Section 04: What is a strong organisation?

The models described in this section help us to reflect on different aspects of what makes a ‘good’ organisation. Many tools are based on these models.

They are useful because they:

• Move the focus from project work to a ‘whole-organisation’ view of capacity Provide a way to help us see what we are aiming for when we say we are building capacity.

• Use pictures that people understand easily and remember

• Make explicit some of the assumptions underlying assessment tools

• Help with diagnosis and with deciding on priorities for where to build capacity.

"Supporting the development of sovereign organisations requires deep respect for what is local and indigenous and a subtlety of practice to give thoughtful and careful support where it is needed.”

Share the models and discuss with partners to build a common understanding of how they see their organisation changing and becoming over time.

Barefoot Guide 1, p.15

4.1: Sovereign Organisations

The Barefoot Collective, working in South Africa, identified the aspects of community-based groups which work authentically with the communities they identify with. They call them ‘sovereign organisations’: they have home –grown resilience and see self-reliance as a right. Central to their identity is local ownership and decision-making.

Encouraging and supporting these qualities is a real challenge for partner NGOs and donors. Sovereign organisations are unlikely to meet the criteria of most donors. But it is through these kinds of organisations that the rights of communities, can really be expressed and advanced.

The danger of developing NGO clones of so-called international best practice is that CBOs and local NGOs lose the character that makes them effective advocates for their communities and instead become dependent on powerful outside interests.

Source: adapted from Barefoot Guide to Working with Organisations and Social Change p13-15

"If development is about shifting or transforming power there has to be a clear concept of where power can rightfully and sustainably be held – sovereign local organisations and social movements are an obvious location.”

Barefoot Guide to Working with Organisations and Social Change p. 13

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: "Defining a soverign organisation. Works with its own purpose and principles. Mobilises and expresses the will and voice of its own constituents. Not an outsourced service provider. Culturally and structurally unique (not a “Best Practice” clone). Politically conscious, asks its own questions. Able to cooperate and collaborate.Able to continually learn and adapt, from its own experience" Sovereign organisations have purpsoe and principles, and are organisations with a strong backbone"

Source: Slide in the presentation on ‘Sovereign Local Organisations’, available here

Discuss with your partners:

1. What aspects of a ‘sovereign organisation’ are important to you?

2. How do you see yourself in this model?

3. What would you like to develop?

4. How could we support you to do this?

4.2: Organisations as living systems

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: drawing of a robot, with the words "organisations are not machines..."

As we’ve already seen, organisations are made up of individuals: they are living systems of people in active relationships with each other. They are not machines.

When we try to manage people so they behave in predictable ways on their way to known, planned destinations, then we treat them like machine parts. We look only at systems, structures, policies and the logical frameworks driving the project work. We squeeze out creativity, energising warmth and human spirit.

On the other hand, when we try to understand an organisation as a living system, we would explore:

• The values and principles that guide people’s behaviour The actual practice – not just what the plan says

• The quality of human relationships between people and with the world The culture and habits, and unwritten day to day behaviours

• The organisation’s development – how it learns, grows and changes over time.

Source: adapted from Barefoot Guide to Working with Organisations and Social Change p16-17

"Organisation is a process not a structure."

Margaret Wheatley, quoted in the Barefoot guide 1, p.16

“When we see organisation as something other than its people, as other than human, we reinforce all that lies at the bottom of what is wrong in the world.”

Barefoot Guide 1, p.17

Questions to discuss with partners

1. What do you think is unique about your organisation?

2. What are the values that are behind all that you do?

3. When do you refer back to your values?

4. What is the real work of this organisation?

5. What were key turning points in your organisation’s development? (maybe ones that people still refer to)

4.3: The life cycle of an organisation

Organisations grow and develop – and die. There is nothing inevitable about going downhill though, and the dotted line represents the renewal that a process of self- reflection and capacity strengthening can bring.

• Infancy: a good idea, just needs a bit of help

• Teenager: dynamic and experimental, unstructured, founder-led and takes lots of risks

• Prime: transitioned to a more distributed leadership, with systems set up, innovating and effective

• Mature: still very effective, starting to be less innovative

• Aristocracy: belief in self is stronger than desire to change and evolve with new challenges

• Bureaucracy: forgetting what the organisation is there to do, focus on procedure rather than results

• Living death: the organisation has become irrelevant and continues only because no-one can be bothered to close it down!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: drawing of a curve represeting the different growth stages in the life cycle of an organisaation.Starting from the left, on the ascending part of the curve, we have: "infancy", "teenager", "prime". This is when the growth curve peaks: a dotted line indicates that it may grow further, otherwise it wil start the descending phase: "mature", "aristocracy", "bureaucracy", "living death".

Life cycle activity with a partner

Purpose: A discussion of ‘where are we on the cycle?’ among staff, board members and stakeholders is a good starting point for identifying what kinds of steps are needed for the organisation to become more effective. This builds consensus and awareness, as well as enabling different views to emerge.

Set up: If possible, draw a large version of the life cycle with chalk (or string or ribbon) on the floor. Write the labels on large cards and put them onto the curve. On the back of each label write a description of the stage and the challenges associated with it (see the activity guide for further details).

Steps:

1. Invite participants to think of an organisation they know (not their own) and move to the place on the curve that they associate with that organisation.

2. Share in their groups what organisation they chose and why. Look at the back of the card and discuss what they think the organisations need to do.

3. Now invite them to think of their own organisation, and move to the place on the curve they think represents their organisation. Not everyone needs to be on the same place!

4. Encourage people to share why they chose a particular stage. Encourage debate between different ideas – there is no ‘right’ answer.

5. Discuss what the implications might be for the organisation’s development.

Download the life cycle activity guide here for advice and templates to facilitate this activity face- to-face and online

4.4: The onion model

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The "core" of the onion represents "values, identity, leadership, relationships". The next layer is "vision, aims, objectives, strategy". Then, we find "systems and structures" followed by "knolwedge and skills". The outermost layer is "Physical and human resources".

This model illustrates:

• All elements of an organisation are interrelated – weakness in one area will affect others, especially in the centre of the onion where the ‘rot’ can spread.

• There is a hierarchy of capacities – deal first with issues nearest the centre as they affect all other layers.

• There needs to be a good fit between different levels e.g. an organisation campaigning on the environment needs staff who are knowledgeable in this area.

• As you get nearer to the centre, complexity increases and capacity issues are harder to diagnose.

• It is hard to fix deeper issues by just increasing funding or staff (external layers) – though that is often what we try to do.

• Healthy growth of an organisation depends on how well it is rooted in the soil of its community.

“When you cut an onion, it makes you cry… working on capacity issues at the heart of an organisation can sometimes be a sensitive and painful process”

Brenda Lipson

4.5: The three circles model

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: three partially overlapping circles, as in a Venn diagram, showing: "Internal organisation 'to be'"; "External linkages 'to relate'"; "programme performance 'to do'". All the circles are within a larger context.

Many assessment tools are based on this model.

Organisations need strengths in all these of these areas to be effective – just focusing on one circle will not be enough. For example for a youth programme, you need to train staff to work with young people and to have links with youth organisations, local media and other relevant partners, and have a board that includes young people.

Poor external relationships (‘To relate’) could be due to a failure of leadership (‘To be’) and not because of poor media strategy, for example. When diagnosing weaknesses you need to look beyond the obvious, because circles overlap and affect each other.

And everything is shaped by the context. For example, an organisation working in a context where the government is very hostile to CSOs will need different capacities to another working in a context with clearly set out and relatively supportive regulations. So there are no blueprints that apply everywhere.