Reprise: Lean & the Non-Profits?

By Pascal Dennis

Charity is a fundamental virtue.

We have to help those entangled in the 'web of circumstance'.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

More and more, I like to give of myself, my time and effort.

It's concrete, and NGOs & non-profits are in dire need of Lean support.

Are they not swimming in waste?

Over-processing, defects & delay are perhaps the most obvious.

For example, I've donated annually to a well-known children's charity.

Yet they continually send me, at high cost, the same bulk mail, even after I wrote and asked them not to.

Over-processing and defect waste, no?

I'm passionate about helping people with disabilities, and have offered to help half a dozen agencies involved in such work.

Only one has bothered to respond and the message was, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'

Are NGO's and Non-Profits not interested in running better?

Sadly, the message seems to be: "Just send us your money. We'll figure out how to spend it."

Sorry, you'll figure out how to waste it...

(Am I becoming cynical?)

Like any organization, NGO's and Non-Profits have a purpose, customers and processes.

Why shouldn't they be as effective as Apple, Amazon, Toyota, GE or any great organization?

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

What's Wrong With NGOs? (Part 2)

By Pascal Dennis

Some time ago I asked the above question.

I've spent a good deal of time volunteering my time & energy to aid agencies.

Their response? "Just send money..."

Why are NGOs so uninterested in Continuous Improvement?

I may have found at least part of the answer.

Just finished Paul Theroux's splendid book Dark Star Safari, which chronicles the great traveller's overland trip from Cairo to Cape Town.

Theroux had worked in Uganda & Malawi as a Peace Corp teacher in the '60's & had made many friends throughout west Africa.

He is appalled by what he finds -- deterioration, despair, widespread apathy among Africans.

Things are far worse in than when he left forty years ago -- despite a trillion dollars in aid from well-meaning donors.

And he cites NGO's as a root cause.

NGOs, Theroux argues, foist untried top-down 'solutions' on Africans without grasping the situation or engaging them in any way.

Africans have been thereby infantilized, their society corrupted by "oafs driving white Range Rovers & staying in 300 dollar a night hotels".

And who are the beneficiaries of all this aid?

NGO bureaucrats on expense accounts, flying to high-level conferences in Davos, Paris & the like -- as well as, brutal dictators whose corrupt rule NGOs aid & abet.

Theroux supports his thesis with a number of damning books, including Lords of Poverty and The Road to Hell - the Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid.

Any lessons for Lean thinkers?

1. Listen to the front line.
2. Don't jump to conclusions. Grasp the situation & clearly define the problem.
3. Engage the people closest to the work. Run small pilots to confirm test countermeasures before applying them broadly.
4. Be humble, be humble, be humble.

All for now,

Pascal

Lean & the Non-Profits?

By Pascal Dennis

Charity is a fundamental virtue.

We have to help those entangled in the 'web of circumstance'.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

More and more, I like to give of myself, my time and effort.

It's concrete, and NGOs & non-profits are in dire need of Lean support.

Are they not swimming in waste?

Over-processing, defects & delay are perhaps the most obvious.

For example, I've donated annually to a well-known children's charity.

Yet they continually send me, at high cost, the same bulk mail, even after I wrote and asked them not to.

Over-processing and defect waste, no?

I'm passionate about helping people with disabilities, and have offered to help half a dozen agencies involved in such work.

Only one has bothered to respond and the message was, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'

Are NGO's and Non-Profits not interested in running better?

Sadly, the message seems to be: "Just send us your money. We'll figure out how to spend it."

Sorry, you'll figure out how to waste it...

(Am I becoming cynical?)

Like any organization, NGO's and Non-Profits have a purpose, customers and processes.

Why shouldn't they be as effective as Apple, Amazon, Toyota, GE or any great organization?

Best,

Pascal