Does Working For A Nonprofit Kill Your Creativity?
I believe we are undercutting the potential of the nonprofit sector by the constraints we impose upon it, intentionally or not, but are we killing the creativity of the actual people who are working for a nonprofit or with nonprofits as well? After reading The 5 Most Dangerous Creativity Killers, I would have to say yes.
Ever wonder why you get the same old fundraising appeals all the time? Or why the organization you support still has that black tie gala that nobody actually likes? Or why you seem to hear the same types of stories (or same story) over and over again? Well this article on 99u that summarizes a Harvard study looking at the 5 main factors in squelching creativity (below) gives us a glimpse into why there may be a lack of creativity amongst nonprofit employees.
1. Role Mismatch
Your fundraiser might be great with people but bad writing copy. Your communications person might be great at writing press releases but not so good at developing a new event. The list could be endless but the premise is when people are not in the right roles they can’t be as creative or do their best work. In the nonprofit space a more common problem is people simply have too many roles and are being asked to do too much. It’s hard to do your best work or be your creative best in that environment.
2. External End Goal Restriction
“It worked okay last year so let’s just do that again”. This is a common statement and is an example of an external end goal restriction. Statements like “we can’t” or “we shouldn’t” either imposed for legal reasons or best practices reasons (one of my biggest hindrances) can severely limit creativity. The best example of this is the administrative “overhead” ratio. We can’t be too expensive or crazy because of how it will look. So ideas stay small and safe.
3. Strict Ration of Resources
This one is pretty self-explanatory as it is hard to do new unique things without resources. You probably jumped to thinking resources = money but the most valuable resource for creativity is time. Finding a way to expand a donor base with limited funds is a challenge to be sure and one that can’t be solved simply by throwing money at it. If teams and people are given time to think about it, do some research, learn and test and execute, not in a rush, then you can stand a chance. Being in a constant rush is the biggest and most damaging problem I’ve seen across organizations. It’s not just money, it can buy you time or maximize time, but time is the most precious resource here.
4. Lack of Social Diversity
Similar people get along well because… well they are similar. But that means they think in similar ways. Having a team of diversity (which means more than ethnic diversity) is key to getting different view points, new ideas and concepts. Some of the best ideas to problems where I’ve been stuck come from people who are way less familiar with “fundraising” or “nonprofit” work and have wildly different backgrounds. If you’re stuck on something, try bringing in someone on your team that you would never think to bring in.
5. Discouragement/No Positive Feedback
This goes back to some cultural aspects of working for a nonprofit but it can be one of the most thankless jobs out there. Always behind, scrambling to get caught up, working hours upon hours for less pay and very rarely getting positive feedback from external sources or internal sources. This is one area where major gift officers are generally great for culture as they are the cheerleaders on the front lines meeting with donors and encouraging everyone else. Build in positive feedback points into your day and week or you’ll dry up creatively in a hurry.
While there are many reasons why working for a nonprofit might kill your creativity it doesn’t have to be. And if the sector is going to survive and thrive into the future it’s going to allow for more creativity and get more creative. Sign up for email updates or follow on Twitter for 5 Ways You Can Get More Creative… coming soon…
