Jeana Wirtenberg, Ph.D Jeana Wirtenberg

1
Leader Survey Results Challenges and
Opportunities in the For Profit and Nonprofit
Sectors
Jeana Wirtenberg, Ph.DJeana Wirtenberg
Associates, LLC, and The Institute for
Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson
UniversityTim LannanTim Lannan Consulting
The survey was supported by the Institute for
Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson
University The web survey design and
administration was generously supported by
Quantisoft, LLC. Acknowledgments for
significant contributions go to the Research Team
of the Global Committee on the Future of
OD Lilian Abrams, Ph.D, Mal Conway, Howard
Deutsch and Elliott Greene, Quantisoft LLC,
Gerard Farias, Ph.D, Joel Harmon, Ph.D, Joan
Slepian, Ph.D Tom Rich, and Jeff Wides, Ph.D.
2

• Agenda
• Purpose and Objectives of the Presentation
• The Global Committee on the Future of OD
• Background and Overview of Phase I Research
• Phase II Research Leader Survey
• Methods and Sample
• Results in For Profit Sector
• Results in Nonprofit Sector
• Comparison of For Profit and Nonprofit Sectors
• Implications for HR, OD and TD

3

• Purpose and Objectives
• Gather information from business leaders to help
  define the future of Organization Development
• Identify the most important factors driving
  business success from a people and organizational
  perspective, as reported by senior business
  leaders
• Understand the most likely sources of expertise
  and resources that senior business leaders will
  use to address those challenges (and to see where
  HR/OD professionals fit in)
• Determine potential OD clients awareness and
  perceptions about OD
• Identify the likelihood of future investments in
  OD resources
• Provide the academic community with information
  that may be useful in planning/redirecting
  academic programs and courses

4
Global Committee on the Future of OD

• Vision Linking OD values and contributions
  worldwide to create vital, successful
  organizations and communities
• Mission Uniting, energizing and mobilizing
  thousands of OD practitioners, business leaders
  and academics worldwide to advance the field of
  OD and add value to all stakeholders, in an
  ever-changing world
• 14-person self managing Leadership Team
• 12 business, nonprofit and academic
  researchers/practitioners
• Over 200 volunteers, over 60 Advisory Board
  Members (Business, Academic, Nonprofit,
  Government)
• Project Sponsors
• Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh
  Dickinson University
• Dr. Don Cole, The OD Institute
• Dr. Mila Baker, Chair of Board of Trustees, OD
  Network
• Dr. Rita Aloni, President of International OD
  Association

5
Phase I OD SWOT Survey Over 900 Responses

• GCFOD survey sent to over 6000 members of OD
  Network, O.D. Institute, International
  Organization Development Association, NTL
  Institute and NJ OD Network to assess present
  weaknesses and strengths of the field.
• Findings published in article by J. Wirtenberg,
  L. Abrams, C. Ott, Assessing the Field of
  Organization Development, Journal of Applied
  Behavioral Science, December, 2004.
• Top Three Strengths
• Systemic Orientation/Change Management
• Techniques and Processes Teamwork/Leadership
  Development
• Values OD Brings to Practice
• Top Four Areas For Improvement
• Lack of Definition and Distinction of the Field
  of OD
• Lack of Quality Control of Practitioners
• Insufficient Business Acumen of
  Practitioners/Insufficient
• Emphasis on Customer Needs
• Insufficiently Clear ROI/Value of the Work

6
Communities of Practice

• The Global Committee on the Future of OD
  consisted of the following Communities of
  Practice (COPs)
• Business Sector Organized several industry
  teams including
• Pharmaceutical/Bio-Tech/Medical Device, High
  Tech/Telecom,
• Banking/Financial/Insurance,
  Energy/Manufacturing/Utilities
• Nonprofit Sector Active engagement of diverse
  group of nonprofit professionals and
  practitioners
• U.S. Government Sector Under development
• Country/Region efforts to organize in Canada,
  India, Thailand,
• Finland, Germany and other countries linkage
  established to
• regional U.S. OD organizations

7
Business Leader Survey

• For Profit Methods
• Survey designed and piloted with COPs (Nov-Dec
  2004)
• Internet based survey sent to approx. 16,500
  business leaders
• CEOs, VPs, Directors of Fortune 1000 companies
  across all industries from a purchased list,
  mostly from U.S. with some Canada
• Supplemented by COPs forwarding to their
  actual/potential clients and/or submitting names
  anonymously
• Supplemented by e-mail notices with links in
  newsletters of five sponsoring organizations,
  GCFOD newsletters and notices, letters to
  Advisory Board members, etc.
• Press releases sent to 36 major business and HR
  organizations with personal follow-up
• Numerous announcements at OD network meetings,
  conferences, etc.

8
Survey Development and Distribution

• Nonprofit Methods
• Survey designed and piloted with Nonprofit COP
  (Nov-Dec 2004)
• To maintain comparability, survey had parallel
  but slightly modified questions to apply to, and
  use language of nonprofit sector
• Internet based survey sent to Nonprofit leaders
• National, local, and regional nonprofit
  associations and organizations distributed
  information about and links to the survey through
  list serves, email, and electronic newsletters.
  Membership associations asked to participate in
  this effort included the Alliance for Nonprofit
  Management, National Council of Nonprofit
  Associations, Association of Fundraising
  Professionals, Aspen Institute, ARNOVA, Charity
  Channel national nonprofit organizations
  included Girl Scouts, Planned Parenthood and the
  Urban Institute.
• Supplemented by COP members forwarding to their
  actual/potential clients and/or submitting names
  anonymously
• Supplemented by e-mail notices with links in
  newsletters of five sponsoring organizations,
  GCFOD newsletters and notices, letters to
  Advisory Board members, etc.
• Press releases sent to 36 major business and HR
  organizations with personal follow-up
• Numerous announcements at OD network meetings,
  conferences, etc.

9

Demographics of For Profit Respondents
Respondents are predominantly male, middle-aged,
executives.
235 Total respondents 120 For Profit and 115
Nonprofit
10
For Profit Survey Respondent Demographics
(contd.)

• Annual Sales and Number of Employees
• Companies ranged from small (lt25M) and medium
  size to very large (25B), with a relatively
  wide and even distribution
• Industry Focus
• There was a good representation of companies
  across a wide spectrum of industries, with
  highest concentrations in manufacturing,
  financial services, and high tech
• Company Life Cycle
• Organizational life cycles were spread across all
  categories, from those expanding, to those in
  their prime, early bureaucracy, declining, and
  revitalizing
• Functional Area
• There was a large distribution of functional
  areas, with General Management the most common
  category

11
Key Integrated Themes
Six Key Integrated Themes (KITs) from Phase I
formed the foundation for the Core Questions in
Phase II

• Globalization, Multi-Cultural, and Whole System
  Perspective
• Building Great Workplace, Productivity, and
  Performance Culture
• Leveraging Technology and Worldwide Integration
• Corporate Social Responsibility Is Increasing
• Building Leadership and Organizational
  Capabilities for the Future
• Regulatory Environment and New Organizational
  Forms

12
Questionnaire Design
Business Success Factors (17 questions) Framed
by the six KITs from Phase I research
Future Investments (4 questions)
Sources of Expertise and Support (17
questions) Framed by the six KITs from Phase I
research
Respondent Demographics (9 questions)
13
Sample Questions for Importance and Effectiveness
Section 1 Business Success Factors A series of
statements about key areas of business success
follows. For each statement there are two
questions for you to answer 1. What is the
importance of this key area to your organization
(i.e., that level of your company with which you
are most closely associated, e.g., entire
enterprise, business unit, etc.)? 2. How
effective is your organization's performance in
this key area? In answering each question, think
about how it impacts your "bottom-line results".
Question Importance Very Very Dont Unimportant Important Know 1 2 3 4 5 Effectiveness Very Very Dont Ineffective Effective Know 1 2 3 4 5
1. Aligning and executing strategies in a way that meets financial goals and are consistent with core values. Comments ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
2. Effectively addressing organizational culture during organizational realignments, industry consolidations and mergers and acquisitions (MAs). Comments ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
14
For Profit Business Success Factors Performance
Gaps
Gap 1.03 1.35 1.02 1.26 1.12 1.07 1.27 0.92 0
.78 0.72 0.67 0.34 0.63 1.45 1.27 0.58 0.93

1. Aligning and executing strategies in a way that
   meets financial goals and are consistent with
   core values
2. Effectively addressing organizational culture
   during organizational realignments, industry
   consolidations and mergers and acquisitions
   (MAs)
3. Effectively applying organizational change
   principles to business and product life cycles
4. Aligning strategies, people, systems and
   processes organization-wide to enhance
   productivity and profitability
5. Developing and maintaining the commitment of the
   workforce to the goals of the organization for
   better overall performance results
6. Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
   engage the workforce
7. Attracting and retaining top talent
8. Leveraging and aligning existing information
   technology with business and people strategies
9. Facilitating adoption and use of new information
   technologies for competitive advantage
10. Using information technology to support learning
    and innovation
11. Enhancing reputation among communities where we
    work, with consumers and with employees and
    investors
12. Enhancing employees commitment by focusing on
    corporate citizenship in the community and
    contributions
13. Ensuring accountability for business ethics among
    employees at all levels
14. Building leadership capacity for now and the
    future
15. Solving organizational problems systemically as
    opposed to solving them on a piecemeal basis
16. Establishing collaborative relationships and
    partnerships among public, private and nonprofit
    sectors
17. Increasing speed to market and profit for
    critical products and services through shared
    commitments and organizational values

15
Business Success FactorsKey Findings

Note Items were pre-selected as important based
on Phase I research and KITs.
16
Business Leader For Profit SurveyKey Results
Urgent? Items 2. Effectively addressing
organizational culture during organizational
realignments, industry consolidations and mergers
and acquisitions (MAs) Importance
4.52 Effectiveness 3.17 Gap 1.35 14.
Building leadership capacity for now and the
future Importance 4.63 Effectiveness
3.18 Gap 1.45
17

• Urgent?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Effectively addressing organizational culture
  during organizational realignments, industry
  consolidations and mergers and acquisitions
  (MAs) (item 2)
• These events are windows of opportunity, but
  the role and processes of culture disruption and
  change are not taken seriously
• Challenge of execution of MAs and realignments
  too little, too late
• OD should be playing a key role in this, but it
  does not
• I consider these events to be windows of
  opportunity to revisit and renew a commitment to
  organizational culture
• Usually the weakest link in the
  people/process/technology triangle of keys to
  success
• Organization talks about the importance of
  aligning cultures during reorganizations/restructu
  ring however they do not design OD interventions
  that assist in the alignment. They expect people
  impacted by the change to adapt.

18

• Urgent?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Building leadership capacity for now and the
  future (item 14)
• Challenges cited around developing leadership
  capacity include
• Internal philosophies and practices around
  growing your own
• Defining, recognizing and rewarding leadership
  attributes
• Perceived Lack of Time
• Retirement
• Little or no succession planning in their
  organization
• Have seen no evidence of trying to build future
  leadership capability
• Need more work on succession strategy
• We focus on managing the business instead of
  leading people and teams

19
Business Leader For Profit SurveyKey Results

• High Priority?
• Items
• Aligning and executing strategies in a way that
  meets financial goals and are consistent with
  core values
• Importance 4.80 Effectiveness 3.77 Gap
  1.03
• Aligning strategies, people, systems and
  processes organization-wide to enhance
  productivity and profitability
• Importance 4.64 Effectiveness 3.38 Gap
  1.26
• Developing and maintaining the commitment of the
  workforce to the goals of the organization for
  better overall performance results
• Importance 4.78 Effectiveness 3.66 Gap
  1.12
• 6. Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
  engage the workforce
• Importance 4.56 Effectiveness 3.50 Gap
  1.07
• 7. Attracting and retaining top talent
• Importance 4.74 Effectiveness 3.46 Gap
  1.27

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• High Priority?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Aligning and executing strategies in a way that
  meets financial goals and are consistent with
  core values (item 1)
• Critical importance of alignment between
  strategies, values, tactics to deliver bottom
  line business results, and delivering
  shareholder value
• Measuring effectiveness (metrics) and project
  management (scheduling) are keys to success in
  aligning and implementing strategies
• Tension between strategic alignment and tactical
  execution is often resolved in favor of tactical
  execution
• This is a key area of focus to improve
• Our primary strength is in being consistent with
  our core values.
• Getting the proper balance is a struggle, have
  gone through cycles where the numbers rule and
  then when core values rule.
• How to measure effectiveness is a huge barrier
  especially for interventions that do not tie
  easily to the bottom line or ROI.

21

• High Priority?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Aligning strategies, people, systems and
  processes organization-wide to enhance
  productivity and profitability (item 4)
• Leadership sees this alignment as important
  however, it is not always given high priority.
• Complexity of processes, business needs, size,
  and business models makes this increasingly
  difficult to accomplish
• Productivity is a direct function of process and
  the effective alignment of vision, strategy and
  people.
• Personally this is very important to me, but at
  my company support varies as to how much time to
  spend on alignment.
• No longer clear path. Profitability depends
  more on new, undefined business models with no
  track record in an environment where customers
  are competitors and old rules have turned upside
  down.
• As we have grown, this has become more difficult
  to accomplish

22

• High Priority?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Developing and maintaining the commitment of the
  workforce to the goals of the organization for
  better overall performance results profitability
  (item 5)
• Developing and maintaining commitment to the
  goals of the organization is vitally important
• Systems and processes must be in place to support
  engagement and commitment
• A great strategy that is poorly executed fails.
  To execute companies have to have alignment and
  the engagement of its workforce. Engagement is a
  multiplier good and bad to the execution
  component.
• The company cant only expect employees to
  commit to high performing results until it
  demonstrates the commitment to employees growth
  both professionally and personally.

23

• High Priority?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
  engage the workforce (item 6)
• Inspiring and engaging the entire organization
  around its mission is critical
• Mission and purpose statements are often
  ambiguous and unclear they only make sense to
  the upper levels of the organization and mean
  little to the lower levels
• It is a critical Leadership responsibility
• Depends on the level of the organization most
  effective at upper levels
• The mission statement was written by a senior
  team with no input from the hoi polloi and then
  groomed by an agency. We see it on our external
  website, but thats about the extent of it.

24

• High Priority?
• Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Attracting and retaining top talent (item 7)
• Attracting and retaining talent is important in
  most areas
• Attracting talent is often viewed as being more
  important than retaining it, particularly in the
  recent economy
• We are very good at this in the areas of the
  company we deem to be critical or strategic to
  our success (i.e., RD, Sales) and we are less
  effective at this in the areas that are more
  tactical in nature
• High turnover rate as a direct result of
  sacrificing employees for shareholder value
• Dissatisfaction has existed for last 5 years and
  was waiting for the job supply to catch up.
  Turnover will increase over next 1-3 years.
• We give lip service to valuing people, but our
  corporate culture and structure does not put this
  value into practice.

25

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?
Urgent areas? Positioning industry
consolidation, MA, and strategic alignment for
success from a cultural perspective?
Business leaders turn to line management first,
consulting firms second, HR third, and OD fourth
when positioning industry consolidation, MA,
and strategic alignment for success from a
cultural perspective.
26

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?
Urgent areas? Building leadership capacity
for now and the future

• Business leaders turn to HR first, and line
  management second for
• identifying, attracting, developing and
  retaining leadership talent.
• Business leaders turn to line management to
  foster leadership
• courage, decision making and problem
  solving

27

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?

• High Priority Areas Building a Performance
  Culture
• Leaders turn to Line Management first, HR second,
  and OD third, for
• Enhancing workplace, productivity and performance
  culture
• Fostering employee engagement and commitment

28

• Do you have a distinct OD Department? If yes, to
  whom does it report?
• Only 36 of all for profit respondents have a
  distinct OD department
• Of those who did, 76 reported into HR, 16 into
  other staff and 9 into line management.

29
How likely is it that your organization will
invest/continue to invest in OD resources (people
and money), either in-house or outsourced, over
the next three years? 63 of respondents
indicated they were either very likely (40) or
somewhat likely (23) to invest in OD over the
next three years. Do you expect that your
investments in OD resources over the next three
years will be less, about the same or more than
during 2004? 39 of respondents indicated their
investments in OD would be more, 54 about the
same and 7 less than in 2004.
30
Comments from For Profit Panel

• Joe Toto, Director, Leadership Development and
  Learning, Becton Dickinson Company
• Bob Hoffman, Ed.D, Organizational Development,
  Oncology Business Unit, Novartis
• Ellen Jackson, HR Director, Workforce Strategy
  Planning, ATT

31
Implications for You and Your Organization?

1. What overall implications do you see?
2. To what extent does OD play a central role in
   addressing these critical issues in your
   organization?
3. What could be done in your organization to
   increase awareness of the value of OD (both quick
   wins and long-term)?
4. In terms of the finding that business leaders
   often turn to line management for support, what
   are the implications for better positioning OD?

32
Nonprofit Results
33

Demographics of Nonprofit Respondents
Respondents are predominantly female,
middle-aged, executives.
235 Total respondents 120 For Profit and 115
Nonprofit
34
Nonprofit Survey Respondent Demographics (contd.)

• Annual Budgets and Number of Employees
• Annual budgets ranged from less than 500,000 to
  more than 10 million, with a relatively wide and
  even distribution, but most had fewer than 50
  employees
• Industry Focus
• There was a good representation of organizations
  across a wide spectrum of industries, with
  highest percentages in human services and health.
• Organizational Life Cycle
• Organizational life cycles were spread across all
  categories, with highest percentages in prime,
  expansion, and revitalization.
• Functional Area
• There was a large distribution of functional
  areas, with the vast majority in General
  Management.

35

Organization Success Factors Performance Gaps
Gap 0.91 1.01 1.24 1.25 0.99 0.79 0.90 1.00 0.
84 0.83 0.81 0.37 0.75 1.44 1.33 0.64 0.89

• 1. Aligning and executing strategies in a way
  that advances the mission and is consistent with
  core values
• 2. Effectively addressing organizational culture
  for collaboration and strategic alliances
• 3. Effectively applying organizational change
  principles
• 4. Aligning strategies, people, systems and
  processes organization-wide to enhance
  productivity and sustainability
• 5. Developing and maintaining the commitment of
  staff and volunteers to the goals of the
  organization for better overall performance
• 6. Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
  engage staff and volunteers
• 7. Attracting and retaining top talent
• 8. Leveraging and aligning existing information
  technology with business and people strategies
• Facilitating adoption and use of new information
  technologies for mission effectiveness
• 10. Using information technology to support
  learning and innovation
• 11. Enhancing reputation among communities where
  we work, and with clients, employees and
  donors/funders
• 12. Enhancing employees commitment by focusing
  on service and contributions in the community
• 13. Ensuring accountability for values and ethics
  among employees and volunteers
• 14. Building leadership capacity for now and the
  future
• 15. Solving organizational problems systemically
  as opposed to solving them on a piecemeal basis
• 16. Establishing collaborative relationships and
  partnerships among public, private and nonprofit
  sectors
• 17. Increasing speed of response to emerging
  client and stakeholder needs through shared
  commitments and organizational values

36
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Findings for
Importance and Effectiveness

High Priority
Urgent
Weakness
Actual Items appear on slides 15. Note Items
were pre-selected as important based on Phase I
research and KITs.
37
Survey of Nonprofit LeadersKey Results
Urgent 2. Effectively addressing
organizational culture for collaboration and
strategic alliances Importance 4.60
Effectiveness 3.59 Gap 1.01 3. Effectively
applying organizational change principles
Importance 4.51 Effectiveness 3.28 Gap
1.24 4. Aligning strategies, people, systems and
processes organization-wide to enhance
productivity and sustainability Importance
4.74 Effectiveness 3.49 Gap
1.25 14. Building leadership capacity for now and
the future Importance 4.75 Effectiveness
3.30 Gap 1.44 15. Solving organizational
problems systemically as opposed to solving them
on a piecemeal basis Importance 4.58
Effectiveness 3.24 Gap 1.33
38
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• Urgent Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Effectively addressing organizational culture for
  collaboration and strategic alliances (Item 2)
• Collaboration is a great idea, but it is often
  neglected or ignored
• Creating a collaborative and trusting culture is
  hard.
• The mission of most nonprofits is too large to
  accomplish without collaboration. Yet, our
  funding environment is competitive, which
  prevents nonprofits from developing collaborative
  attitudes.
• There are so many details that we attend to,
  often our collaborations and alliances are put on
  the back burners, even though they can be very
  beneficial to our overall mission.
• Our service units are often at odds, pulling for
  their own cause, not the bigger picture.
• People relationships sink more organizations
  than the technical and other skill sets. I place
  this at the highest level of importance. It is
  extremely important to have trust, credibility
  and coordination of effort.

39
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• Urgent Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Effectively applying organizational change
  principles (Item 3)
• Non profits must continually change to sustain
  and achieve their mission.
• Change is particularly challenging for
  nonprofits be nice culture.
• The challenge is that we have many words, and
  different meanings around change dynamics, and we
  use a short-hand or abstraction, which in turn
  adds to confusion.
• Nonprofits by and large find it difficult to
  change or innovate at a pace that can keep up
  with community needs.
• Perhaps our concern for others leads to a "be
  nice" culture, which prefers the established over
  change. In other words we are not able to cope
  with change because we don't like conflict.
• Intentional improvements, and even unexpected
  changes brought about by external factors, have
  seemed very disruptive to staff. The
  organization's staff are relatively
  inexperienced, and funding challenges make it
  difficult to hire and maintain more experienced
  folks (who would have more likely experienced
  change in past positions, and possibly even led
  change in the past).

40
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• Urgent Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Aligning strategies, people, systems and
  processes organization-wide to enhance
  productivity and sustainability (Item 4)
• Many nonprofits are actively engaged in
  developing new systems and strategies.
• Day-to-day service needs and priorities take
  precedence over the development of new systems,
  processes, and strategic priorities.
• Ambivalence about the meaning and value of
  alignment.
• We invite in a business coach several times a
  year to tune us up in new strategies, systems,
  and processes.
• The day to day mandates of outcomes and
  services, coupled with the needs of the clients,
  take preference over these activities.
• The organization is in the early stages of its
  lifecycle. Many internal systems and processes
  are not fully formalized, documented, or
  consistently applied by staff.
• Alignment is about respect for the whole,
  especially the people who make all the rest of
  the whole work. Add spirit, commitment and trust
  to productivity and sustainability... those are
  markers of the people part in this alignment.
• The level of effectiveness is thanks to the
  people not the processes
• I do not believe it is always healthy to always
  be aligned. Variety and novelty can be driven
  out.

41
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• Urgent Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Building leadership capacity for now and the
  future (Item 14)
• Desire to do more but lack of staff/money or
  advancement opportunities.
• Doing what is possible with limited resources
  (e.g., mentoring).
• Not seen as a priority by our communities and
  nonprofit leadership (boards and staff).
• This is critical for both paid staff and
  volunteer leadership.
• With a small staff, the internal leadership
  opportunities are fairly limited so we work hard
  to offer external leadership opportunities for
  personal growth.

42
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• Urgent Verbatim themes and illustrative quotes
• Solving organizational problems systemically as
  opposed to solving them on a piecemeal basis
  (Item 15)
• Seen as important but difficult given
  fire-fighting the need for more
  money/resources and turnover in leadership.
• No time/necessity for this approach to all
  problems.
• This takes absolute discipline if you are used
  to being a brush-fire fighter...sometimes it
  feels overwhelming, but I am resolved that we
  continue.

43
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results
High Priority Items 1. Aligning and executing
strategies in a way that advances the mission and
is consistent with core values Importance
4.90 Effectiveness 3.99 Gap
0.91 5. Developing and maintaining the commitment
of staff and volunteers to the goals of the
organization for better overall performance
Importance 4.88 Effectiveness 3.88 Gap
0.99 6. Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire
and engage staff and volunteers Importance
4.70 Effectiveness 3.90 Gap
0.79 7. Attracting and retaining top
talent Importance 4.83 Effectiveness 3.91
Gap 0.90 11.Enhancing reputation among
communities where we work, and with clients,
employees and donors/funders Importance 4.85
Effectiveness 4.04 Gap 0.81 13.Ensuring
accountability for values and ethics among
employees and volunteers Importance 4.72
Effectiveness 3.99 Gap 0.75 16.Establishing
collaborative relationships and partnerships
among public, private and nonprofit
sectors Importance 4.64 Effectiveness 4.00
Gap 0.64
44
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Aligning and executing strategies in a way that
  advances the mission and is consistent with core
  values (Item 1)
• Alignment between mission, activities, and
  strategic planning is critical.
• The details of the work and the passion and
  interests of staff often make it difficult to
  maintain our strategic focus.
• The impact of externalities (board, funding
  sources, clients emerging needs, etc.) often
  complicates this process, yet they are critical
  for success.
• Strategic planning has resulted in much more
  efficient use of our resources and ensured that
  what we do is consistent with our vision and core
  values.
• We each have to wear many hats. The details in
  our work sometimes bog us down and we lose sight
  of our overall mission.
• Where we get less effective is due to occasional
  mission creep, driven by the passions and
  commitment of staff and volunteers.
• Mandates of current funding sources impact daily
  actions.

45
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Developing and maintaining the commitment of
  staff and volunteers to the goals of the
  organization (Item 5)
• Developing and maintaining commitment to the
  goals is vitally important.
• Impact of differing priorities between staff and
  volunteers.
• We have been fortunate in having most of our
  staff being passionately dedicated to our core
  mission of protecting the environment.
• People are just too busy and committed to their
  own agendas to help.
• Staff and volunteer priorities are often seen as
  mutually exclusive--if we invest in staff, then
  members will suffer, if we invest in members,
  then staff will feel left out.

46
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
  engage staff and volunteers (Item 6)
• Inspiring and engaging the entire community is
  central and critical.
• Mission statements are often problematic in
  focusing shared commitment and action.
• We work hard at insuring that our purpose and
  mission resonate with everyone involved in
  driving the organization.
• Our strategic planning process resulted in big
  improvements in this area.
• Extremely difficult to coordinate all the
  agendas and motives and perceived means, into one
  reasonably cohesive purpose and mission that all
  stakeholders can support. Often what can be
  generally agreed to is that which is not
  offensive to everybody which is always too
  general and too amorphous to actually implement
  or succeed.
• Mission and purpose statements are usually too
  general to inspire as compared to specific
  campaigns and strategies which can really be
  exciting and produce tangible results.

47
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Attracting and retaining top talent (Item 7)
• Salary constraints make it difficult to attract
  and retain top talent.
• Successful attraction and retention of nonprofit
  staff involves non-monetary compensation
  (meaningful work, recognition, quality of life,
  etc.).
• Challenges include assessing and identifying top
  talent, cost-effectiveness of using external
  consultants (outsourcing), and succession
  planning.
• Top talent is critical. Yet, when we write
  proposals we don't include wages that can attract
  top talent. "You are working for a charity" so
  you can't have better pay is the sector's overall
  attitude.
• Retention has been maintained through
  recognition and education.
• We are blessed to have a small staff of talented
  individuals who have been with us through
  difficult times and have stayed to enjoy the
  fruits of exciting program development.
• We need to examine carefully how we are
  assessing top talent and what constitutes top?
• Having top talent is dependent on the situation,
  the leadership within that setting, and faith
  that we can in fact, step up and do the work.
• We are also improving in the area of succession
  planning.

48
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Enhancing reputation among communities where we
  work, and with clients, employees and
  donors/funders (Item 11)
• Better staff, more money, and focus is needed to
  accomplish this.
• This is critical to getting the work done and
  ensuring sustainability.
• We have a good image and have recently improved
  in this area.
• We need to do more to enhance our reputation.
• We are well regarded among communities where we
  work and with clients/employees, but need to do
  much more to get the word out to potential
  donors.

49
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Ensuring accountability for values and ethics
  among all employees and volunteers (Item 13)
• Many nonprofits have successfully done work in
  this area.
• Non-profits are more sensitive to ethics than
  for-profits to begin with, perhaps too much so
  need to balance ethics values with
  accountability.
• We are now working on and still have work to
  do in this area.
• My experience is that people attracted to
  nonprofit that benefit society are more aware
  than other workers about values and ethics. Many
  nonprofit leaders and their followers get bogged
  down in the pool of what's right and wrong, and
  by who's standards.

50
Survey of Nonprofit Leaders Key Results

• High Priority Verbatim themes and illustrative
  quotes
• Establishing collaborative relationships and
  partnerships among public, private, and nonprofit
  sectors (Item 16)
• This is the key to sustainability in the 21st
  century

51

Sources of Expertise and Support
Working cross-culturally

• Nonprofit leaders predominately turn to line
  management to address culture issues related to
  collaboration and strategic alliances.
• Nonprofit leaders turn to internal Human
  Resources or OD departments first, nonprofit
  management support centers second, line
  management third, and then to external OD and
  consulting firms when building skills and
  competencies in multi-cultural sensitivity and
  diversity.

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?
52

Sources of Expertise and Support
Creating a performance culture

• Nonprofit leaders turn to Line Management first
  and foremost then to
• HR and Internal OD for enhancing workplace
  productivity and performance culture. External
  OD consultants were a distant third.
• Nonprofit leaders turn to Line Management first
  and then to HR and
• Internal OD for building skills for innovation
  and flexibility in the workforce.

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?
53
Sources of Expertise and Support

• Building leadership capacity for now and the
  future
• Nonprofit leaders turn to Line Management first
  and HR second for
• identifying, attracting, developing and
  retaining leadership talent.
• Line management is the primary resource for
  fostering leadership courage,
• decision making and problem solving, with HR and
  Internal OD a distant second.

To whom do you/would you most likely turn for
support in each of the following areas?
54


OD in the Nonprofit Sector

• Do you have a distinct OD Department? If yes, to
  whom does it report?
• Only 15 of all nonprofit respondents have a
  distinct OD department
• Of those who did, 37 report to HR, 44 to other
  staff and 19 to line management.

55

OD Investment Intentions

• How likely is it that your organization will
  invest/continue to invest in OD resources (people
  and money), either in-house or outsourced, over
  the next three years?
• 67 of respondents indicated they were either
  very likely (36) or somewhat likely (31) to
  invest in OD over the next three years
• Do you expect that your investments in OD
  resources over the next three years will be less,
  about the same or more than during 2004?
• 40 of respondents indicated their investments in
  OD would be more, 47 about the same and 9 less
  than in 2004

56
Comparison of For Profit and Nonprofit Results

• Most urgent areas in both sectors are
• Effectively addressing organizational
  culture
• (for profit) during organizational
  realignments, industry consolidations, and
  MAs
• (nonprofit).. for collaboration and strategic
  alliances
• Building leadership capacity for now and the
  future

57
Comparison of For Profit and Nonprofit Results

• Non Profits rated every item higher in importance
  than for profits, with three statistically
  significant differences
• Establishing collaborative relationships and
  partnerships among public, private and nonprofit
  sectors (4.6 nonprofit vs. 3.9 for profit)
• Enhancing reputation among stakeholders(4.9
  nonprofit vs. 4.4 for profit)
• Effectively applying organizational change
  principles (4.5 nonprofit vs. 4.1 for profit)

58
Comparison of For Profit and Nonprofit Results

• Nonprofits rated most items higher in
  effectiveness than For Profits with six
  statistically significant differences
• Establishing collaborative relationships(4.0
  nonprofit vs. 3.4 for profit)
• Attracting and retaining top talent(3.9
  nonprofit vs. 3.5 for profit)
• Clarifying purpose and mission to inspire and
  engage (3.9 nonprofit vs. 3.5 for profit)
• Effectively addressing organizational culture
  (3.6 nonprofit vs. 3.2 for profit)
• Enhancing reputation among stakeholders (4.0
  nonprofit vs. 3.7 for profit)
• Solving organizational problems systemically as
  opposed to solving them on a piecemeal basis
  (3.2 nonprofit vs. 2.9 for profit)

59
Comments from Nonprofit Panel

• Gayle Ellis Davis, Manager, Affiliate
  Relations/Community Relationships (Adults), Girl
  Scouts of the USA
• Paige Carlson-Heim, Associate Director, Housing
  and Community Development Network of NJ

60
Implications for You and Your Organization?

• What overall implications do you see? To what
  extent does OD play a central role in addressing
  these critical issues in your organization?
• 2. What insights do you have about the
  differences between the For Profit and Nonprofit
  sector results?
• 3. What thoughts do you have about what the For
  Profit or Nonprofit sectors can learn from each
  other?

61

• Summary of Findings and Implications for
  Organization Development and Human Resources
• Business Leaders across a wide swath of
  industries see opportunity for HR and OD related
  work
• There is considerable room to improve the
  perceived effectiveness of organizations in areas
  that business leaders consider very important
• A high percentage of business leaders are likely
  to invest in OD over the next three years, with
  about half planning to invest about the same, and
  more than another third planning to invest more.
• However, OD as a distinct field or function is
  barely even on the radar screen for much of the
  work that OD could/should be helping with.
  Business leaders usually go elsewhere, at least
  initially, for the support they need and want
  (especially line management, HR, and consulting
  firms)
• OD needs to work with line management to support
  them, transfer their knowledge, and exhibit a
  high degree of flexibility to make it happen
• Findings call for further inquiry as to ODs
  fundamental identity, marketing, branding, and
  positioning with executives and line managers

62
Conclusions and Next Steps

• Conclude in-depth analysis of data and publish
  findings promote public awareness, dialogue and
  debate
• Discuss use of findings with key stakeholders
  (HR, OD, line management, professional
  organizations, academic institutions, etc.)
• Galvanize debate among stakeholders on setting
  priorities for use of findings
• Support action teams of Global Committee on the
  Future of OD -- Business Strategy Action Team
  Enterprise Sustainability New Models of Change,
  Development, Action Learning and Communities of
  Practice.