Breakthrough Thinking Nonprofit C

by Clare Segal and Bernard Ross

Book Overview

This groundbreaking book will help nonprofit managers think in newand creative ways about how they define and meet the challengesthey face--and how to rise above standard practices to lift theirorganizations to greater performance levels. Using examples of bestpractices from innovative organizations in both the corporate andnonprofit worlds, Breakthrough Thinking for NonprofitOrganizations offers a mix of "how-to" advice and case studiesthat will...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787955698
• ISBN13: 9780787955694
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

When "change drivers" hit your NPO, give this book a look.

Good book. I liked it! It was easy to read. Each chapter had a summary section so I could read the summaries before tackling the book as a whole. If you are managing a not-for-profit, or sitting as a board member to a nonprofit, and you believe your nonprofit could be doing things better, then consider getting a copy of this book and give it a read. Back in July I read and reviewed "Managing Business Change for Dummies," by Beth Evard (ISBN: 0764553321), which focused on how managers successfully deal with employees who resist change in an organization. This book on the other hand focuses on how YOU, the manager, must deal with YOUR resistance to change so you can improve your organization's performance in the process. The author lists nine "change drivers:" 1. New Mission or Vision 2. Speed of Business 3. Cost Reduction 4. Service Failure 5. New Technology 6. Change in Public Perception 7. Change in Priorities 8. Competition for Funds and Resources 9. Change in Technology When your organization is hit by one or more of the above events you are going to have to implement change at your organization. This book provides examples of best practices as to how to do this. Also, the authors include exercises from their workshops on this subject. Both the best practices and exercises are very helpful to help us grasp what the authors are talking about. If you are like me you can examine the Table of Contents for this book online and after doing so you will probably say: Wow, what is this book really about. The chapter titles are kind of weak is what I'm really trying to say. It's the chapter summaries, best practices examples, and exercises that make the book a worthwhile investment of your time. I would have liked the book much better if the authors had organized it so it did not feel like just another book put together by a management consulting group. Yeah, it felt like one of "those" to me. And after you read 2 of them, they all start to sound the same. But since this book is informative, well written, and not too long I'm inclined to give it 5 stars.

For everyone connected with a noprofit

Good performance is no longer enough for nonprofits; nonprofits must set and achieve breakthrough goals. Managers and board members need to think in new and creative ways about how they define and meet the challenges they face and the strategies and techniques required to achieve extraordinary performance in fundraising, service delivery and overall results. Almost all nonprofits are affected to some extent by nine change drivers. There are five internal change drivers: organizations need a new mission or vision or they will run out of steam; the speed of business requires more decisions made faster; rising costs require new ways to deliver service from a distance; high profile service failure may require drastic measures such as clearing out top management to win back public confidence; new technology may make a nonprofit redundant or may offer opportunities to improve ways of doing business. There are also four external drivers of change: changes in public perception may result in being dropped from people's consciousness or require 24/7 availability; rapid public awareness of disasters quickly changes priorities; competition for funds has increased as distinctions between nonprofits, the public sector and the private sector has blurred; technology change can make old solutions redundant. Nonprofits that fail to answer two fundamental questions: where do we want to go? and how do we get there? may find themselves wandering in a fog, not knowing how they got into their current situation and wondering what is the right way to go. The decision to go for breakthrough is a strategic one involving risk and asking questions such as 'what is the worst thing that can happen if breakthrough goes wrong?' and 'how likely is it that the worst thing will happen?' and 'what can we do to minimize the risk of the worst thing happening?' and 'should we have a Plan B to cope with problems?' After appraising the risks and challenges and adopting a strategy you still need to decide on the approach required to encourage the people and innovation needed and the leadership required. Even then you need to ask 'to what extent do the improvements and changes made match up to what is needed?'Once an organization has decided to transform its performance to have an impact on the need/performance gap or to achieve its potential, plotting the position on a life cycle chart can be very helpful. Organizations decide to change at various points in their life cycle and for different reasons. The challenge with the most common change point - just past the peak - is that the organization has to break out of its comfort zones and one way is to think about a dramatically improved level of performance. To drive that change a vision of the new performance level has to be agreed together with positive and negative drivers to provide pleasure and avoid pain. Two words have proved exceptionally useful in setting new goals - kaizen and horshin - because they describe not only the nature o

Breakthrough thinking made easy

This is an excellent read - it's a combination of textbook, manual, map and story book. It describes the route to exceptional organisational and personal peformance in a way which makes it possible for all of us.It's written in a particularly readable style. Each chapter is self-sufficient so it's easy to pick up and put down. Theories are illustrated visually with diagrams and tables, supplemented by case studies drawn from the authors' work around the world. This gives the text a sense of recency and freshness that adds to its accessibility.Best of all Breakthrough Thinking explodes myths about creativity making it something that we can all achieve. All we have to do is open our minds and just do it.

This book should be on the best seller list for charities

I wish that two decades ago when I was leading the initiative to establish the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy there had been a book available like Breakthrough Thinking. It would have been helpful in shortening the gestation period. Some of our clients have already benefited from our application of tools described by Ross and Segal, particularly regarding fundraisingRoss/Segal are well qualified to address Breakthrough. The book benefits from their experience in working with charities in the United States, Europe, Canada, Africa and South America through their UK based Management Centre. The book is peppered with examples of the application of the tools they discuss by named organizations on different continents. They even have the refreshing temerity to identify failures.Ross's presentations in North America have led to recognition of what Europeans and others already know - he is one of a handful of truly outstanding international thinkers and presenters in the charity field. Participant evaluations testify to the fact that Ross's seminars/workshops are both brilliant and entertaining. Neither of these characteristics are lost in the book.Ross/Segal are very effective at adapting new business management theories and tools for use by the charitable sector. To give but one example, using the metaphor of the "Wild West" they identify the seven character roles required to successfully implement change. Acknowledging this to be a modification of management consultant Rennie Fritchie's five roles they identify the attributes required by the pioneer, wagon train leader, scout, sheriff, homesteader, medicine man or woman, hired gun. This greatly facilitates the reader's understanding and remembering the special requirements for each of these roles to achieve a successful "breakthrough journey." As they point out, "the roles idea is simply a metaphor to help cluster the skills, competencies, knowledge, and qualities needed." In their preface Ross/Segal state that their mission in writing the book was "to inspire managers and board members in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to believe they can achieve extraordinary results, and to give them practical strategies and techniques for achieving such results."Ross /Segal do indeed deliver on the mission. They provide us with a toolbox of approaches and ideas to achieve "extraordinary results." As they point out - a toolbox provides a variety of tools for tasks and some are easier to use than others. We get better with our usage of them!It is difficult to imagine a CEO, Board member, fundraiser, consultant and others desiring significant increased or dramatic new goals for their organization, in whatever area, who would not gain from applying some of the very practical and tested tools described in the book. My business partner has found mindmapping an invaluable tool for working with groups to help them organize their thinking, let alone her own. One of my many favourites from the book is

A Great Book to help with Change

I heard one of the authors speak at a Public Broadcasting Service conference a couple of months ago and was excited enough to buy the book. This has proved really helpful to me as a development professional trying to change the way the people here at my college think about their potential. It offered me some really powerful and simple frameworks to analyze our current work, to establish what a breakthrough might be, and finally how to implement a change programme. Ther are some useful ideas on how to set up and sustain an innovation programme that are really provocative.There are also some very useful checklists and a really neat framework for working out your own role in any breakthrough. I found this exceptionally useful in deciding what I could do by myself and what I needed to ask other people to do. Chapter 5 is good on this.Finally it's good that lots of the examples are from outside the US. That gives the book a wider perspective.