Organizational Development

How to Sustain Success

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” ~ Arthur Ashe

Keys to Organizational Development

Here are our main keys to organizational development:

• The right people are your most important asset.
• Try a lot of stuff and keep what works (e.g., do a quick pilot or test for original and creative ideas).
• Create a set of key organizational checklists and core organizational practices that last over many years
• Small things matter to people (e.g., a comfortable place to work, have the supplies they need, questions answered quickly, etc.).
• Have clear metrics for success that are specific and you can measure over time.

People

First Who…Then What

Jim Collins in Good to Great notes organizations should first get “the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.” The right people, and only the right people, are your most important asset.

Here are a few keys he mentions to help achieve this. 

• Wait to hire until you find the right person. Even if you have a role you want to fill, do not be in a rush to fill it until you find the right person. 
• Act swiftly if you know a people change needs to happen (e.g., coaching out, firing, or moving to a new role). 
• Ensure your strongest team members are working on your “biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.”

Hire People Based on Potential

Adam Grant in Originals describes three main types of organizational hiring cultures: 1. Skills/Experience, 2. Potential (i.e., ability to grow into the role), and 3. Commitment (i.e., cultural fit – people who mirror the organization’s values/norms). Studies found that by far people hired for Potential (with Commitment a close second) performed better than those hired for Skills/Experience.

This means we should hire team members more based on their potential to grow and fit with the organization, rather than a strong resume and specific experience and skills. Remember, skills can be taught!

Letting Someone Go/Firing

If you feel the need to micromanage someone, then you either made a mistake preparing that person for the role or the person was not the right one for that particular job. 

Remember interviews and applications are an imperfect tool to assess someone’s qualifications. If it is possible with your organization, find additional ways to understand someone’s skill set (e.g., hire from another role in the organization or from a long-time volunteer, timebound Fellowship programs with the organization so you do not have to decide long-term until you have worked with them, etc.).

If you do realize the person is not a good fit, then it is best to make an immediate change rather than dragging it out. Help the individual find a new role or organization, identify why it does not work, or even provide 1-2 months of pay if that makes it easier to let them go quickly.

Develop and Maintain Great Managers

One of the common themes among great companies and organizations is that they have great managers. Focus on building up your teams, strong management culture, and your organization will grow strong as well.

Succession Planning

It is essential to always have a succession plan for all key roles in the organization. Focus on intensive development programs to ensure the organization continues to be successful beyond just a single founder or great leader. 

Also, multiple studies have shown it is important to build homegrown leadership, rather than looking to hire from other organizations.

Preventing Planning Fallacy 

Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow says most organizations commit planning fallacy by not really considering all the options of what will happen if they implement the plan. 

One way to address this is through the premortem, an idea coined by Gary Klein, is the idea of imagining your team a year in the future after you have implemented your plan. Imagine both scenarios where it was a huge success and also a big failure. Your team should figure out what would happen for both scenarios to occur.

Another way is to take the outsider view which means you find similar plans/initiatives to the one your organization is considering. Why did they succeed or fail? Many plans only look at the successes, and not the failures. Kahneman recommends using an analytic framework including: finding a similar reference class (e.g., event planning, training program, etc.), getting the details on that reference class (e.g., costs, percentage over/under budget, etc.), and adjusting your baseline prediction based on this data.

Habits and Practices of Strong Organizations

Set Intentional Organizational Habits

Remember, people get into routines very quickly, so it is important to decide in advance what habits you want team members to adopt. Here are some tips:

• Have very clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that demonstrate both technicals of how to get something done, and the general organizational culture of how to proceed.
• Set and stick to SMARTIE goals for the year, at all levels and for all team members. Your annual what to achieve should remain the same, but you can change how you will achieve those goals. If you change your goals, then it means you likely were not as thoughtful about your purpose.

Let Your Team Experiment and Try New Things

It is essential to adopt an organizational culture where people can try out new ways of working and pilot new ideas. Here are some ways to support this model:

• The “15%-20% rule” which sets aside 15%-20% of a team member’s time to be innovative and creative. 
• Keep track of new and original ideas. Avoid shooting down ideas even if they do not seem right at the time, instead encourage them and bring to broader teams to think through more. 
• Do pilot projects and quick tests to evaluate before scaling up.
• Adam Grant in Originals notes to focus on “idea selection” over “idea generation.” This just means look for what people in the organization have started to successfully do on their own and then work to scale that idea. Remember peers in the same field do a better job evaluating ideas, rather than just those in the same organization.
• Adam Grant in Originals notes the “non critical brainstorm” may not be always ideal since it encourages conformity. Grant writes “The groups that debated and criticized weren’t afraid to share ideas, and they generated 16% more ideas than those that didn’t.” 

SMaC

Jim Collins in Great by Choice notes the idea of using “SMaC” (“Specific, Methodical, and Consistent”) which is “a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula…Tactics change from situation to situation, whereas SMaC practices can last for decades and apply across a wide range of circumstances.” 

Here is an example SMaC from Network Delaware:

• Build inclusive self-sufficient civic leadership and community power.
• Prioritize 1-on-1s as our primary engagement method. 
• People are our #1 priority. 
• Focus on monthly recurring and partnership-based fundraising. 
• Center those most impacted in all aspects of the organization. 
• Avoid owning property/renting office space.
• Use coaching of real hands-on work as our #1 leadership development method. 
• Keep the community and joyous feeling among all team members (staff and volunteers). 

Create Organizational Cycles of Learning and Best Practices

Always seek to learn from your team members and volunteers. If someone is doing a great job, identify what they are doing well and figure out the best way to transfer that knowledge throughout the organization. First Break All the Rules notes organizations should, “Go back and study your own top performers” + capture “internal best practices.”

Create Checklists

In the Checklist Manifesto Atul Gawande focuses on how developing clear and concise checklists to break down complex tasks can be extremely valuable in synthesizing organizational knowledge over time and keeping people on track. Identify what areas of work in your organization you can create checklists for.

The Day-to-Day Work Often Matters More than the Big Picture

Remember that what your people experience day-to-day with the organization (e.g., people knowing their role and expectations, getting recognition, learning, having the right tools, etc.) is more important to team member engagement than big picture strategy. You still need both, but people will not stay with you long if they do not have the fundamentals even if you have the best strategy in the world. 

Building for Long-Term Organizational Success

The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles)

The Hedgehog Concept from Jim Collins breaks down an organization into three main areas: 1. passion/organizational core values, 2. what you are best at/what makes you unique, and 3. your resource engine broken down by time/money/brand. You need to be able to clearly articulate these three areas. 

Preserve the Core and Stimulate Progress

Jim Collins in Good to Great notes that some parts of an organization should remain relatively unchanged over time (e.g., ideology and long-term goals). While some things should change as you learn (e.g., Standard Operating Procedures, habits, practices, etc.). Below are some examples.

Preserve

1. Core Ideology (i.e., consistent, never changing once set).

• Core Values: Your true core values with a max of 5-6 (e.g., from Network Delaware 1. Volunteer leadership – Have all programs, campaigns, and initiatives led by our members, 2. Persistent organizing – Build people power in order to create lasting social change.).
• Core Purpose: Your core mission (e.g., Network Delaware: To activate “change agents,” Disney: To make people happy).

2. Envisioned Future (i.e., where you are aiming to take the organization).

• BHAG: A “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” is something your organization is working towards 10-30 years in the future and motivates you to succeed. (e.g., “To put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s.”).
• Vivid Descriptions: This is a very clear picture of what happens when you achieve your BHAG.

Can Change

• Practices: The cultural norms and organizational practices
• Goals/Strategies: The specific areas of success you are looking for and how you will get there. 

Setting Metrics

Remember to have ways to measure your progress. It is really important to have clear metrics of success so you can know whether you are on track to meeting your mission. Here are some example metrics from Network Delaware:

• # of people who increase their civic leadership
• # of issue campaigns / policy victories due to involvement of Network Delaware volunteers (e.g., running issue campaign, extensive canvassing for issue, writing legislation, training coordinators/other organizations, etc.)
• # of Network Delaware staff and significant volunteer leaders sought by other groups and organizations (e.g., speaking opportunities, training, employment, etc.)
• # of organizations that adopt parts of the Network Delaware model
• % of volunteer and/or donor retention (over a 13-month and 36-month period)
• Average of people on surveys who would recommend Network Delaware to others. Goal is 9.5 out of 10. 

Be as Resilient as Possible to Gray/Black Swan Events

Nassim Nicholas Taleb defined the idea of the Black Swan event as something that is rare, but would have a significant/devastating impact (e.g., the invention of the internet, global warming making the planet unlivable, etc.). In his book the Black Swan he also adds that “after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random.” 

Grey Swans on the other hand are a little easier to predict, but still rare and hard to know when they will happen (e.g., huge financial crises). 

For your own organization, figure out how you can make yourself resilient to new technologies, national/international challenges, financial uncertainties, etc. For each organization this will be different, but you need to spend time considering how to protect yourself long-term to changes in fortune. 

Focus on Long-Term Slow Change

Instead of trying to quickly and immediately change organizational habits and cultures, try to focus on slow changes building upon each other that over time looks like dramatic change. Think of it this way, it’s better to consistently improve over time since it allows your teams and constituencies time to adapt, rather than trying for a jarring revolutionary change.