How do you communicate with your peers, your boss and others in your organization in a way that benefits everyone? Exploration of typical horizontal and vertical communication channels, how they can vary between organizations, and how you can tailor your messages and delivery for maximum impact.

BrownBag Seminars
help people widen their horizons and learn about how nonprofits work.
Offered in cooperation with Antioch University Seattle at 2326 Sixth Avenue.
 

“What Makes a Decision Effective?” This topic was discussed in small groups, with answers then shared with the whole group:

Who Made the Decision? Examples: committee, manager, Board, “do-er”/member, everyone who showed up.

With what information? Examples: prior experience, crisis, previous barrier solved/put aside, opportunity for funding, consistency with organization’s mission, referral from committee, profitability.

With what results? Examples: worse/unanticipated outcomes, better use of resources, new way of opportunity, provided needed cash flow.

Models of Decision Making

In the "Rational Model," you look at current state (call it "A"), list reasonable options and examine probability of success for each of them;  then choose one and follow it toward the desired state (call it "B").

How Realistic is the Rational Model?

• Often there is no clear consensus on what current state is (A, A1, A2, etc.)
• Usually there are more options than are immediately apparent, and the information you need to find the best path is much greater than what you have.
• The real set of goals of where people want to go can be very disparate (B, B1, B2, etc.)
• Rational model tends not to introduce determinants about how people feel about work and options. People may have varying emotions about “facts”.
• The decision making process is, in fact, heavily influenced by mood, culture, trends, existing consensus, etc. within an organization.
• There are limited resources (time, energy, etc.) to spend on each stage of the decision making process. The rational model requires a great deal of work; often the investment may be greater than the value of any possible decision that might be reached.

There are a wide variety of different appropriate styles of decision making for different decisions and scenarios. A careful leader will adjust the model employed to the character of the organization and to the nature of the decision that needs to be made.  The "rational model" may often lead people astray, just because it is widely accepted but little examined.

A key test of effective decision making assesses the degree of compliance within the organization, the ease and breadth of implementation realized after a decision is made.

 Comments/Questions raised by attendees:

• Difficult to change organizational culture to have more group decision making.
• Some organizations need more centralized decision making within their culture; current structure is too loose and diffuse among many decision makers
• There needs to be stability within the organization for people to feel free to take part in the decision making process.
• Differing opinions about how much time to invest in decision making can be difficult. Possible solution is to have subcommittees with members who want more time to discuss options and come back to group with two or three options for the whole group to decide on.

BrownBag Seminars
help people widen their horizons and learn about how nonprofits work.
Offered in cooperation with Antioch University Seattle at 2326 Sixth Avenue.
 

Judy Hedden focused on two observations in her work as a career volunteer. She talked about how the organization has changed over the years with volunteers having an important role to play. It was often said in the 60s that volunteerism was a way of not paying women for their work. Currently, Judy has found that she is extremely invested in the work that she’s doing with the League, following a very successful career in technology which has allowed her to solely be a community volunteer at this stage in her career. Though, now, the challenges with volunteers are that it is difficult to find enough of them and to rely on them for time and quality yet tough to ask them to leave.

Her second observation concerned trust in the community and in the government. She made the point that we should not expect perfection from our public officials, after all, they are representative of us and our views, and therefore are fallible. Candidates sometimes even run based on platforms that criticize government as the problem and not just the current leadership. She advises us that we’re all in this together, and that we should be thanking our public officials. To learn more or to become a member of the League of Women Voters, please go to: http://www.lwvwa.org.

Doug Honig of the American Civil Liberties Union gave an overview presentation about the secret to ACLU's fundraising success of late. Their longstanding challenge has been to inform people that the ACLU is a membership organization and to help people understand the ACLU's mission is to serve as watchdog for the Bill of Rights. Therefore, they may not take a stance that reflects the majority view of the country, but it will always be the one that follows the Bill of Rights. The key to their fundraising success has been to take a long-term approach, which can be seen in two aspects of their work: 1) their major gifts campaign, which has aimed to cultivate ongoing relationships with donors able to contribute $1,000 or more annually & 2) maintaining a visible! presence in the community, which they accomplish by being readily available to the press and accepting numerous invitations to speak before community and school groups. Local efforts have been helped by a new nationwide ACLU advertising campaign, featuring both TV and print ads.  The ACLU of Washington has information on its website at http://www.aclu-wa.org

The Nonprofit Schmoozefest is
Seattle's Nonprofit Networking Event
At the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. Plan to attend next time
 

"Civil Society in Everyday Life" is
the topic of discussion at free monthly morning meetings
Plan to attend next time: 3rd Tuesdays in the Student Center at Seattle U
 

The Nonprofit Schmoozefest is
Seattle's Nonprofit Networking Event
At the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. Plan to attend next time
 

"But Greg had many challenges as took office as Mayor. This was his first executive level position and Seattle was facing a $60 million budget deficit. "

"On the King County Council, Greg had been the Council's budget chairman and was well versed in dealing with significant budget deficits. He immediately got to work to re-establish the Mayor's office as the manager of City government and chose a few priorities to focus on -- public safety, transportation, economic development and building strong communities."

"The Mayor regularly articulates his goals through public forums, neighborhood tours, weekly press conferences, the city's website, appearances on the city's public television channel, and frequent conversations with reporters from all the media."

"The goals for this administration," she said, "are transparency and directness in presenting the public a clear vision of the challenges the City faces, and the Mayor's responses to them."

"Civil Society in Everyday Life" is
the topic of discussion at free monthly morning meetings
Plan to attend next time: 3rd Tuesdays in the Student Center at Seattle U