Schlocky

I was recently reading an article in the Harvard Business Review about a woman named Kathy Guisti who had been working a great corporate job, but her career track had been derailed when she was diagnosed with myeloma, a deadly blood cancer.

Her diagnosis led her to create two organizations dedicated to accelerating the development of treatments for the disease, organizations that “have become models for running medical-research nonprofits in a highly disciplined way.”

I was enjoying the article until I came across this quote:

“I wanted people to see that I wasn’t going to run some schlocky nonprofit. I was going to try to do this right.”

Followed quickly by this quote:

“What was clear from the moment I walked in the door was that this place operated in a way you wouldn’t expect of a nonprofit.”

Reading those quotes, the clear implication that came through was that nonprofits just don’t get the “business” side of running an operation. That nonprofits are inefficient and clumsy.

I wanted to be indignant. I wanted to be angry. I wanted to stand up and defend nonprofits.

I wanted to do all that . . . but I had to ask … “Could it be true?”

As much as it pains me to admit it, the perception among many of those in the for-profit world that nonprofits generally operate inefficiently and get things done at a snail’s pace may have some basis in truth. More basis in truth than many of us would like to acknowledge.

My own experience tells me that resistance to the idea operating nonprofits using efficiency as a performance measure comes from a mistaken belief that “efficiency” somehow equals a decrease in the “human” side of human services. Especially when that efficiency is a result of the use of new technologies. There seems to be an irrational fear that technology used to assist us in operating in a more disciplined manner will turn us all into uncaring robots.

Taking the logical next step, then, eventually robotic beings will rule the world and destroy all humans (as described below):



I have certainly heard the concern expressed here at Imagine! that whenever we take measures toward improving our operational efficiency via technology, we lose some of our ability to connect with those we serve (although it is usually minus the robots taking over the world part).

While I acknowledge that those expressing concerns have their hearts in the right place, I think they may be missing the bigger picture. The fact of the matter is that technology used judiciously can provide improvements in infrastructure that easily translate into an increased ability to serve more individuals, with a higher quality of services.

And we’ve been doing this at Imagine! for years. For example, we’ve been using cloud computing since long before the term “cloud computing” existed. We’ve used (and continue to use) cloud technology for customer relationship management (CRM), for enterprise resource planning (ERP) (in fact, check out this article from ComputerWeekly.com about our use of enterprise resource planning software to save time and staff hours), for electronic health records (EHR), for human resources, for document management, and for employee time keeping. We also have embraced social media as a way to connect and communicate with our many stakeholders.

As I said, we’ve been doing this for years. Surprisingly, we haven’t turned into some soulless entity. On the contrary, I’d argue that our use of these technologies has:

• enabled our employees to spend more time focusing on what they do best – taking care of others;

• given Imagine! administrators access to more (and more accurate) data on which to base the creation and implementation of new service models;

• helped families make better decisions about care options for their loved one because of greater access to information;

• made Imagine! a more open and transparent organization; and

• allowed Imagine! to plan and prepare for the future despite uncertain times.

So while I find there is occasionally complacency (at best) and resistance (at worst) toward embracing new technologies as a way to improve our operationally efficiency at Imagine!, I am proud of our continued efforts toward improving our infrastructure as well as the way we deliver our services using all the latest tools and knowledge available.

Imagine! schlocky? I think not.

Then again, what do I know?