I recently wrote a formal piece that didn’t make it to my blog. I think it’s valuable for social service organizations to consider carefully, and as such, thought it would be valuable to re-post here. Please let me know your thoughts…what other “radical” changes do people need to be considering? What “sweet spots” of innovation have emerged through collaboration and openness within your organization or with others?
You wouldn’t think that a management style that encourages financially-struggling social service organizations to “unmanage” would make much sense. But that’s exactly what Charles Ehin, PhD would propose. And that may well be the type of innovative change many non-profits need to weather the current and continuing economic storm.
Dr. Ehin, author and emeritus professor of management at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, believes that “unmanagement” is the key to helping organizations unleash the collective innovation potential that is often restrained by traditional, top-down management styles. In his new book titled “The Organizational Sweet Spot: Engaging the Innovative Dynamics of Your Social Networks,” Dr. Ehin discusses how organizations can create an open work environment where its members are actively engaged in work, collaborating regularly with one another, and developing innovative ideas that result in a “sweet spot” of unprecedented productivity and outcomes. “The sweet spot,” says Dr. Ehin, “is where formal and informal networks of communication intersect, and real organizational productivity emerges.”
This sweet spot, however, only emerges when the environment allows it to. “The emergent sweet spot can’t be forced or controlled,” according to Dr. Ehin, “and that’s why it’s called ‘unmanagement.’” As Dr. Ehin notes, though, unmanagement isn’t about simply doing nothing, but rather about creating opportunities for spontaneous ideas of creativity to emerge from interactions: “The sweet spot can be facilitated by encouraging members from all parts of an organization to collaborate openly and honestly with one another to find optimal solutions. Each member of an organization—regardless of where they may be on a formal organizational job chart—has an experience, or thought, or piece of knowledge capable of providing the ‘spark of genius’ that ignites a revolutionary idea, or a new innovation for an entire organization.”
The message that organizations can fundamentally change how they work to improve their outcomes has perhaps never been more relevant and hopeful for social service organizations than now. With projected decreases in 2010 foundation giving, increased budget deficits in multiple states, used-up reserve funds spent in 2009, and increasing numbers of people seeking their services, many non-profits are expecting to face a 2010 year that is more financially bleak and threatening to their very existence than any other year in recent history.
A recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (November, 2009) reported that many philanthropy experts don’t believe nonprofits have done enough to prepare for a long financial recovery. “[Charities] and foundations are too complacent in the face of the economic upheaval and only a few have embraced the radical thinking that is needed to maintain, and potentially strengthen, the nonprofit world,” writes Ian Wilhelm. In essence, many nonprofit organizations have been unwilling or unable to fundamentally and radically change how they do business. The severity of the economic situation, however, is such that if they don’t change, they won’t survive, and if they do change, they might.
Hard times require hard decisions, and one of the most difficult decisions a nonprofit organization may have to make is deciding whether or not they are brave and honest enough to conduct a careful organizational autopsy of their business practices. “It’s not about whether social service organizations believe they are a good business,” says Scott Anderson, PhD, LCSW, “but more about honestly assessing if they really are a good business.”
As a researcher and writer for DSI, providers of ClientTrack software for social service organizations, Dr. Anderson tries to make sense of the current economic environment, its impact on social service organizations, and potential solutions to emerging challenges. “When I connect the dots,” says Dr. Anderson, “I see a very clean, synergistic connection between Charlie’s [Ehin] work, the need for social service organizations to make radical changes in how they work, and what ClientTrack provides. ClientTrack was built specifically to support the values of accountability, transparency, competency, and collaboration. These are the values that are now required for social service organizations to survive and thrive in today’s economy. These also are some of the key values that foster emergence of the ‘sweet spot’ in an organization. An organization that can harness the joint power of the ‘sweet spot’ and the ClientTrack software is in a powerful position to become stronger and more resilient in the current economic storm.”
Summarizing his conclusions for social service organizations, Dr. Anderson states, “Many nonprofits and social service organizations are in dire straits and the best solution at this point is to make significant course corrections and consider fundamental changes in how they operate. Charlie’s ‘Organizational Sweet Spot’ is the theory and the handbook behind how they can accomplish this change. ClientTrack is the software that can help them do it.”
To learn more about the Sweet Spot, see www.unmanagement.com