REALITY CHECK

Most organizations don’t have the influence that large corporations like Wal-Mart, 3M, Google, Microsoft or General Electric have on the way people think about things. But through some research I’ve discovered that these companies don’t start with forcing their ideas on the public . . . rather, they adapt their products to the needs of people. This gives them credibility and buy-in from the public and then they make small changes to influence the way people think and respond to them and their products.

The for-profit world has needed to adapt and change to the needs of their customers in order to survive – and I think non-profit organizations need to start doing the same. There are a lot of old mission agencies out there who only have a few years left in them before they collapse because they are not adapting to the way people are thinking or the way the world is changing.

It’s human nature to want to change others rather than ourselves. I see the same thing being true for many of the organizations I work for/with. Many organizations would rather try to change the way people on the outside do things rather than change themselves to adapt to the realities of a given mindset, relationship or situation. Most organizations think they have more control/influence over the environment outside their walls than they really do. This is easily born out of some good response to an event, a successful project or way of doing things that have worked in the past.

A number of years ago, I was working for a non-profit organization where we were recognizing the independent movement of the Church to do international work themselves. We were discussing issues like risk, best practices and financial accountability issues. The conversations invariably ended with the statement or inference: “We know what we are doing so why don’t they just channel their funds and teams through us so we can manage it.” That statement kept coming up and I started to think about it and realized we should change the question from “Why don’t they come through us because we know what we are doing?” to “What are the final desired outcomes and if they want to do it themselves, how can we equip them to do it well?”

Often the fear of building into others is that the organization will lose funds . . . but I don’t think that needs to be the case. Many situations just need some creative thinking and a new business model to work from. Rather than non-profit organizations using the “take and use” model – they could turn some of what they do into a “service” model. Just take a look at what Bill Hybels has done with Willow Creek. By serving and building into others, they have carved out a place for themselves as leaders in their field and grown as a result.