Wednesday, December 25, 2013

ROUND SEVEN: Imagined Interview About Parents To Projects (P2P)

We sat down a few weeks ago for a Skype conversation with Keeler Cox. Keeler is the father of a twelve-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy. For the past couple of years, he's been drawing on his business background to raise questions about the possibility of "managing CP out of existence."

Our focus? Parents to Projects (P2P): an experiment aimed at helping the broader children's neurological disorders community pick up the pace and be more productive. 

*  *  *  *  *

Interviewer: Tell us about the origins of P2P.

KC: Well, there are lots of organizations -- a surprising number -- working directly or indirectly on behalf of kids like mine, trying to make things better. I'm grateful for all they do. Unfortunately, though, they have long, long, long ways to go to even come close to fulfilling their missions. I want things to move faster. P2P is a product of that. Specifically, it represents an effort to get our organizations more help.

Interviewer: How did you zero in on "work" as your subject matter?

KC: I'm sure it has to do with my believing that, even if funding in our neck of the woods stays where it is, we still ought to be able to manage our existing productive -- i.e. work -- resources better.

Interviewer: And accomplish more as a result?

KC: Yes. 

Interviewer: What would that do for us? How would that help our community?

KC: My hope (and my hypothesis) is that we'd all benefit. Individual organizations would move closer to fulfilling their missions. And there'd be multiplier effects. We probably couldn't reach our goals twice as fast by doubling our collective work output. But if our orgs could attempt more things -- a lot more things -- at least we'd learn what doesn't work faster. That'd be valuable.

Interviewer: What kind of work are you talking about?

KC: All the stuff organizations commit to doing in their efforts to achieve their goals. From the biggest projects to the smallest tasks. From the experimental to the mundane. Businesses have historically been better at specifying what that stuff is. Nonprofits, government agencies, individuals and multi-stakeholder networks, on the other hand, have generally been poorer. 

Interviewer: In other words...

KC: They're not managers first. Deploying people and other resources to tackle what's on their "to do" lists isn't their forte.

Interviewer: Why don't they look for help?

KC: I could only speculate. What really matters, though, is that a lot of potentially valuable work isn't getting done; stuff's falling through the cracks. That's not only unfortunate -- selfishly, it doesn't help my daughter -- it may also be unnecessary.

Interviewer: Why unnecessary?

KC: Because I believe the resources our organizations need are out there waiting to be mobilized.

Interviewer: How does your P2P concept tie in?

KC: One thing I'd like to try via P2P to do is help organization leaders become better HR managers, in a sense: more aware of the human resources available to them; better at attracting and accessing people who can help them work through their challenges. There's a sizable talent pool out there that I believe could be better tapped.

Interviewer: Where? Who?

KC: For starters, there are 14 million children in the US battling some type of neurological challenge. Their families. Their parents. No doubt many are tapped out financially and otherwise. But imagine if even a portion of them could muster up the energy to contribute an hour a week to helping our orgs advance their various causes, either voluntarily or for cheap. What would our ecosystem look like a year from now?

Interviewer: And P2P would address that how? 

KC: Generally speaking, by using the power of the Net to match organizations' work needs with parents and other service providers, by cultivating a kind of talent marketplace. Not unlike an industry-specific Monster.com in some ways.

Interviewer: Sounds like a good place to stop.

*  *  *  *  *

We encourage organization leaders and parents alike to check out Keeler's Facebook page to get involved: www.facebook.com/parents2projects.

Monday, December 16, 2013

ROUND SEVEN: Follow The Bridgespan

Here's something a little different stemming from our Parents to Projects (P2P) program. An opportunity -- not for parents to help an organization that's working on their behalf, but -- for leaders of disability organizations to help another organization that's working on their behalf. 

Confusing? 
Follow me: 

The Bridgespan Group is a management consultancy that serves nonprofits. It regularly conducts polls and surveys. The reason being? Bridgespan believes the more insights it can gather about its constituents or customers, the better it should be able to increase its own impact. By "increase its impact" I mean help organizations (like the many nonprofits that make up our community) become more effective. 

Their unstated proposition: If you nonprofit leaders will tell us about yourselves and your organizations by voting in our polls -- if you'll go to work for us, in other words -- we'll do our best to repay you down the road. How? With tools and advice: better ways of doing things; better ways of running your operation; better ways of trying to fulfill your mission. That's the inducement.

I'll throw in two more -- one that's hypothetical-theoretical and another that's more immediately practical:
  • I doubt if Bridgespan has a clue about our community. What if, however, it were suddenly deluged with survey and poll responses from us? Maybe it would then pay us some attention, keep us in mind, or make concerted efforts to serve us? 
  • If you as an organization leader were to take a few minutes to share your opinions here, at Bridgespan's site, you might well learn something valuable about gathering constituent input. (which you could then conceivably apply within your organization)
Either way, in my opinion our nonprofits would do well -- very well -- to follow their lead.

Monday, December 9, 2013

ROUND SEVEN: It's About The Work

What do I read into UCP's innocent-enough-looking "Digital Communications & Marketing" internship listing? To me, it's one way the organization has chosen to communicate to the world that it could use a little help. 

What kinds of help? The kinds humans in marketing departments typically give. They: write; read; organize; search the Net; stay on top o' things; post stuff on Facebook. UCP assigns those fancier names. But I'd venture to guess that thousands of parents of disabled kids -- if not tens or hundreds of thousands -- would find the work rudimentary, if not elementary. I'd also guess that UCP has more of it than it could rightly imagine. 

Hypothetically: 

What if you're a parent with aptitudes in these areas who'd like to help, but who couldn't fill the position as circumscribed? What if you were to learn today that the position's already been filled? Case closed in your mind? 

I say if you believe in UCP's mission (it's trying to open doors for people with disabilities) -- don't let those things stop you: 
  • UCP's looking for help in D.C. but you live in North Dakota? This is research and communications work. I'm sure a percentage of it, maybe even a large percentage, could be done from a distance. 
  • The internship is "not for pay" but you need to be compensated? UCP has previously offered small stipends for transportation. Maybe it would pay you small sums for services rendered? 
  • You're not a polished or published writer? You don't have an English degree? So what. Maybe rough but well organized drafts would be acceptable.
We're all learning how to unlock the benefits of the Net and what It could conceivably do for knowledge. Nobody has a corner on good approaches to orchestrating work. I believe we parents and the organizations working on our behalf owe it to our kids to explore all avenues. Like the ones above.