Would it be more reflective of your experience if I had phrased it this way? (and we write off the previous version to poorer and less precise phrasing)
The org is collectively more concerned with producing popular and/or acceptable output (often in the form of projects) than with doing the personnel support and management necessary to make that work happen in a healthy way.
In other words: People are doing work, work is happening, but there is too little project-management structure to facilitate it and far too little personnel-management structure to support them in that work. Such is my impression, and this is much of the reason why I think we need to change focus from output to input. Namely, that of our volunteers and staff.
But for what it's worth, the experiences you're talking about are exactly what I hope we can address. I'm really glad you commented, because a more precise understanding of these experiences and a wider collection of experiences to draw from can only help us in fixing this.
If I sound vague on the details, it is not because I am trying to roll out the smoke machine without you noticing. It's because I do not myself hold the solution, not in detail, though I still think my overall big-picture idea has merit.
I do have some concrete ideas about addressing these issues (which I hope to cover in future posts), but they largely stem from my experience in technical projects: I, for myself, sorely lack experience in personnel management. And despite our various strengths, I think this is largely true of the current Board overall, too. We all have patches of useful experience (such as sanders's and jennyst's nonprofit experience), and plenty of seat-of-our-pants experience (various chairships and such in the org, leadership positions in our professional lives), but we do not have any experts in project and personnel management. And yes, that is a huge, huge problem. This will probably be one of the first things we need to address: finding people who know what they're doing and talking to them (internal survey for skills/experience? targeted recruitment? consults?).
And, of course: listening to experiences like yours.
Finally, well... on a personal note: I know what it feels like to be in positions similar to yours. I was a volunteer and staffer before I was a Board member, and I ran into the same problems — both before and after joining Board. I've had ideas and work blocked, I've had great ideas stall out for stupid reasons, or be ignored, or undone. I know this doesn't help you — or anyone else experiencing the same thing. But in case it helps understand where I'm coming from: I'm still working from within that same system, myself, as are a lot of people who are trying to help. That doesn't make it easier for anyone, but maybe it can help us get this right if we remember that we're in the same boat (that is full of leaky holes), and reach for each other.
no subject
Would it be more reflective of your experience if I had phrased it this way? (and we write off the previous version to poorer and less precise phrasing)
The org is collectively more concerned with producing popular and/or acceptable output (often in the form of projects) than with doing the personnel support and management necessary to make that work happen in a healthy way.
In other words: People are doing work, work is happening, but there is too little project-management structure to facilitate it and far too little personnel-management structure to support them in that work. Such is my impression, and this is much of the reason why I think we need to change focus from output to input. Namely, that of our volunteers and staff.
But for what it's worth, the experiences you're talking about are exactly what I hope we can address. I'm really glad you commented, because a more precise understanding of these experiences and a wider collection of experiences to draw from can only help us in fixing this.
If I sound vague on the details, it is not because I am trying to roll out the smoke machine without you noticing. It's because I do not myself hold the solution, not in detail, though I still think my overall big-picture idea has merit.
I do have some concrete ideas about addressing these issues (which I hope to cover in future posts), but they largely stem from my experience in technical projects: I, for myself, sorely lack experience in personnel management. And despite our various strengths, I think this is largely true of the current Board overall, too. We all have patches of useful experience (such as
And, of course: listening to experiences like yours.
Finally, well... on a personal note: I know what it feels like to be in positions similar to yours. I was a volunteer and staffer before I was a Board member, and I ran into the same problems — both before and after joining Board. I've had ideas and work blocked, I've had great ideas stall out for stupid reasons, or be ignored, or undone. I know this doesn't help you — or anyone else experiencing the same thing. But in case it helps understand where I'm coming from: I'm still working from within that same system, myself, as are a lot of people who are trying to help. That doesn't make it easier for anyone, but maybe it can help us get this right if we remember that we're in the same boat (that is full of leaky holes), and reach for each other.