Innovating on Purpose

The talk

New ideas only matter once your team owns them

Every nonprofit leader is being asked to do more with the same people and the same budget, while new tools like AI change what’s possible almost monthly. The hard part usually isn’t spotting the opportunity. It’s rolling out the change so your staff and board trust it, adopt it, and keep it going after the launch.

In this talk, I’ll share how mission-driven leaders can introduce innovation with intention: how to pick the right first change, bring your people along, and make it last. You’ll leave with ideas you can use the following Monday.

The peer session

Bring a real challenge to the table

After the talk, you’ll get a taste of how a Vistage peer group works. One or two leaders will put a real issue in front of the room, and the group will help them see it more clearly through questions, shared experience, and candid perspectives. Everyone else learns from the process, and from how other leaders think.

Come with a decision or challenge you’re working on. Nothing is required to share, and what’s said in the room stays in the room.

The morning

Agenda

• 8:00 · Doors open, breakfast, and introductions
• 8:30 · Talk: Innovating on Purpose
• 9:15 · Live peer session: working a real issue together
• 10:15 · Takeaways and what a Vistage group is like
• 10:30 · Close

Who it’s for: CEOs and executive directors of nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C. region.

Your host

Todd Girvin, Vistage Chair

I’m a former founder and CEO, and I lead a Vistage peer advisory group of chief executives in the Washington, D.C. region. I coach leaders one-to-one and bring them together each month to work on the decisions that matter most. More about me.

Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize business leaders. Experience Vistage events give leaders a firsthand look at how a peer group works. You can learn more at vistage.com.