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by Jeanne Bell and Dan Tucker, Co-Founders
Photo by Emanuele Borri
Blog No. 11 - February 2025
This is a time of existential threat for justice-committed organizations.
Angelique Power, CEO of The Skillman Foundation, wrote last week: “At best, we are in the midst of a needed eruption...We are holding our values as a beacon as we open ourselves to new ways to work. We are remaining open to the possibility of new ideas, for old ideas that couldn’t move forward until now, for new partners, and for leaps forward once the eruptions stop.” *
We believe that central to the “new ways to work” this “eruption” calls for are the redesigning and reenergizing of our organizational forms. And, we fear that persisting with bureaucratic structures where a CEO presides over a management team that presides over siloed, functional departments will not allow progressive organizations to meet this moment in a powerful, transformational way. But, we must.
A question: Are your staff organized to thrive together as an act of resistance in and of itself and so that your organization can contribute at its highest level when your work is needed most: now?
As Chrissie Bonner of Illustrated Progress reminded us recently:
So, if your organizational commitment is to resist and find pathways for progress in the onslaught of attacks on civil society, attending to your organizational design is paramount. The good news is that doing so does not have to be scary; it does not have to be a wholesale restructure; it can even be energizing and empowering.
Here are three ways to adapt your organizational design to meet the reality we are in now.
- Create collaborative tables to address what is most critical and emergent. Perhaps it’s an advocacy table; or a narrative resistance table; or an alternatives to federal funding table. Put people at the table who need and want to be there regardless of where they sit in the organization's current structure. (Here’s a quick guide to setting up a collaborative table.) Use this opportunity to strengthen the organization's cross-functional strategic thinking muscles; they have never been more critical. Yesterday’s organizational siloes are very unlikely to meet this moment powerfully.
- Strengthen and visibilize decision-making. Choicepoints are going to come fast and furious now; deferred decision-making will profoundly compromise your organization's contributions to strategic resistance and progress. Use this opportunity to practice naming, making, and following through on decisions, which has been one of the greatest challenges progressive groups face. More than ever, we need the collective capacity to articulate gradations of consent and, where necessary, to “disagree and commit.”
- Elevate artful facilitation. Find the people on your staff, board, and across your consulting partnerships who will thoughtfully attend to group process. (HINT: They may not always be your most senior staff.) In times of uncertainty, facilitation that nurtures people to engage strategically even when they feel afraid or conflicted is essential. Strong facilitation is also key to practicing the decision-making techniques in the aforementioned item.
In his op-ed from February 13th, House of Representatives Member, Ro Khana of California argued that “the alternative to Mr. Trump cannot be a defense of institutions as they are.” This is true down at the fractal level of each progressive nonprofit and philanthropy. Let’s (re)design our organizations to meet this moment with all of the strategic power we can bring to it.
Link to 12 Principles of a Just Organizational Design
End Notes
*Ms. Power went on to write eloquently about the extraordinary challenges to come as well.
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