Bemused Company Partners with a Sometime Unpopular Message.

The Founding of the Organisational Puzzle was not based on 2 people taking their expertise, setting up a company and consulting with Non-Profits. (don’t forget the dream -working for themselves.) It was due to 2 people, with many years experience and expertise in varied fields, that were a bit bemused by various features in the Non-Profit Field. A selection of the main aspects is:

The Sustainability vs Accountability Approach:

By this we refer to the singular focus of most Non-Profits and Consultants on Sustainability. We understood that the main problem of present-day Non-Profits is Sustainability but could not understand the limited acknowledgement to the fact that:

• You are not going to become Sustainable (get funds) if you are not able to illustrate accountability
• If you are able to secure some funds from a Donor– you are still not going to be sustainable (secure funds from the donor again) if you cannot illustrate accountability to the donor. So next year the Stop-Start exercise starts again with new donors.

Our experience in the past 6 years has re-affirmed this perception. Even now many organizations-when they contract with us- state they would “Like” to upgrade their accountability (through us, others or themselves) but don’t’ have the time or money – with limited insight that it is not an either/or choice.

A Leader is born overnight:

As in most organisations, Non-Profits needs both managers and leaders – most have managers, but many lack leaders. Many managers are extremely capable in performing individual management tasks of planning, controlling, organizing and leading. But many management teams are ineffective because they are waiting for decisions that are not forthcoming. They are confused and frustrated by the organisations lack of priorities, poor communication, the fact that the organisations ideals do not match day-to-day reality, decision making processes that are not clear, internal controls and systems that do not produce, focus on technical issues as opposed to principles etc. The aspects that confuse and frustrate managers are easily addressed by leadership.

And so, the best performing Supervisor is promoted to CEO – a overnight born leader! Very limited effort is invested in developing and training these professionals into leaders, or developing their leadership skills in new fields such as fundraising, Financial Governance etc. Because of lack of funds additional experts are not employed and the new Leader is expected to be a Jack of all Trades.

Most experts believe that leaders are mostly made (Charismatic leaders are both born and made. No doubt there are "naturally" charismatic individuals, but leadership, like charisma, can be developed and trained.) But we are not “making” our potential leaders – we are breaking them.

 DSD and the Development of Mini-Me's

The establishment and development of the Non-Governmental field was based on the fact that they could be innovative, flexible, independent, as well as responsive to the needs of the community on grassroots level. In the economic world, the era of big business included the forcing out of the competition and gaining control of the market.

It seems that the same is happening in the social development field, with the less powerful NGO’s merely being Mini Me’s of the DSD department. It seems that the original vision, mission and objectives that led to the establishment of many Non-Governmental organisations, is now fully guided and limited by their TPA stipulates. It further seems that the identity of various organisations are being gobbled up by the larger Big Brother who controls the purse strings. Many NGO’s are not adhering fully to the purpose of their founding, but rather to the vision of Government’s Social Development goals. If we don’t reverse this trend, we will optimally be in a place, where one questions the continued existence of, and need for, NGO’s.

The Perpetual Surprise: 

The Frustration, Exasperation and Weariness in the Non-Profit Field – we keep on struggling; nothing is changing – it is even getting worse; We are working so hard in implementing our change efforts.

But you keep on doing the same thing or offer the same solutions to old problems. You are not working pro-actively in preventing risks from re-occurring or limit the impact when they happen– you don’t want to make tough or unpopular decisions. Why then the perpetual Surprise that nothing is changing.

Wasting Time Efficiently:

Many, if not most, organisations do limited monitoring and evaluation of their projects and services. The reasons are myriad - our staff don’t have the time, we do not have the skills, we do not have the money. We have heard it all.

Our bemusement in this regard can be illustrated with an example. If you are running an 8-week group and there is no evaluation and monitoring – how to you know it is impactful. The fact is you don’t. So why not run a 4-week group – you will still not know whether you have an impact, but a least you would have spent less time in confirming the unknown.

So here we are – two people who set up their company driven by both a bemusement and a drive to help. After 6 years our bemusement has not specifically lessened – but it has led to an increased drive to change the status Quo. The past six years has indicated that our message is not always a popular one (including with Non-Profits) – but our slogan – WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT MAKES US BETTER – might be what your Non-Profit Needs. Visit our Webpage (https://theorganisationalpuzzle.co.za/) for more information or contact Fatima Abrahams at +27 (0)82 675 9435 or top.puzzle@telkomsa.net.