But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

1 Corinthians 14:40

I went to a conference where the keynote speaker talked about how their nonprofit was not structured like any other. Rather than letting the budgets be the ultimate authority on what could or could not be done that year, the decision making was driven by the frontline workers and the mission. The speaker noted that when a program at the nonprofit reached a certain level of positive results that brought in revenue, the nonprofit built into that strength. At one level of success, the program manager could hire more staff–and there wasn’t guidelines on what kind of staff that would be. It could be a client caseworker, a recruiter, or best yet–someone in operations. Maybe a new accountant, a marketing genius, or a data miner. The budget was adjusted once a quarter based on the new results and hires that needed to be made. That’s a bit different than the standard process of building a budget once a year, and then sticking to that budget, regardless of the new opportunities and results that surprise a nonprofit.

Building into success starts with agreed upon outcomes and a process that sustains those outcomes. For example, God took chaos and created the heavens. He took the messiness of our sins and created sanctification. He seems to be a God of order (1 Corinthians 14:33). Shortly thereafter in 1 Corinthians 14, God says to us, “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” 

Think about your last meeting–did any part of it feel chaotic? What about the last launch of a program? Did your IT employees express pain over the lack of support, but the amount of new work when that program was launched? Supporting the operations team–even if realigning priorities and providing permission to let go of old reports and projects–can do wonders to keep things orderly.

Some provide other routes of keeping things organized when something new is on the horizon. Manager Tools suggests using the acronym “SPOT” to kick off a new project or program. SPOT stands for the scope, plan, operations, and timeline. 

Scope: What is success? What falls inside and outside the boundaries of what we are trying to achieve? 

Plan: What are the milestones we want to reach? What are the high-level goals? 

Operations: How/when will we report back what has been accomplished, and what is falling behind? 

Timeline: What is a high-level timeline? What is the next step? 

Running the core team through a SPOT plan before the launch of the program can help trigger remembering the support and operational staff needed to be successful. Perhaps SPOT will help you bring a fitting and orderly way to your next new assignment. 

While multiple ways of finding order in chaos or supporting new successes exist, the key is to make sure those processes aren’t hampering what God is doing. Being flexible, while oftentimes uncomfortable, can evolve the nonprofit into the best version of that work. 

I wonder about the keynote speaker’s nonprofit these days. I wonder how many people at that nonprofit hires operational roles based on results, as opposed to more frontline workers. 

Operations, order, and organization are a good thing. 

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© 2023, Mollie Bond. All rights reserved. Originally published at www.molliebond.org.