Art and science. Combining the creative right brain and the logical left brain. According to Jim Collins, maybe we need to call it "Art and Process."
In the April '09 issue of Inc., the magazine for entrepreneurs, Collins says that creating better processes is more important than building a better "mousetrap." That's something I learned the hard way in my first sales job.
Way back in the day, I started peddling computer systems for a little know CAD company out of New York. They had a great, innovative system for designing and laying out printed circuit boards. But our business practices - our processes - made it tough to work with customers. It was another "learning experience" for me.
A year later, I began work for a CAD / CAE company out of California. They had a pretty good mousetrap, but they really understood how to make it easy for the user. Their business practices were very customer friendly. They got their processes right. Lots of happy, productive customers meant that seven years later, I lead the nation in sales for that company.
Are you trying to build a perfect mousetrap at your nonprofit? Or are you more focused on making what you already have work really well?
There's always room for growth, but sometimes you've got to go with what you've got and make all those wheels spin together. It really helps if everyone is spinning their wheels in the same direction for the same ultimate goal.
Not entirely unlike cyclists in a paceline. Imagine - working together for the common good. Going further and faster with less effort. What a quaint idea.
If you're personally spinning those wheels, it's often hard to see beyond the crowd. If you're a director or manager of any type, you really need to look at the entire group relationship - and its relationships with other groups.
Creating better processes is not just an exercise in logic. It probably means digesting lots of data and finding a way to visualize it simply. Use your left brain to gather the data and your right brain to display it. Now you've got your whole brain working to improve your processes.
Imagine coordinating air traffic around the world. You have to deal with people, weather, machinery, and even the rising and setting sun. Thanks to a God's eye view from a NOAA satellite, here is global air traffic over a 24 hour period.
Your problems may be a little less complex. But if you can get a good view from 150 feet or 150 miles, you can really develop a sense of what you're trying to solve. That video from space is a thing of incredible beauty with an amazing display of dynamic information. It puts it all in perspective. The right and left sides of the brain are working as one.
Can you put your nonprofit and your partners in perspective? Do the processes in your organization need a healthy dose of BOTH art and science to make them all work well together?
Showing posts with label paceline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paceline. Show all posts
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
Who's on Your Bus?
Voltaire said "the perfect is the enemy of the good." Collins said that "good is the enemy of great."
Most of you know of Jim Collins, management consultant, teacher, author, and rock climber. His books include Built to Last (1994) and Good to Great (2001). In the latter, he studied 11 companies that made the leap from being merely good to being truly great. Their performance greatly exceeded that of their peers and resulted in sustainably extraordinary results for at least 15 years.
Out of his 11 outstanding performers in 2001, two are pretty iffy right now. Circuit City, struggling to remain profitable, is closing 155 stores and laying off 17% of workforce. Fannie Mae was recently placed into conservatorship.
But the rest, Abbott, Gillette (purchased by Proctor and Gamble in 2005), Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris (now a part of Altria Group), Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo, are at least hanging in there during these turbulent economic times. Getting it right on 9 out of 11 is not a bad grade especially in today's economy. The guy seems to know what he's talking about.
Back in the day - when times were good (2005) - Collins wrote an excellent monograph for those of us in the nonprofit world. Entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors, he reemphasized principles that distinguish good (or mediocre) organizations from great ones. Note that he's not talking about business practices. He is talking about disciplines that benefit all organizations.
Today, in the nonprofit world, I believe one of his points is especially important. It's about getting the right people on the bus.
Unless you're living on another planet, you've already looked at your income and expense projections for the coming twelve months. You've undoubtedly looked at the sad prospect of making cuts. This is stewardship 101.
The tough choices get down to decisions on cutting programs or services (which will hurt your mission) or cutting staff (which is your most expensive cost). This is not a good time for anyone, but it is a vital time to ensure you have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats.
Nonprofits are often harder to reorganize than businesses for more complex relationship and emotional reasons. How do you tell an employee who's also a donor or church/auxiliary member that their performance is not good enough? What's the ripple effect among other volunteers if you eliminate a position or bring in a replacement volunteer?
Chances are you have some long-time, very nice, barely competent employees. Can you imagine not having that big smile and big heart around every day? But what if that wonderful person is not carrying the load? Or actually hurting the mission?
The bigger question is: during a recession, can you afford the luxury - the outreach to someone who's taking up a seat on the bus? This is the time when you have to be doing more with less. When the team has to be pulling together. When the paceline has to be working together to go further and faster with less effort.
Nonprofits are nearly always challenged by efficiency. This very difficult time may be the very best time to gently let someone off the bus, or move them to a seat they can share with someone else.
Please tell me that I don't sound like Dwight K. Schrute.
Collins concludes with some simple reminders: "The right people can often attract money, but money by itself can never attract the right people. Money is a commodity; talent is not. Time and talent can often compensate for lack of money, but money cannot ever compensate for lack of the right people."
What a remarkable opportunity exists now to strengthen your team for the long haul.
Most of you know of Jim Collins, management consultant, teacher, author, and rock climber. His books include Built to Last (1994) and Good to Great (2001). In the latter, he studied 11 companies that made the leap from being merely good to being truly great. Their performance greatly exceeded that of their peers and resulted in sustainably extraordinary results for at least 15 years.
Out of his 11 outstanding performers in 2001, two are pretty iffy right now. Circuit City, struggling to remain profitable, is closing 155 stores and laying off 17% of workforce. Fannie Mae was recently placed into conservatorship.
But the rest, Abbott, Gillette (purchased by Proctor and Gamble in 2005), Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris (now a part of Altria Group), Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo, are at least hanging in there during these turbulent economic times. Getting it right on 9 out of 11 is not a bad grade especially in today's economy. The guy seems to know what he's talking about.
Back in the day - when times were good (2005) - Collins wrote an excellent monograph for those of us in the nonprofit world. Entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors, he reemphasized principles that distinguish good (or mediocre) organizations from great ones. Note that he's not talking about business practices. He is talking about disciplines that benefit all organizations.
Today, in the nonprofit world, I believe one of his points is especially important. It's about getting the right people on the bus.
Unless you're living on another planet, you've already looked at your income and expense projections for the coming twelve months. You've undoubtedly looked at the sad prospect of making cuts. This is stewardship 101.
The tough choices get down to decisions on cutting programs or services (which will hurt your mission) or cutting staff (which is your most expensive cost). This is not a good time for anyone, but it is a vital time to ensure you have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats.
Nonprofits are often harder to reorganize than businesses for more complex relationship and emotional reasons. How do you tell an employee who's also a donor or church/auxiliary member that their performance is not good enough? What's the ripple effect among other volunteers if you eliminate a position or bring in a replacement volunteer?
Chances are you have some long-time, very nice, barely competent employees. Can you imagine not having that big smile and big heart around every day? But what if that wonderful person is not carrying the load? Or actually hurting the mission?
The bigger question is: during a recession, can you afford the luxury - the outreach to someone who's taking up a seat on the bus? This is the time when you have to be doing more with less. When the team has to be pulling together. When the paceline has to be working together to go further and faster with less effort.
Nonprofits are nearly always challenged by efficiency. This very difficult time may be the very best time to gently let someone off the bus, or move them to a seat they can share with someone else.
Please tell me that I don't sound like Dwight K. Schrute.
Collins concludes with some simple reminders: "The right people can often attract money, but money by itself can never attract the right people. Money is a commodity; talent is not. Time and talent can often compensate for lack of money, but money cannot ever compensate for lack of the right people."
What a remarkable opportunity exists now to strengthen your team for the long haul.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Times, They Are A Changin'
Bob Dylan sang that over four decades ago. It's still true. Read any newspapers lately? Watched any newscasts lately? There's lots of speculation out there. The only thing certain is that we're about to see change like we've never seen it before.
So far, the news is mostly about the commercial world. The Chron and the AFP magazine, Advancing Philanthropy, are doing a pretty good job of summarizing the potential effects on nonprofits. How are you going to manage change?
Paul Otellini is the current CEO of Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors. He's a good one for nonprofit ED's to use as a model.
Hmmmm. Okay. You're saying: Intel, $40 something billion a year. My heart and soul cause for good, $400K/year....give or take a few hundred thousand dollars. Exactly how do we make this comparison?
In the WSJ this Saturday, Otellini gave some interesting opinions on management. He said, "A CEO's main job, because you have access to all the information, is to see the need to change before anyone else does."
What's the job of an ED? To meet the mission. Take care of your clients. Maintain relationships with donors. Clearly present the cause with passion. Take care of your staff so they'll take care of you.
You have all the information. You're undoubtedly watching expenses and double checking your revenue forecast. Are you seeing the need to change?
Now is also a very good time to eliminate duplicate services. Who can help you? Where can you partner? Who can join you in the paceline? There are some unhealthy nonprofits that will not survive the next year. That change may be sad, but not necessarily bad.
Who (what organization) can provide the best service for the clients? Once the egos get put aside, that question is often easier to answer.
If your organization is struggling to make it, do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to look at options to merge with a like minded partner.
If your organization is strong, will it stay strong forever? Do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to join forces with a like minded partner.
Merging organizations is never easy, but change is always necessary.
So far, the news is mostly about the commercial world. The Chron and the AFP magazine, Advancing Philanthropy, are doing a pretty good job of summarizing the potential effects on nonprofits. How are you going to manage change?
Paul Otellini is the current CEO of Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors. He's a good one for nonprofit ED's to use as a model.
Hmmmm. Okay. You're saying: Intel, $40 something billion a year. My heart and soul cause for good, $400K/year....give or take a few hundred thousand dollars. Exactly how do we make this comparison?
In the WSJ this Saturday, Otellini gave some interesting opinions on management. He said, "A CEO's main job, because you have access to all the information, is to see the need to change before anyone else does."
What's the job of an ED? To meet the mission. Take care of your clients. Maintain relationships with donors. Clearly present the cause with passion. Take care of your staff so they'll take care of you.
You have all the information. You're undoubtedly watching expenses and double checking your revenue forecast. Are you seeing the need to change?
Now is also a very good time to eliminate duplicate services. Who can help you? Where can you partner? Who can join you in the paceline? There are some unhealthy nonprofits that will not survive the next year. That change may be sad, but not necessarily bad.
Who (what organization) can provide the best service for the clients? Once the egos get put aside, that question is often easier to answer.
If your organization is struggling to make it, do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to look at options to merge with a like minded partner.
If your organization is strong, will it stay strong forever? Do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to join forces with a like minded partner.
Merging organizations is never easy, but change is always necessary.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Who's Your Buddy?
Coordinating volunteers.
Coaching kids soccer...or any other sport for kids under 8.
Getting your church committee to do SOMETHING besides talk.
Starting a new business, a new project from scratch.
Riding bicycles in a pack.
Shopping at the mall after Thanksgiving.
Finding other organizations to work with yours.
Yes. They all have the common denominator of cat herding.
Can't we all just get along?
No. Well sometimes yes.
So what do you do if you're one of the 837,027 U.S. nonprofits trying to do more than just exist from month to month? (Nearly 40% of you ran deficits in 2003.)
How 'bout finding a buddy??
Remember. It's not all about you. At least it's not supposed to be. Aren't you doing this for a cause? Who else is trying to do the same thing? Can you help them? Can they help you? Each of you probably has unique strengths. If you're duplicating each other, someone needs to go...or change. Remember, you're trying to do good, not just look good.
Life is full of chaos, but often in the middle of that confusion is someone going the same way you are. There's your potential buddy. Watch a bike race sometime. The Tour de France is the big one, but there are lots of others.
The riders ride in a pack for miles. They're mostly competitors, but they're actually helping each other along the way. It's amazingly more efficient to ride in a pack. They are cooperating at the same time they compete against each other. It's chaos at its most elegant.
The chaos turns into pure teamwork when the teams pull out of the pack and form pacelines and work together to go further and faster with less effort. (I'm trying valiantly not to repeat an earlier blog...but this is such an important concept.)
Nonprofits are in a competitive business. David LaPiana wrote an excellent book about this. It's called "Play to Win, The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy."
You've got to be a successful competitor or you'll fail. But you've also got to be a buddy to get along in this herd of cats.
Coaching kids soccer...or any other sport for kids under 8.
Getting your church committee to do SOMETHING besides talk.
Starting a new business, a new project from scratch.
Riding bicycles in a pack.
Shopping at the mall after Thanksgiving.
Finding other organizations to work with yours.
Yes. They all have the common denominator of cat herding.
Can't we all just get along?
No. Well sometimes yes.
So what do you do if you're one of the 837,027 U.S. nonprofits trying to do more than just exist from month to month? (Nearly 40% of you ran deficits in 2003.)
How 'bout finding a buddy??
Remember. It's not all about you. At least it's not supposed to be. Aren't you doing this for a cause? Who else is trying to do the same thing? Can you help them? Can they help you? Each of you probably has unique strengths. If you're duplicating each other, someone needs to go...or change. Remember, you're trying to do good, not just look good.
Life is full of chaos, but often in the middle of that confusion is someone going the same way you are. There's your potential buddy. Watch a bike race sometime. The Tour de France is the big one, but there are lots of others.
The riders ride in a pack for miles. They're mostly competitors, but they're actually helping each other along the way. It's amazingly more efficient to ride in a pack. They are cooperating at the same time they compete against each other. It's chaos at its most elegant.
The chaos turns into pure teamwork when the teams pull out of the pack and form pacelines and work together to go further and faster with less effort. (I'm trying valiantly not to repeat an earlier blog...but this is such an important concept.)
Nonprofits are in a competitive business. David LaPiana wrote an excellent book about this. It's called "Play to Win, The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy."
You've got to be a successful competitor or you'll fail. But you've also got to be a buddy to get along in this herd of cats.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Parallels
This year's Tour de France ended today. Camp Esperanza ended yesterday.
The Tour de France is a 100+ year old bike race across Europe. Camp Esperanza is a 25 year old summer camp for kids fighting cancer in Texas.
Le Tour is 21 teams of 9 vying for fame and glory (and considerable monetary rewards) by racing bicycles across Europe to get to Paris first. Camp Esperanza is 10 teams of 6 volunteer counselors working with 10 groups of about 14 children ranging in age from 6 to 16. All the kids are or have been fighting cancer at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
The Tour lasts for nearly three weeks and covers over 2000 miles of beautiful European countryside. Camp Esperanza lasts for one week at the Camp John Marc facility on the border of the beautiful Texas Hill Country near Meridian, Texas.
Both have sophisticated support staffs and spend many months planning each year's event. (Camp John Marc is probably one of the premier camps for medically fragile children in the world.)
What amazes my simple mind are the remarkable parallels between these two radically different adventures. It gets back to working together. The guys on the bikes can go fast and help each other by riding in pacelines. (See my blog of July 10, 2007.) The same goes for the men and women working with the nearly 140 kids who epitomize diversity.
Three busloads of children arrive on Sunday and depart for home the following Friday. The kids range from future linebackers to some who are near the need for (or are actually in) hospice.
For some of the children, it is the first time they've been away from home. For some of their parents, it is the first time they've let go of their children since they've been diagnosed with cancer. For nearly everyone, it is the best week of the year.
It is an exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, fun, sad, hope filled week. It's tough for me to restrain myself from writing way more than you wanna read about this special week in July.
My point today is that the ONLY way the volunteer counselors get through that incredible week is by working (and playing) together.
It is a beautiful thing to see. Just like a paceline.
BTW, "esperanza" is Spanish for "hope."
The Tour de France is a 100+ year old bike race across Europe. Camp Esperanza is a 25 year old summer camp for kids fighting cancer in Texas.
Le Tour is 21 teams of 9 vying for fame and glory (and considerable monetary rewards) by racing bicycles across Europe to get to Paris first. Camp Esperanza is 10 teams of 6 volunteer counselors working with 10 groups of about 14 children ranging in age from 6 to 16. All the kids are or have been fighting cancer at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
The Tour lasts for nearly three weeks and covers over 2000 miles of beautiful European countryside. Camp Esperanza lasts for one week at the Camp John Marc facility on the border of the beautiful Texas Hill Country near Meridian, Texas.
Both have sophisticated support staffs and spend many months planning each year's event. (Camp John Marc is probably one of the premier camps for medically fragile children in the world.)
What amazes my simple mind are the remarkable parallels between these two radically different adventures. It gets back to working together. The guys on the bikes can go fast and help each other by riding in pacelines. (See my blog of July 10, 2007.) The same goes for the men and women working with the nearly 140 kids who epitomize diversity.
Three busloads of children arrive on Sunday and depart for home the following Friday. The kids range from future linebackers to some who are near the need for (or are actually in) hospice.
For some of the children, it is the first time they've been away from home. For some of their parents, it is the first time they've let go of their children since they've been diagnosed with cancer. For nearly everyone, it is the best week of the year.
It is an exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, fun, sad, hope filled week. It's tough for me to restrain myself from writing way more than you wanna read about this special week in July.
My point today is that the ONLY way the volunteer counselors get through that incredible week is by working (and playing) together.
It is a beautiful thing to see. Just like a paceline.
BTW, "esperanza" is Spanish for "hope."
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Can't We All Just Get Along?
Ever wonder what a paceline really is? It's a great example of playing nice...when it works.
A typical paceline is a group of people in a hurry to get somewhere that follow in line right behind each other. Sounds kind of goofy if you remember playing follow the leader as a kid, especially when you thought it was really fun to stop all of a sudden when you were in front.
You ain't seen goofy till you've seen some guys wearing dorky little helmets matching their garishly colored spandex and riding bicycles in a paceline. And when you see this, and understand it, you might revise your opinion of what goofy is.
The Tour de France began again on Saturday with 189 riders. A bunch of crazy guys have been riding this epic bike race across France since 1903. Le Tour and Versus offers us some quality visuals on working together...or not.
The strategy of the race is pretty simple. Survive and get to the finish line first.
The tactics aren't much more complicated. Teams of nine guys ride in a line...a paceline. The first guy leads and the rest follow closely behind him using about 2/3 the effort. When the first guy gets tired, he rotates back, and someone else leads...starts pulling the team from the front.
These teams are sometimes closely choreographed and sometimes not. Most of the time the teams form a larger group or pack (the peleton) to fight the wind for the long haul. They're still working together to save energy even though they're competitors.
Sometimes a few impatient (or really ambitious) guys will break away from the pack. Those individuals will become their own ad hoc team (for a while) to work together to beat the pack. Most of the time, but not always, the larger group will catch and pass the smaller group just by working together.
Do ya get the theme here yet? This sharing the load - getting along - working together thing?
It is pretty neat and works amazingly well. Working together to go further and faster with less effort. Wow! What a concept.
So why don't more people do it? Why don't more nonprofits do it? Especially if their hearts beat to the plight of the same cause?
A typical paceline is a group of people in a hurry to get somewhere that follow in line right behind each other. Sounds kind of goofy if you remember playing follow the leader as a kid, especially when you thought it was really fun to stop all of a sudden when you were in front.
You ain't seen goofy till you've seen some guys wearing dorky little helmets matching their garishly colored spandex and riding bicycles in a paceline. And when you see this, and understand it, you might revise your opinion of what goofy is.
The Tour de France began again on Saturday with 189 riders. A bunch of crazy guys have been riding this epic bike race across France since 1903. Le Tour and Versus offers us some quality visuals on working together...or not.
The strategy of the race is pretty simple. Survive and get to the finish line first.
The tactics aren't much more complicated. Teams of nine guys ride in a line...a paceline. The first guy leads and the rest follow closely behind him using about 2/3 the effort. When the first guy gets tired, he rotates back, and someone else leads...starts pulling the team from the front.
These teams are sometimes closely choreographed and sometimes not. Most of the time the teams form a larger group or pack (the peleton) to fight the wind for the long haul. They're still working together to save energy even though they're competitors.
Sometimes a few impatient (or really ambitious) guys will break away from the pack. Those individuals will become their own ad hoc team (for a while) to work together to beat the pack. Most of the time, but not always, the larger group will catch and pass the smaller group just by working together.
Do ya get the theme here yet? This sharing the load - getting along - working together thing?
It is pretty neat and works amazingly well. Working together to go further and faster with less effort. Wow! What a concept.
So why don't more people do it? Why don't more nonprofits do it? Especially if their hearts beat to the plight of the same cause?
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