A “Stop Doing” list can be powerful at the strategic, operational, and personal levels.

At a Strategic level, you should evaluate your programs in terms of the Mission Impact they are making.  This is why having metrics at the “mission” level is so important.  If you want to add programs, then maybe there are some you need to end.  This can be unpopular with some constituencies, but if you truly want to leverage your resources for maximum impact, then it can be the right thing to do.

At the Operational level, many organizations waste a lot of time with legacy standard operating procedures and no one even remembers why they are done.  (It reminds of the story of the monkeys & the cold shower which you can read here.)  Ask “why are we doing this,” “is this really necessary,” “can we stop doing this?”

At the Personal level, I recommend using a “Delay List” as a step toward a “Stop Doing” list.  When I have “to dos” that look like suspicious candidates for the “Stop Doing” list, I just put them on “Delay” for a while.  Often they become irrelevant after a while.  As Stephen Covey says, we have to discern what is really important – not just what seems urgent at the moment.

Stop Doing the less important activities so you can have more time and resources to focus and make even more of a Mission Impact.

The OCAT allows an organization to perform a thorough self-analysis of its operations and performance.  It asks questions in seven general categories that McKinsey believes to be important to performance:  Aspirations, Strategies, Organizational Skills, Human Resource, Systems & Infrastructure, Organizational Structure, and Culture.  I think it does an excellent job of capturing important aspects of performance in each of these areas.  It provides an opportunity to evaluate performance and plan for improvements.  I highly recommend it.

So what is more cool about 2.0?

McKinsey has sharpened the questions asked in each section.  But more important, one of the drawbacks of the first version is that it was only available as a pdf version.  So that made administering it difficult.  You can to photocopy it, get people to fill it out, and then collate all of the responses.  Those days are over.

Version 2.0 is available as an on-line tool.  When your organization is ready to do the self-assessment, you simply register on line
(https://mckinseyonsociety.com/ocat/) and each person you want to complete it can do that at their own pace.  When all responses are complete then a report that collates all of the responses is produced.  Simple, thorough, helpful.

And all of this is provided free of charge!  Thanks McKinsey!

How might you use this?

SWOT Analysis.  It gives you a thorough, standard tool to evaluate Strengths & Weaknesses.

Organizational Check-Up.  You can use this at any time to give you a nice snapshot of how well you are performing.

Senior Team Review.  Once you have completed the assessment, then it provides a helpful document for the senior team to review quarterly, for example, to monitor your progress.

Check out the OCAT 2.0 today and learn how you can improve your performance and enhance your Mission Impact.

Easy answer, “No.”

A nonprofit should be run like effective nonprofits are run.

However . . . . .

There is a lot we – in the nonprofit world – can learn from business best practices.  Far too many nonprofit executives dismiss many “business practices” because they think that nearly everything businesses do is “tainted” by the profit motive, and therefore “wrong.”

This is short-sighted thinking.  We can study business best practices and then figure out if and how they fit the nonprofit world.  Some may not fit.  But plenty practices fit perfectly.

How about the importance of making data driven decisions, or managing our finances effectively, or using sound human resources practices?  This is just a short list of business best practices – but they are also nonprofit best practices.

Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk, “The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong,” (check out the link here) in which he encourages the use of business thinking for the nonprofit world, is going viral in the nonprofit world lately.  I don’t agree with everything he says, but he is rattling a lot of cages and getting people to rethink some key assumptions.

Don’t assume that all business practices are wrong for nonprofits.  The whole concept behind the Mission Impact book was to take business best practice in the area of strategy and retrofit it for nonprofits.  We can learn a lot from businesses and – as I frequently tell my business friends – they can learn a lot from us as well.

The OCAT was developed by consulting experts McKinsey & Company for Venture Philanthropy Partners as a diagnostic to help nonprofits review their operations and identify areas for improvement.  You can use it for:

*SWOT Analysis.  I find that SWOT analysis is often not very rigorous.  Ask your staff, board, and other stakeholders to complete the tool as part of identifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats.  It will give you a much more reliable way to assess your capabilities.

*General Management.  I tell people that if I was still a CEO I would keep a copy of the OCAT in my desk drawer and pull it out quarterly to monitor progress on various items.  It gives you an objective tool to monitor your progress.

*Teaching Organization Effectiveness.  Part of our job as senior leaders is to help people understand what it takes to be excellent.  I suggest using the OCAT in orientation of new employees as a way to say:  “This is a picture of excellence – and we are pursuing high scores in every area the tool assesses so we can make even more of an impact.  You have joined a team committed to excellence.”

I have used the OCAT in numerous courses I have taught for nonprofit executives and they always comment about how helpful it is.  I have also used it in many consulting engagements – both for strategic planning and for general management improvement.  The best thing about the tool is that it often uncovers weaknesses that are not obvious to senior leaders in an organization.

One outstanding aspect of the OCAT is that it is thorough.  I was talking with a group of consultants a couple of years ago who told me that their clients complained that the OCAT was too long and time consuming.  My response was: “Organizations are complex and a thorough tool is needed to assess them.  Also, my clients aren’t wimps and don’t mind doing the hard work needed to achieve excellence!”  Okay, maybe I went a bit too far there.

Check out the OCAT, see what it tells you about your organization and the improvements you can make to enhance your Mission Impact.