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Zen and the Art of Technology Planning This wisdom was culled from the experience of many nonprofit
arts organizations that we've guided through a technology planning
process as part of our work with New
York Foundation for the Arts Knowledge in Technology (KIT) program.
1. Don’t Let Your
Reasons For Not Working On A Technology Plan Stop You As part of the introductory part of our technology planning
workshiops, participants draw
a picture of their organization’s technology.
A content
analysis of the resulting drawings reveals that only a few present
happy metaphors. The majority
show images of doom, gloom, fear, and disaster. While many participants acknowledge that their
organization’s technology is one click away from disaster, nothing is being done about it. Why? “We solved it five years ago when we upgraded.” “Technology is changing too fast.” “We don’t have money for new computers?” “We don’t have staff to do what we do now, in addition to
a technology plan.” “We don’t have technical expertise on staff.” “Our board/executive director doesn’t feel it is important.”
As Judith
Kaufman Weiner, executive director of the Alliance of New York State
Arts Organizations says, “The technology planning process makes
your organization’s leadership hit the pause button and think.
Don’t put off dealing with your technology because you don’t
have money, time, or knowledge – that’s why you are doing it.” Says Catherine Peterson, executive director of Arts/Boston, “The
planning process changed our organization’s perceptions about technology. It is part of our thinking about program delivery.”
The key is support from the organization’s leadership.
It is not something that you or your staff does in a vacuum.
“You need a technology board committee just as you need a
board finance committee! If
you don’t have enough board members with technology expertise, recruit
them,” Weiner states. Peterson says, “I couldn’t tell you how many
bytes are in a gigabyte, but that wasn’t a good enough excuse to
ignore my organization’s technology issues.” Begin a technology planning process with some roundtables
with staff, board, and technology-savvy volunteers to discuss organizational
attitudes about technology and demystify the technology planning
process. Discussion can be a good strategy for everyone
to understand the value of the technology planning process and assemble
a team. 2. The Question
Is The Answer The technology team should clarify goals, establish priorities,
and think about end results as its first task. Out of these discussions, craft a technology
vision statement and broad goal statements. The overarching questions should be “How can
technology help our organization accomplish its mission? What impact would a more effective use of
technology have on our audience and programs?” As Peterson from Arts/Boston observes, “We focused on program outcomes
rather than we need new computers.” The technology team should do a comprehensive inventory and
assessment of its current use of technology using one of the many
nonprofit and technology tools available on the Web.
The assessment should go beyond just listing hardware and
software, but also examine the organization’s information systems,
training needs, spending on technology, and policies.
The technology planning team needs to look at the compiled
information and ask: How might technology enhance our organization's
capacity to deliver programs and services or improve operations?
The technology team should identify specific short-term and
long-term strategies. No doubt this will lead to more questions and research.
The technology team should prepare an exhaustive list of
questions. “As executive
director, you do not have to be a technology expert. You need a conceptual understanding of why
and how a particular technology can help your organization. The
most important skills are knowing the right questions to ask, doing
research, and problem solving – probably the very skills that made
you an executive director in the first place,” observes Kaufman.
Use a variety of sources to discover answers, including the
Internet, technical consultants and vendors, and other nonprofit
organizations. Incorporate
learning about the technology part of the planning process. View it as a professional development opportunity. Peterson says, “As the executive director,
you don’t need to be a database programmer, but you should understand
the basic vocabulary.” Field research is an extremely valuable tool for learning
what can be realistically implemented with technology. The team should identify research questions
and a list of potential organizations to interview or visit. Don’t limit your field research to nonprofit
organizations – much can be learned from the corporate sector as
well. Have staff members responsible for implementation
do the research and present what they’ve learned during technology
planning meetings. Don’t forget that a lot can be gleamed from potential technical
vendors. For example, if
you organization is researching the possibilities for high-speed
Internet access invite potential vendors to present to your technology
team or interview them by phone as part of the research process.
However, bring in
outside technical vendors and consultants after you discover what
you don’t know, not before. 3. Don’t Forget What Exists Between the Keyboard
and the Chairs A critically important component of a technology plan is
what exists between the keyboards and the chairs – your staff who
will use the technology. They
have to be involved in the planning process and training must be
provided. The training should not be just software-based, but also in problem
solving and methods for sharing technology knowledge and building
skills. Accommodate different
technology learning styles – some staff members may be more comfortable
with CD-ROM self-tutorials versus a day-long workshop. Everyone within the organization must be involved in the
technology planning process and have a sense on why it is important. If the plan is to be successful, there must
be staff buy-in. Consider
having a technology planning retreat with all staff as part of the
process. Put ongoing technology issues on the agenda
for regular staff meetings. 4.
Glitches and Mistakes Are The Best Teachers:
Reward Them! But Don’t Forget
To Celebrate Accomplishments Too. Expect
“glitches” to happen, especially when your organization is testing
a prototype or pushing the envelope.
Weiner, whose organization recently tested a pilot for a
Leadership E-Institute with Cornell University advises, “If you
are innovating with technology, be prepared for glitches ...it happens.
Don’t let it shake you up. When you look back, they will
be relatively unimportant and a great learning experience that will
improve the next phase.” It is easy to get discouraged about what technology your
organization doesn’t have or what isn’t working. Says Peterson, “Try to avoid depressing your staff.” Spend some time acknowledging your organization’s
accomplishments and celebrating small successes. 5. Be Prepared
That It Will Take Longer To Implement Than You Think Implementation takes longer than you think, particularly
if you are redesigning an information system, launching an invocative or a major upgrade. Whatever schedule you think is realistic, isn’t.
Be very practical. The month of December isn’t necessarily the
best time of year to implement a new fundraising software package. Look for incremental steps and what you can
learn or leverage with each step as part of the planning. Set up some very small, controlled experiments where it is
safe to “fail.” Use these
experiments as a learning opportunity to inform your planning process. Such experiments can teach you how to incrementally
engage with the technology. And remember, the technology planning process never “stops”
once you’ve implemented your plan.
Given the fast pace of change, your organization will always
to some degree be in a planning phase.
Make technology planning an institutional habit.
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