When More Duct Tape Won’t Do It

A number of years ago I was flying to Rockland, Maine with a couple friends and we needed to take a small puddle jumper for the final leg of the trip.  Before we took off, the pilot got out a ladder and went over to the wing near the window where we were sitting.  Then he pulled out some duct tape and applied it to something we could not see on top of the wing.

Duct tape as a “fix” to the wing of an airplane?  We kind of shrugged at each other, the plane took off, and we landed safely.  Over drinks later, however, we decided it was really dumb to not at least have asked what was going on!

How often does this happen in organizations?

My good friend, Dr. Gerald Suarez, has a favorite comment when discussing organization dysfunction: “They are tinkering with an unstable system!”

I love it.  “Tinkering with an unstable system.”  So often that is what happens in organizations!

Here’s how to avoid it.

Create a vision for your organization in its ideal state – describe what it would it look like, right now, if your resources were unlimited and you had no obstacles to making it happen.  Dr. Russ Ackoff used to call this an “Idealized Design.”

Once you have your “ideal” in mind then move toward that.  Rather than fixing problems with bailing wire and duck tape when they arise, develop new systems, programs, and processes that take you toward the “ideal” you have invented.  It's the difference between being proactive and reactive. 

If you do this, you will stop “tinkering” and begin taking your organization toward a future where you can make even more of a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

"Now Let's Go Fail"

I have heard six different commencement speeches during the past couple of days.  They were all very good, but the best one was from an undergraduate student (now a new graduate) from the Smith School of Business at Maryland, Manas Kulkarni.

The theme of Manas’ message was “Now Let’s Go Fail.”  You can hear the entire speech at this link and fast forward to the 54 minute mark.

Some of the great thoughts and sound bites:

*Failure is not necessarily the opposite of success

*Failure and Success are “two points on the same learning curve”

*Failure can help accelerate success

*We should actively try and fail – this is a means to achieving and appreciating success

*When we embrace and understand failures, we can use the understanding to seize success

About a year ago a wrote this blog entitled “We Celebrate Noble Failure.”  But I like the way Manas says it even better.  We need to transform our relationship with failure if we are going to innovate and achieve even higher levels of Mission Impact for those we serve.

In a few weeks, Manas will start his new job with Teach for America in San Francisco where he will be teaching math to kids in the inner city.  I have no doubt that he will experience failures, but I am totally confident that he will be a great success – and those children he teaches will be the great beneficiaries of that success.  Good luck Manas!

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Should Nonprofits Run Like a Business?

As a professor in a business school who is a former nonprofit CEO and consultant to nonprofits, I am often asked: “Should a nonprofit be run like a business?

Easy answer, “No.”

A nonprofit should be run like effective nonprofits are run. 

However . . . . .

There is a lot we – in the nonprofit world – can learn from business best practices.  Far too many nonprofit executives dismiss many “business practices” because they think that nearly everything businesses do is “tainted” by the profit motive, and therefore “wrong.”

This is short-sighted thinking.  We can study business best practices and then figure out if and how they fit the nonprofit world.  Some may not fit.  But plenty practices fit perfectly.

How about the importance of making data driven decisions, or managing our finances effectively, or using sound human resources practices?  This is just a short list of business best practices – but they are also nonprofit best practices.

Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk, “The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong,” (check out the link here) in which he encourages the use of business thinking for the nonprofit world, is going viral in the nonprofit world lately.  I don’t agree with everything he says, but he is rattling a lot of cages and getting people to rethink some key assumptions. 

Don’t assume that all business practices are wrong for nonprofits.  The whole concept behind the Mission Impact book was to take business best practice in the area of strategy and retrofit it for nonprofits.  We can learn a lot from businesses and – as I frequently tell my business friends – they can learn a lot from us as well.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Strategy & Salary

Do you have the team you need to implement your strategy?  

Far too many nonprofits look at their “Salary” budget line item as static.  “This is all we can afford.  We need to find the best person possible for this amount of money.”

This folks, is NOT being strategic.  Sometimes, a strategy calls for a certain kind of talent on the team.  And oft times, a certain kind of talent may cost more than what you are used to paying.  If so, this is the time to look at reallocating expenses and/or getting creative about revenue generation so you can afford the right talent.

This issue is going to get particularly challenging for Boards during the coming years as many Baby Boomers – who have been significantly underpaid – retire.  If you have an aging CEO then I suggest you do some market research ASAP on what it will cost you to replace her/him when he/she eventually retires (if they can afford to!).  A lot of Boards have been shocked into reality as this has happened in recent years and the Baby Boom retirements have just started.  (The oldest Baby Boomers turned 65 in 2011; those in the Baby Boomer peak year will turn 65 in 2022.)

FYI – this is going to affect more than just the CEO position and it is going to impact more than just salary.  Overall benefit packages are going to have to be rethought as well.

If you want to effectively implement a strategy then you need the talent to do so.  And that is what making a Mission Impact requires.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Multitasking is the Enemy

And yet, it is like an addiction.  Aided and abetted by our numerous devices, we all do it.

I am not going to try to convince you to go cold turkey and stop totally.  But I am going to point out what we all sacrifice when we multitask:  creativity and strategic thinking.

We know that multitasking robs us of focus.  None of us would be very happy if the doctor performing brain surgery on us was sending text messages in between steps of the procedure. 

What I am suggesting is that there are especially important times when we need to put away the iGadgets.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Why Multitasking Blocks Your Best Ideas, sites research with various conclusions, including:  “Multitaskers may have to work harder than others to block out time for the daydreaming, exercise or mind-wandering that generate ‘aha moments.’”

Bill Duggan in his book Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement suggests that these “aha” moments require – among other things – “presence of mind.”  And a “clear mind” is key to this.

So what do we do about this?

If you and your team are serious about generating some creativity or doing some real strategic thinking, you need to block “unplugged time.”  It turns out that the classic strategic planning weekend at a retreat center in the woods is a really good idea.  But only if you leave your laptops, phones, and iPads in your sleeping room before you go to your meeting room.

I think maybe during the prep stages of strategic planning with clients I’ll start asking them what “grade” of a strategy they want to generate during our work together:  “A,” “B,” or “C?”  Then I can tell them the research shows that their chances of generating a more creative, successful strategy – an “A” strategy – are greatly increased if we can have everyone present, with their full “presence of mind” as well as their bodies. 

Not everyone can afford to go offsite to the fancy retreat centers.  But we can all collect the gadgets at the door.  Isn’t that a small price to pay for an “A” strategy that will make even more of a Mission Impact?

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.