Perception and Reality

Each year, I do a fair number of environmental scans as part of strategic planning or for feasibility studies for organizations thinking about various sorts and sizes of campaigns.  And often what the stakeholders I interview believe is not the same as what the staff is sure is going on.

For example, more than 75% of board members that I interviewed for a recent plan said they believed that the organization was having great difficulty in hiring and retaining excellent staff.

“Not true!” the Executive cried upon seeing my draft report.  “We don’t have issues there at all!”

“But your board seems to think that you do,” I responded.  “How can you show them that this is erroneous?  More to the point, why do you think they think that?”

But the ED couldn’t see beyond the fact that the board—to her mind at least—was incorrect.

Another client was appalled to discover that there was widespread belief in the community that the organization was on the verge of closing its doors.  This, I thought, was a big reason fundraising was falling and they were having difficulties in recruiting board members.  Step one, I told the ED, was to find out why this belief was so widespread.

“But it is not true,” the ED responded, missing the point entirely.

The reason you do a study, a scan, talk to various stakeholders is to find out what they believe—not to find out what is true.  And from that intelligence, you can decide what your next steps must be.

For a campaign, it is always the question of whether you can reach the fundraising goal.  Many years ago, i did a feasibility study for an organization where all the heavy hitters who agreed to an interview told me that they would not give a dime to the organization.  “Too many bridges burnt,” I was told, over and over again.  People who the committee were sure would make leadership gifts told me that IF they gave anything (doubtful), it would be significantly less than the bottom of the gift range chart.

My report said that no, they were not campaign ready—and then I outlined what I felt they needed to do before they even considered a campaign.

The committee argued that what I had said wasn’t “quite true.”  And I responded that it really didn’t matter.  It was what the potential donors believed—and until they changed their minds, this campaign could never be successful.  Flash forward 14 years….and they still have not had a successful campaign, nor, clearly have they learned the important issue:  Your reality is not nearly as important as your stakeholders!

Other types of scans help an organization to understand their strategic directions or more immediate goals.  Th organization where three-quarters of the board were sure employee morale was at an all time low, as shown by their perceived failure to attract and retain great staff, showed a clear problem.  No, not of human resources but of ED-Board communications!

Communication, of course, is often the problem.  We don’t send out the messages we mean to send; people don’t hear what we want them to hear, and often we simply don’t say what needs to be said.

it’s not the only issue, of course, but it is a big one.  Are we getting out the messages we mean to?

And, alas, it really doesn’t matter what you think you are saying.  It is what your audience is hearing that absolutely counts.