Jani’s Journal Issue 25: Innovation & Moonshots
7/9/2024
Welcome to this special edition of Jani's Journal! As we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the United States' historic moon landing, we're reminded of the power of innovation, the grit needed to overcome immense challenges, and the importance of setting "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGs). Just as the moon landing was a testament to human ingenuity and perseverance, our work in the nonprofit sector thrives on daring visions and relentless pursuit of impactful missions.
This issue is dedicated to exploring how we can channel the spirit of BHAGs, like Kennedy’s moonshot, to overcome obstacles and achieve transformative impact.
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Jani’s Jackpot!
If you only have time to read one article, Jani’s Jackpot promises the ultimate payout!
🔗 BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals 🔗
This excerpt from Jim Collins’ and Jerry Porras’ business school primer Built to Last delves into the concept of BHAGs, which are audacious, clear, and compelling long-term goals. Jim Collins expanded on this in Good to Great and his accompanying monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sector. BHAGs are critical to long-term success for both for-profit and nonprofit industries as they foster:
Ambitious vision by setting challenging and inspiring goals,
Commitment by staying dedicated to the vision, and
Transformation by achieving significant, lasting impact,
Nonprofits setting BHAGs can galvanize their teams, attract supporters (both volunteers and donors), and create a roadmap for achieving innovative impact.
Innovative Culture
🔗 Keeping Innovative Projects Aligned with Strategy 🔗
This MIT Sloan Review article reminds us of the dangers of trying to be all things to all people and offers a framework to help organizations decide what programs and projects to pursue or say “no” to. Creating a “portfolio team,” consisting of senior leaders, strategic, and business managers ensures that new initiatives support overarching goals and prevents diluting a nonprofit’s core mission. Key responsibilities of a portfolio team include:
Assessing potential projects and programs against the mission and strategy ensuring alignment before committing resources;
Monitoring progress and adjusting the resource mix ensuring that the best ones go forward, remain aligned with the mission, and have the desired impact; and
Engaging stakeholders, both internal and external, to maintain strategy and mission alignment over time.
Nonprofits can leverage this approach to maintain focus on their mission while exploring creative solutions to complex challenges.
🔗 Nonprofit Innovation: Taking Risks and Embracing Failure 🔗
This Ottawa Business Journal article emphasizes the importance of risk-taking and learning from failures in driving innovation while balancing a nonprofit’s need for pragmatism given the many costs of failure, including fiscal and reputational. While it may be easier said than done for nonprofits to embrace a “fail forward” culture, there are a few key tenets nonprofits can adopt from corporations known for innovation:
Acknowledge that innovation requires trial & error and learning from the trials & errors as well as successes.
Leverage data (and the technology to capture it) to yield better decision making and lower risk by assisting organizations to identify
performance trends, potential challenges, emerging opportunities, and donor behavior.
Experiment to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.
Leadership
🔗 What is Transformational Leadership? 🔗
UMass Global explores the “transformational leadership” style, which inspires innovation and extraordinary outcomes. They describe four key components to transformational leadership:
Individualized consideration that understands what motivates one person may not motivate someone else.
Inspirational motivation that understands the most motivated employees are the ones with a strong sense of purpose.
Idealized influence that models ethical behavior garnering respect and trust.
Intellectual stimulation that regularly challenges assumptions, takes risks and solicits team members’ input and ideas.
Nonprofit leaders adopting this style can foster a culture of innovation and resilience, driving significant change within their communities. How? These five traits are often found in transformational leaders:
Self-awareness and the core belief that everyone, including themselves, should be continually learning and improving.
Open-mindedness to fresh perspectives, new ideas, and wide-ranging feedback.
Adaptable to changing business dynamics.
Proactive decision-making to stay ahead of the curve.
Humility to admit they don’t have all the answers while remaining confident in their goals and abilities.
🔗 Why Territorial Managers Stifle Innovation and What to Do About It 🔗
MIT Sloan Review addresses the barriers posed by territorial managers who “have typically ascended to their positions by honing their expertise and finding success within specific task domains.”
“They may have pioneered successful new ideas that have contributed to their professional reputations. As a result, it is natural for them to feel a sense of ownership and attachment to these domains, viewing them as their own territories.”
For nonprofits, dismantling silos and promoting cross-functional teamwork is crucial for fostering a dynamic and innovative environment. If you find yourself struggling to let go of familiar territory or lead a territorial manager:
Proactively foster a supportive and collaborative peer environment through training programs to enhance interpersonal skills, promoting a culture of mutual respect and appreciation, and providing resources and support to help managers navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics. Why? Research demonstrates managers who believe they have lower respect and admiration by their peers are more sensitive to perceived encroachments into what they consider their territory. Supporting social status can lessen territorial tendencies.
Prioritize rewarding managers for supporting employees’ creative ideas. Why? When managers are encouraged to act as mentors, facilitators, and champions of their team members’ ideas, it reduces the fear of being overshadowed and fosters a sense of pride and fulfillment in seeing their team members succeed and contribute meaningfully to the organization’s goals. Managers empower their teams’ ideas rather than compete with them.
Foster organizational identity. Why? Research indicates that insecure managers who were encouraged to think about their attachment to the broader organization and its goals significantly reduced their territorial behavior. Improving organizational identification facilitates greater cooperation, teamwork, and diverse perspectives required for innovation to flourish.
Technology
🔗 2024 Tech Takeaways for Leaders 🔗
McKinsey & Company highlights key technological trends for 2024, emphasizing the importance of embracing digital innovation to streamline operations and enhance impact. For nonprofits, integrating advanced tech can revolutionize service delivery and data management, propelling mission-driven work forward. Key trends from which nonprofits can benefit:
Opening Organizational Borders: From inter-departmental to geographically global, collaboration is key to innovation. Collaboration requires breaking down information and resource silos.
AI Integration: From day-to-day administrative tasks to data analyses, leveraging artificial intelligence boosts efficiency and enables organizations to do more with less.
Transformation Speed & Reinforcement: When implementing new technology or other innovative transformation, McKinsey’s research demonstrates organizations realizing meaningful improvements quickly and reinforcing adoption through incentives and accountability are more likely to report sustained organizational performance improvements.
Innovative Structure
🔗 Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector: A New Path to Scale and Impact 🔗
Many nonprofits struggle to innovate like for-profit entities due to outdated methods and spending restrictions. In this Forbes article Sarah Evans, founder of Well Aware, highlights her organization’s pivot to a dual structure by creating a for-profit entity, Well Beyond, to drive innovation without jeopardizing donor confidence or nonprofit rankings. Key takeaways include:
Dual Structure Benefits: Enables risk-taking and innovation, supports scaling and sustainability, and provides in-kind services to nonprofits.
Funding Challenges: Requires social impact investors willing to support mission-driven ventures with lower return expectations.
Talent Utilization: Commercializing nonprofit expertise can enhance mission impact and operational efficiency.
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