What’s Driving Your Organization? Personalities, People, or Processes?

People in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors often opine about the differences between the two.  In the non-profit world, we say we are different because we are motivated by mission rather than money. The business world sometimes says we should be more like businesses. I agree with both, to some degree. Because our organizations are filled with mission-motivated people, we sometimes  neglect the infrastructure that could/should support our work. Instead, we devote every resource and all our energy to service delivery. It is often because of this mission-mindedness (and the starvation cycle in which many nonprofits find themselves) that many nonprofits lack some basic business practices that could increase their effectiveness.

In my opinion, much of an organization’s (profit or not) sustainability, scalability, and effectiveness depends on the nature of it’s driving force.

Personality-Driven Organizations

In personality-driven organizations, strategic direction, priorities, and organizational structure often depend on the skills and preferences of a select few. “The way we do things here” reflects that person’s personality. This is often the case in small, founder-led nonprofits.

Some of the pain points in personality-driven organizations include:

  • Incoherence. Without an over-arching strategy and being guided by the preferences of one or a few, an organization’s decisions and strategies can lack cohesion, focus, and alignment.
  • Disengagement. Other leaders might feel dis-empowered or disenfranchised when it comes to decision-making.

Personality-driven organizations are particularly vulnerable when those personalities are out of sync with the rest of the organization or when they leave or retire.

People-Driven Organizations

Whereas personality-driven organizations are directed by the decisions of one or a few, people-driven organizations might have participatory decision-making and sound strategy. What distinguishes people-driven organizations is how the work gets done. High-performing, highly-motivated staff tend to carry the bulk of the workload, while others are along for the ride.

Some of the pain points in people-driven organizations include:

  • Bottlenecks. Because too much authority is vested in too few people, the work slows as it waits for approval, decisions, and final touches by the select few people who drive the organization’s key work.
  • Burn out. While more responsibility and authority are entrusted to them, these select few can begin to feel over-burdened, under-resourced, and unsupported.

People-driven organizations are particularly vulnerable during times of turnover. When a key staff person leaves an organization, there often is no one else who has the access, knowledge, and experience necessary to carry on that person’s work.

ProcessProcess-Driven Organizations

Organizations that invest in their processes and infrastructure – independent of any specific people – are often more sustainable, scalable, and effective.

Organizations are made up of processes – collections of related tasks that result in the achievement of some organizational goal. Processes can be client-facing, such as our intake, service delivery, and discharge processes. These receive the bulk of our attention and resources, most of the time. Internal processes receive little attention, though they consume tremendous resources. These processes make up the behind-the-scenes work that is necessary to support the mission, such as hiring, training, decision-making, grant-writing, invoicing, communicating, evaluating, etc.

Unfortunately, most organizations only pay attention to whether or not their most important work gets done, not how it gets done. So, when a key employee leaves, a new program is started, a position gets cut, or a new manager is hired, they struggle to make the transition and keep the work moving seamlessly and consistently.

But process-driven organizations intentionally design and monitor their processes. The mission is executed by processes that are stable and consistent over time. Problems are solved by examining processes, not blaming people. Work is completed according to agreed upon priorities and processes, not personalities or personal preferences. Everyone sees where they fit into the bigger picture, where they contribute, and how their piece of the puzzle impacts those around them. As a result, your most important work gets done in more efficient, effective, and collaborative ways, and your organization is better prepared to weather transition, turnover, and growth.

Do You Need Process Management?

Your organization might benefit from some process management if:

  • Important work comes to a halt when a key person is on vacation or sick.
  • Managers get a knot in their stomach at the thought of certain employees quitting, winning the lottery, or getting hit by a bus.
  • Different departments don’t understand each other’s roles or needs, and therefore get frustrated and impatient with one another when they have to work together.
  • Staff who do the same tasks do them differently from each other or do them differently each time.
  • Managers don’t know “how the sausage gets made.”
  • Problem-solving turns into finger-pointing.

Get Started

The transition to process management starts by identifying your key processes. What work is central to your mission and to your organization’s operations? Then, identify who the key players are in those processes. Whose rules must you follow, whose expertise do you require, whose satisfaction is critical? Then, map the work. I guarantee you, getting all the player in a room and asking “How do we do ____?” will be alarming and enlightening because the answers will likely be unclear at best and contradictory at worst. But I can also guarantee you that the “aha moments” will make it worthwhile.

Here are a few resources you can use to get started on your process management journey:

Upcoming Workshop

I’ll be teaching a workshop in July 2018 on this topic at Washington University. Keep your eyes peeled for that brochure from the Brown School Professional Development program, or subscribe to my Newsletter to receive announcements about upcoming workshops, highlighted resources, and tips.