Trouble with most discussions about ‘flattening’ and ‘empowering’
organizations is that the case studies are often high-tech histories: Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Google, W.H. Gore.
This makes it easy to dismiss as irrelevant to the leadership issues of today’s
nonprofit….”this doesn’t apply to me”.
The sense is that innovation is taking place in some far off locale with
little relevance to the day-to-day challenges of a nonprofit endeavoring to do
the pedestrian such as feeding the hungry as opposed to the glamorous work of developing
the next killer app.
A nonprofit is an affair of the heart. Ninety-nine percent of the time when we
inquire of an individual why they work for their specific organization, the explanation
involves some passion connected to the mission. We want to make a difference
and have an impact.
Today's nonprofit leaders face a difficult and unprecedented
challenge. The world is changing much faster than our organizations. Thus examining our organizational design is imperative. For our success is now more dependent upon
the quality of the organization than in the effectiveness of our program. A “B”-level organization with an ‘A’-level
program will produce ‘D’ level results.
Here are a few thoughts about what sharp executives need to concentrate
upon in redesigning the organization structure of our nonprofits.
1)
Laser focus
on What Does Our Customer Value? These are the people that we serve relevant
to our mission. What will make their
life better? Nothing more demoralizing
than an organization which serves its staff, funders and donors well, but its
customers poorly. Create value and then trust
that the money will follow.
2) Establish What Does Success Look Like? Develop a narrow set of metrics
which measure if we’re delivering customer value. These outcomes provide guidance to every
board member, staff, volunteer in prioritizing their activities and guiding
their choices. Accept nothing less than value added
activities.
3)
Unleash our
native collective intelligence. Most
innovations in organizations come from mid-level and entry level staff, NOT
from elaborate strategic planning processes at the executive level. Great ideas die because of laborious approval
processes. No one should have the authority to kill a
good idea. Lack of ready resources to
exploit opportunities is also a problem. We also need to be establish an off-budget
pool of ‘risk capital’, so that when a promising innovation arises we can move
fast to take advantage.
4)
Make accountability
a collective responsibility. In a hierarchy,
a staff member is generally accountable to their immediate supervisor. Thus an
employee need only satisfy one person. Evidence shows performance improves when a
staff member is accountable to a team rather than to a single individual. When we remove ourselves from the need to
supervise, teams develop their own norms…if you have good people, they develop
good accountability norms.
5)
Create a
culture which values Speed, Innovation and Collaboration. As Peter Drucker quipped, ‘Culture eats
strategy for breakfast”. The leader sets the culture. Be quick, be creative and be in partnership.