How to Iterate to Rejuvenate

September means more to me than just the beginning of the new school year, Dreamforce, and a new football season. To me and for millions of others, it also heralds the Jewish High Holidays, a set of four major holidays that unfurl in a powerful sequence, channeling reflection into catharsis.

That the High Holidays begin the first week of October this year, exactly halfway between July 1 and January 1, the two most common fiscal year turnovers for nonprofits reminds me that this prescribed path to personal rejuvenation also offers opportunities for nonprofits. Allow me to share how.

Issue a Wake-Up Call

Rosh Hashanah, the new year of the Hebrew calendar, initiates the High Holidays with the public blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn) in synagogues across the world. Since antiquity, the shofar has been used to call scattered individuals back together into a single collective.

The shrill blast is a metaphorical and literal wake-up call, shaking observers out of complacency, cutting through the daily noise, and signaling to them that they have collectively entered a moment unlike the rest of the year.

A nonprofit’s shofar is best sounded by its chief executive. For any major strategic initiative to be taken seriously, its announcement must come from the highest levels of its leadership. Anyone else and it runs the risk of getting lost in the noise. As the saying goes, “the medium is the message,” and the message is that this is not optional, it’s essential.

Nonprofit executives need to be the mouthpiece for any major internal undertaking, especially technology.

Confront Hard Truths

Ten days after Rosh Hashanah comes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the most sacred day of the year for observers. This day-long fast is spent in deep reflection of the past year’s mistakes and transgressions.

Yom Kippur is an excruciating and therapeutic day because it requires summoning the most difficult kind of honesty, self-honesty. Observers take stock of their choices, ask forgiveness of those whom they have wronged, and grant forgiveness to all those asking for it, including to themselves. These actions — fasting, personal confession, and forgiveness — are a dress rehearsal for the final moments of one’s life.

Nonprofits could discover much about themselves by honestly answering the question, “If we stopped existing tomorrow, how would we feel about our accomplishments and how we led this organization? If we got a second chance, what would we do differently?”

Answers to those questions might be incredibly uncomfortable. From our experience with over 2,500 nonprofit Salesforce projects, we know that most nonprofits on legacy databases would probably place large aspects of their data management and operations in the “things we would do differently” category. That is ok. Once you confront this and identify the specific elements that can be done differently, we have begun the process of improvement, by seeking an outside perspective.

Nonprofit leaders must demand the hardest truths from within the organization, and maintain the strength to commit to remedying them appropriately.

Step Outside of Your Perspective

Following this dive into the depths of Yom Kippur’s self-examination, Sukkot (Festival of Booths), pulls observers out of the rabbit holes within their own heads by literally leading them outside.

Sukkot calls for Jews to build small huts for eating, socializing, and even sleeping in if weather permits.  While Sukkot’s origins are mostly agricultural, today it offers a symbolic challenge to follow up on Yom Kippur’s deep self-involvement by compelling them to ask, “What does my world look like as an outsider?” Pushing beyond one’s physical and mental comfort zones generates new ideas, questions, and solutions to life’s challenges.

Organizations require outside perspectives as much as individuals, if not more. Groupthink, inertia, and the power of “how we do things here” are fatal obstacles to innovation and growth. We at Arkus know this because our role is not just in providing technical expertise on Salesforce, it is to provide an outsider's perspective with our clients.

Nonprofits who know their Salesforce and data needs are not being met as fully as they could rely on partners like Arkus to synthesize technical knowledge, industry experience, and independent perspective into a point of view. That point of view includes a full read-out of the current state of the nonprofit’s data stack, concrete recommendations for improvements with associated business value, and a clear roadmap for success with appropriately phased-out projects.

Nonprofit leaders need to place their trust in an outside advisor to gain a fuller perspective of their status quo, and how to improve.

Iterate Through Celebration

A week after Sukkot, the high holidays finish out on a high note with Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah), a day of dancing and revelry as Jews celebrate having communally read the entirety of the Five Books of Moses, week-by-week in synagogues around the world, over the past year. And what do we start doing the following week? We shake off the hangover and start at the beginning of the Book of Genesis to do it all over again this year. It is the ultimate iterative process.

Nonprofits also require celebration and iteration. Whether saving baby seals, opening credit lines to underfunded communities, or embracing those pushed to society’s margins, each nonprofit occupies a space in turning the world they see into the world they envision.

Nonprofit leaders must create regular opportunities to convert the sacredness of the organization’s work into joy — rejuvenating their team as they keep supporting an ever-challenged world. Maintaining a strong data culture makes the successes more tangible and validating across the organization. A strong CRM and outcome measurement system gives nonprofits the objective success stories that get the party going. It also fortifies the team that though this year we are doing the same work we did last year, we know, not just believe, that we are making progress.

As I prepare myself for this season of awe, and appreciation, I ask myself, while so many nonprofits continue to improve their performance, impact, and efficiency, how can I better support them so that a year from now they’ll be further ahead on that journey?