By Steve Zimmerman
Nonprofit leaders navigate tension every day as they face a changing environment. Most seek to eliminate it, associating tension with conflict and discomfort. But not all tension is bad. After all, it is the tension of the strings on a violin that allows it to create music. Too little tension and the strings go slack, making no sound at all. Too much tension and the strings may snap. Rather, musicians spend time fine tuning the tension to create the perfect balance, allowing them to create melody and rhythm.
What if we approached our organizations in the same manner as a musician and saw tension not as something that needs to be resolved but adjusted and aligned until it comes into perfect harmony?
While tensions within individual organizations may vary, there are some common ones:
Mission vs. Money
Every decision made in an organization affects its ability to accomplish its mission and remain financially viable. When a large social service organization closed its afterschool program because of a loss of funding, board members felt the tension as they wrestled with knowing that while the organization could no longer sustain the program, closing would create hardship for the families and children. The tension between mission and money is even more prevalent today as organizations face more decisions like this with growing community need and decreasing or uncertain revenue streams.
Organizational Care vs. Self-Care
Labor shortages, higher turnover and increased reporting of burnout led to organizations prioritizing self-care and wellness. Nonprofit staff face daily complexities, and in many cases trauma, while earning relatively lower salaries. Efforts to address these issues, however, are now in tension with organizational needs in the face of reduced revenue and higher expectations from funders. While many organizations are now trying to “do more with less,” the calls for increased efficiencies or filling responsibilities of multiples roles have implications on staff well-being and retention.
Quick Decisions vs. Inclusive Decisions
Inclusive processes that allow leadership to hear multiple perspectives lead to better decisions. They also require time and resources which might be in limited supply as funding circumstances shift quickly. Ideally, leaders would hear multiple perspectives and voices to see if an innovative solution can be surfaced. But there is a real cost both to the mission and finances of an organization to putting off difficult decisions. How much time to take in making a decision creates another tension.
In each of these tensions, both claims have merit. The goal shouldn’t be to choose one over the other but rather to find the appropriate balance between them. There are key steps any leader can undertake to embrace the tension in a healthy manner.
Acknowledge the Tension
Decisions rarely come down to simple choices. Nonprofits face complex problems with multiple stakeholders and macro- and microeconomic conditions influencing the organization. Instead of seeking a non-existent single answer, acknowledging the tension opens the conversation and invites others to co-create a solution or, at least, to share the weight of the tension. Others may not be as familiar with the tensions and tradeoffs, so may not be looking at a problem in the same way. Acknowledging and stating the tension out loud allows everyone to approach a problem from a shared context.
Inform
Board members, staff and volunteers all have different levels of knowledge about how an organization works. A shared understanding of the organization’s intended impact and programmatic strategy as well as the business model and financial realities is essential for engaging in meaningful strategic discussions. In addition to focusing internally, it is helpful to understand the organization’s role in the community by hearing directly from the people the organization serves and understanding other organizations operating in the community.
Even if no strategic decision is imminent, by treating every board and staff meeting as an opportunity to further the depth of knowledge you will be prepared for strategic discussions no matter when they arise.
Engage
Dialogue is essential in charting a strategic path forward. Create space to engage people in respectful, constructive dialogue to ensure that opinions are heard, and be clear about people’s roles. Who is deciding? Who is informing? If no major decision is pending, what are people expected to do with the information you are providing? Clarity of roles doesn’t limit engagement but prevents frustration later in the process. It also allows for an open process with as much engagement as time will allow with clear expectations.
Decide
Tensions often peak at the time to decide, and people use them as a reason to put off making a decision. But delay is in itself a decision and one that may have unintended consequences for the organization. In this environment where organizations are trying to survive, putting off decisions can drain precious reserves and deny them the capital necessary to invest in needed business model or programmatic shifts. Often, the longer a decision is put off the fewer options an organization has available. As uncomfortable as it may be, board and staff need to trust the process they’ve built together, weigh the implications and options and make a decision.
The process of embracing tensions is never as linear and straightforward as outlined here. Rather, it is an ongoing process woven through board meetings, staff meetings and individual conversations. The importance is knowing that the presence of tension is not a failure, but rather an awareness of the implications of decisions.
The tensions nonprofit leaders face today are real, and they are not going away. But leaders who learn to embrace tension rather than eliminate it will find it doesn’t have to be paralyzing. Tension can be shared by acknowledging it, informing, and engaging others so that candid conversations can lead to decisions that allow organizations to make the most impact even in uncertain times.
Like the strings of a well-tuned instrument, tension held at the right level doesn’t break things. It makes the music possible.
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Photo by Lucia Macedo on Unsplash