Tuesday, November 1
at 9:29 a.m.
From Nonprofit Curmudgeon via 43 Folders:
I've learned most of what I know about nonprofit management from fortune cookies.
But every so often someone from the academy, or from a scary religious sect, makes a comment about his or her own organization that sheds a lot of light on the nonprofit sector. In this case, it was an applied physics nerd talking about a highly respected research institution:
"The infighting is so vicious because the stakes are so low."
Sometimes we're busy saving the world, and sometimes we're busy rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Perhaps the ship will sink no matter what we do, and rearranging the deck chairs is as good a way as any to occupy ourselves in the interim. However, I'd like to believe that if we stopped squabbling (about who gets the best view or the chair closest to the captain's) we might be able to bend our minds to more important tasks.
That's very good advice. Ego too often keeps us from doing truly monumental things.
I've learned most of what I know about nonprofit management from fortune cookies.
But every so often someone from the academy, or from a scary religious sect, makes a comment about his or her own organization that sheds a lot of light on the nonprofit sector. In this case, it was an applied physics nerd talking about a highly respected research institution:
"The infighting is so vicious because the stakes are so low."
Sometimes we're busy saving the world, and sometimes we're busy rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Perhaps the ship will sink no matter what we do, and rearranging the deck chairs is as good a way as any to occupy ourselves in the interim. However, I'd like to believe that if we stopped squabbling (about who gets the best view or the chair closest to the captain's) we might be able to bend our minds to more important tasks.
That's very good advice. Ego too often keeps us from doing truly monumental things.
