By Ted Glick
This
was the question I was recently asked by a young person whom I work
with in a New Jersey group. My immediate thoughts: 1) having money, and
2) an internal culture of the group which values listening, mutual
respect, democracy at its fullest and not just effectiveness but
community building.
On
reflection, I explained that the money one is a two-edged sword. On the
one hand you ultimately can’t do anything if you don’t have financial
resources. But on the other, when amassing lots of money becomes a
primary goal, it’s pretty easy for a group to lose sight of its
principles, get on the slippery slope of compromise after compromise to
not turn off rich people, private foundations or other institutional
financial sources.
From
my years of organizing, going back to 1968, I would say that a group
which clearly understands its mission, does a good job articulating its
demands and program, and is together as far as its internal culture will
always find enough money to operate. Maybe there won’t be as much as
desired, but a good organization will find ways to adjust and/or step up
its fund-raising efforts to achieve more positive results.
What are some practical examples of a healthy internal culture?
A
key one is the role that a meeting facilitator, sometimes known as the
chair, plays when going through a group’s agenda. A main role is to
encourage as many people as possible to speak and, at the same time,
prevent long-winded people—usually men—from speaking too long. The ideal
to strive for, rarely met, is for everyone in a meeting to speak about
as much as everyone else. That would be a sign of a very healthy group.
But
this isn’t enough. A facilitator, and really all in the group, should
be saying what is needed to move the group toward decisions which
reflect where the group as a whole, or a large majority of it, is at. As
important as it is to have a healthy, democratic process of discussion,
equally important is that timely decisions are made which allow people
to follow up on them after the meeting is over. Otherwise the group
morale and effectiveness will suffer.
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Source: tedglick.com
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