Inputs & Outputs No. 2

Here's part 2:

At the recent Middle Atlantic Region Conference, our junior Institute Director, recommended a book for us to read. It helped him to understand governance issues associated with a non-profit such as CSI. The book was written by Jim Collins, a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Collins currently operates his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that thinking into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." I've been reading it & find it fascinating.

Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into success in the social sectors. Many corporate CEO's leave their positions to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.

One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not usually as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. A new commissioner took over & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the inputs were arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, etc. These lead the measured outputs to be other than the stated goal of reduction in crime. (EXPAND THIS PP)

This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What should our outputs be? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.

Something like that - I still need to expand the one paragraph, but that means more reading!