Organic Organizational Growth
Jun 16, 2006
[One of the organizations I volunteer for was recently looking for leadership. Lot of people felt that the organization needed to spend more money to grow more, attract more talent, and work wonders in the world. I felt a little differently and wrote the following note about growth.]
Growth has to be natural. You can't look to an apple tree and say, "Here's an extra bag of fertilizer and I'm expecting 1000 new apples this season." When we project our mental impressions onto our organizations, we interfere with natural conditions and "externalize" the costs to someone else in the world. In recent years, we've seen this problem climax in the corporate world. But this isn't just about global warming or recycling: it's also about the subtler costs of anger, greed, jealousy, mistrust, insecurity, and dissatisfaction in our very own hearts.
The skillful approach, I believe, is to focus not merely on the tangible outcomes but on the process of cultivating the soil and watering the plants and patiently finding joy in the small things. No matter how many professional doctors you hire, a mother will take nine months to deliver her child. You can't rush it. Similarly, you can't determine your growth rate by how much you pay the ED, how many people are on your development staff, or how many unrestricted checks you get. If we don't have active board participation, or if we have high staff turnover, or if all of us aren't fully aligned with common values, we will struggle. And that's OK -- what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. We have to be careful about the pain-killer effect of transient resources (like money) which often desensitize us to the pain we ought to feel.
The strength of an organization lies in the commitment of its constituents to its guiding principles and vision. If we are to have any growth, it has to be in proportion to -- and in line with -- that organizational strength.
Chaos Theory's Butterfly Effect tells us that a butterfly flapping its wings in Texas can create a tornado in Brazil. And what happens in our offices and board meetings reaches our partners and beneficiaries in far deeper ways than the aid money. This is why Gandhi asserted that, "You must BE the change you wish to see in the world."
My vision for any holistic organization would be one that anchors itself in the spirit of service and compassion, one where each of its constituents are rooted in being that change, and one where there is humility and openness for all that our conscious awareness can't grasp.
When Gandhi was disappointed with the masses, he fasted. When Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted to have a gun for his family's protection, he prayed his heart out. When Dalai Lama cried of anguish because of the plight of the Tibetans, he vowed to love his enemies. Cesar Chavez, Chief Seattle, and Mother Teresa all did the same thing. And this isn't just about past legends: when Dr. V wanted to start an eye hospital, he mortgaged his own house and asked his siblings to sell their jewelry!
More compensation, more slick-like-a-corporation practices, and more expensive recruiting firms will not attract the next leader we want. Merely looking at our balance sheets isn't enough to sow seeds of growth; we must learn to shoulder the pain of our struggles.
Do we have anyone who will fast for one meal a day until we find the next leader, do we have anyone who will contribute an act of deliberate kindness everyday until we reach our next fundraising goal, do we have anyone who will pray or meditate an extra hour everyday until staff turnover returns to normal? Or have we lost faith in the interconnected ways of the world? And do we just want to coast off of our past merits until they run dry? Are we too sophisticated for such simple sacrifices that have been the hallmark of service legends?
I don't know. But I trust We do.
Mother Teresa once said, "A saint is someone who takes what is given, and gives what is taken." I hope we find our roots in that saintliness.
In service and stillness, :)
Nipun
