Initiative Dies at a Small Non-Profit

A non-profit board was functioning relatively well as a community of equals. Then, a new member joined, bringing a forceful personality and a strong belief in hierarchy and reporting structures. Within a few months, as this new member worked to establish some "much-needed control and reporting structures", other members started to hold back.

In order to avoid conflict, members began to withhold their suggestions. They stopped volunteering feedback and opinions, and developed a practice of waiting for the "powers that be" to make decisions. These competent, confident people had previously initiated and completed numerous successful projects before the implementation of this structure.

The new hierarchy clearly established roles for various members and committees, which nobody had a problem with in theory. But, in practice, it ended up that everyone waited for the others, waited for the committees to make decisions, so as to avoid conflict. Since the volunteer committees met infrequently, and communication was only "allowed" through the appropriate channels, the entire organization ground to a halt.

Where before, people could make a quick call, make some joint decisions, and take on additional tasks as needed to get the job done, the new hierarchy squelched that initiative. With no mechanism to remove or constrain the new member, the future of this volunteer organization is in jeopardy.

The introduction of the hierarchy, in this instance, has all the elements of old-school command-and-control management. Despite "team oriented language", disrespect for people has been significant, with those who previously ran the whole show now being told that they aren't allowed to make decisions. The "I'm the boss. Do your job." mentality of this new member is seriously abrasive to the other competent professionals who previously contributed their time, energy and expertise. Now, they're just contributing their time and withholding the rest.

This one's still in progress; we'll see how it turns out.