Why Systems Matter In Your Nonprofit
Using defined systems to manage your nonprofit can make it more equitable for everyone.
One of the things I learned quickly as a consultant with a growing business was the importance of having a set of working systems to organize my work. I had no written protocols in place for anything, no naming conventions for files, and documents were scattered between Google Docs, Word, and Dropbox. It was a mess.
Generally, I am a pretty organized person. Having no operational systems no standard wasy of working was fine for one person. When my team grew from one person to ten, it became a problem that slowed our work down. It was a hard and incredibly messy lesson to learn. Using defined systems to manage your nonprofit adds order and clarity, but it also make work more equitable for everyone.
Equity and Systems Are Connected
You may be thinking, “What is the connection between equity and systems.
Imagine that I am on your leadership team, and there's an important discussion happening today. But, I am sick and out of the office.
How will the decisions made in that meeting be communicated back to me?
What if the decisions negatively impact my team?
Where does that decision live once it's been made?
Not having ready answers to these questions has prompted many a manager to either call into the meeting to drag themselves (sick and all) into the office.
I lift up this example because it seems like a small thing, but it's really not. Many managers feel pressure to be in every meeting. Because if they're not, then they'll miss something really important because there aren't established decision-making processes. That pressure to always be present leads to burnout. When I think about systems, I look to this quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Often, the consequences of not using defined systems and processes can be hidden for a long time, like a leaky faucet. Eventually, the impact becomes too big to ignore.
Clear, Written Procesess Bring Order and Clarity
Nonprofits have different needs and legal requirements. These differences mean that what is documented looks different but the need to document and organize everyday work is still very real. This need is greater depending on the organization's size and your rate of growth. For example, it's common for a nonprofit that started with 4 or 5 staff members to increase to 10 or 20 staff members within a few years.
In that situation, Executive Directors often still try to lead as if the nonprofit is tiny. That approach creates a great deal of friction for people. Bias enters into decision-making unintentionally because nothing is systematic at this size. Here are a few examples of how a failure to use standard operating practices (SOPs) creates friction for staff and contributes to imbalances between staff members:
Failing to update your employee handbook, so no one uses it.
Relying on your staff to be the system instead of writing down standard practices.
Not documenting, tracking, or archiving major decisions.
Many people think of leading equitably as a big public thing, the big grant, the big project. Equity can certainly live in those spaces. But it also lives in the small, quiet, everyday decisions that you make. But to lead more equitably, it's important you need clear processes and better systems. Once in place, practices become behaviors.
To learn more:
Check out this podcast episode.
