In my last post, I offered a basic definition of organizational culture: the system of shared beliefs, values, and assumptions that govern the way people behave in organizations. Culture shapes how we communicate, make decisions, reward and incentivize certain behaviors, solve problems, make change, set direction, and on and on. Culture can Kill Change In[…]
Peter Drucker, the ultimate management guru, famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Most nonprofits will invest hundreds of hours if not tens of thousands of dollars to create strategic plans, while few approach their culture with the same level of intention. Consultants like me love to design and build things – plans, processes,[…]
In my last post, I argued that one of the main reasons that front-line staff (case managers, therapists, youth workers, nurses, mentors, volunteers) in nonprofits might not get invested in collecting and using data is because it’s the wrong data. Too often, nonprofits settle for counting what’s easy to count rather than measuring what matters[…]
In all my teaching, training, and consulting, I’ve seen a continuum of attitudes about data, evaluation, learning, performance management and the like. Like any continuum, there are extremes at either end. There are those who love and value it (like me, and maybe you?) and those who dread or resent it. Here’s some of what[…]
A few months ago, I was inspired by an article I read from Inc. magazine, entitled “The One Position Not Many Companies Have, But Need” by Tom Gimbel. He asserts that leaders of growing companies – and, I would argue, nonprofits – lose touch with the ins-and-outs of daily operations and how the organization functions.[…]
In my last post, I argued that for continuous quality improvement work in nonprofits to be meaningful and make significant impacts on an organization, it must be: Intrinsically motivated Guided by our own definitions of quality Directed toward goals and driven to change Integrated, not siloed Applied and iterated In this post, I want to[…]
In my last post, I introduced a widely accepted definition of quality – meeting or exceeding customer expectations – and how a narrow (and uninspired) interpretation and application of that definition in the nonprofit sector has led to a focus on compliance rather than improvement. Rather than defining high quality service for ourselves, nonprofits define[…]
Why Should You Care about Quality Improvement? There is no shortage of well-meaning business leaders, public officials, and bloggers who think they’ve diagnosed what’s “wrong” with the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits are inefficient or poorly managed. Nonprofits need to think and act like businesses. Nonprofits aren’t innovative. I don’t get offended by or hung up on[…]
This is my last in a series of four posts that explore the causes and implications of a difficult reality. In the interest of being strategic and making greater impact, many grant funders are becoming increasingly focused, structured, and in some cases, prescriptive, in their funding. This leaves nonprofits to juggle overlapping, divergent, and, in[…]
This is my third in a series of four posts that aim to provide nonprofits with some insights and tips for managing the multiple, sometimes overlapping, divergent, or competing demands of their funders. Last time, we pulled back the curtain to understand some explanations for some funder strategies. This week, I’m suggesting some ways nonprofits[…]