Improve Team Morale: 3 Strategies for Nonprofits
Written by katie test davis
This blog helps you…
Refresh your team dynamics: Check in on how your team works together best and set healthy boundaries — like "No Call Fridays" — to reduce stress and build genuine connection.
Host a Success Analysis: Shift away from focusing on what went wrong by celebrating recent wins and mapping out your team's specific formula for success.
Protect creative energy: Eliminate daily interruptions and build a Deep Work Protocol so your team can focus on their most important, mission-driven work without burning out
Your team is working really hard. You know what? I’ll say it. Too hard.
They’re surrounded by uncertainty, harm and crises.
You’re facing staffing changes. (And we’re seeing an unprecedented spike in leadership turnover, too.)
The landscape you’re working in is constantly evolving.
It’s so easy for your team morale to take a hit when just one of these things occur.
But when all of them are happening all at once? It’s time to focus on improving your team morale.
You want your team to feel energized and hopeful, knowing their vital role contributes to the bigger picture.
How? Well, here are a few morale-boosters workshops we have hosted for various teams (including our own):
Revisit your team dynamics
It’s probably been a while since ya’ll checked in about what works for your team dynamics… and what doesn’t.
In this “re-getting to know you” session, we help your team talk about how to get the best out of each other, and how to avoid what brings out the worst. We’ve learned that small changes can make a huge impact!
For example, this training is how we decided to start No Call Fridays at Forthright – making our whole team significantly less stressed and more productive, too. (It’s also why our team doesn’t schedule 8:30 a.m. calls for Niki, making her *much* happier overall.)
Your full team will walk away feeling closer, energized and with a clear set of expectations for working together productively.
unlock your best work
We see it too often during times of stress and uncertainty. We focus on the negative – what went wrong, what we could have done differently. In this training, we flip the script and lead a Success Analysis – looking at what went right!
We’ll:
Start by working with your team to determine your biggest wins from the past year – from the small victories to major successes. Before the training, we’ll ask for wins from each participant to ensure we’re celebrating everyone’s hard work.
Dissect your team’s wins from last year to find your secret sauce. Your team will have a chance to weigh in on what went well and celebrate each other.
Create a roadmap for the upcoming year to help you incorporate this secret sauce into your future projects and campaigns.
Praise, laughter and a side dish of data-backed success metrics. What more could you ask for?
Productivity and Our Creative Process
You know those days where the work day flies by, and it’s 5 p.m. before you know it? There’s a science to it! It’s called the Science of Flow: the psychological state where work feels effortless and time vanishes. Flow isn’t an accident – it’s a response to an ideal set of conditions.
During this session, we’ll:
Identify the Flow Blockers in your current culture, such as too many Slack interruptions or useless meetings.
Co-design a Deep Work Protocol. This is a set of team agreements that protect your (precious) creative time.
After this training, your whole team will be *in the Flow* producing great collateral for your organization before you know it!
It is so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind of deadlines and deliverables. But I want you to take a second to look at the bigger picture. Every strategy we build and every story we tell is a literal act of love and resistance. We need your team energized and focused!
Whether it’s creating a website that guides a parent to the right resources or designing a campaign that drives real policy change, your work is the hope in our community.
About the Author
With nearly 20 years of communications experience advocating for children and families, Katie Test Davis is the Founder of Forthright Advising. Having led in-house teams at public school districts and national nonprofits, Katie intimately understands the unique pressures and burnout that mission-driven professionals face. Today, she uses her extensive leadership experience to help organizations improve team dynamics, protect their creative time, and keep their staff energized while doing world-changing work.
