The Primal Challenge in Great Organizations: Resolving and Sustaining Who We ARE and What We DO! (aka The Do-Be-Do-Be-Do Challenge)e

Most organizations—new and old—are dominated by questions like:  What’s broken, missing or possible and how can we fix it/change it/do it?  Who are we? What is our purpose? And what should we do?  

In other words: What should we…. Do-Be-Do-Be-Do!?!

Who we say we are and stand-for drives what we do; in turn, what we do drives who we are and who we become.  This cycle can be healthy and self-reinforcing and nurture the identity and power of an organization.  Or it can begin to go astray—usually without noticing—and organizations then find themselves off course,  acting and spending resources in ways they didn’t intend and may not believe in and being off the mark with their achievements and outcomes.

First, though, consider the great positive potential when an organization is in a good, strong, focused loop:

The equanimity of this sketch indicates an organization that understands its purpose, strengths, directions, outcomes and then acts accordingly to strengthen/grow its identity, purpose and effectiveness.  One set of actions strengthens and clarifies the other in an infinite process of self-improvement.

For example “Organization Blue” has a mission/purpose statement that expresses the organization’s deepest values and sense of direction and intended accomplishments. It lines up with a strategic plan that is reviewed and updated regularly, always incorporating what has been learned so that each trip through the loop can be better and more accurately aimed at  achieving the imagined success.

Organization Blue is holding together a mission of serving homeless families (direct assistance with temporary housing, search for and transition to permanent housing etc.) while also trying to change the forces in their community responsible for the turmoil in the housing market (e.g. identifying and eliminating speculative development; changing minimum and regular wages too small to afford housing;  advocating for low-cost housing).  Organization Blue—board, staff, constituents—are all aware of the constant planning, doing, learning process  that results in a stronger “do-be-do”.  The organization knows who it is and refreshes that identity regularly and does its work accordingly.

Conversely “Organization Tie-Dye” has a mission/purpose statement that is a tradition and it isn’t totally accurate anymore; at the same time, most staff and even some board and community leaders are freelancing actions and programs that express the organization’s priorities.  Focus, action, resources, and identity are spread everywhere.  From the outside looking in the organization seems well-meaning but confused, lacking focus.  Success is hard to see when the picture is so fractured.

Their ”do-be-do” loop looks something like this:

“Organization Tie-Dye” is holding onto an important youth leadership development mission in its community but the kids seem to need so much so the organization constantly is inventing new programs that go beyond its mission to meet needs…even when those needs might be handled by others in the community.  There just isn’t time to investigate and collaborate….so Organization Tie-Dye jumps in and creates some instant relief for needs they perceive.  Although Organization Tie-Dye is not completely wrong about trying to adapt itself to the kids’ needs they are doing so without a strategy and without collaboration. They are stretching and pulling their own mission/purpose and focus without regard to implications for their own sustainability, the needs of their own focused purpose, and likely encroaching on others’ missions and programs.  By over-improvising the “doing” side of their cycle they are becoming something else but they are not taking the time to discern or purposefully change what they are.  Their “do-be-do” is wobbling toward change that they are not really embracing or able to sustain. Over time their organization will weaken rather than gain momentum.

Are you Organization Blue?  Or Organization Tie-Dye? 

 The ”do-be-do” of an organization is a valuable superpower for successful outcomes. 

So how can your organization improve its “do-be-do”?

First:  Recognize the do-be-do cycle in your organization and describe it; create a shared awareness among organizational leaders about how the stated identity and purpose of the organization align with actions that convert identity/purpose into successful outcomes.

Second: Do an inventory of values and principles (“be”) that add up to your organization’s best expression of identity and purpose.

Third:  Test those values by identifying your organization’s internal actions that affirm and “live” those values and at the same time test those values against your external actions: programs, services, leadership.  Is there alignment or not?  (“do”)

A values assessment tool is available from SWIM and is easy to use as a way of facilitating a board, staff or constituent discussion.  Doing this exercise is likely to improve your do-be-do.

Fourth: Invest in a discussion about “assessment” or evaluation.  How will we know success if and when we see it? How do we incorporate reflection and learning into every major activity?

Author: Stephanie Clohesy

Do you need to get back your “do-be-do”? You may need to engage your leaders and/or constituents in a forthright discussion and some strategic thinking. SWIM can be a resource for you, schedule a discovery session with us.