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.

The Best and the Brightest

Wow! It's a challenging time for nonprofits right now. Heck. It's a challenging time for everyone.

How would you like to be the President Elect of the nation right now? I'm fascinated - and encouraged - by the team Barack Obama is putting together for the executive branch of our government. Part of my encouragement is that he is a good listener, and he is willing to listen to some great minds to help solve the myriad problems faced by the nation.

Some of those great minds were not necessarily his supporters over the last 12 months. Does this make it a team of egos or a team of rivals? Doris Kearns Goodwin writes about the latter in her fascinating study of Abraham Lincoln.

What kind of "cabinet" does your nonprofit have? Whether you define your cabinet as your key management team or your board of directors - or both - it's important to have a diverse mix of people around you.

You need encouraging, enthusiastic people to support you, but you cannot afford to have all "yes" people. You need positive people around you, but beware of those who won't tell you the truth about what's really happening. It's good to surround yourself with the best thinkers available, but beware of over thinking your problems.

History has not always been kind to the best and the brightest. Eight years ago, the new Bush administration pleased many people with its selection of leaders. Not many of those original choices get very good grades today.

Originally, the best and the brightest referred to the people chosen to work in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. David Halberstam wrote a book by that title. With the clear vision of hindsight, we can see that those leaders of the 60's didn't manage things all that well either.

Based on history, it may be a mistake to assume that you will ensure success by stocking your nonprofit with the best and the brightest. But to avoid getting the best and the brightest people "on the bus" may be a greater mistake.

Supportive, positive - but not non-critical - people who are thinkers and listeners can go a long way towards success. With that, there's one more mistake to avoid.

All thinking and no action will get you nowhere.

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.

Paluxy Lessons

Life is good! Did a bike ride in the hills around Glen Rose, Texas Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, the vistas beautiful, the long runs down county roads thrilling, the people among the best in the world! And the food was good. Just wished I'd slept better.

Tossed and turned in our B&B the night before the ride called the Paluxy Pedal. Wasn't sure I could really finish the 45 mile route laid out for us. If I'd be going it alone. If I'd get lost. If I'd have a flat. If I'd make it over "the wall."

The "wall" is a steep hill....a 19% grade. It is a third of a mile hill climb at about the 22 mile point in the ride.

As usual, my concerns the night before just weren't that big a deal after the sun came up. Sitting on the banks of the Paluxy River that afternoon, I had time to reflect on my lessons learned. Actually relearned. Somethings just aren't that new. They just bear repeating. Or maybe I'm just a slow learner.

Lesson numero uno: having a partner makes a HUGE difference. My best buddy, Mark, rode with me the entire way. He wasn't any more sure of being able to finish than I was. At the go / no go point about 15 miles into the ride, we both agreed to go. And we agreed that if one of us had to ask for help, we'd both ask for help. Sort of a pact to not be too macho. (As an amendment to our pact that we weren't gonna let a bunch of wienies outride us.)

Lesson numero dos: obstacles can be bigger in your mind than in person. The hill known as "the wall" was a grueling climb physically for this old guy. But it was also a big pysche job. You approach it with a steep hill sign on your right and notice the pavement changes because normal paving of this section is not possible. Your brain tells your legs, "this is not good."

You start the slow grind upwards and rapidly reach your lowest gear before you're even half way to the top. You look up to see a curve to the left which means you cannot even see the top. Your brain tells your now burning legs, "this is really not good."

Your legs yell at your brain, "NO KIDDIN' MEATHEAD...GET OFF AND WALK RIGHT NOW!"

Your brain half-way listens but keeps your head down trying not to look up in order to postpone disappointment at how much further you have to ride. Your brain also remembers other climbs that were even more disappointing because you quit just before a summit that was closer than you thought.

Your stubborn brain, though totally focused on the moment, looks up one last time, sees the top of the hill, and pleads with the legs, "just a few more turns!" The legs are too tired to talk back.

With the goal in sight, you get a few more strokes from your aching legs and actually make it to the top with a smug smile. You'd dance in celebration except that your legs would totally embarrass you...or by not working, keep you from embarrassing yourself.

These lessons apply to nonprofit organizations as well as to cyclists. Every nonprofit endeavor needs partners, allies, buddies. Can you make it alone? Maybe. But you really can go further and faster with less effort with a good partner you can trust. And if you can do that, you can do more good. (Is it about helping more people, or is it about your ego?)

There will always be hills to climb, some dauntingly steep. But you've got to try them. Even when you don't quite make it one time, it's great "ammo" for your brain to hang a little tougher a little longer so you can make it the next time. Or the next.

Keep working "heads down," focusing on the details to make things happen, but don't forget to look up to see where you're going. (Do you have a goal and a strategy on how to get there?)

In the meantime, ride safe, have fun, and try not to slobber with that big grin while you're zooming down hills.

The Battle at Kruger

Okay kids. It's a battle for survival. Who you gonna place your bet on? Your choices are a lion, a crocodile, a water buffalo. Actually, lets make it a baby water buffalo...a calf.

If you've not seen this video, it IS amazing. Don't read any further if you want to sustain the suspense of the ending. It's on YouTube 24x7 and national tv tonight. Joe Bob says check out the Battle at Kruger. Background to the video is on the ABC news site.

If you don't have eight minutes to watch this, then bookmark it for later. It's a fast and fascinating video. Rated PG13. Some violence, very little blood, but heavy child endangement.

If you're an animal lover, you'll start with heart in throat and end with a grin. The least among them wins! It's not the stealthiest (or sneakiest). It's not the fastest and flashiest. It's the humble water buffalo who prevails.

And why did they win? Because the herd worked together (and showed a lot of courage). Funny how this paceline thing of working together to succeed keeps popping up in the world.

Do our bovine buddies have something to teach us more advanced animals? Do you think ANY of our politicians get it??

Lets hope our nonprofits get it when they're trying to save those that are the least among us.

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?