Tuesday, November 17, 2026
10-11:30am Pacific on Zoom

Choosing Our Direction: Balancing Mission, Priorities, and Cost

The future rarely unfolds the way we plan for it, but that doesn't mean we're powerless to prepare. In this Leadership Lab, we will consider the lens of informed discernment and decision making through scenario planning: a practical strategic tool used by global organizations like DHL to smaller non-profits to navigate uncertainty and make resilient informed decisions. Rather than betting everything on a single forecast, you'll practice envisioning multiple plausible futures for your organization, department or a decision you need to make and learn how to stress-test your strategy against each one.

Through an interactive exercise, you'll walk away with a clearer framework for weighing mission against competing priorities and costs. We will walk through a plan to consider some helpful
resources from creating your future options to your finalized scenario planning executive summary. Whether you have strategic planning experience or this is your first run at it, you are invited to hone these skills and be curious about thinking differently about what's next.

Takeaways:

• Take inventory of your competing priorities and cost and consider mission alignment.
• Workshop a future vision or direction, scaffolding out an action plan.
• Commit to your next steps for visioning and planning for your best future options.

This month's Lab will be facilitated by Lisa Ishihara

Lisa Ishihara has worked in corporations, nonprofits and higher education institutions for the past twenty five years. She strives to invest in people and create conditions where they can grow, do good work, lift others up and be empowered to flourish and thrive. She holds degrees in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing, Industrial Organizational Psychology with continued education as a PhD candidate, alongside her degrees in Divinity and Spiritual Formation and Soul Care. Her current research focuses on how coaches coach BIPOC clients experiencing workplace challenges and considering why they choose the directions and approaches that they do.