Managing the Nonprofit Organization has been
my introduction to Peter Drucker's body of work, and I must say I am impressed.
Before I knew who he was, I was skeptical of his near universal acclaim
as a great business thinker. His great popularity led me to believe that
he was some type A alpha-male businessman celebrity. But I was wrong.
Drucker isn't a celebrity in the traditional sense. He's not good
looking or cocky. He's one of the most genuine writers in the
business-lit. field I've ever read. Wise, softspoken and old-fashioned
come to mind. He skillfully mixes exposition on his theories of management
with historical examples, personal anecdotes, old proverbs. The result is
clear, practical no-nonsense business wisdom.
Here are a handful of the takeaways I got from this
book:
- Raise standards, and you not only have better performance and attract more people
- "What attracts people to an organization are high standards, because high standards create self-respect and pride...it is the job of the leader to set high standards"
- To operate effectively, non-profits must frame moral causes in economic terms
- "to believe that whatever we do is a moral cause, and should be pursued whether there are results or not, is a perennial temptation...[however] the nonprofit must set specific goals"
- Good executives make only as many decisions as they have to, and no more
- "the least effective decision makers are the ones who constantly make decisions"
- Always test new ideas.
- "At the full scale, even tiny and easily correctible flaws will destroy the innovation"
- Reward people for their performance, not their potential. No "crown princes"
- "the worst thing an organization can do is limit its development is by importing society's class system into its own operations"
- Set high standards, even it requires people fail before they succeed
- "One can always relax standards, but one can never raise them."
- Inspiration flows top down
- [giving advice to new teachers] "Make sure you don't lose the top 10% of the class. If you lose those, you've lost everybody. But if the top 10% are excited and learn, the average student will learn"
