There’s a famous quote attributed to Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” There’s no evidence he actually said this, but whoever did makes a point. The best laid plans may go nowhere if your organization’s culture resists progress.
The logical conclusion of the non-quote is not a diss of thoughtful, bold and well-defined organizational strategy. It’s simply that you better do the heavy lifting of shaping and adjusting organizational culture as part of your strategic work. Otherwise your strategy may quickly become irrelevant. That’s exactly what happens to most strategic plans – 51% of participants in our Success Factors Analysis research project were no longer actively using their “current” strategic plan.
This points naturally to another dominant fact of life for most nonprofit leaders. Like organizational culture, it’s omnipresent yet hiding in plain sight: a profound shortage of time for generative thinking.
The challenge of organizational culture sinking well-laid plans is itself a symptom of an unfortunate truth in these times: we’re all busier than ever, we’re flooded with information and yet we rarely have time to think deeply about anything. Notifications, social media, instant news cycles, overhyping of everything and excessive scheduling add up to frantic lives that have us all reacting continuously. Further, all this stimulation keeps our nervous systems in “fight or flight” mode a lot of the time. This isn’t good for mental health, sleep, work-life balance or effective organizational leadership. Nearly all nonprofit CEOs I talk to confirm a dearth of time for reflective thought about the organization.
If culture eats strategy, what I’ll call tactical overload eats culture.
What would we do with big thinking time if we had more of it? An actual Peter Drucker quote comes to mind here: “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” In short, leaders should focus on being proactive in shaping their organizations and charting the future. Working on the organization instead of working exclusively in it.
What are the right things to be pondering in this generative headspace? The Success Factors Analysis study offers some insight here:
Embrace data-based decision-making
I recommend reading “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman. We’re wired to favor quick judgements, but those aren’t always the best decisions. We have to train ourselves – and our organizations – to collect and use data in order to be strategic in a dynamic world. What information would help your team understand a problem, challenge or opportunity? What data is available and how can we get it? How can we incorporate data analysis into our deliberations and act accordingly?
Build an organizational culture that is disciplined and resilient
Resource-constrained environments tend to produce reactive cultures, which can be hard to tame and brittle when the unexpected happens (as it surely will). How can we intentionally evolve our culture to be more focused on executing our plans and adapting to change?
Invest in key capacities, including revenue-generation and staff productivity
The most successful nonprofits regularly invest in their most critical capacities. These include revenue generation (fundraising and sales), technology (including data capacity), key stakeholder relationships (funders and partners) and core administration. Another worthy investment may be building slack into your operations, to blunt the blows of staff turnover and spikes in activity. All of this can favorably impact staff retention in a tight labor market.
Create an energizing workplace
Speaking of staff retention, what is the prevailing energy in your workplace? Many nonprofit jobs carry a level of stress with them. How manageable is that stress? How can we determine what would bring positive energy to the workplace? How can we engage with staff members to reveal their thoughts, experiences and priorities?
Write a do-not-do list
Just as listening is the most important part of communication (Peter Drucker said something similar to this, BTW), a workplan’s effectiveness can be driven by what is excluded. Do the essentials, do them well and do no more. Borrowing a page from “Good to Great,” you can write a do-not-do list of things that are not essential to success. People may resist at first. They’ll thank you later.
Making time for generative thinking should be on your short list of top priorities as a leader. Put it on your calendar, turn off the phone and find a quiet place. Consider doing it before breakfast. It may feel strange, as social pressures push us in the opposite direction. You may experience some guilt about not “getting stuff done.” But giving yourself permission to step back, reflect and be proactive will pay many dividends down the road.
As Drucker put it: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”