Practice What we Preach

A question came up recently on a technology bulletin board (for SalesForce) that was innocent enough: someone was looking for a template spec to use in their pro bono work with a nonprofit. My response (perhaps not so innocent?) follows:

the asymmetry between the powerhouse that is SalesForce and the context of a nonprofit seeking pro bono assistance has major implications for any "specification". To wit: whereas a spec is usually thought of as a set of instructions coming from the client to a vendor (where the kind knows what they want and need and the vendor seeks to meet those requirements), in most nonprofit implementations this gets turned upside down.

It might not seem politically correct to acknowledge this dynamic, but ignoring it is a mistake with real consequences, and this dynamic is exacerbated by the use of pro bono assistance. This may seem counter intuitive, so forgive me if I elaborate for a moment.

I happen to be a tall, well educated white guy that happened to grow up the child of missionaries in Colombia. If I walk into a rural village and start asking questions about the educational needs of children, I guarantee you that the leadership of that community will enthusiastically proclaim education as THE issue holding them back, and that the building of a school house (with my assistance, connections and outside visibility) becomes their goal.

But what if this rural village has a problem with water? My good intentions combined with the community's desperate need to "get something" ended up missing the mark. But it is not just that they needed water and got a school, but we have effectively distorted leadership into a pattern that views the outside as the source of solutions to their problems, and we have distorted the investment of "capital" within that community (leader priority and sweat equity labor) to be aligned with externally defined goals.

To get back to your question: The nonprofit knows they need something, they just don't know where to start. This is not a place most of us call a comfort zone. Beware of letting them off the hook by suggesting easy answers.

The "spec" is an opportunity for the nonprofit to discover its own needs. It really needs to begin with a listening exercise, (and this is where an outside facilitator pro bono can be helpful!). I have a set of questions I use for these sessions which you are welcome to: http://bit.ly/YeagerDiscovery

This is not a spec outline, but it is a very necessary prequel. Feel free to contact me as to how I move them from this to more of a spec.
doug