The greatness of our organizations is vital to the future. After all, we live in organizations. By working together in organizations, we can change the headlines in the newspapers, the lives of our fellow human beings, and even the course of history.
But when we walk down the hall to a meeting, how many of us think about the historic significance of our work on behalf of the cause we serve? It's easy to get so wrapped up in the details (the day-to-day "how") that we lose sight of the high aspirations for which an organization stands (the enduring "why").
Yet it's the "why" that both defines and fuels the greatness of social sector and civic initiatives. After all, the "why" is the reason we create these causes in the first place, as vehicles for reaching our aspirations for society. And the "why" is the reason we continue to pour in our time, energy, and money.
If we fill ourselves with this sense of historic import, what do we make of the growing pressure on social sector organizations to become more "business-like"? And what do we make of the closely related insistence that we look solely to "outcomes" and rely exclusively on numerical measures to assess an organization's effectiveness?
As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of the gross domestic product, we may be measuring "everything ... except that which makes life worthwhile."
Might we choose to go for breathtaking, extraordinary, world-changing action, rather than just making the numbers?
And might the distinctive features of the social sector, its mission-driven and value-laden nature, be reason to pause before embracing standard business methods?