Dear Jane,
I’m the Executive Director of a large nonprofit and we’ve been stuck in a rut for a while. We rely on the same fundraisers, the same donors, and the same volunteers. How can we think “outside the box”?
What’s the biggest problem facing your organization? Inadequate funding? Burnout of employees, volunteers, board members? Lack of vision? Overwhelming workload?
Many, many organizations face these issues. But if you think “Well, that’s just the nature of this kind of work,” think again. These problems are often symptoms indicating that an organization has slipped into what I call a culture of endurance.
Please note that endurance is not the same as perseverance. When organizations persevere, everyone may work long hours and get by on a shoestring, but employees, volunteers, board members, and general membership all feel energized, enthusiastic, and united by a common goal/mission.
When companies or nonprofits are in endurance, however, they exhibit some typical symptoms:
*Gossip
*Complaints
*Attrition
*Ruts/Staleness of Ideas
*Victim Mentality
Endurance is insidious because, as I suggested earlier, it often passes for normal. It may be the norm but it is unnecessary and obviously does not help an organization grow and thrive. Instead, it leads to a wilting process, where spirits wither and idealism sinks.
The good news is that endurance, once it is diagnosed, is completely curable! Here are some suggestions for getting your organization back on track. Whether you are a manager, staff member, volunteer, or a board member, you can have a profound influence on your organization by implementing any one of these ideas:
*Revisit/Revise/Renew Your Mission Statement/Goals
Sometimes, organizations fall into a boring rut because their original mission no longer fits. Perhaps your team or company has already achieved its original goals and it’s time to set new ones. Or maybe technology has changed the way you need to do business to achieve your goals.
I know of a nonprofit magazine that was losing ground financially because it hadn’t entered into 21st century marketing and database practices. Its goal had been to increase its subscription rate by 50 percent yet it claimed that it couldn’t afford to implement new strategies to get to this goal. In the meantime, it was getting deeper into the red each month and its writers were losing the motivation to produce articles. Finally, the editor-in-chief could see that she couldn’t afford not to invest in marketing, public relations, and database management. Once the staff and board saw the connection between these investments and their primary goal of increasing subscriptions, they felt a renewed sense of mission. They were able to find new volunteers to help with the technical aspects and a PR firm “showed up at their door” willing to let the world know about their magazine.
*Connect the Dots
A lot of work done in an organization can seem trivial and menial, whether it’s licking stamps, calling donor lists, buying office supplies, or answering customer calls. Most people don’t join organizations with these tasks in mind. Therefore, it is crucial that workers be reminded how their efforts are directly contributing to the greater good of the organization and the customers or community being served. These reminders need to be frequent, if not daily.
They can come in the form of awards lunches (brown bag is fine), certificates of appreciation, small gifts, and, of course, verbal kudos. “Every stamp you licked today brought us closer to our goal of reaching our target for the year. You probably brought in X dollars today. Thank you.” People should be applauded especially for the drudgery that makes most organizations as successful as they are. These acknowledgments don’t necessarily need to come only from the top down. Create a climate where everyone acknowledges everyone else. Even managers need to hear from their staff that they are appreciated, right?
*Turn Complaints into Action
Every organization, whether for-profit or not, will experience surges of complaints. Consider them your early-warning detection system that something probably needs to change. So, as tempting as it is to roll your eyes and want to ignore or even oust complainers, pay attention. There may be something valid and even valuable in what they are saying. But instead of jumping in to fix the problem yourself, ask those who are complaining to become part of a task force to solve the problem. When people feel ownership of a problem, they are much more likely to be energized and creative about finding a solution.
*Encourage Balance
We all know how insidious burn out can be. You are likely to lose some of your best, most dedicated people if you don’t pay attention to the necessity of balance. I am reminded of one organization I worked with whose staff was dropping like flies. Everyone could identify with at least some of the symptoms of endurance—depression, lethargy, to-do lists that were impossible to complete, and a “woe is me” atmosphere.
We started by brainstorming some ideas about what would brighten their days, lift their spirits, and remind them that there is life after fundraising and budget shortfalls. The group listed things like socializing together at least once a month outside the office, inviting recipients to give testimonials about how the nonprofit had helped change their lives, starting an internal newsletter so that everyone felt more connected, going on field trips to sites that had been impacted by their work, playing music in the lunchroom, and—very importantly—getting out from their cubicles at least once a day to talk to each other instead of communicating by email. After three months of following through on these ideas, I could see that the magic had taken hold. The staff and volunteers reported in with a much higher level of personal satisfaction and enjoyment. Balance is delicate and subtle but crucial to any organization getting out of endurance mode.
There is an ancient Buddhist saying that no enemy can harm us as much as our own thoughts. The corollary is that our own thoughts can also lead us and our organizations to new and extraordinary heights. Any one of these four ideas can unlock your organization from its prison of endurance. Choose one and put it into practice. A thriving organization is a worthy goal in and of itself—beyond any mission statement.