November 2012 - Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting

A fascinating video about motivation

November 20, 2012

Filed under: Board Development,Human Resources,Leadership,Strategic Planning,Volunteers — jonathanpoisner @ 5:39 pm

The question I keep asking myself after repeatedly re-watching this video is: what are the implications for nonprofit organizations?

Some implications are fairly straightforward:

For example, with very few exceptions, nonprofits tend to eschew the use of financial performance bonuses as a means to spur better future results. The video suggests nonprofits are right to avoid financial bonuses.

Also, nonprofits have an inherent advantage over for-profit entities, in that their “purpose” is hard-wired into their reason for existence, unlike the “purpose” examples Pink cites from the for-profit world.

But how about mastery and autonomy? I think one of the deeper meanings of the video is that nonprofits can’t simply play the “purpose” trump card as a way to motivate volunteers and staff, if there is no effort to take into account the other two motivators.

If purpose, mastery, and autonomy are three legs of a stool, the nonprofit can’t survive on just one leg.

Another way of putting it is: if you strip away autonomy and mastery as a way to motivate your nonprofit team, what will result?

A nonprofit I’ve known for some time recently changed its decision-making structure to remove a great deal of authority (e.g. autonomy) from volunteers, even as the nonprofit continues to tout volunteers as a critical part of its strategy. Over time, what will that mean for the nonprofit’s ability to attract high quality volunteers? My prediction (which hasn’t yet had time to be born out) is that it will have a significant negative impact.

Aside from giving decision-making control to volunteers, are there other ways to meet their needs for autonomy and mastery?

What about employees? Are there lessons for how to engage them beyond the usual generalities about not micromanaging them?

Your feedback is encouraged.

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Thoughts on Engagement Organizing

November 8, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — jonathanpoisner @ 1:06 pm

I recently had the opportunity to read an excellent white paper by Jon Stahl and Matt Price on the topic of Engagement Organizing.

It’s well worth the read.

Here’s the nutshell version:

Engagement Organizing in their words is a set of inter-related practices that are designed to simultaneously use the latest technology to organize and drive real-world personal one-on-one conversations that, in turn, lead to organizational supporters moving up a ladder of engagement in support of the organization’s mission.

Here are 3 points Stahl and Price make that I think are worth elaborating on:

1. You must invest in data management. Organizations that underinvest in data management are in far worse shape than those that overinvest. And the data management system must be one that everyone in your organization can utilize — not just a database administrator.

2. You must have a culture that emphasizes personal relationships that are built in-person, with the phone a major tool as well. I’ve seen too many organizers in the last few years who think that organizing begins and ends on the internet. The internet makes certain things much cheaper. But in the end of the day, the phone is a critical means of reaching people, and only in-person relationships are the type that generate true organizational buy-in.

3. You must trust your volunteer leaders if you want them to take responsibility to lead. I like to call this my Spiderman theory of organizing: “with great power, comes great responsibility,” to quote the comic book character. Organizations that empower individuals outside staff and board to advance their program are more likely to succeed. And that will only happen if you give them real responsibility. I recently heard an Executive Director justify a decision to strip away power from volunteers by saying: “we had to do that because the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.” In my opinion, this is setting the organization up for failure, as dog is entirely the wrong metaphor for an organization. Organizations that centralize decision-making and control at a time when the world is becoming more networked are setting themselves up for decline. Organizations that understand Engagement Organizing will get this.

I’ll be curious to hear what other folks think about the White Paper. If you’ve had a chance to read it and have thoughts, please comment here or shoot me an email.

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