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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Change at the speed of imagination
By Pattie LaCroix
January 21, 2010
In a new study by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), the grantmaking foundation interviewed one hundred of its grantee organizations last January to find out how they were coping with the economic bust, then interviewed them again in the fall. Three-quarters - 75 organizations - reported they were feeling the effects of the economic downturn, compared with 30% who responded similarly in January. "The biggest challenge facing nonprofits is keeping their eye on the long term," said Robin Cardozo, CEO of OTF. "If nonprofits are unable to think about the future, the impact of this recession is going to continue for years." Mr. Cardozo goes on to note that the silver lining is that during these tough times nonprofits are becoming more efficient and finding new ways to collaborate.
I don’t think, however, that focusing our imaginations on efficiency and doing more with less (which is really what is inferred when collaboration is bandied about during economic recessions), is going to serve us well in the long-term. We all know that change is inevitable; changes in funding programs, changes in funding priorities, and even overall upheavals in economic well-being. In their book Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, authors Jan Magruder Watkins and Bernard Mohr invite us to change the way we look at change to think about problems using the new paradigm offered by appreciative inquiry.
"The commitment to our current deficit-based paradigm is our default-setting...placing high value on the machine metaphor (that we can take things apart, fix what is broken, and return to some ideal state)...This creates a way of solving problems that looks backward to what went 'wrong' and tries to fix 'it'. Appreciative inquiry, on the other hand, looks for what is going 'right' and moves toward it, understanding that in the forward movement toward the ideal, the greatest value comes from embracing what works."
In this context, nonprofits face the future by focusing on what did not work in the past in the hope of fixing mistakes based upon what did not work, instead of building upon what is working well. So we look at collaboration as a way of "fixing" budget shortfalls and funding decreases rather than viewing collaboration as a way of building upon our strengths and contributing to what is already working well.
Now is the time to shift the way we look at change and redirect the power and ingenuity of leadership and expertise in the social sector to invest in our strengths. Specifically, now is the time to invest in the sector’s greatest asset...its people. Now is the time to invest in staff development, volunteer and member capacity building, board governance, and executive training and management. Now is the time to invest in change at the speed of our imaginations.
Pattie LaCroix has provided strategic engagement services to support leadership that ignites innovation in the social sector. As CEO of Catapult Media she provides strategic planning and professional coaching services to a wide range of organizations. You can reach Pattie at www.catapultmedia.ca.
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