Shanah Tovah, Nonprofits

Having grown up in a culturally, not a religiously Jewish home, I came to understand the value of Yom Kippur late in life. But with each passing year that I engage in the Yom Kippur ritual of fasting and my version of atonement and repentance, I appreciate the importance of the process more and more.

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My version of atonement and repentance is reflection: deep reflection on the year that was and how I behaved and carried myself in that year and how I want to move forward into the next year, taking whatever lessons learned with me.

Some might ask, why I don’t you do that on the first of January, or even Rosh Hashanah? It is almost as de rigueur to ask, “Did you make any New Year resolutions?” as it is to wish people Happy New Year. New Year’s resolutions are pro forma and don’t seem to stem from a contemplative process. Estimates are that somewhere between 40%-50% of Americans make New Year resolutions; not quite 3/4 keep them for one to two weeks and only 8% say they actually achieve them. Why bother?

I do fast for the requisite 25 hours—and, sometimes even longer if the sun sets and I’m not done with my reflection. My fasting, though, has nothing to do with the reasons religious Jews do it; mine is to be a companion to my reflection, to remind me that this time is different, special, and that I am going out of my way to focus on reflection and on no other process of daily life. Yes, I assume that reflection is a part of our daily routines but done so in a much more cursory and one-among-many-things we do on a daily basis.

Nonprofits (and probably for-profits, as well, but they are not my wheelhouse) would do well to celebrate a Yom Kippur of their own. Maybe it is the anniversary of the founding or some arbitrary date selected to celebrate annually. Whether fasting (just for the workday) is involved is up to you, but board and staff should take the time to reflect deeply about what have the individuals and the whole done well, not so well, etc.: where and how could/should it have done better?

While I have never spent a Yom Kippur in synagogue, I am told that the confessions, though they come from the singular, are stated in the “we”: we, the collective, have …. This is a powerful attitude, and message, for organizations. Rarely do the “sins” of an organization rest on the shoulders of just a single individual, but rather are the result of the whole: a culture that allows the missteps to happen repeatedly, an organization too tired or stressed or overwhelmed to correct or change, or simply going through the motions, or on the verge of or actually in crisis, or leaders who aren’t focused where they need to be, and the list goes on. We are all individually and collectively responsible for the whole.

You might say, “Oh, this reflection happens when we do strategic planning.” But you would be very wrong. From decades of facilitating strategic planning processes with nonprofits, I can tell you that, sadly, there is little to no deep thinking about performance happening in a strategic planning process. Though it wasn’t as apparent in decades past, the phenomenon that is so blatantly obvious today has, upon reflection, always been there: the strategic planning process is a simple transaction, where organizations do a little bit better than going through the motions to get to the gold ring—the strategic plan. Particularly today, where nonprofits want this transaction to happen with as little investment of resources as possible—be those resources money, thought, time, etc.—strategic planning is not about deep organizational and individual employee self-examination to identify what to work on in the coming year (or even three) to do and be better.

This is why every nonprofit should create a secular Yom Kippur (fasting optional) to do this important introspection that truly serves the betterment of our mission fulfillment and, therefore, the betterment of our clients. And that, after all, is what we should all want.

As we say, have an easy fast.