Not-For-Profit Principles in the Home

I've been doing a lot of training seminars lately and I thought I would share some insights that I think carry over well from the non-profit workplace to your home.

• Have a Mission Statement

Seriously. Know what your family is about and what its goals and values are beyond keeping a roof over your head and food on your plate and shoes on their feet and so on... Is your family about having a positive impact on your community? Is it about each person being given the structure and support to achieve their full potential? Is it about creating a family that seeks a sustainable lifestyle that is friendly to the environment and not materiarly centered? Is it about raising an army of warriors who will usher in an epoch of benevolent tyranny under the rule of John Tesh? Whatever it is, writing it down can help focus the members of your family and provide a framework against which to judge family activities by asking the question, "Is this family game of Scrabble® helping us achieve the mission of John Tesh's thousand-year Reich?" Which brings us to the next point....

• Have a Strategic Plan

A Strategic Plan articulates how you plan to fulfill your mission statement. For instance, if your goal is sustainable living you may outline five benchmarks you wish to achieve that move your family closer to that ultimate goal. They can be as simple as "Start a garden to grow our own vegetables," to "A gradual weeding out of toys with corporate characters as marketing ploys," to the more long-term, "Cancel the credit cards, move to Montana, live of the grid." It's up to you. In my family part of our strategic plan is to subtly work in references to John Tesh while in casual conversation with friends, colleagues and relatives.

• Have The Proper Organizational Structure

Many non-profits suffer from poor or inefficient organizational structures because at their inception the focus was necessarily and properly on "getting the job done" and "accomplishing the mission." In many instances, the organization is so pre-occupied with generating the funds necessary to enable its very existence that responsibilities are doled out under triage type circumstances (very often centered on a controlling founding Executive Director who may be the only paid staff member initially). Hopefully though, over-time as the organization matures there can be a proper designation of roles -- beginning with the Board, the Board president and the necessary Board committees; the executive director, the CFO and the rest of the staff. In your family, you'll probably find that a single person usually occupies many of these roles. For instance, in my family I act as the Board President, responsible for raising the funds necessary to allow the organization (family) to pursue our mission (Tesh-a-topia) as articulated by our strategic plan (raise an army of millions). The MOWA is the executive director. This means it is her job to implement the strategic plan while still allowing me to think that I came up with the idea in the first place. Boy and Girl Twin are our loyal agents, using their guile and cuteness to lull the soft, stupid masses into a passive stupor where John Tesh can ascend to his throne.

• Evaluation

How do we know if we are achieving our mission through the strategic plan? By taking the time to determine the metrics of success and being open to a process of learning and restructuring based on what is learned. Retreats are often a good way to begin an evaluation process -- something fun that takes you out of your everyday surroundings. I can't stress the importance of good metrics. Again, using the example of sustainable living -- how much money was saved on vegetables thanks to the new garden? On the other hand, how much time and money was spent on gardening? Is the garden a good project to continue or could energy be better spent by building a lean-to in the Montana plains and learning how to make snares out of dental floss? All excellent questions. Perhaps after a thorough evaluation process you decide that changes need to be made to the mission statement -- this should only be done after careful consideration. But it is possible that after a study of the metrics and a discussion between board, exec and staff, that the mission might be altered to achieving not sustainable living, but a blissful existence under the awesome rule of a terrible and fearsome blond deity? Just a thought.

I hope you've found this brief seminar helpful and that it will enable you to run your own families with heart and purpose.