Summary

A recent Gallup survey found that most employees in the organizations surveyed did not fully understand how their jobs contributed to the big picture. Many employees described feeling like a cog in a big machine, and expressed frustration at their supervisors for not explaining how the pieces fit together. The good news is that this problem is easily remedied by helping staff to develop personal goals that align with the organization`s goals.

The Background

Let's see how this might work in practice. David Owings is the new executive director of Education Unlimited, a nonprofit that provides mentoring opportunities to low-income children. In the first six months, he asked each employee to outline three major goals for the coming year. He found from their responses that many employees were confused about the difference between goals and activities. For example, creating a database is an activity towards the goal of enhancing the way the organization operates. Yet, most employees had no idea of their personal goals or the organization's goals, and seemed preoccuopied with activities only.

The Solution

David realized that he had to get staff to think about the organization`s goals (the big picture) for the organization to succeed.

Lessons Learned

Naturally, it will be difficult to expect the staff to think about the big picture if the leadership is not thinking about it. Sadly, however, many nonprofit leaders give the impression that they are not thinking about the big picture by continually changing priorities. This can have disastrous consequences for staff who have to try and figure things out for themselves, and end up going in different directions. In these circumstances, the organization can benefit from using a skilled facilitator who will work with the leadership and the staff to ensure that everyone is using the same roadmap to success.