The Challenge: Talented People, Disconnected Work
The National Speech & Debate Association had dedicated employees, valuable programs, and an important mission. But the way work moved through the organization wasn't always setting people up for success.
Marketing responsibilities had been distributed among competing leadership priorities for several years. Departments operated in silos, communication was fragmented, and staff had limited visibility into what other teams were working on.
Projects and promotional needs weren't consistently planned far enough in advance. That created competing priorities, last-minute requests, and missed opportunities to coordinate efforts.
Without shared planning and performance systems, it was also difficult to understand team capacity, anticipate deadlines, or evaluate whether marketing initiatives were achieving their intended outcomes.
The organization didn't need people to care more or work harder.
It needed better systems connecting people, priorities, and work.
The Assessment: Looking Beyond the Symptoms
When I stepped into the newly established Director of Marketing & Advocacy role, I needed to build a department capable of supporting membership growth, national programs, advocacy, and public awareness.
But before deciding what the team should do, I needed to understand how the work actually happened.
Where did requests originate? Who owned decisions? How were deadlines communicated? What happened when multiple departments needed support simultaneously? Could employees plan their work, or were they constantly responding to new priorities?
Several interconnected challenges emerged:
- Limited visibility: Staff couldn't consistently see upcoming work, dependencies, or competing priorities.
- Reactive workflows: Without complete project plans established upfront, teams had fewer opportunities to prepare for deadlines.
- Unclear ownership: Responsibilities and approval expectations needed to be more consistently defined.
- Capacity constraints: Without shared visibility, it was harder to distribute work, plan around time off, or protect focused work time.
- Inconsistent measurement: Goals and reporting weren't sufficiently standardized to support ongoing performance decisions.
The underlying issue wasn't individual performance. It was the absence of a shared operating structure that helped people succeed.
The Design: Building Systems That Support the People Doing the Work
I developed a coordinated departmental operating system built around four practices.
1. Define the Work Before It Begins
I introduced standardized Asana project templates for campaigns, social media, website updates, video production, media relations, and reporting.
Rather than beginning with a request and figuring out the details along the way, projects could start with a clearer picture of what success required.
Templates established:
- Project scope and deliverables
- Individual responsibilities and task ownership
- Timelines, milestones, and dependencies
- Review and approval requirements
- Reporting needs and measures of success
This reduced ambiguity and helped employees understand not just what they were responsible for, but how their work contributed to the larger goal.
2. Make Priorities and Capacity Visible
An annual editorial calendar, shared project schedules, and standardized workflows gave employees and department leaders greater visibility into upcoming work.
Teams could anticipate deadlines, coordinate projects, and plan around competing priorities.
This also improved coverage during employee time off and made it easier to understand workloads before assigning additional projects.
Instead of relying on constant check-ins to find out what was happening, the work itself became more visible.
3. Give Employees Ownership of Their Work
One of the most important outcomes wasn't about efficiency. It was about autonomy.
When employees could see their responsibilities, deadlines, and priorities in advance, they had more control over how they organized their days.
They could schedule focused work when they were most productive, group smaller tasks together, and plan around upcoming deadlines.
Managers could focus more on supporting the work and addressing obstacles rather than repeatedly clarifying assignments.
The system provided structure without requiring everyone to work the same way.
Clear expectations created more room for individual ownership, not less.
4. Connect Execution to Measurable Goals
I established shared departmental goals, planning documents, meeting agendas, and more consistent reporting practices.
This helped employees understand what the team was trying to accomplish and gave us opportunities to evaluate performance throughout an initiative.
We could make adjustments while work was underway instead of waiting until the end to determine whether something had been successful.
The goal wasn't to create more reporting. It was to make information useful for better decisions.
The Implementation: Demonstrate Value, Then Expand
I began by establishing these practices within the Marketing & Advocacy department, where I had the authority to define workflows, expectations, and team structure.
I hired and onboarded two marketing specialists and coordinated the work of website content and video production staff.
As the systems became part of our everyday operations, the benefits were increasingly visible.
Projects could be planned further ahead. Employees understood their responsibilities. Teams had more time to collaborate, review work, and make thoughtful decisions before deadlines arrived.
Other organizational leaders began adopting elements of the approach.
The standardized planning and project management practices expanded into six organizational functions or work areas:
- Development
- Belonging and Inclusion
- National Tournament
- Tournament Services
- Website Content
- Video Production
The level of adoption varied, but the underlying principle was consistent: establish the complete project plan, responsibilities, timeline, and reporting needs upfront.
This wasn't an organization-wide mandate.
The approach spread because other teams experienced the benefits and wanted a more predictable way to manage their own work.
The Impact: More Than Better Project Management
More Predictable Execution
With upcoming work visible, teams could plan ahead instead of constantly responding to last-minute requests.
Cross-department collaborators had greater clarity about when their contributions were needed, reducing surprises and the pressure of last-minute pushes.
For the 2023 National Tournament, website development was approximately one month ahead of the previous year's schedule, supporting an earlier planned launch aligned with hotel registration.
Greater Employee Ownership
Clear responsibilities, shared expectations, and visible deadlines reduced confusion about who was doing what.
Employees could manage their time according to their workload and preferred working styles, including protecting time for focused work.
The result was a team with more autonomy, greater confidence in its responsibilities, and pride in the quality of its work.
Better Quality and Coordination
Proactive planning created more time to think, collaborate, review, and execute.
The team could promote programs and content in a timely manner, improving the consistency of communication with members.
Shared visibility also reduced duplicate video requests and helped the organization identify opportunities to use creative resources across multiple strategic priorities.
More Informed Decisions
Clearly defined goals and reporting practices allowed the team to monitor performance and make adjustments as initiatives progressed.
During this period, broader NSDA marketing and event initiatives achieved:
- 59% growth in National Tournament app sessions
- 34% growth in event merchandise sales
- 19% growth in social engagement
These were collaborative organizational outcomes, not results attributable solely to the operating systems.
Systems That Continued Beyond One Leader
Perhaps the strongest evidence of the approach's value was its sustainability.
After my departure in January 2024, NSDA's former Director of Development, now Chief Advancement Officer, confirmed that the National Tournament processes I developed, along with several others, remained in use.
The systems weren't dependent on my continued involvement.
They had become part of how the organization worked.
The Cadence Principle: Structure Creates Freedom
Organizations sometimes resist new processes because they worry about adding bureaucracy or limiting employee independence.
My experience at NSDA reinforced the opposite.
When employees know what they're responsible for, can see what's coming, and understand how success is measured, they gain more control over their work.
Managers spend less time resolving preventable confusion. Teams have more time for thoughtful collaboration. Leaders can make decisions based on information rather than assumptions.
The right systems don't control people. They create the conditions for people to do their best work.
That's the thinking behind Cadence: designing how organizations manage, communicate, and execute so great leadership becomes repeatable.