Inputs & Outputs #3

Here's #3:

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 business model 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 as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. In 1995, William J. Bratton took over as commissioner & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the department assessed itself based on input variables such as arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, budgets met rather than the output variable of reducing crime. Bratton set huge goals to reduce crime by double digits & replaced division commanders until he found a group who could meet the goal, not just provide the input variables.

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 are our output variables? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.

In other words, what does Baltimore Chapter CSI do best? Back in the summer, I put a similar question to our Board. Many came back with education. Looking back on my years in this chapter, education is clearly something that we do well. How can we do this better? Scott Sider & our Education Committee do a fantastic job with the Winter Seminars to prepare candidates for the Certification Exams in the spring. Our Programs Committee is working hard to bring good educational opportunities to our monthly meetings. What can we do better? Your ideas are always appreciated.

As a Chapter, what should we be doing better? Are there things that our members need from the Chapter that we aren't providing? Your ideas here are also appreciated.