’s six clarity questions offer a simple, effective way to define strategy and align teams, even in uncertainty.

1. Why Do We Exist?

Every organization needs a compelling reason for existing—its core purpose. The answer should be idealistic and high-level. Why do we get up in the morning and do the work we do? Is it to change the world in some way, improve the lives of our citizens, advance a cause, or because we love public sector work? Whatever the reason, it must be clear and resonate with everyone.

2. How Do We Behave?

Core values define culture and set expectations for every person at every level. They must drive behavior and decisions—not just exist as words on a website. A useful exercise: identify your top employees and analyze what makes them exceptional. How do they behave? Then, either re-evaluate your current values or re-focus on reinforcing them daily. Your values, when lived-out, will attract and align similarly minded staff and leaders.

3. What Do We Do?

This question requires a straightforward answer. No fluff, no jargon—just a simple, clear statement: We provide these services or products to these people. Getting precise about what your organization actually does ensures clarity in execution. It’s important to get clear on the answer, even when it seems obvious.

4. How Will We Succeed?

Your organization needs three success pillars—key focus areas that define how you will best serve your citizens and stakeholders. What will set you apart? What strategic choices will ensure you fulfill your mission effectively?

Spreading efforts too thin risks mediocrity; it makes it harder to excel in key areas that drive real impact. Instead, pick three strategic pillars that define success. Not four. Not five. Three. These should be so strong in execution that they naturally attract the right customers and team members.

For example, a city might focus on three success pillars: (1) Customer-Focused Government—making it easy for residents to access services, (2) Transparent & Accountable Government—ensuring trust through clear decision-making, and (3) Modernizing Government—upgrading technology, processes, and infrastructure to serve citizens more efficiently and effectively.

What are the three success pillars that will drive clarity and success for your agency?

5. What Is Most Important Right Now?

Organizations juggle multiple priorities—services, finances, compliance, PR, policy—but often lack a single, overriding focus. A short-term rallying cry ensures strategic progress rather than just maintaining day-to-day operations.

Borrowing from The Four Disciplines of Execution, ask: If every area of our organization stayed the same, what one change would have the greatest impact?

Examples:

• Fixing a critical operational weakness
• Launching a new initiative
• Implementing a new system or process

A clear rallying cry increases collaboration, alignment, and accelerates strategic progress beyond the day-to-day.

6. Who Must Do What?

Strategy is meaningless without accountability. Clarity in roles ensures execution. First, define who is responsible for key actions. Second, ensure every team member understands their role in driving strategy.

A great way to create alignment: Have each team member write down their role and take turns soliciting feedback. This ensures 100% clarity on what our team needs from each role.

The Power of Clarity

Strategy is not a document—it’s action. Successful organizations take a stand, define their role, and align every team member around these six questions. Alignment is simply every person speaking the same answer to the same questions. Without this clarity, engagement suffers, leadership turnover disrupts progress, and execution slows because there is no compelling long-term vision.

Every team member must have the same answers to these six questions. They aren’t abstract concepts—they are the foundation for a thriving organization.

Define your destination with clarity and set your organization on a path to lasting success. The most effective leaders don’t just manage change—they drive it with purpose and precision.

About Mark

Mark helps leaders build mission-driven, collaborative teams. As a speaker, consultant, and former software company founder, with extensive experience working with public sector organizations, he understands the challenges of shifting priorities, slow execution, and hampered collaboration. Whether you need a strategic advisor to bring clarity to your direction or a dynamic speaker to help your leaders break down silo mentalities and work better together, Mark equips leaders with practical tools to strengthen collaboration, improve execution, and build an aligned, mission-driven agency.

Let’s connect – Schedule a call with Mark today or email mark@markskenny.com.

The world of associations has changed, bringing new challenges for leaders defining their association’s role and creating a culture of teamwork. While the path forward may feel uncertain, achieving strategic clarity isn’t just possible—it’s essential.

Many associations have plans but lack a clear strategy—like flying with a flight plan but no set arrival point. Without clear, shared direction, teams operate in silos, make decisions in isolation, and struggle to gain traction.

To move forward with confidence, leaders must go beyond working harder or drafting another plan. The key is making a few deliberate decisions that define the path forward—and making sure everyone answers those questions the same way. This comes before, and informs, the strategic plan. Patrick Lencioni’s six clarity questions offer a simple, powerful way to create this alignment, even in the midst of uncertainty.

1. Why Do We Exist?

Every association needs a compelling reason for existing—its core purpose. The answer should be idealistic and high-level. Why do you get up in the morning and do the work you do? Is it to change the world in some way, improve the lives of your customers, advance a cause, or because you love an industry? Whatever the reason, it must be clear and resonate with everyone.

2. How Do We Behave?

Core values define culture and set expectations for staff, board, and members. They must drive behavior and decisions—not just exist as words on a website. A useful exercise: identify your top employees or members and analyze what makes them exceptional. How do they behave? Then, either re-evaluate your current values or re-focus on reinforcing them daily. Your values, when lived-out, will attract and align staff, members, and volunteers.

3. What Do We Do?

This question requires a straightforward answer. No fluff, no jargon—just a simple, clear statement: We provide these services to these people. Getting precise about what your association actually does ensures clarity in execution.

4. How Will We Succeed?

Your association needs three competitive anchors—distinct elements that differentiate it. The biggest competitor isn’t another association; it’s doing nothing. The status quo is powerful. But what if your organization excelled in three areas so well that joining became a no-brainer?

Spreading efforts too thin risks mediocrity; it makes it harder to excel in key areas that drive real impact. Instead, pick three strategic pillars that define success. Not four. Not five. Three. These should be so strong in execution that they naturally attract the right members, volunteers, and staff.

A great example: Southwest Airlines built its success on three anchors—On Time, Low Fares, Loyal Customers. They weren’t trying to build the biggest network or the best premium product. Every employee aligned with and executed on these pillars, fueling consistent success for over 40 years (what will be interesting to watch is the impact of Southwest seemingly now shifting away from these anchors – either deliberately or reactively).

What are the three anchors that will set your association apart?

5. What Is Most Important Right Now?

Associations juggle multiple priorities—conferences, education, membership, finances, governance—but often lack a single, overriding focus. A short-term rallying cry ensures strategic progress rather than just maintaining day-to-day operations.

Borrowing from The Four Disciplines of Execution, ask: If every area of our association stayed the same, what one change would have the greatest impact?

Examples:

• Fixing a critical operational weakness
• Expanding outreach to the next generation of members
• Launching a new non-dues revenue source

A clear rallying cry increases collaboration, alignment, and accelerates strategic progress beyond the day-to-day.

6. Who Must Do What?

Strategy is meaningless without accountability. Clarity in roles ensures execution. First, define who is responsible for key actions. Second, ensure every board and staff member understands their role in driving strategy.

A great way to create alignment: Have each team member write down their role and take turns soliciting feedback. This ensures 100% clarity on what our team needs from each role.

The Power of Clarity

Strategy is not a document—it’s action. Successful associations take a stand, define their role, and align every staff person, board member, and association member around these six questions. Alignment is simply every person speaking the same answer to the same questions. Without this clarity, engagement suffers, leadership turnover disrupts progress, and membership declines because there is no compelling long-term vision.

Every board member, staff member, and leader must have the same answers to these six questions. They aren’t abstract concepts—they are the foundation for a thriving association in a changing world.

Define your destination with clarity, and set your association on a path to success. Associations that commit to clarity will be the ones that thrive.

About Mark

Mark helps leaders build mission-driven, collaborative teams. As a speaker, consultant, and former association president, he understands the challenges of shifting priorities, member engagement, and board alignment. Whether you need a strategic advisor to bring clarity to your direction or a dynamic speaker to help your leaders break down silo mentalities and work better together, Mark equips and inspires teams to strengthen collaboration and build a thriving association.

Let’s connect – Schedule a call with Mark today or email mark@markskenny.com.

Note: this is a series of weekly tips to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Holding each other accountable is the key that unlocks results for the entire team. And yet, holding each other accountable is hard.

Which brings me to this week’s tip: Decide up front how to hold each other accountable.

Having the accountability conversation up front, before the need arises to hold each other accountable, makes it easier to hold each other accountable. We’ve already talked about it. We already know how we’re going to do it. We have a game plan. We’ve already agreed.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Get the team together.
2. Talk about how accountability is important. Ask the team for examples in their career where teams held each other accountable. And when they did not. What happened? What was the effect on the team?
3. Then ask each team member to write down how they want to be held accountable by their teammates.
4. Ask team members to share what they wrote down.
5. Agree as a team to hold each other accountable the way each team member wants to be held accountable. (not the way we want to be held accountable)

While this does not make holding one another accountable easy, it does make it easier.

One word of caution: take time to build trust first. We can’t have a fruitful conversation about accountability without trust on the team.

When you build accountability into the team, you are building a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Note: this is a series of weekly tips to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Leading teams can be lonely, frustrating, and exhausting, zapping our joy.

In addition to working with business and public sector leaders to build functional, collaborative, aligned teams, I coach high school basketball on the side. One thing I have learned, and put into practice this past season, is that creating a culture of gratitude increases my joy of coaching the team. It is more fun to coach a team that is grateful.

Which brings me to this week’s tip: build a culture of gratitude on your team.

Here are some ways to begin building a culture of gratitude:

1. Start a meeting by asking people to write down “someone who…” invested in you or made a difference in your life. Then provide a minute for your team to reflect, with gratitude, those people in our lives.
2. Start a meeting by asking people to write down and then share what they are grateful for today.
3. Create a challenge to do something helpful or kind for one teammate each day for the next 10 days. (naturally, make sure everyone is included)
4. Model gratitude yourself. Connect with one team member every day and tell them “I am grateful for you being on the team.”
5. Ask your team to write down one thing for which they are grateful about each of their teammates. This takes time, so is best for a team offsite, retreat, or similar get together. If you are physically in the same room, bring a thank you note for each person, pass each note around, and have everyone add a note of gratitude to each person’s card. Be sure to include a card for you, as the leader. Everyone will leave re-energized. If you are not physically in the same room, create an online document for each person and ask everyone to add their note to each document. (of course, you could also have everyone verbalize their gratitude)

When you build a culture of gratitude and decide to lead from a place of gratitude, you will enjoy leading more and you are building a more functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Tip: Create a Cross-Integrated Group

Often times, we need to create a functional, collaborative, and aligned team with the team members on our team. At other times, we need to create a functional, collaborative, and aligned “team of teams,” which sets up this week’s tip.

How do you get two teams to work together when they share common responsibilities? This is not an uncommon scenario, especially in larger organizations that are experiencing change. Instead of restructuring, the answer is this week’s tip: create a cross-integrated group of individuals from the teams that need to work together.

This tip comes from an interview I conducted for my book on eliminating territorial thinking and unleashing the power of teams in organizations. Heather Gahir, Ph. D. and Vice President of Talent Strategy and Organizational Development at Jackson National Life Insurance Company shared that “In my experience, [creating a cross-integrated group] works best and is faster than waiting for the results of a restructuring.”

The purpose of this cross-integrated group is to solve problems for the two teams. For example, if a member of one team needs access to a resource and can’t get it, they can put it in the queue for this cross-integrated group to solve. If the group cannot solve the issue, they can bump it up to a higher power or the teams themselves.

A simple, quick solution.

Go build a functional, collaborative, aligned team [of teams]!

Note: this is a series of weekly tips to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Tip: Determine if Your Team is Actually a Team

When I was in college, I worked as a cook at Pizza Hut. My job on a Friday night was to get pizzas cooked and out to our customers within 15 minutes. I was so proud to whip those pizzas out on time. My job was not to build vulnerability-based trust or have passionate debate with the wait staff or with my manager. Nor was my job to make decisions on what was best for the restaurant. It was to whip out those pizzas on time. So, were we, as employees, a team?

Which brings me to this week’s tip: determine if your team is actually a team. Or is it a group of people that just happen to sit in the same place on the org chart? (let’s call that a working group)

The distinction is important because it dictates our strategy as a leader.

When I am facilitating a strategic team offsite to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team, there is an assumption that I am working with an actual team that makes decisions together and must collaborate together in order to achieve a high level of results. That may sound funny, but evaluating this distinction is a part of my pre-work process. Just because the people on your “team” happen to occupy the same position in the org chart, that doesn’t make them a team. And that’s OK. They don’t have to be a team. It may be appropriate to be a working group, in which case you probably don’t need me. But as leaders, it is important to be clear on the matter. Let’s look at the differences.

The classic definition of a team is a group of individuals that comes together to achieve a common goal. But for our purposes and in my experience, this definition doesn’t cut it. We could all have a common goal of generating data reports for our internal clients, for example, but that doesn’t mean we need to work together as a team in order to generate them effectively.

Instead, for our purposes, an actual team:

• Makes decisions and works through challenges together.
• Contributes collectively to a common goal or goals.
• Works collaboratively to achieve results.
• Is smaller in size (usually 3-9 people)

In my experience, the most significant telltale sign in that list is that they make decisions and works through challenges together. You are relying on this small group of people to work through key decisions and challenges. When that is true, then everything changes. The team must be cohesive, have open honest debate, commit to the team’s course of action even if they didn’t initially agree, develop accountability, be 100% clear on why they exist, how they will succeed, and what is most important now. If the team does not do the work of building a cohesive team, it is going to suffer – along with everyone at lower levels in the organization.

This is why my work is so important and why it is so essential for the leader to prioritize building a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

The most obvious example of a team is a leadership team responsible for leading and setting the direction for a company, agency, department, or division.

On the other hand, a team that is a working group:

• Does not make decisions together (be careful with this one – sometimes we think the group is making decisions but in reality it is a smaller team within the larger group who is relied upon to actually make the decisions).
• May do work individually (the work doesn’t require collaboration).
• May be more advisory in nature or meets to be informed as opposed to making decisions and working together. These groups tend to be larger in size (for the purposes of this discussion, let’s set aside political groups who vote and make decisions – they are a different animal outside the context of our discussion).
• May have individual goals instead of common goals that the group works together, collaboratively, to achieve.

Some random examples of working groups:

• A group of individuals who work independently on individual cases (customer service, inquiries, family services, etc.).
• A large group of leaders in an organization who meets to report or be informed about what is happening. (note: a client will sometimes ask me to work with a team like this and I often encourage them to look at who it is who actually are relied upon to debate and make decisions and thus is part of the true leadership team – start with that group first).
• A team of project managers who manage their own individual projects without the help of others on the team (one of my experiences in a former life).

These are not “wrong.” They may be completely appropriate and legitimate. The important aspect is that we, as leaders, have clarity on how best to serve our team.

• If this is a true team that makes decisions and must collaborate together to achieve a high level of results, then, as leaders, it is our responsibility to do the work of building a functional, collaborative, aligned team that trusts one another, can debate ideas openly, holds one another accountable, etc. In fact, as the leader, we are the only one who can make that happen. If we don’t prioritize this, it will not happen. (and there is a distinct process to making this happen – email me if you want a summary)
• If this is a working group, that is a different focus. It may be more of making sure that everyone knows the tasks they need to accomplish individually, why their individual tasks matter, putting in systems to manage those tasks, etc. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t create engagement and joy and high morale, but that is a different focus than building a high level of trust, healthy debate, commitment, accountability, etc. (Note: it’s also fine to call them a team! Just be sure that you, as the leader, understand the distinction.)

Bottom line: determine if your “team” is actually a team. Then determine how best to serve them.

If it is a true “team” in this context, then go build a functional, collaborative, aligned team!

Note: this is a series of weekly tips to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

Tip: Actually Have Conflict

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a tip about creating conflict norms for your team. Conflict norms give your team a predictable environment which makes it easier for them to engage in productive conflict around ideas. Healthy teams engage in healthy, productive conflict.

However, conflict norms don’t do any good if you don’t have conflict. Your team does not reap the benefits from healthy conflict…if it doesn’t actually engage in conflict.

It would be like a basketball player who sets up a basketball hoop in their front driveway but never actually goes out and shoots.

Which is why this week’s tip is to Actually Engage in Conflict.

This is a tip because we tend to stay away from any type of conflict or uncomfortable situation, especially in a team environment. (I have been a prime culprit of this tendency and have had to personally learn to lean into discomfort). We want to move on to the next topic or ask two people who have a disagreement to take it offline.

As a result, the team misses out on:

• The vulnerability-based trust that is built by leaning into discomfort (teams that have uncomfortable, healthy conversations have more trust than teams that don’t).
• Seeing how a disagreement was resolved (instead of the resolution being done offline).
• Getting the best ideas and solutions to a challenge or problem.
• Seeing a different perspective from the team’s current thinking.

Let’s get specific on how you could engage in actual healthy conflict this week:

• When a disagreement arises during a team meeting, instead of tabling it or taking it offline, stop and engage in it. Pull out the conflict norms for guidelines – better yet have those out at the beginning of the meeting, tell the team it is important that we engage in healthy conflict around ideas, and let the disagreement play out. Make it more important than the agenda.
• When there are no disagreements or opinions being expressed, ask each team member to share their opinion on the issue or decision being discussed. Remind them that it is important for everyone’s ideas to be heard, especially ones that disagree with the current team’s thinking.

The caveat is that we are not talking about destructive, interpersonal attacks. As Pat Lencioni describes it, we are talking about passionate debate around ideas. Ideological conflict. This is where your conflict norms come into play: creating a predictable environment as to how the team will engage in conflict.

Leverage your conflict norms. Engage in uncomfortable, healthy conflict. And go build a functional, collaborative, aligned team!