Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
By Melanie Lockwood Herman
“Experience is inevitable. Learning is not.” – Paul J. H. Schoemaker
Have you ever asked a colleague to send you a reminder when a critical deadline or project is looming? Or have you ever added an alarm to your phone to prompt you while you’re developing a new habit? These cues are powerful proddings that help keep us on track, committed, and growing. The risk function at your nonprofit will benefit from similar nudges and reminders. The NRMC team offers these three reminders to help you reflect on this year, prepare for what’s around the corner, and build mission resilience in the process.
Your nonprofit likely began its life with a meager set of policies, which grew and morphed over time as new issues cropped up. After a staff member showed up wearing an immodest or visually distracting outfit—voilà, a new dress code was born! After two conference attendees behaved badly at the annual gala, a “Code of Conduct” for future events became part of the online registration process.
During the past year, we learned that although it sometimes feels as if policy development takes months and years, changes can actually happen overnight. If there’s a will—or a Gubernatorial order requiring workers to stay home—policies can and do change rapidly. As you gear up for next year, don’t wait until you’re forced by circumstance to update your policies; seize the day to revisit policies with two main goals in mind:
Throughout the year, our team met nonprofit colleagues who described being ‘stuck’ in silos. Some of these dedicated professionals were stymied by an unnecessarily formal chain of command requiring ‘permission’ to reach out to a colleague on another team. They yearn to collaborate with colleagues across town, in the building next door, or another department. Innovation and bold thinking emerge from unlikely pairings and circumstances: the convergence of a new challenge with a newfound capability, a spontaneous realization by two colleagues that working together is more efficient than problem-solving alone. These are just two possible positive outcomes of an openly collaborative workplace. As you prepare to move boldly into a year that could be more challenging than the year winding down, resolve to:
It’s not unusual to feel bogged down by what’s happening right now. If you feel exhausted by the work you’ve done to reimagine your facilities, reconfigure schedules, and reengineer delivery models and methods, take a deep breath. You’ve just gone through a year of intense, aerobic-like exercise. But like aerobics, which are exercises that improve the efficiency of your cardiovascular system, the work you’ve done this year should be a big step in making your mission more resilient for what’s next.
So, what’s next? We can’t say because we simply don’t know! To maximize the resilience muscle and efficiency you’ve been building all year, examine the practices and activities that enabled your team to be most resilient. Ask:
It’s human nature to want to take a deep breath and walk away from the uncertainty and unpleasantness of a challenging year. However, we also know it’s not that easy and rarely that uncomplicated. The NRMC team believes that there are inevitable cycles of strain and ease that are very difficult to anticipate or forecast. We do not know what the next interruption or disruptive event or set of circumstances will be. What we do know is that many policies developed with benign intent can poorly serve nonprofit missions. Quite often, overly formal structures inhibit innovation that emerges when people feel free to connect with others. And finally, building resilience to weather what’s next is the most important risk management goal of all.
In Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, Fareed Zakaria writes that “In a month, companies changed policies that would normally have taken them years to revise.” His words remind us that we often complicate and overthink tasks that could—in the right circumstances—be accomplished quite efficiently. Don’t waste the lessons and the sheer experience of the past year. Deploy what you’ve learned, realized, and discovered to inspire resilience in your team and your mission.
Melanie Herman is Executive Director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. She welcomes your questions about leveraging lessons from the past, potent policy practices, and inspiring resilience at your organization at Melanie@nonprofitrisk.org or 703.777.3504.
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
“BBYO’s engagement of the Center to conduct a risk assessment was one of the most valuable processes undertaken over the past five years. Numerous programmatic and procedural changes were recommended and have since been implemented. Additionally, dozens (literally) of insurance coverage gaps were identified that would never have been without the work of the Center. This assessment led to a broker bidding process that resulted in BBYO’s selection of a new broker that we have been extremely satisfied with. I unconditionally recommend the Center for their consultative services.
“Melanie Herman has provided expert, insightful, timely and well resourced information to our Executive Team and Board of Directors. Our corporation recently experienced massive growth through merger and the Board has been working to better integrate their expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Melanie presented at our Annual Board of Director’s Retreat and captured the interest of our Board members. As a result of her excellent presentation the Board has engaged in focused review which is having immediate effects on governance.”
“The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has been an outstanding partner for us. They are attentive to our needs, and work hard to successfully meet our requests for information. Being an Affiliate member gave us access to so many time- and money-saving resources that it easily paid for itself! Nonprofit Risk Management Center is truly a valued partner of The Community Foundation of Elkhart County and we are continuously able to optimize staff time with the support given by their team.”
“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
Great American Insurance Group’s Specialty Human Services is committed to protecting those who improve your communities. The Center team has committed to delivering dynamic risk management solutions tailored to nonprofit organizations. These organizations have many and varied risk issues, hence the need for specialized coverage and expert knowledge for their protection. We’ve had Melanie speak on several occasions to employees and our agents. She is always on point and delivers such great value. Thank you for the terrific partnership and allowing our nonprofits to focus on their mission!