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The Role of the Executive Director in Nonprofit Technology
By Michael C. Gilbert, March 2005
In the last ten years, nonprofit leaders have faced a series of sophisticated decisions related to the opportunities and challenges of information and communication technology in their organizations. Because nonprofit leaders rarely have the time for conferences or workshops outside their issue areas, the potential to make the same mistakes over and over continues to be an issue for many organizations.
What is the role of the executive director in nonprofit technology? I will explore three topics in order to answer that question: controlling the conversation, creating requirements, and managing change.
Controlling The Conversation
I would summarize the role of the executive director as follows: The primary responsibility of the executive director is to control the conversation so that new technologies serve the communication needs of the organization.
In order to understand what this means, we can start by defining what it does not mean. It does not mean that the executive director must be a technology expert or that they must speak the typical language of the technology implementors. In fact, I think that if they find themselves moving in that direction, they have already lost control of the conversation.
Why do I think this conversation needs to be managed? Because it is still, despite the years it has had to become more sophisticated, a very unbalanced conversation. Despite the wisdom and experience of the technologists, it is still far too easy for a nonprofit organization to be in a disempowered role when it comes to adopting new tools. This disempowerment is not the result of their lack of technological sophistication, rather it is the result of a frame of reference that says that technological sophistication is the only legitimate language in which to conduct the conversation.
What is needed to balance out that conversation is a certain sophistication about communication, not technology. Getting sucked into the technology frame of reference will never work in putting the organization and its communication needs in charge of the conversation. The organization needs to be in charge in order for the conversation, and therefore the resulting technology, to be functional.
Creating Requirements
The primary outcome of a functional conversation is good requirements. The production of a good requirements document, whether it's a few paragraphs or many pages long, is a key indicator that the executive director has managed this conversation successfully. A good executive director insists on this document as the bridge over which all subsequent technology decisions must pass.
A good requirements document uses the language of the organization's communication processes to lay out the criteria against which the delivered technology will be evaluated. Keeping it firmly grounded in the language of the organization is the key to keeping the organization in control of the conversation. Ironically, I find that this empowers the conscientious technologist just as much as it does the conscientious manager.
How does an executive director ground themselves so thoroughly in an organization's communication processes as to help bring about a requirements document that is similarly grounded? This can sometimes come naturally to the executive director who already has an emphasis on organizational development as their primary focus. But many of us don't have this kind of professional focus. Instead our professional focus is outward as the voice of the organization, or inward as the leader of a cause, not as the builder of an organization. All of us, but particularly these latter leaders, can use a little help when it comes to grounding ourselves in the language of communication systems.
The advice that I most often give to nonprofit leaders is to use a set of related techniques that I call Communication Centered Technology Planning. The underlying goal of all these techniques is similar to that of the ecologist who, before endorsing a new development on a plot of land, wants a full understanding of the complex systems into which that development will be introduced. These techniques allow leaders to create an accurate map of the flows of communication that form the basis for the organization's success. Such maps, whether they are visually represented or not, are a compelling management tool.
Managing Change
After keeping the organization grounded in its communication needs and then seeing that those needs are properly translated into requirements, the executive director then has a responsibility for change management. When it comes to the challenge of adopting new technology, creating a communication centered planning environment and good requirements are themselves probably the most important change management processes. But there are many others which benefit from or even require the leadership of the executive director.
Traditionally, it's said there are three necessary ingredients for intentional organizational change to begin: a desire to change (whether from hope or dissatisfaction), a vision of the change (well articulated in terms that matter), and first steps (short term and satisfying). An executive director who is focused on communication will play a critical role in all of these ingredients.
Some of the things that an executive director can do to play this support role in the technological change process include: Develop a realistic, "matter of fact" style when it comes to discussing the hopes and fears about new technology. Support formal communication centered planning. Foster lateral movement and multi-disciplinary teams within the organization. Hire communication centered consultants to help facilitate the planning process. When first steps have been identified, take them and support them boldly. Finally, focus on removing barriers to change, rather then just increasing the pressure for change.
The key to removing barriers is again very ecological in nature. Just as nature fights back against developments that are unsuited to a given place, organizations fight back against unsuitable technologies or unsuitable change processes. Just as it is quite possible to introduce developments that live in harmony with nature, it is just as possible to do the same in organizations. The key in both cases is to understand the nature of the resistance, not merely to pile up the arguments against it.
Causes of resistance can often be initially identified through classic force field diagrams, where the forces operating to encourage change are listed on one side of a page and the countervailing forces against change are listed on the other. This can kick off a process of focusing on the latter, which can often result in much more movement than can be achieved by increasing pressure. Communication centered planning techniques can then take this even further, by uncovering the patterns of communication from which resistance emerges.
Resistance is revealing. Respect for it is revolutionary. Even if the resistance is poorly articulated or based, on the surface, upon things that are either irrational or untrue, there is always some kind of factual basis lurking underneath it. Often, looking carefully at the patterns of resistance to change will reveal important hidden costs of the new technology or of the change process required by it. Sometimes, the issue isn't the technological change at all, but rather the changes in control, authority, and expertise that go along with it.
Sometimes, just paying attention to the underlying causes of resistance can cause them to lighten up, or even evaporate entirely. It's truly amazing how often this happens. Sometimes, further steps are needed to address those underlying causes, in the form of revised requirements, changes in first steps, or staffing and managerial changes.
In the final analysis, the executive director's role is one of being a steward of the organization, by showing respect for its staff and its strengths. This respect is the theme of all the pieces of the role that I have described, whether it's focusing on communication flows, developing proper requirements, or managing the change process. The executive director is uniquely positioned to wield the extraordinary power of respect to bring about transformation.
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