In the last 30 years, for-profit businesses have experienced profound changes. Perhaps the greatest shift has been managing employee expectations that work should be "meaningful" and somehow make a difference in the world. After all the hype about corporate vision and valuing intellectual capital, who really is surprised employees might want their work to matter?
Technology has changed work, the worker and the workplace. Process is more important than product, or, better, the product is more highly dependent than ever on the process workers use to create it.
Some products aren’t even tangible but virtual and visual. Digits are as important as widgets now, and teamwork is the theme of Old Economy and New Economy companies alike.
Nonprofit managers know a lot about producing intangibles and dealing with a workforce that doesn’t have to be there. In many ways, the two sectors are increasingly alike in their habits and practices.
The difference is for-profit managers, especially those who are data-driven, are lost in this brave new world of work. They have a lot to learn from their non-profit colleagues. Here are five lessons.
- Vision, mission and values propel performance. When nonprofits do great work, it’s because they share a compelling vision and have won the hearts and minds of those doing the work. Values are the behavioral glue that bonds vision and everyday choices.
Non-profit managers understand that, since people don’t have to work with them, guarding organizational integrity is crucial. People want to work for an organization whose expectations and rewards support achievement of the vision and not expedient choices or personal agendas. Those who work in nonprofits are sometimes labeled idealistic. So what’s wrong with that?
A shared, compelling vision and a powerful set of values prompt an incredible level of performance in challenging and difficult circumstances. Managers and supervisors are prone to see vision and values as a lot of fluff, but non-profits show how essential they really are.
- Money is not as powerful an incentive as commonly believed. Non-profit managers have known for a long time what for-profit managers are discovering: nearly all workers are volunteers, some just happen to be paid. Workers can and do come and go as they please for benefits other than money, and they stay for benefits other than money. Non-profits learned long ago money is not a motivator for work, but it can be a great de-motivator. Compensation needs to be addressed, but it is not what attracts or retains people for the long haul.
- Results aren’t always quantifiable. For-profit managers are fixated on short-term results. Measurement is important, but the most significant, lasting, and powerful results are not always evident in one or two quarters. Besides, we may be measuring the wrong indicators, and one or two quarters may not be enough time to discover a serious measurement error has occurred. Non-profits remind for-profit companies qualitative results are as valid and valuable as quantitative results, and the long view is as important, or more important, than the short-term scan.
- Appreciation means a lot more than we thought. To attract and retain volunteer workers, non-profits have to develop strong cultures that stress recognition. After all, people are giving the gift of time, money, material goods and, most importantly, self. Non-profits learned a long time ago a critical and negative tone meant failure on the manager’s part. People really are essential for the work. Catch volunteers and employees doing something right. Let them know they make a difference and are vitally important to the success of the enterprise.
- Desire for legacy and significance drive performance. Non-profits are in the legacy-building business because they help participants feel like they’ve left the world a better place for having lived, and through caring, they were cared for, too. In the end, who cares if any one of us pushed through a pile of work? What difference did that make? Instead, how my work helped others become better, safer, cleaner, healthier, produce a living wage, build relationships or help people achieve dreams: that’s what counts, and for these things, people will give their hearts, souls and lives. IBI
