Category Archives: CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Keeping the energy alive…

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How can you energize your organization? By nurturing a sense of vibrancy and youthful energy – that’s how.  There’s nothing more energizing then working at an organization that is just a little different than the rest. Think APPLE – they have this art down to a science – vibrancy, youthfulness, coolness, energy, a sense of being part of something bigger, innovation, and of course success.

What is the catalyst for building this winning culture?

Well, it was the two yutes as Vinny Gambini said in the movie My Cousin Vinny. Okay, where is that coming from you’re asking yourself. Well keep reading because it will make sense in just a moment, hopefully – but I couldn’t resist quoting another movie. My family likes movies, especially ones we can quote and re-quote over and over again at nauseam.  My Cousin Vinny is one of those movies. If you haven’t watched it, it is definitely worth the rental fee.

In any event, the point I want to make is that to become a successful nonprofit this day and age youthful energy must be accepted and welcomed from the top down – including all the wacky ideas (which really aren’t always wacky, it’s just that we are too old to understand them), like the podcast this and text me that ideas that seem to just overflow from anyone under the age of thirty. The crazy part is that the younger generation has an ability to see things with fresh eyes and apply fast-paced technology and the changing cultural nuances to just about anything – like a nonprofit and fundraising.

How do I know this? Well, I have kids number one; plus I have always made it part of my management style to hire young people that are smart and have energy and can bring new perspectives to old challenges.  It’s my way of staying youthful – but also my way of staying one step ahead. Yes, we need to surround ourselves with seasoned pros that have an advanced set of skills and experience to get the job done. But at the same time we need to balance this with youthful energy, optimism, and entrepreneurship. Like the ying and the yang – we need both to succeed.

To get an idea of the insights a twenty-something, nonprofit professional can bring to your organization you should read a new series of articles that will be appearing at the Fundraising Success Magazine website: http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=95813&var=story&publication=FundRaising%20Success&publicationDate=4/16/08&slug=Giving2.0_04%2F16%2F08_Feature+2&category=None&section=Unknown&swd=christina%20johns 

This new column on WEB 2.0 is being written by Christina Johns, a relative newcomer to the nonprofit field, who has loads of great ideas that are sure to help us reach the elusive younger audience.

I work closely with two such young people (the two yutes mentioned earlier) – their energy and dedication to excellence is phenomenal; their ability to look at a challenge and bring a new way of thinking is amazing; and their ability to bring a certain sense of naiveté coupled with a dose of “I am going to take on the world and do this nonprofit thing better than you ever did” is down-right invigorating. So much so that it can be off-putting to many seasoned professionals (read – older and stodgy).

Bottom-line: make sure you hire young, intelligent, optimistic, dedicated, innovative men and women that have a strong character but are grounded in life and its true meaning.

The Jerry Maguire School of Strategic Planning

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I assume, which is always a dangerous thing, that you watched Tom Cruise play Jerry Maguire in the movie by that name. Jerry becomes enlightened and goes through an epiphany of sorts and pulls an all-nighter writing his 27 page Mission Statement, that for all intents and purposes is a strategic plan (no one writes a 27 page mission statement – much shorter mission statements (like 1/2 page) are always better. If it really takes 27 pages to articulate a mission there are some serious business issues to work out). So, let’s go on the assumption that Jerry’s mission statement is really a strategic plan.

The plan that he wrote not only turned heads, it also got him fired. But he was a successful businessman with nothing to lose. He had a swagger coupled with a sense of right and wrong and ideas that he just had to put down on paper and broadcast to the world. He had the a-ha moment we all are waiting for. The difference is that once he had the eureka moment he didn’t waste any time articulating it and putting his money where his mouth is by printing multiple copies and distributing them.

Although it’s never 100% clear what the thrust of the document is, it is clear though, that he presented a BHAG of some sort. (BHAG = Big Hairy Audacious Goal – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Collins) An idea that rattled the suits in the corner offices to step back and either get scared of Jerry’s change of heart (he was questioning the business model and the ethics of the company presumably) or think he was crazy. Most likely though, the document was simply too forward thinking, too ground-breaking, too paradigm shifting, and too counter to the status quo that he was ostracized and fired for his actions.

For more info on Jim Collins – http://jimcollins.com/bio/index.html

There are two lessons here for me.

1. A strategic plan must to be bold and visionary. It must rock the foundations of the business model and challenge the status quo. No nonprofit can play it safe anymore – these complex times we live in require daring and innovative thinking, intelligent planning and aggressive execution. Plus, the organization must remain flexible and always prepared for plan-B.

2. The people behind the strategic plan must be bold and visionary. Successful nonprofits can’t write, prepare, plan, or execute a bold and visionary strategic plan unless they (the people working and the company and writing the plan) are bold and visionary themselves . Nonprofits cannot succeed if they continue to embrace business cultures that hinder, and even obstruct, ground-breaking and innovative thought. They need people that are strong willed, inquisitive, collaborative, entrepreneurial, intuitive and perhaps a bit like Jerry Maguire. A person that acts like they have nothing to lose!!

So, let’s start a ground-swell movement to create nonprofit organizations that aren’t afraid of the future, but are trying new things, getting rid of the old things that don’t work, embracing transformational change, looking for new ways of doing business and most importantly never, ever giving into the status quo or mediocrity.

 

Accountability, Transparency and Establishing Trust with Donors

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Like everything else these days something fairly simple has a fancy name attached to it. In the case of nonprofits the flavor of the day, or should we say flavor of the century, is accountability and transparency. 

But what does this really mean in layman’s terms? It’s pretty simple actually – these two over-used words mean – being honest and totally above board. Well, this isn’t the Webster’s definition I am sure; nor will you find this definition anywhere else most likely.  

But the bigger point is that for a nonprofit to be transparent and accountable means they must be, well, honest in their dealings – especially regarding how they raise money, how they spend money, how they measure the use of funds against the success of the programs, how they treat their employees, how they treat their donors, how they manage their donors money, how well they carry out their programs and services, how they fundraise and present the organization to the outside world. 

It also means, the nonprofit must let the sun shine in to the organizations financial status – kind of what was called “open book management” –  where the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the business is in full view. This kind of scrutiny isn’t easy for anyone, especially for executives who are cringing at the thought of their compensation package being fully disclosed in a whole new way with the revised 990 forms. 

It’s uncomfortable; there’s no question about it – but isn’t that what honesty is all about? Didn’t someone once say “the truth will set you free”? But they never said it would be easy…to my knowledge anyway. 

Accountability and transparency are not meant to be easy. Nor is it supposed to be a slick strategy or marketing scheme. It is meant to be a way of doing business – what we call – employing best business practices. We know when it isn’t there – like the Enron or WorldCom debacles; or the Red Cross screw-up after 911 – but it’s elusive to many organizations that are currently successful and raise a lot of money. Sometimes we can get caught up in our own success. 

But why don’t we proactively look for ways to be accountable and transparent before it’s too late? Before something bad, or has the appearance of being bad, appears on the front cover of the New York Times. I don’t have the answer, but I suggest it will be the new generation of nonprofit executives that will take this seriously. 

 

The new breed of young people entering the business are smart, savvy and passionate about making a difference; and in many ways they are very ethical and moral from a business  perspective – they often have a very clear sense of right and wrong. They will hold us (the “seasoned” older nonprofit pro) to a higher standard; a standard that the old-guard may have let slide over the years with a wink and a nod. 
I believe that it will be one of these new generation executives that will redefine the joint-cost allocation and charity rating system. We all know both are fraught with inconsistency and general flaws that go against one’s common sense – that’s why it needs to be changed - but I guarantee it won’t be someone over the age of 50 or someone that has spent more than ten years in the nonprofit sector.

 
 

 

How do you deal with constant change?

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Unfortunately, I don’t have the definitive answer about dealing with change within an organization. But what I can tell you definitively is that change, although being the norm it seems, is both disruptive and aggravating to those in the midst of it.

Constant change if not dealt with properly becomes an all-consuming monster that takes over the ethos of the organization preventing staff members from getting their bearings set and never allowing them to establish a clear set of objectives that they can be measured against. In short, a culture of change, or turmoil, will give them no idea where they are headed or what is expected of them.

This is a dangerous mix because once it becomes unbridled it can lead to a genuine atmosphere of apathy, ineffective work habits, and a sense of not really caring about the success of the organization.

This isn’t to say that change is a bad thing – because it’s not in many, many cases – the challenge arises when change is uncontrolled and the change taking place has no apparent objective behind it. Good change is often needed for an organization to grow and succeed and be competitive in order to meet a changing marketplace; change may be needed to replace an outmoded business model and breathe new life into the organization; and perhaps change is required to simply become a more revered nonprofit organization by redefining its mission and vision for the future.

Regardless of the changes taking place in your organization you must control the process to ensure that employees are retained and stay motivated; that the objective of the change taking place have meaning and purpose; and that above all you hang on to your sanity while continuing to operate a successful organization that won’t give into being derailed by uncontrolled change.