Nonprofit Bridge

With the recent doom and gloom in financial markets, reading the Wall Street Journal has often been depressing lately as the bad news accumulates. At a staff meeting at my nonprofit organization lately, while our president tried to put a positive spin on our prospects even though we had to lay off staff earlier this year, as have many other large nonprofits across the US. I find myself working longer hours to keep my work current, as are most of my colleagues. With our savings seeming to decline each day, how can we avoid negativity?

In the same Wall Street Journal that has documented the financial crisis was an article this week From Attitude to Gratitude: This Is No Time for Complaints.   Despite the abundance of bad news, many of us who still have our jobs are “finding reasons to be appreciative.”  As has happened in my nonprofit, we’re being asked to take unpaid furloughs to avoid larger cutbacks.   We’re also feeling grateful that we still have our jobs (many others don’t) and are “finding reasons to be appreciative.”  I’ve already read Will Bowen’s wonderful book A Complaint Free World, and have ordered Jon Gordon’s  The No Complaining Rule, which specifically deals with reducing negativity at work.

What can we do to survive at our nonprofits during these turbulent times?

1. Will Bowen advises us to pledge to stop complaining, criticizing and gossiping.  Minimize contact with colleagues who constantly talk about how hard things are.   Instead, be the person who points out what’s good.
2. Use this time as an opportunity to roll out online strategies to reduce costs, such as replacing paper newsletters with enewsletters and making more use of web / phone conferences to minimize travel expenses
3. Find ways to help others to deal with stress and increased work loads.  Understand that if someone seems a bit cranky with you, it may because they are struggling to get their projects done.
4. Keep reaching out to constituents, even if they aren’t able to sustain the level of financial contributions they have in the past.  There may be other ways they can help.
5. Find a way to vent your feelings, but go easy on your spouse.  My wife surprised me yesterday by pointing out that I have often frequently complained about problems at work, even when I thought I was staying positive.  Focus on what you have to be thankful for, not on what’s wrong.

The Wall Street Journal article ends by asking us to “write down three things we’re grateful for every day,” even if some days you can only come up with basics such as “oxygen, food and shelter.”  When an individual deals with depression, it feels like things will never be any different.  It’s important to keep in mind that although we’re not sure when conditions will improve, things will get better.  And as many self-help books I’ve read over the years have repeated, it’s not the situation that causes grief, it’s how you deal with it.

Let’s also be grateful that we work in the nonprofit sector, where we can see the benefits of what we do for our constituents on a daily basis.

As most of us in the field know, nonprofit salaries usually fall short of their counterparts in the private sector.  A new posting at Payscale, Nonprofit Jobs: Flexibility and Opportunity at a Cost, points out that there are opportunities for late career changes and baby boomers to fill the gap in personnel recently reported by Bridgespan.  The article also points out the advantages of working for nonprofit, so we shouldn’t only focus on the compensation.

An especially interesting quote was from Roberta Chinsky Matuson who said, “the most challenging part will be for the employee to recognize that they will work with an extremely limited budget and resources.”  As a technology resource focused on online fundraising, I believe even the smallest organizations have options even with limited resources – but it can be challenging at times.

As it is probably obvious by this blog’s name, I am fascinated by change, both personally and professionally.  Earlier this week I attended a presentation on Change Management at the NYC Chapter of the Project Management Institute, featuring Peter de Jager Some of Peter’s major points were:

• The major changes in our lives involve getting married (or not) and deciding to have children.  In comparison, most changes which take place at our organizations are trivial.
• When a change is presented / announced, the most natural response is ‘Why?’
• Asking ‘if there are any questions’ to employees after a change has already been decided is of little value, especially if staff have had little involvement in the decision.
• The process of how a change was decided upon should be openly communicated so that staff don’t feel that the decision ‘came out of nowhere.’
• To be sustainable, change must be ‘your’ change.
• Change doesn’t have to be difficult.  Change is often a positive force in our lives.

Peter described the change process model developed by Virginia Satir which traces the steps from the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ status quo, as well as the five stages of grief outlined by Elisabeth Kuber-Ross.

Peter’s presentation was so captivating that I practically forgot about the light food that is provided at many PMI meetings.  While change has often been a challenge in my life, this session provided a useful reminder that it is a necessary part of life, and can be reframed to be viewed as a positive force, not a source of dread.

Came across an interesting blog posting this week on the Career Hub blog that described networking as a career management tool, not as a job search tool.  I also received an email invitation to connect with someone on LinkedInwho said he’d only recently discovered the value of connecting with people despite having signed up on LinkedIn a while back.

Before the Internet (if my younger readers can imagine such a time), it was much harder to keep in touch with people.  Now, the problem is choosing which tool to use.  For many years I believed that excelling in your job would be enough to insure career success.  But now I’ve realized the importance of keeping up with your network, regardless of whether or not I am seeking a job change. I’ve actually started to enjoy the interaction and have looked for ways I can help others.  So while I work hard for my current employer, I also make sure I attend (and speak at) conferences, as well as participate in nonprofit email lists and keep in touch with my contacts.

Would I be open to a new job opportunity if one came along?  Yes.  But it is not my main purpose for networking.  I also find that my involvement with many people in other organizations gives me a broader perspective that I could never develop from working at any one firm.  I’ve recently started to subscribe to many of my peers’ blogs, and comment when I can.  As described in Never Eat Alone, networking doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be very enjoyable in addition to helping your career.

I’ve moved up in my career from the early days when I was focused on supporting users through a help desk.  But it seems that no matter what my role in an organization, I end up helping users who are ‘technology challenged.’  Today I spent more than a half hour on the phone with a remote user who was struggling with composing an email blast.  Finally I tried to get her setup for remote access so I could see her screen, but alas she had trouble getting the remote access software to install.  Finally, I suggested she just send me the content and I placed it into the email myself.

Later, she emailed me to ask what she had done wrong.  I explained to her that the software was a bit ‘quirky,’ and that she shouldn’t take it to heart.  The software really is a bit tricky to use, especially for those that don’t use it frequently.  Perhaps this is why I always end up doing user support as some part of my job;  users seem to like my patience (although I almost lost it today).  But it’s especially challenging when you work for an organization with a high turnover rate, and you have to keep teaching staff the same things over and over…

Interestingly, my organization has been interviewing for a help desk person for months and hasn’t yet been able to find the right fit.  Guess it’s not so easy after all.

Spent much of the day yesterday shopping for a new suit.  Thought I had found a good choice at the first store my wife and I visited, but we bailed out at the cashier when we realized that the brand was excluded from a 40% off sale that was advertised (with the exceptions in smaller print).  She suggested that we visit an outlet mall that was about an hour’s drive away.  Since it was already late in the afternoon, I said no, reasoning that stores would certainly not be open later than 6 PM or 7 PM on Sunday, which wouldn’t give us enough time to shop.  She suggested calling anyway to find out.  Result – stores were open to 9 PM.  Moral – your assumptions may not always be correct.

After arriving at the outlet, we searched for a store featuring the brand of the suit that I had picked out at the other store.  Perhaps we’d be able to find the suit at a more attractive price.  On the way there, we found another store that my wife suggested would be worthwhile visiting as well.  So we went there first and found two possibilities.  I settled on one, and also was able to use a 25% coupon that I had from a savings book that I’d fortunately received at the mall’s information desk.  It didn’t quite get the reaction from my wife when I tried it on that I had received at the earlier store, but it was still a good choice.

A while later, shortly before the mall’s closing time, we finally found the address of the store we’d tried to find earlier.  Result – it was out of business, having been taken over by another men’s clothing store.  Moral – don’t be too invested in Plan A.  Plan B may turn out to be the better (or only) choice.

When I first joined the nonprofit sector, I thought having a good working relationship with the Executive Director would insure my success with an organization.  Little did I realize the major role that a nonprofit organization’s board plays in guiding its direction.  At my current job, when the CEO left over a year ago and wasn’t replaced until six months later, the board was heavily involved in managing day to day decisions as well as longer term strategic planning.

BoardnetUSA, a web site sponsored by the Volunteer Consulting Group, provides a way for those interested in serving on a board to find organizations that are searching for new board members.  Other sites focused on nonprofit boards are BoardSource and BoardCafe.

The NonProfit Times also recently highlighted the book, Building Better Boards which described five types of boards:

1. passive – the traditional model where the board’s activity and participation is limited
2. certifying – board certifies to stakeholders that the organization is being managed properly
3. engaged – board partners with the CEO and oversees CEO & organization performance
4. intervening – deeply involved in key decisions – most common during crises
5. operating – deepest level of involvement – board makes key decisions and management implements them

It’s important that potential board members have a good understanding of what their role will involve before accepting the important responsibility of serving on a nonprofit board.

Just finished a fascinating book about other books entitled You’ve Got to Read This Book, edited by Jack Canfield (originator of the Chicken Soup series) and Gay Hendricks.  As you can guess, it’s about stories of books that have changed people’s lives.  A sampling of titles is below:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
• A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• Learning to Love Yourself by Gay Hendricks
• The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Chrisopher Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

There is also a web site that promotes the book, as well as offering a chance to share your own favorites.

I’ve always felt that many people stop reading when they finish school.  Reading these stories reminded me just how powerful a book can be throughout your life.

During a seminar last year, my wife and I received a recommendation for the film The Secret, available online and now also available as a book.  I’ve just started to read the book, but the basic idea is using the power of attraction – what you focus on is what increases in your life.  I write a little about each day, focusing on positive things that happened.  It’s so important to look for the good since how you view the world affects how you feel, it’s not the events.  This is why some people who’ve had a difficult life are still able to be optimistic yet others who seem to have everything are miserable.  Even things that seem to be negative can end up being positive in the long run.  I’ve haven’t always been successful in applying these principles, but I’m trying to do it as much as I can, especially by not being around people who always choose to see the worst.

Welcome to my new blog.  I intend to write about my thoughts about dealing with change, acceptance, as well as nonprofit technology where I make my living.  Since I believe in looking for the good in every day, this will also be a place for positive thoughts.  Stay tuned.