The adaptability to change, long life correlation

During the funeral service earlier this week for my 91 year-old mother-in-law, Jean Basinger Schumacher, her pastor identified adaptability to change as a unifying characteristic among old-old people. Family history, lifestyle, and economic status matter, but it seems that one’s approach to change counts most for length of days.

Folks who roll with the punches – who find contentment in any circumstance – tend to live longer than their less adaptive peers. As reported in a study of Ohio (the state my mother-in-law called home) centenarians:

•  Age isn’t an issue for these easy adapters. They’re too busy living in the present.
• Long-lived individuals use and enjoy humor.
• In telling their life stories, these oldsters show a great ability to adapt to a range of changes, both good and challenging.
• They demonstrate a generalized sense of control over their environment and their psychological well-being.

I see my mother-in-law reflected in the research findings. Not that her life was a bed of roses. In fact, quite the opposite. Her childhood was marred by the death of her mother. She buried two husbands. And she lived with the constant pain of severe osteoporosis for much of her last decade.

Yet through it all, my mother-in-law remained optimistic, curious, and forward-looking. Regardless her circumstances, she got up, put on her make-up, and faced each day with a smile.

THE ADAPTABLE ORGANIZATION

If my work with faith-based nonprofits has taught me anything, it’s this: adaptability to change is as important for organizations as it is for people.

I’ve met organizational leaders who cling to the past with all their might, grieving for what has changed, and fearful of what’s ahead. I’ve also worked with  leaders who are ready to roll up their sleeves, grab hold of new possibilities, and embrace the future.

There’s no surprise as to which organizations are succeeding – even thriving – despite tough economic times. History, mission, and finances matter, but ability to adapt — to change — is key. Show me a successful organization and I’ll show you leadership that’s open to new knowledge, new insights, and new experiences.

Jim Collins and Morten Hansen, writing in Great by Choice, note that

Those who spend most of their energy ‘reacting to change’ will do exactly that, expend most of their energy reacting to change. In a great twist of irony, those who bring about the most significant change in the world, those who have the largest impact on the economy and society, are themselves enormously consistent in their approach. They aren’t dogmatic or rigid; they’re disciplined, they’re creative. . . they’re SMaC (Specific, Methodical, and Consistent). The more uncertain, fast-changing, and unforgiving your environment, the more SMaC you need to be.”

In other words, you get up, put on your make-up, face the day with a smile, and make it all work — sometimes for as long as 91 years.

Breaking for grief

Jean Basinger Schumacher with her youngest great-grandchild, Willen Basinger. Photo taken the day before her 91st birthday.

I am taking a break from Generous Matters as my husband and I walk with his mother, Jean Helen Habeggar Basinger Schumacher, during her last hours in this life.

Even as we and my husband’s siblings grieve the loss the family is facing, we rejoice that the constant pain with which she’s lived for several years will soon be over. Any hour now, she will be home with the God she loves, dancing through the streets of Heaven, free from her walker, transport chair, and scooter.

My mother-in-law has been the heart and anchor of a beautifully blended family, keeping tabs with three generations via her iPad, Facebook, and Skype. She is legend around her hometown of Bluffton, OH and among her far-flung progeny as a techno-savvy granny. Here’s hoping the mansion that’s been prepared for her includes access to a strong Internet connection.

Generosity in quotes

“When the dreams we have for ourselves match the reality of our experience, we’re living our purpose. These moments of leadership aren’t always about being in the spotlight. They aren’t always about presenting to thousands or asking for millions of dollars. They are often quiet moments as we are getting dressed to leave or are making notes in preparation for a call. We know that what we are doing is right, but it feels so uncomfortable that all we want is for someone to come down from above to answer our hesitant wondering about whether we’re doing the right thing with a confident Yes.”

Billy Parish, co-author of Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money, and Community in a Changing World and co-founder of the Energy Action Coalition and the co-founder and president of Solar Mosaic, from an article in YES! Magazine.

Peter Drucker, the future, and deja vu all over again

Now and then, I return to a book that was influential to my thinking in years past.  Although less revealing than journal entries, the highlighted sections, along with notes jotted in the margins, recall the issues dominating my thinking and my work at the time of the first reading. Frequently, there’s not much distance between what was top-of-mind then and my focus now.

This past week, my repeat read was the now classic work, Managing the Future: The 1990s and Beyond by management guru Peter Drucker. For all that has changed in the world over the past two decades, Drucker’s thoughts on leading in a knowledge society remain as timely as when first delivered. So, too, is his advice on balancing financial interests with commitment to mission.

Here’s a taste of what Peter Drucker had to say.

As a rule, nonprofits are more money-conscious than business enterprises are. They talk and worry about money much of the time because it is so hard to raise and because they have so much less than they need. But nonprofits do not base their strategy on money, nor do they make it the center of their plans, as so many corporate executives do. ‘The businesses I work with start their planning with financial returns,’ says one well-known CEO who sits on both business and nonprofit boards. ‘The nonprofits start with the performance of their mission.’

Starting with the mission and its requirements may be the first lesson business can learn from successful nonprofits. It focuses the organization on action. It defines the specific strategies needed to attain the crucial goals. It creates a disciplined organization. It alone can prevent the most common degenerative disease of organizations, especially large ones: splintering their always limited resources on things that are ‘interesting’ or look ‘profitable’ rather than concentrating them on a very small number of productive efforts.

The best nonprofits devote a great deal or thought to defining their organization’s mission. They avoid sweeping statements full of good intentions and focus, instead on objectives that have clear-cut implications for the work their members perform – staff and volunteers both.  The Salvation Army’s goal, for example, is to turn society’s rejects—alcoholics, criminals, derelicts—into citizens. The Girl Scouts help youngsters become confident, capable young women who respect themselves and other people. The Nature Conservancy preserves the diversity of nature’s fauna and flora. Nonprofits also start with the environment, the community, the ‘customers’ to be; they do not, as American businesses tend to do, start with the inside, that is, with the organization or with financial returns.

As these paragraphs illustrate, Drucker’s wisdom is evergreen and readily recyclable to a new generation of readers. Be it yesterday, today, or tomorrow, the best on almost any topic — including managing well — is frequently deja vu all over again.

Generosity in quotes

“One habit of transformative leaders is that they make creative friendships. This is not ‘empire building’ — getting to know people in case you can use them later. It’s networking — genuinely investing in someone in anticipation that God will generate fruit from the peculiar combination of gifts of these specific people.”

Jason Byassee, senior pastor of Boone United Methodist Church and a fellow in theology and leadership at Duke Divinity School, from a blog post titled “Habits of a networker”

Reassuring words for the harried Class of 2012

Just in time for graduation season comes an essay from author Clayton Christensen on how to find work that you love. His encouragement to “follow your passion” is calming advice for this year’s class of newly minted alums who are under the gun to take a job – any job.

Not that Christensen has a problem with pulling down a paycheck. He doesn’t. Rather, the bone he’s chosen to pick is folks who make making money THE THING. As he writes: It “isn’t that money is the root cause of professional unhappiness. It’s not. The problems start occurring when it becomes the priority over all else.” Christensen worries that too many North Americans have stopped believing it’s possible to do good, while also doing well financially.

WORKING HARD FOR THE JOY OF IT

In response, he reminds us that “some of the hardest working people on the planet are employed in charitable organizations. They work in the most difficult conditions imaginable: they earn a fraction of what they would if they were in the private sector. Yet it’s rare to hear of managers of nonprofits complaining about getting their staff motivated.”

Christensen is quick to acknowledge that hygiene factors (status, compensation, job security, work conditions, company policies, and supervisory practices) matter. Think The Office or the cartoon character Delbert and his pointy haired boss. In Christensen’s words, “bad hygiene causes dissatisfaction.” But cleaning up the smelly aspects of a job isn’t enough to make it lovable. That comes from deep within each heart – from personal motivations, values, and dreams.

WORKING HARD FOR GOD’S JOY IN IT

For persons of faith, loving one’s work comes from seeking first the Kingdom of God and trusting that what comes after will be enough. It comes from remembering, as Amy Sherman writes in Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good (quoting N. T. Wright) that

What we do in the present – ‘painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, carrying for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself – will last into God’s future.’ Such activities are all a part of what we may call ‘building God’s kingdom.’ Our work is not in vain, because we are ‘accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world.’

Christensen promises that “once you get this right, the more measurable aspects of your job will fade in importance. As the saying goes: find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

That’s a good word – a reassuring word – for the Class of 2012. Indeed, for all of us. Generous matters, including in the choices we make about work.

Perfecting the art of your ask

Maybe it’s the fast-approaching fiscal year-end. Or perhaps it’s anticipation of the summer giving doldrums that has fundraisers in a frenzy. Whatever the impetus, there’s a lot of asking going on these days. Which likely explains the increased online chatter about THE ASK, including the following examples from my in-box.

Say it with a style. A recent release from Movie Mondays comes with the encouraging reminder that there’s no one perfect way of asking. We all have our own style, and that’s okay – or so says veteran fundraiser and founder of Asking Matters, Brian Saber. In this five-minute clip, Brian shares how he was able to overcome self-doubt, boost his  own confidence as a solicitor, and then help volunteers move beyond their fears of asking.

Negotiation know-how. Although entrepreneurs are her intended audience, business writer Selena Rezvani’s  exhortation about honing negotiating skills is a word to the wise fundraiser as well. So don’t let the hard-driving business lingo in this article put you off.  It’s worth the effort of translating Rezvani’s ideas to the gentler world of nonprofits. I’ve started the process for you with the following two points.

• Set the pace.  The best [fundraisers] in the world take an active role in shaping a conversation’s cadence. Ideally, you’ll make your ask progressively. . . Be judicious with what you lay on the table, including how quickly you do it. . . Knowledge and preparation give you a huge advantage but there’s an art to unloading that information and weaving it into dialogue.

• Think co-invest. Negotiating with an eye for more isn’t done just for the sake of [getting more]. . . Be willing to make assertive claims but be equally comfortable giving up or adding on provisions that sweeten the deal for the other side. (To do this, of course, it’s essential that you have determined what’s most important for you to come out of the negotiation with and also have the authority to make the concessions you do.)

Have you heard the one . . .? Gary Cairo over at the ServantNetwork’s Blog has rounded up a bunch of fundraising axioms. I pulled out those that refer specifically to the ask.

• Connect to hearts and minds before you connect to wallets.
• Start now. There’s never a “better” time to start the process, whether cultivation or solicitation.
•  Keep in mind that people give to people, not to causes. Peer solicitation is most effective, and a “team” approach of staff/volunteer can be powerful.
• Before you ask others, you must give yourself. You will not be successful if you cannot convey your own passion for the cause.
• Keep it simple. The best way to raise money is to ask, and the best way to ask is face to face.

Which of the sayings ring true to you? What nuggets of wisdom would you add to the list?