The Importance of Learning from Failure

I have been involved in volunteering and supporting various non-profit organizations for over 20 years. Some of them have been successful and some have failed. Of course, both successful and unsuccessful cases are related to people.

The reason why organizations fail to stop themselves from going down the path of failure even though they know something is wrong is because of the barrier of people.

Many organizations do not develop and stagnate. It is because the leaders are complacent. Organizations have conflicts or are in decline. It is because of internal power games. There are all kinds of rumors circulating within the organization. There are attacks on the leader or the leader spreads malicious rumors to maintain power. Even the top leader of the organization may sell the organization's real estate for personal gain, although it may seem legal on the surface.

The factors for the success of an organization are, when turned around, the same as eliminating the factors for the organization's failure. So, if you try to eliminate all the factors of failure at once, you may face a backlash or give up out of exhaustion. It is better to solve problems gradually, but a firm vision, meticulousness, and cooperation are required.

The Professionalism of a Nonprofit Organization

Nonprofit organizations are professional organizations that relieve stress through service. Nonprofit organizations should not let people feel stressed while doing service. If we become obsessed with the word “service,” the meaning of the word “professional” may become vague.

People are at the center of everything. However, if directors ignore professionalism and only have passion for service, organizations face inefficiency and misunderstanding. Volunteers come to serve with joy but get stressed because the leaders of the organization lack the professionalism to create an environment where volunteers can serve pleasantly.

Organizations try to show off their power by gathering a large group of unprofessional directors, but end up fighting and wandering without finding a solution. Even when trying to figure out and solve a problem, some directors see it as a power game and block a solution.

The Dangers of Dictatorial Leadership

Among the many problems of organizations, the most fatal problem that is difficult to point out publicly is the tendency of key leaders to create an organization that cannot be helped but be themselves and to monopolize the organization. This can be blatant or can be done in a subtle and covert manner. The end result of this is that the organization becomes a business for a dictatorial leader.

Another fatal problem of organizations is that directors pretend to know and have experience despite not knowing how unprofessional they are. If directors realize how unprofessional they are and seek to learn, the organization will quickly become a professional organization. The professionalism of an organization can be judged by the humility of directors to gain professional knowledge. The more they know, the more humble they become because they realize how little they know.

The Importance of Systematic Operation and Love and Service

Love and service are important for nonprofit organizations. Unfortunately, however, there is a lot of emphasis on love and service, which avoids having to properly understand, investigate, and fix their organizations. Nonprofit organizations must operate systematically, and the results must be expressed as love and service. Of course, it is true that the spirit of love and service is important in the process. If the results of the activity are not love and service, then the process is not love and service, but rather personal selfishness.

Selfishness may seem to make an individual happy, but true happiness is possible only when each individual, group, and community develop at the same time. When running an organization, various issues may come to mind. These are not wrong things, but rather things that need to be fixed. There is no organization without individuals, and there is no organization without a community. Nonprofit organizations must pursue and consider solutions that take into account each individual, group, and community. We must all work together to achieve this.