Do these 4 Things to Fail Miserably as Non-Profit or a Business

A while back, I asked Walter Simmons what he saw as the 4 greatest challenges to nonprofits.? His answer is the basis for this article.?

In telling the story, I decided to take the Charlie Munger approach on this topic and invert the situation.? Charlie gave several graduation talks in his life, which you can read in the book Poor Charlie’s Almanack.? In one of them, he detailed the ways to have a miserable life.?? The result is humorous, albeit in a caustic way.

This blog post is intended to have the same tone.

Any of us that have served in leadership for either a business or a nonprofit have felt these pains.? We’ve been caught in political turmoil. We’ve sat in interminable meetings. We’ve felt frustrated by the incoherence of messaging from leadership.

My hope is that you laugh, cry, lament, and yell at the ceiling about the moments of frustration you experienced.

Then hopefully, you’ll find a book or a resource that shows a better way to do it, then fix the problem.

Without further ado, if you want your organization to fail miserably, do these 4 things.

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Run an operation with no organizational structure.

If you want to fail, there should be no accountability or vision at any level of the organization.? There should be a perpetual state of confusion about who is responsible for making decisions.? In a perfect scenario, there will be multiple people with opinions on every single topic and no one with the authority to execute the plan.? For extra credit, please make sure that no one is accountable for executing the decisions made by this motley crew.

This means, if there is no coffee in the break room, at least three people should suggest to each other to buy coffee, with no one responsible for buying the coffee.

The executive director should be answering the phones just like the receptionist.?

There should be no vision for what the organization will look like 5 years from now.? Many people should have thoughts about the topic, but there should be no consensus and unified thought.

Certainly, do not read the book Traction, as this book will give poisonous ideas about creating a strong entrepreneurial structure.

Make Sure There are No Business or Operational Procedures

If you are to fail spectacularly, it is critical that there are no standard operation procedures within the organization.

When someone calls the front desk, everyone should answer it differently.

When delivering care to a client, every employee should use their own methodology for creating that standard of care.

Certainly, do not write anything down.? It is far better to have unarticulated expectations as a leader.? This way, when someone does not abide by your expectations, you can be disappointed, and they can be confused why you are disappointed, and everyone will understand that “this is the way we do things around here.”

There are additional benefits to the approach.? Your employees will burn out from the frustrations of unclear expectations.? But this will be good, because the goal in this situation is to help no one and propel zero careers.? We would not want people to feel a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

Under no circumstances should you read the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber.? We would not want to confuse anyone with the idea that you should run your operation as if you want to franchise it.

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Make Sure There is No Sales or Fundraising Strategy

If we want to fail, it is important that no one is aware of your existence.

This is critical.

People that want to use your services need to be ignorant of where you are.? Or how to find you.? Or how to contact you.

Potential employees must be thwarted in their attempts to apply because there is no way contact HR.

Potential Grantmakers need to focus first on the other programs in your area.

You should not identify the key potential donors or buyers.? You should not create a unique value proposition.?

In no situation should you have a systematic strategy for reaching out to your top potential customers or donors.

The goal is to slip anonymously into the mist, with no one the wiser.

You should definitely not read The Ultimate Sales Machine.? This will give you terrible ideas about identifying the ideal client, outreach strategies, and ways to make your mission appeal to people, regardless of where they are in a buying cycle.?

Skip this book.

Make sure to Have Ineffective Boards and Leadership

Here is what an ideal scenario looks like to have an ineffective board.

The attendance at meetings should be very spotty.? There should an agenda placed at each seat, but if all is going well, there should be no quorum.? At the next meetings, there should be equally poor attendance, and hopefully there will different board members in attendance.? This way, no one in the room will understand what happened at the previous meeting.? Also, it will be easy to arrive at a diametrically opposed decision from the last meeting.? Lastly, it will create opportunity for conflict at the third meeting, when the board member that attended the first meeting but not the second will feel unheard or ignored because of the new guidance.

I also recommend that none of your board members donate to your cause.? Or if you’re for-profit, it’s important for there to be no financial incentives for the success of your organization.? We wouldn’t want to confuse the public that the leadership is invested in the success of the organization.? We also wouldn’t want leadership to have emotional connections to the mission of the organization.? This may cause the organization to have unintended success, and that is not what we want.

Lastly, it would be ideal for the board to have many conflicts of interest.? This way, when trying to make a decision, people’s intentions will be very murky.? It will be very easy to have misunderstandings.? This will certainly help meetings stall out, frustrate directors, staff, and other stakeholders.

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Conclusion:

As I have stated previously in this article, to path to failure is clear:

No structure.

No procedures.

No outreach strategy.

No leadership.

If you can embrace these four core beliefs, failure will come naturally.