NonprofitEye

"Since untruths can be unintentional, the truth must be intentional" Arline Belton The greatest obstacles to truth telling are: "time is limited" and fear that "truth will hurt us, or someone or something we care about." Arline Belton I'd never heard of an "Organizational Healer" before. That is, until I read Erline Belton's article Truth or Consequences? in the NonProfit Quarterly. I offer an executive summary of the article, but highly recommend reading the real thing. Arline is the CEO of the Lyceum Group in Boston. She has been identified by clients as an organization healer, and feels honored to be of service as she practices organization development from her heart and head. It seems like honesty would be a given in the nonprofit sector; afterall we're the good guys right? Yes and No. Arline identifies barriers to telling the truth : Groupthink (you are a team player AREN'T YOU ?) Imaginary Conflicts Hidden Age...

Last week I wrote a "hate" post and created a del.icio.us tag " IhateMeetings "; Today I offer an antidote: a new del.icio.us tag: " Icouldn'tsayitbetter " I've tagged articles (and blog posts) that are so well put that I'm left humbled. These authors write what I've felt for so long, but could not articulate. When you're feeling overwhelmed by the insanity in the nonprofit world, here are some ideas that will help you find your way back to sanity (some already becoming "classics"): 1) Clara Miller talks about why the "normal" rules of accounting get very weird when applied to nonprofits in: The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money: Managing in For-Profits' Shadow Clara steps "through the looking glass" asking (and answering) the following true/false questions: Rule 1: The consumer buys the product. Rule 2: Price covers cost and eventually produces profits, or the business folds. Rule 3: Cash is ...