Organisational Sustainability - Management

The most significant role of the CEO or equivalent of a community organization is to create an environment in which other members of the team can feel supported, where they can thrive and work creatively to achieve the goals of the organization and to engender an atmosphere of calm consistency. Without effective management, sustainable organizations are not possible.

So what are the critical tasks of the management team?

1. Staffing

Staff selection, development and training. In any NGO, the staff members are the most valuable resource – to be treasured and nourished. This is demonstrated in many ways:

• Congruence in values – ensuring staff are treated in a manner that accords with the stated values
• Systematic training opportunities – both internal and external
• The opportunity to be creative and to provide the best possible service they can to clients
• Internal promotion wherever possible
• Opportunities for exchanges with staff from other organizations

One of the outcomes of effective human resources policies and processes is the capacity to retain and develop staff. Rapid turnover of staff is an ongoing issue in a sector in which staff members are underpaid. In the organization in which I work, the thirteen most senior staff members have worked for an average of 7.5 years and a median of 7. Of the thirteen, ten were promoted internally and three started out as students.

Flexibility with staff members is another hallmark of a sustainable organization – enabling those in a highly mobile workforce to leave to travel, study, to become parents and to return again or work part-time so that their expertise is retained.

2. Creativity

If staff members cannot be creative, it will not be possible for them to sustain their interest in the organization. In our context, while the bread and butter work of support workers is to enable those we support to develop independent living skills and social networks, it is equally important – for both staff and clients – to have opportunities to dream and to do things outside the square. For us this has meant supporting clients with intellectual disabilities to write, produce and stage a play; to visit NASA and witness the final launch of the shuttle Atlantis – the fulfillment of a lifelong dream; and to support a group of clients to write, perform and record music and lyrics to their own CD. We do our best to say ‘Why not!’ when presented with a creative idea. This may also include the opportunity to enable a range of staff members to represent the organization at external meetings and conferences.

3. Teamwork

Sustainable organizations need people working together collaboratively and co-operatively. When people work in silos, organizations face grave challenges in terms of engendering flexibility and creativity. Where possible, people need to be able to cover for each other in times of leave, illness or other emergencies and teamwork gives people opportunity to learn different tasks.

Teamwork also means having fun together and a range of social opportunities may help to build cohesion as long as there is no pressure on staff members to attend.

4. Policy development

Policies – all community organizations have policies but these need to be living, creative documents that accurately describe the work of the organization. The worst policy document I have read was written by a besieged office administrator in a Alcohol and Other Drug service who was dumped with the job, but who had no idea of its purpose or how to make it live. The most enlightened policy manual I have seen was written from the perspective of the person receiving the service, describing the experience that s/he, staff members and other stakeholders would have as they moved through the organization. It was an inspiring document that moved me to tears and motivated staff to work towards their highest ideals.

Again – you do not have to reinvent the wheel and there are many policy documents that can be borrowed and amended.

5. Financial management and administration

Any sustainable organization has to have robust financial management processes, transparency and accountability and needs to use its resources carefully. It is not possible to attract funding from government or private sources unless there is confidence in the manner in which these resources are used. This can be difficult for some small organizations and the many options for sharing back-office systems are certainly an option in this case. NCOSS has done a great deal of work in this area and can assist small organizations seeking to share resources.

Table of Contents

Related posts:

1. Organisational Sustainability – Community Support
2. Organisational Sustainability – Vision
3. Organisational Sustainability – Delivering on its Vision
4. Organisational Sustainability – Governance
5. Organisational Sustainability – Values
6. Fairness in NSW: Organisational Sustainability
7. Sustainable Organizations
8. The Problems of Community Management – What Doesn’t Work?