The Commitment Crisis: What to Do if Your Nonprofit Team Isn’t All In

Commitment to decisions is crucial for driving a team forward. When team members are not fully committed, initiatives falter, and organizational progress stalls. A lack of commitment often stems from ambiguous goals, lack of clarity, or unresolved conflicts.

In "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," Patrick Lencioni explains that without commitment, teams struggle to make decisions and take decisive action. This can lead to missed opportunities and inefficiencies. So what does lack of commitment look like, and what can you do about it?

How the Dysfunction Manifests:

• Missed Deadlines: Projects and initiatives are frequently delayed due to lack of follow-through.
• Low Engagement: Team members show little enthusiasm or motivation to contribute to the organization’s mission.
• Inconsistent Effort: Effort levels vary widely, leading to uneven performance and results.

Why It Undermines Performance:

• Hampers Progress: Lack of commitment slows down progress and makes it difficult to achieve organizational goals.
• Erodes Trust: Inconsistent effort and missed deadlines erode trust among team members and stakeholders.
• Increases Turnover: Disengaged team members are more likely to leave, leading to higher turnover and instability.

Scenarios

Consider a nonprofit focused on affordable housing that decides to launch a new advocacy campaign. During the planning phase, key team members express doubts about the campaign's strategy. These concerns are not addressed, leading to half-hearted efforts and poor execution. The campaign fails to gain traction, wasting valuable resources and damaging the organization's credibility.

Think you’re immune? It happens. The Boy Scouts of America faced challenges related to commitment during its membership policy changes regarding LGBTQ+ participants. Internal divisions and lack of clear commitment to a unified policy led to confusion and mixed messages to the public, resulting in membership declines and financial difficulties.

Fostering Commitment

To foster commitment, nonprofit leaders should create multiple opportunities for team members to understand and buy into organizational goals. This involves clear communication, addressing concerns, and involving staff in decision-making processes. Regular check-ins and updates can keep everyone aligned and committed to the organization's objectives.

Our Foundations for Growth engagement is designed in part to foster group commitment. By having a team identify threats and opportunities throughout the organization, discuss and weigh in on what should be the top priorities, and then tracking and being responsible for challenges as they arise, the FFG models and reinforces the core learnings that clear communication is essential, that people should raise concerns regularly so that the organization can do something about its most important issues, and that a team is stronger when people buy into the process of continuous improvement.