Internet Collaboration

The Wharton Business School has published an article in their Knowledge@Wharton e-newsletter that is definately thought provoking although I would say, “What took them so long?” 

The key paragraph in this article comes about half way through the article and is something that the non-profit world needs to make sure they take note of.

And I quote:

The defining traits of the Internet since the year 2000 — especially the ability of users to create content and form communities of interest — have created what Williams described as “public squares” in comparison to what he called the “walled gardens” of the pre-2000 web. The changes are driven by young users who are exhilarated by the variety of choices offered by the Internet but who also carefully scrutinize the companies they buy products from. The Wikinomics authors found that 65% of this new generation of online customers wants a two-way relationship with the brands they select, with the ability to provide feedback and direct input.

This issue of the two-way relationship is important and as the mistrust/distrust of the non-profit world continues, it behooves us to find ways to provide for that two way interaction.  Your donors will be more committed to you and indeed will likely become your advocates.

Enjoy the article.  It is a solid read.

Humanitarian Philanthropy

I recently ran across a company that makes solar powered flashlights.  SunNight Solar produces a well constructed flashlight that encompasses rechargable batteries powered by a solar panel.  The company produces the light and sells them under the BOGO Light name (Buy One, Give One).  The whole concept is to provide a source of light in areas of Africa that rely on non-renewable sources for light.  The company distributes the second light to partners that work in Africa.  Please take a moment to check them out.  It is a great story with one of the more unique delivery methods that I have ever seen.  Buy a light and designate the giveaway to one of the listed partners.

Assessment Results – Project Part 5

It is rare when surprises occur in the non-profit world.  This project has been no exception.  I will confess this though, being in the middle of the department being analyzed adds its own level of difficulty.  It is hard to be completely objective through the process.  So far, I think I have managed.  We shall see.

The measurement assessment scoring is complete and I am now working on the report of the analysis.  The Assessment was scored at 4 levels. The Total score (all answers added together), the Average score for each question, the Median score for each question (half the answers were greater and half were lower), and the Modal score for each question (the most frequent answer given).

The desired range for the total score was between 176 and 195. If the score was between 146 and 175, it provides evidence that consideration should be given to rethinking and realigning the measurement efforts. If the score was 145 or less, then some concentrated effort needs to be put towards realigning the tracking efforts.

Beyond the Average, Median and Modal scores, I have been looking at score distributions.  The Measurement Assessment had and answer scale of 1 – 5 with 1 being “strongly disagree”, 3 being “neutral” and 5 being “strongly agree”.  In many respects this distribution has been more enlightening than just the Average or Modal scores.

The Assessments scored very low on the total score with the average being just 120 over a range of 80 to 157.  As you can see, there is much work to do to re-evaluate the information that we are tracking, the reports that are created, and the distribution of the information. 

To add to my insanity, I opened the the Assessment to comments at the end.  These have been very enlightening as you might imagine.  Here is a snapshot of some of them:

“I have no idea how the numbers that I jot down every day are used, or even if they are used at all. I often feel that we keep track of numbers purely to justify what people do from day to day, rather than for departmental improvement.”

“I think we have a good system for tracking certain data; however some of the data we  measure seems redundant and a wealth of useless information.”

“Bottom line – not any real consistencies or sharing of results.  Sometimes we track and it is just put in folder somewhere.  Other times we don’t track the right info or we track unnecessary information that results in wasted hours.”

Up next are the longer Questionnaires.  The amount of detail that some people are recording is truly amazing.  I can’t wait to sink my teeth into them. Onward!!

Measurement Assessment – Project Part 4

The measurement assessments are coming back and, not surprisingly, confirming some of the suspicions that we have had for some time. 

When an organization trends towards a top-down management style, reporting becomes part of the machinery.  Often (I am willing give the benefit of the doubt a little bit anyway) the initial thoughts behind the performance reporting are valid.  Management should be reviewing certain pictures of what is occuring within the organization and the performance of its various programs.  As the saying goes, “You get what you inspect not what you expect.” 

Over time, these trends become ingrained in the staff that are required to provide the information.  And before long, as staff turnover occurs, the original reason for tracking a particular facet of the organization is lost.  A systematic review of all reporting, measurement, and tracking activities should be engaged in by the organization.  The overriding question however is not “What are we measuring?” but “Why are we measuring that?”  This is where many organizations get lost. 

Statistics junkies like myself like to manipulate numbers.

• How many donors called last month?
• How many donors called the same month last year?
• How many donation challenges did we have this month?
• How many gifts over $100 did we receive last year?
• How many donors did we lose last year?
• How many donors did we gain from this activity?

The list is of course endless.  Here is the loaded question – How much of it is pointless? 

If you aren’t doing anything to change behavior as a result of the information you are gleaning from your database or from anecdotal evidence, then you shouldn’t be asking for it in the first place.  Quit making yourself or your staff do the work if the information is not going to be put to use in a meaningful way.

What information are you tracking that you aren’t really using?  When was the last time you did a systemic review of your various performance measurement instruments?

Our measurement assessment is coming back with some very interesting information.  Many of the staff know what they track on a daily basis but don’t really know why.  They don’t know how it is used.  They also suspect that much of it can be done with a whole lot less paper and provide better information at the same time.  Looks like we have some work to do.

Surveys – New Project Part 3

Today I released the questionnaires for completion.  I am attacking this challenge at 4 levels which will hopefully give a good picture about what is really happening in both sides of the merging department. 

Here is a diagram of the process that I am going through.  You can see from the upper level that there are five sources that I am attempting to glean information from.  After the written questionnaires are done, I will then follow-up with one-on-one interviews to see what lies behind some of the comments made by those being interviewed. 

We gave everyone 3 weeks to complete the questionnaire.  I figured that it will take some time to recall all of the duties that each person does and encouraged them to keep the questionnaire by their computers so they could make notes as thoughts were generated.  We also incentivized the process to complete within two weeks by promising some sort of reward for doing so.  The measurement assessment is to be completed within one week.  Truthfully, it shouldn’t take that long.

For reference, here is the Staff Questionnaire, the Measurement Assessment, and the Management Questionnaire. 

The Measurement Assessment should be an interesting process.  I think non-profits tend to fall on two sides of the equation.  The either don’t measure or track anything and don’t know where they are being successful and where they aren’t or they measure too much and get buried in statistics that don’t mean anything.  The challenge is to focus on those measurements that are core to the success of the department and the organization and ignore those that aren’t.  I am sure we have some of the latter but it will be an interesting exercise to see if perception meets reality.

To be continued . . . 

Merging and Reorganizing – New Project Part 2

Finalizing the written instruments that I am going to be using for this analysis and reorganizing project.  How many non-profits actually do a process study of their support activities?  We’re looking for a couple of things. 

1. We want to know if we are doing the right things as a department.  How much of our activity is wasted activity?
2. We want to know if we are measuring the right activity.  Do our staff know why we track the things we track and measure?  Does it have relevance to our outcomes? 
3. We want to know if we can gain margin anywhere.  Lots of ideas on the drawing board but with no more floor space and tight budgets, adding staff is not a good option.  How can we improve our processes in order to gain margin with the staff that we have?

Will be starting with two written questionnaires.  The first is a narrative questionnaire looking for what people understand about their current activity and how they communicate what they do.  Will also be asking for some creativity in redesigning their own jobs to be more efficient.

The second is a measurement assessment to get at the measurement/tracking issues. 

These two questionnaires, a management level survey, along with the following interviews and with the existing job descriptions should start to give a wholistic picture of our current activity.  Should be an interesting project.

Stay tuned.