Tuesday, March 31, 2015
We come to our final stages in our Philanthropy class during the last section of the semester. We have been through some decision making and lots of group discussion throughout this class. However, some of the hardest decision making and discussion is yet to come int he upcoming weeks. Many of us have illustrated that we are nervous about potential gridlock between individual beliefs. So far I have not seen a huge disagreement with beliefs and ideologies.
Reading several articles and books throughout this class our eyes have opened to different ways to provide philanthropy. We have asked ourselves, how much is enough? Who do we give to? What is the money directly going to provide? These are all important questions to ask during our class discussions and presentations.
Knowing that we will potentially have ideological gridlock, are there any strategies we can use to prevent gridlock from occurring in order to provide a more effective group? If we can avoid gridlock we should be able to decide on what organizations to fund in a more effective manner. As a class, what are you're thoughts on this topic?
Every philanthropic group has this issue and it can hinder effective decision making and cooperation. We have seen people disagree respectfully but as we get closer to the end of our course I am sure decisions will be harder to make, especially with the large class that we have. What past experience do you have with enhancing the cooperation and coordination of groups and organizations? Please share what was effective and ineffective with your past experiences.
Best,
Pat LaBuff
P.S - My apologies for the late post. Professor Campbell reminded me in class today.
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Pat,
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the class is sharing your worries about how we will handle the rest of our decision making process. As Professor Campbell said in class today, we are all respectful people and there is nothing wrong with asking the questions we need to ask and saying the things we need to say. I believe that if we maintain this level of respect throughout every step of the process, we will all be heard and hopefully reach a great decision.
Your post made me really consider how I’ve made decisions in the past in groups. I’ve been involved in many clubs and activities, as I’m sure many people in the class have been. When deciding what show to see for a trip in high school, we took a vote. When electing Binghamton’s student board, we take a vote. In this class, we will take a vote, but this vote will be different.
Usually when we vote, especially as students, options are presented to us and we choose what we prefer. That is not what we are doing here. In this class, we have the power to discuss and challenge the options presented to us. We have the opportunity to change one another’s minds through our class debates. We are allowed to discuss with organizations the way we think they should spend the grant money. We have more power here than ever before, and I think we should use it.
One of my group’s values in the last presentation was “empowerment”. We want the organizations to use our money to give people the opportunity they need for sustained success. If you search the internet for sources on empowerment, the main result is business blogs on how business owners can “empower employees”, meaning “give workers a greater voice in decisions about work-related matter”(http://www.referenceforbusiness.com). Most of these blogs explain employee empowerment as the best way to improve office morale and productivity. Empowered people work hard to create a product that they are proud of. The empowerment that we want to give others and that business owners hope to inspire in their employees is in our hands right now. We are the empowered ones, and we should take advantage of this.
Compromise and coordination are important and I have confidence that we will achieve them. But before we compromise, we should immerse ourselves in our empowerment. It is up to us to take initiatives, ask questions, and make sure our money goes to the best uses possible. I’m definitely not encouraging the class to fight, but I am encouraging debate and defense for the organizations we believe in. In Bethany’s post just before yours, many classmates said they didn’t feel the satisfaction they were expecting when we selected our finalists. I experienced a similar feeling, but have come to the realization that this next round in the process is where we can find that satisfaction and fight for what we want.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that as we get closer to making our final decisions, our class discussions will probably become more heated. Like many others, I'm actually surprised and maybe a bit disappointed that we didn't debate about which organizations to choose as finalists. I sometimes enjoy arguing for or against something that I'm passionate about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I probably wouldn't have had to argue too much, because three of the finalists were my top choices, and the only one I didn't vote for at any point was STAT. So far, I still believe that our money should go to the other organizations, but after seeing the presentation today I did feel a bit more open to the idea of giving to STAT. I think that the best way for our class to avoid gridlock is for all of us to just keep an open mind. I think we all have causes that are important to us and those probably won't change, but we have such a diverse range of organizations to choose from, there's room to support other interests as well. Not everyone is going to get their top pick, but there should be at least one organization that they'll be happy with. Right now I'm hoping that we can give to three organizations rather than two.
As far as previous experience goes, I've never had to deal with anything like this. In the past when I've had to work with groups I've been in a leadership position, so it was much easier for me to control the situation. But as I was writing this post, I remembered an old black and white movie, 12 Angry Men (if you haven't seen it, check it out, it's a total classic. Here's a preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzZ6UftfOWY). For those who haven't heard of it, it's a suspenseful drama about 12 jurors who must make a life-or-death decision, unanimously, in a single day. It has nothing to do with philanthropy but everything to do with fighting to come to consensus as a group, something that we can definitely apply to our process.
Dana and Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI think these are both solid points you bring up. I think overall we will be fine and we will form successful cooperation. However, we will have to hurdle some gridlock here-and-there. I will look into 12 Angry Men, I have heard about that several times and it is a classic. Brittany, I think the empowerment topic you illustrated is extremely important. As long as we respect discussion and do not overpower the discussion as individuals, we will overcome gridlock.