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32
I
Nonprofit
Performance
Magazine
Sustaining Relevance
SurviveVersus Thrive
JEFFREY MAGEE
O
rganizations across the globe are facing
a major threat to their survival and a
direct impediment to their ability to accelerate
and thrive: the equation of sustainability.
Sustainability has for decades been owned
by the linear thinking positions: analytics,
finance, accounting, engineering, operations,
administration, etc. Sustainability is a
360-degree conversation and application:each
business unit, including the entire C-suite,
has an ownership stake in understanding and
implementing sustainability strategies and
behaviors. Sustainability is a universal issue
and is far more reaching and impactful on
organizations and human capital than most
realize.
Survival mentality in our marketplace
serves as a cancer to sustainability. Business
annals are littered with organizations and
individuals that embraced survival mentality
and no longer exist. Conversely, the annals
also boast many great organizations in the
private sector and nonprofit space that are
achievers and winners.
In 1971, the United States Junior Chamber
of Commerce ( Jaycees) had more than one
million members, as a thriving sustainable
organization. Today, the US Jaycees boast
fewer than 30,000 members and are
knocking on death’s doorstep of defeatism.
Their mission statement from nearly 100
years ago is still 100% viable, but decades
of flawed execution have derailed them.
In the past decade, the United Methodist
Church has lost more than one million
members from their local-level leadership
positions because of survival mentality and
not addressing a progressive forward-focused
thrive sustainability mindset.
The concept of sustainability has been
bastardized in business conversation of
late as applied only when discussing topics
such as conservation, ecology, alternative
energy, or global warming; this is a gross
misrepresentation of the concept. In that
context, sustainability may be a marketing
gambit to attract people to emotionally-
charged narratives and business endeavors
that would otherwise not be profitable or
relevant. It makes people feel good to say
they are engaged in sustainable projects.
Organizational sustainability is a universal
and should be considered, benchmarked and
applied in many ways. Here are a few, albeit
not conclusive, non-traditional lenses to look
through when considering the matter of
sustainability.
Sustainability through Values-Vision-
Mission Statements.
These statements are the GPS from which
all other factors are born for thriving
organizations. It starts with a deep reflection
on the organization’s core stakeholders’
personal values and how those evolve into
the organization’s value system. Values drive
the vision of the individual and organization
and are typically transferred into the
public mission statement. Every endeavor,
deliverable, decision, and all human capital
moves should be aligned into this for survival,
meeting minimum business standards to
stay viable and determining performance
standards that excel beyond to attain a
thriving state.
Sustainability through Viable Evolving
Real-Time Deliverables.
Keep people focused on a short-term world
perspective with continuing relevance when
the long-term matters are paramount for
sustainability.Tobe sustainable,organizations
must embrace a culture and attitude of
agility to ensure that what they engage in
with business practices, deliverables, etc.,
serve a real market need. Mindsets must be
respectfully challenged at all times and with
every incident. Conversely, an organization
that is executing action plans and deliverables
doesn’t need to change, if change would not
move it to a thriving state.
Survival sustainability is predicated upon the
analytics of your present deliverables as an
organization or nonprofit, measured against
the demographics you serve, what really
is profitable, and what your organization
should remain connected to and what should
be spun-off to remain viable. Once this is
done and monitoring systems and processes