Due to many reasons, non-profit organizations tend to focus on creating new programs and keeping the administrative cost low instead of building the organizational capacity to achieve their aspiration effectively and efficiently.
One of the first guidance that the professor gave us at the beginning of the course was “Think Big.” This concept grabbed my attention. Aiming for big is important. The paper “Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations” is about that, building the capacity to achieve the big aspiration.
The paper mentions seven elements for building the capacity of an organization, and then, supported by real examples, the paper concludes with three lessons learned:
- The act of resetting aspirations and strategy is the first step in improving an organization’s capacity. A new aspiration or strategy can only be transformative if it is then used to align the other aspects of organizational capacity.
- Leadership and good management is important to make capacity building happen and are willing to “own” it and drive it down through the organization.
- Patience is required. Nonprofit managers and related people need to set expectations accordingly.
Having a software engineering background, I have learned about capability models in software organization. They go through several levels of capability maturity. I could relate the paper with the capability maturity models in software. In these models, being the most prominent the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) [1,2], the capability is represented in 5 different levels. The highest level is the one that innovates and asses itself by conducting analyses.
I found many analogies to the building capacity for non-profit organization where the organization increases capacity by addressing the seven interconnected elements.
From my “Senior Force” venture perspective, the paper gave me guidance on the aspects where I should put my eyes (or ears) on. My goal is to start locally but within two years cover global market. Said that, I must have in mind capability building for the venture.
Given the phase that the venture is in (starting phase), the elements that I should focus one are: aspirations, strategy, human resources, systems and infrastructure, and organizational structure.
- The aspiration has been dealt with the Vision in previous week.
- For the strategy, I believe I should make good use of partnership with other organization. This will help the venture increase its visibility in the market. For the purpose, a good win-win strategy should be devised.
- For me, the human resource is one of the most challenging problems. Getting the correct people to work with me is not a trivial task, but indeed an important one.
- In terms of systems and infrastructure, the main activity to focus is the planning and decision making. The venture will require a good planning where the scare resources (time, people and money) are optimally used.
- Also at this stage well defining the organizational structure could be helpful to prepare for the growth. The required roles
The other two elements, organizational skills and the culture may be dealt as they come along.
The paper gave me good starting point for the capability building, but I still feel it somewhat abstract. For example, how do I keep a coherent action for the strategy? How do I implement an organizational process? Is it documented? How the knowledge is diffused (or transferred) within the organization?
One of the characteristics of good startup-CEO is to be able to learn on the job. So that is what I am doing (and keep doing), learn as I go. For the mean time, I will use the papers assessment grid to guide myself in the capacity of the venture.
References
[1] Mark C. Paulk, “A History of the Capability Maturity Model for Software,” 2009
[2] CMMI® for Development, Version 1.3, SEI, 2011
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