Are you afraid to say what isn't working?
13:02, 30 August 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt4 trackbacks
.. Link
Last week, I edited a presentation for an Afghan colleague in Afghanistan regarding how her program monitors and evaluates its projects. She had written what she thought those that would view the presentation wanted to hear: perfection. In her report, monitoring and evaluation worked like a textbook definition of such at her organization.
I could say that this is a mistake by someone still oh-so-new to public administration, project management, reporting and evaluation. But the reality is that I see this mistake made by experienced nonprofit/NGO managers all the time. Their philosophy for reporting, monitoring and evaluation is this: don't talk about what isn't working, don't talk about problems, and don't talk about challenges that the program, project or organization is facing, because any of that means failure. Most staff members at nonprofits, NGOs and government agencies are reluctant to report information they feel reflects negatively on their or their organization's performance, or to even talk about it internally.
Don't fear reporting or discussing bad news with donors or the public, or acknowledging and talking about them internally. Being upfront about problems and challenges:
- shows the public, including donors, transparency, accountability and good governance
- puts you in control of the reporting: you are defining the message and not leaving it to someone else to discover and report in their own way
- could lead to additional funding
- creates a staff culture of openness and respect -- which leads to a further culture of loyalty and trust
- Conflict / disagreements
- Misunderstandings
- Negative publicity / perceptions
- Lack of funds / funding gaps
- Policy changes that have negatively affected program delivery in some way
- Procurement challenges
- Transportation problems
- Facility problems / challenges
- Cultural practices that adversely affect clients or the issue being addressed
- Bureaucracy
- Security issues
- Corruption (bribes, falsifying reports, etc.)
Reward openness by staff to discuss problems and challenges; acknowledge it and address it, don't punish or discipline for truthfulness, no matter how much it hurts!
Also see:
- This list of questions to answer in reports.
- These resources on building staff capacities to communicate and to present, which describes various activities undertaken to improve the communication capacities of Afghan government staff, and links to various slide presentations and materials used for this endeavor.
- For Nonprofit Organizations: How to Handle Online Criticism
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