Death by Committee: The Panel Discussion at UWA Conference June 29, 2005

Mission Research is one of a few select companies here as part of the United Way of America's annual technolgy conference, held in San Diego this year. It's great to see all of these United Way techies from across the country. I sat on a panel on Monday as a substitute for a Blackbaud executive (Kintera isn't here either, and Convio left Tuesday), where I said what has become the term of the week: "death by committee". Too often, nonprofit projects suffer from death by committee because of the seemingly universal need for nonprofits to give everyone a voice in a decision, while painstakingly reviewing all the details all along the way. I also recounted the phrase: "Nobody ever lost their job buying IBM", and gave a possibly offensive nonprofit version: "Nobody ever lost their nonprofit job making a decision".

It's not meant to be insulting, and it's not universal. Many nonprofits have their decision processes well refined. But many more suffer from being too conservative with their decisions, dragging decision-making processes out for far longer than necessary to make well-informed decisions. When I said it I got both laughter and affirmative head nods--they know what I'm talking about. Many of the techies come from corporate backgrounds, where things must keep moving for competitive reasons. Without that same type of external driver, nonprofits must be self-driven, and frequently will allow good projects to stall.

Examination is good. Study is good. Know the details. But make decisions--move forward. Go for the 80% solution if you can't get the perfect one. Keep moving ahead. In retrospect, you'll realize how much more you accomplished by doing what you can instead of waiting for doing the absolute best. Don't give in to death by committee--trust each other, debate, make decisions, and move on. Take ownership. make mistakes, and don't fear the darkness around the edges--bring light to it.

I'm heading back in to the fundraising software sessions--it's a great time!

Comments

This is all logical and good, but we still need to deal with the basic humanity of the nonprofit: there are lots of people not getting paid. Instead of working for cash, folks volunteer out of passion, and satisfying it means ownership. People work for love, money, or ego; in order to streamline decision-making such that not everyone is involved, there must be other ownership that can be shared. It's not an easy problem to solve - how can you enable everyone to have a voice without bogging things down?

I don't think you can give everyone a voice on every project--you have to break each one down into groups if necessary or to individual ownership if not. Group leaders need to balance the need to give voice to everyone involved and the need for leadership. Good leaders let opinions of others inform decisions, but they ultimately make the decision.

But it's important to establish the decision-making process at the beginning, hard dates for making decisions, and the fact that decisions are made not by the group but by the group leader.

It's a tough problem that's not limited to the nonprofit world. It just seems to be more prevalent.

The hardest thing about fund-raising--which is also the most fun thing--is that you always need a new idea. If you merely repeat what you did well last year, then you're either not moving at all, or you're moving backwards (because the world --and your competition) keep moving past you. Taking the time to germinate new ideas--that's the discipline required!

I'm nodding along with the rest of you. Although of course, my agency has never succumbed to such inefficiency (nudge nudge wink wink.)

On a related point, not only should there be one, or at most, two, key decision makers, but they should be careful not to get blinded by consultants’ ideas. I’ve seen this happen especially when there’s a need for any creative outside input, like branding, design, technology, Marketing, etc. Any time you need to go outside your agency for help, people often feel way out of their league and have a tendency to loose their spines.

I try to keep in mind some really simple ideas so there’s less risk of being “wowed” by the wrong things. I remind myself who we are, where we came from and where we’re going. And I remind myself that the decisions I make are ones I have to live with. My consultant doesn’t have to.

And if you really hate their logo design, even if they tell you “you just don’t understand"...stick to your guns. They just weren’t listening.

As for profits are driven by making money, not for profits are often driven by a fear of loosing money. Decision making can be drawn out for us because we want to be absolutely certain the plan will work and we will raise money. Thankfully the ED steps in, takes the risk and makes the decision when things get out of hand.
Reading this blog I was reminded just how important it is to identify a 'chair' or equivalent for your committees just as you would for the Board. "Good leaders let opinions of others inform decisions, but they ultimately make the decision." This can never be repeated enough!

great point, Justine!