How to Banish the Hate
I wasn’t long into my teaching career before I recognized certain things I should not take for granted. For example, I had thought that first year college students were old enough to have learned about extrapolation and analogies and could use them in their thinking, problem-solving and in general, facing the rigors of daily life. Wrong. So I had to adjust my behavior.
Learning from that initial experience, I did not start my consulting career operating on the same assumption. I had however, hoped that by the time people Read more
Degrading Core Values
Three disparate things happened to me within the course of one workday that all sing a similar and very important message.
First, was the interview I heard with James Comey on NPR’s Morning Edition. One of the many compelling comments he made came back to resonate at the end of the day, connecting with two other seemingly disparate events. Regardless of the impetus for Comey’s comment, his message is one we should all heed.
“We fight like crazy in this country about guns and about Read more
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
After leading recent board training, a board member apologized for what she considered to be the rude, disrepectful behavior of some of her colleagues and staff, who had held sidebar conversations throughout the training. Sadly, I had to tell her, I was quite used to it, as it happens far more often than not, along with those constantly checking their phones. She went on to talk about the loss of manners in our society.
And while our society has lost its appreciation for manners, I believe Read more
Management by Wishful Thinking
As a country, we are going soft, and the nonprofit sector is contributing.
Recently, a friend new to academics told me of one of his students who came to him on the morning that a major assignment was due and told him that she did not have it. The previous Friday had been so gorgeous, she actually told him, she just had to go down the shore (as you Philadelphians say) for the weekend.
I’ve had this story rolling around in my head for almost a month, Read more
Nonprofit Institutional Memory
It is amazing how few organizations—and individuals—understand institutional memory—what it is, its value-add and how to use it. So, instead of using it well and wisely, they allow it to be misused to the detriment of the organization.
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Perhaps it is easiest to start with what institutional memory is not.
It is not a person—ever, not even the longest-serving person on your board or staff; it isn’t even a founder
It is not “We’ve tried that before
It is not “But that is not Read more
Value Learning in your Nonprofit
Whenever I talk to groups about core values—those principles for how you do the work of the mission, and their importance in a nonprofit, I always use an example of one particular The Nonprofit Center’s core value. I always choose it to really hit home on a particular point that Jim Collins’ makes about core values: they are not restatements of what’s in your mission; they are independent of your mission.
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In fact, they are so independent that one of the questions Collins Read more
What’s at Your Core?
If you know me, you know that I am a huge fan of Jim Collins and identification of an organization’s core ideology: core purpose + core values=core ideology. Students of Collins know that it is the presence of and adherence to an organization’s core ideology that differentiates the successful from the not. As he and his colleague in research, Jerry Porras, wrote in a Harvard Business Review article almost 20 years ago, “Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that Read more
Et tu, Nonprofit?
Sadly, I seem to be on a tear against my own sector. This is disturbing. But, then, so is that which I am railing against!
It would be preposterous to say that at this point in my life, I am naïve, or not well rooted in reality. I’ve always classified myself as a realist, rather than either optimist or pessimist. But now I’m beginning to wonder if my view of reality needs to change or if the nonprofit sector needs to return to its roots and Read more
We Rock…Pass it on
Last month’s “communiqué” (their word, not mine) from the Listening Post (Lester Salamon at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Policy Studies) provides some great fodder for a new year discussion by boards and staffs alike—if not together. The communiqué reports on results of the Institute’s research into the question of whether there are agreed upon and mutually shared values of the nonprofit sector. In other words, do those of us in the nonprofit sector believe that there is a set of values—unique or not—that nonprofits as Read more
The Rude Sector
When I started blogging, I was told it was ok to be provocative and controversial and I was prepared for flak and feedback. But I am not going for controversy or provocation here; here, I’m venting. Numerous recent experiences have led me to conclude that the nonprofit sector that I truly love has become down-right rude. I’ve got a collection of experiences to whine about, but I’ll share two recent ones with you that painfully contrast our sector with the for-profit world.
I was Read more
