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What is your organization’s New Year’s resolution?

What is your organization’s New Year’s resolution?

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Jeffrey Paille

The New Year’s resolution is a strange ritual. If we are to believe the numerous studies and surveys that pop up with a quick internet search, roughly half of the people reading this have already lost sight of or given up on their 2022 resolutions as of the date of this publication. Depending on which poll/survey you’re looking at, the primary reasons cited for failure are “a self-aware lack of discipline,” “being too busy/ not having enough time” or “couldn’t break old habits.”

And yet we continue to embrace a ritual with a consistently low rate of effectiveness year after year.  Some theorize that for many people, New Year’s resolutions serve more as an aspirational wish list than an actual resolution to do something. A wish is not a plan, as they say.

Unfortunately, this may sound familiar in the context of your not-for-profit organization. Of course, organizations don’t make New Year’s resolutions, or at least they don’t utilize that term. But there can be uncanny similarities between how organizations establish annual plans and how individuals establish New Year’s Resolutions.

Let’s look at the three most common New Year’s resolutions and how they might relate to a not-for-profit organization’s plans/wish list. My completely unscientific web surfing indicates that the three most common New Year’s resolutions are: (1) being healthier (including losing weight, eating better, exercising, etc.), (2) improving interpersonal relationships and (3) meeting career or job goals.

Resolving to be healthier

If your organization was to actively resolve to “be healthier,” what would that mean? Many people would look first at the financial health of the organization. Evaluating financial health can be a little challenging right now as many not-for-profits experienced significant financial effects related to the COVID-19 disruption over the last two years, both positive (non-recurring funding from targeted COVID relief sources) and negative (loss of revenue due to curtailed operations, understaffing, etc.). Is COVID relief funding making your organization look healthier than its underlying operating activities really are? Do you know what the financial picture looks like going forward now that the bulk of the COVID-specific funding is behind us?

Once you get comfortable that you understand your organization’s base-line financial health, what can you do to improve that financial health? Think about the typical New Year’s resolution. Is your organization like the person who resolves to eat healthier but also continues to stop at the fast-food drive through five times a week? Or maybe your resolution is to eat healthier by having a salad for lunch every day, which you actually do, but you also snack on candy all afternoon negating any benefit of “accomplishing” the resolution. Is there an element of your organization’s operation that everyone likes but that isn’t really that good for the organization’s health? Are you focused on specific good things you’re doing while allowing other bad behaviors to negate the effect of those good things?

Another way to look at the health of an organization is to evaluate its governance structure, composition and practices. Is the board adequately informed, knowledgeable and involved? Is senior management actively engaged and appropriately motivated? Does the senior management group operate as a team or as individuals heading up their own silos? This type of thing is not easy to measure, in part because those who would do the measuring are also part of the system being measured. This makes establishing a resolution in this area challenging. However, I’m surprised how often people in management and at the board level already sense there is something worth fixing in this area but are reluctant to “push” on this topic. Maybe resolving to have an open conversation about governance and structure would be enough to get started.

Don’t forget about the health and security of the organization’s systems. Are your important systems and processes adequately automated and digitized or do you still rely too much on paper-pushing or another technology that is also now kind of old, like e-mail? Are these electronic systems adequately secured? Few things can have as severe and quick a negative effect on your organization’s health as a cybersecurity incident. The long-term impact of failing to update systems and processes takes longer to notice but often manifests as an additional stressor on staff retention and turnover.

Following through on a resolution to make the organization healthier sometimes takes drastic action. We’re already seeing not-for-profits make strategic moves to terminate or spin-off programs, outsource functions that had historically been performed by in-house personnel, enter into collaborative arrangements with other providers to gain consolidated efficiencies and even make changes in long-serving management-level personnel or board members to allow the organization to move forward in a new, healthier, long-term strategic direction.

Resolving to improve interpersonal relationships

What would your organization’s New Year’s resolution about improving interpersonal relationships look like? Think about the new people your organization should probably know. With turnover in the Governor’s office in 2021, there are a lot of new faces in funding and regulatory agencies at the state level. With everything else going on, you may not have had a chance to identify and connect with some of these individuals, or you may have only connected with them in the context of the COVID emergency. From a practical standpoint, are you following the right people on-line? Are your industry groups working with the right people and keeping you connected? Are you attending and participating in webinars and other outreach being conducted at the state level? Are you inviting the right people to your organization’s events?

Now think about the types of people your organization should probably know. If your resolution is to get out and meet new people, you need to identify who those people are or should be and establish a plan to interact with those people. This dovetails into the equity, inclusion and diversity efforts that many organizations have been talking about in a more meaningful way for the last year and a half. Is your organization circulating amongst individuals who represent the diversity of the individuals you serve, those you employ and the residents of the geographic communities in which you operate?

Also think about the inter-corporate relationships that your organization should establish, maintain and strengthen. This could include other providers of similar services as well as providers of a more diverse menu of services. The value of collaborative efforts and joint ventures will be realized first by those organizations with stronger inter-organization relationships. Actively thinking about how to establish and improve such relationships is critical for this type of resolution to have success. Creating a reputation as an organization that establishes, builds and maintains strong relationships is and will continue to be a great asset.

Achieving success on a resolution to improve your organization’s personal relationships requires a commitment of time and in some cases the setting aside of one’s ego. Are you appropriately identifying these opportunities and adequately devoting time and energy to them?

Resolving to meet career or job goals

How could your organization establish a resolution to meet its career or job goals? Think of the organization’s mission as its career goal. Is the organization effectively serving those it exists to serve?  Start by comparing the organization’s service data over time in terms of volume of services provided as well as, to the extent possible, the quality of those services. Comparisons to other providers are also a useful tool. If your service volume, service quality or other service measures are below those of other comparable providers, are you giving due consideration to that as you establish annual resolutions and goals for the organization? Are your plans for this year designed to effectively address this objective?

From a practical standpoint, you can also think about how your organization can help your employees accomplish their career or job goals. Many not-for-profits are struggling with staff recruitment and retention. There are lots of external factors contributing to this situation. But what about your organization’s own internal story? How can you make that story meaningful in a manner that will resonate with current and prospective employees? One of the biggest ways is to be a healthy organization that maintains strong relationships. People can “feel” that and they generally like it. So why not establish and follow through on resolutions to move in that direction?

Why it’s so hard

The most common reasons individuals cite for not accomplishing their resolutions are also the most common reasons organizations don’t accomplish these types of goals. My guess is that at some point in the not too distant past you’ve heard someone state these reasons for not accomplishing goals in your organization: “a self-aware lack of discipline,” “being too busy/ not having enough time” or “couldn’t break old habits.”

So perhaps a new resolution is in order. Talk about these reasons upfront. Maybe even call them out as excuses. And ask your organization to persevere through them in 2022. My New Year’s wish for you is for the best of luck in this endeavor.

Jeff Paille is a CPA and partner at the Bonadio Group and has consulted with tax-exempt organizations for almost 30 years.

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