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Lean Six Sigma for Nonprofit Leaders w/ Phil Washburn
55 Plays6 months ago
In this episode, Tom continues his conversation with Phil Washburn, President and CEO of the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio and a black belt in Lean Six Sigma. Phil pulls back the curtain on how process improvement tools, ownership culture, and clear values can transform the way any nonprofit operates, serves clients, and supports fundraising.
You do not have to be a data geek or a manufacturing nerd to benefit from this one. If you have ever thought, "We are so busy, but are we actually working efficiently," this conversation is for you.
In this episode, we cover:
- What Lean Six Sigma actually is and why it belongs in nonprofit work, not just factories
- How Phil used Lean tools to serve more families without simply trying to raise more money
- Common inefficiencies nonprofits fall into when staff wear too many hats and never stop to reexamine processes
- A practical example of eliminating waste through partnership, using furniture donations as a case study
- How the Furniture Bank helps families move from bare floors to dignified, furnished homes
- Why furniture and basic home goods are a critical part of a family’s stability and recovery
- How to start thinking about process improvement if you are a CEO or executive director who has never touched Lean before
- Why culture and values matter for efficiency, especially the value of excellence
- A simple “boxes of paper” experiment Phil used to reveal low ownership culture and how leaders can raise expectations
- How to build a culture where staff at every level feel responsible for naming problems and improving systems
Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net
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Transcript
Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a first-time fundraiser, we have the advice you need to take your next step toward major gift mastery.
Meet Tom Dauber
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm your host, Tom Dauber, President of Abundant Vision Philanthropic Consulting. Last week's conversation was a blast. I'm so excited to have you with me for this next segment.
00:00:30
Speaker
Let's get back to the show.
Six Sigma in Nonprofits
00:00:32
Speaker
Now, I noticed as I was reviewing your LinkedIn profile that you have a black belt in Six Sigma. That sounds so impressive, ah the black belt. I love that they use that terminology.
00:00:44
Speaker
That's a unique qualification in the nonprofit world. You don't see that a whole lot. How has that helped you to be a better leader in your specific context? Are there common areas of inefficiency maybe be that you find nonprofits struggle with? And maybe talk a little bit about what that certification even means because all all of our our listeners may not be familiar.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, so Lean Six Sigma is just one of of many methodologies for process improvement. And it's it's a series of tools that when used in the right setting in the right time can help organizations ah become more efficient and more effective at the work that they're doing.
00:01:26
Speaker
it's It's a methodology that started in the manufacturing industry and it's essentially, you know, fully embraced in nearly every manufacturing environment in the in the world.
00:01:40
Speaker
It's very hard to find an organization that's not using Lean Six Sigma at, you know, at ah at a global level when you get into the Fortune 500 companies in the manufacturing settings.
00:01:51
Speaker
It's been a little bit slower to be adopted in more
Improving Nonprofit Efficiency
00:01:54
Speaker
service industries and in particular the nonprofit community. It's been very slow to be adopted. And yet I, you know,
00:02:02
Speaker
I heard about it and and learned about it from ah from a friend who was in manufacturing. and And so I started to investigate. and And I was in a role at the time where I was, you know, in charge of really increasing our ability to serve families. And so we had set some pretty aggressive goals to grow how many families we were going to serve. But, you know, you can you can just try to raise more money.
00:02:30
Speaker
right? and And serve more families, but that's, you know, oftentimes not really possible. And so it was really about how do we become more efficient at serving with the, with the resources that we had. And so,
00:02:42
Speaker
I went through the training ah really with that lens in mind of saying, we need to do more for our community without necessarily having to go out and raise you know more money to do it. And so it was a great experience. and and what I found, and and I kind of joke about this, is that nonprofits, especially the smaller nonprofits, are the original lean organizations.
00:03:07
Speaker
So lean is all about eliminating waste, you know, doing things as efficiently as possible. And, and there's a certain ah sense that especially small nonprofits, we have to do everything lean. We, we don't have any waste to begin with.
00:03:22
Speaker
Right. And so, and so it was really fun because, you know, when I started looking into it, I'm like, there's a lot of things that we do really, really efficiently just out of necessity. Right. When you want to help that next family, you're,
00:03:35
Speaker
yeah You figure out that what what is the best way to do it and and to do it as efficiently as possible. But what I also found is that because we oftentimes have multiple hats and we're overworked is we we don't ever stop and say, hey, is this process the the best process or the most efficient process for accomplishing what we want to to accomplish?
00:03:59
Speaker
And, you know, again, when you're busy and doing you know, a lot of different things, it's easy to just kind of fall into this rut of doing things the same way without really asking the question, is this the best way to do it? And so I have loved, and you know, being able to use the methodologies of Lean Six Sigma to kind of ask those questions and kind of, you know, pull back and say, hey, is there a better way for us to do this that eliminates some
Partnership Success Story
00:04:27
Speaker
of the waste? And so an example would be, you know, ah maybe a nonprofit,
00:04:31
Speaker
that that serves families in the community. And they have donors that call them up and say, hey, do do your families need need a couch? Because I have this couch I want to get rid of.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so this nonprofit, which you know giving furniture is not really part of their mission, but they know that some of their families need furniture. They figure out, okay, well, do we have a donor that's got a pickup truck?
00:04:56
Speaker
And maybe a couple of staff members can go with that donor and go pick it up. But then we have to figure out a place to store it because we don't know anybody right now who needs it. you know and And then we got, you know when when when you we do find somebody who needs it, then we need to find another donor who has a pickup truck and and we got to go pick it. And so you you see this whole process laid out of they want to do good. They want to help both their donor, but also the families that they're serving.
00:05:24
Speaker
But they're not equipped to do it, but they don't stop and think about how much wasted time and energy that goes into this one simple request of, hey, I have this couch I want to to donate.
00:05:37
Speaker
and And I share this as a real example because we've partnered with agencies that used to do this ah on a regular basis. And I said, hey, I have a fleet of of trucks that are out collecting furniture in the community every day.
00:05:50
Speaker
And why don't you let me take that burden off your shoulders when that donor calls? And then when your clients need furniture, they just come my way and and and and and they can get exactly what they need.
00:06:05
Speaker
And so we were able to create this kind of win-win relationship. But if it hadn't been for, you know, really just my ability to kind of see the inefficiency of that process for them, because they they just assumed it was the way to do it.
00:06:20
Speaker
You know, but, ah you know, when I gave them maybe an alternative process, they realized, man, how much how much time are we wasting doing doing this all all in the name of doing something good?
00:06:31
Speaker
Well, as you describe what you're doing, you know, I. I'm reminded that I introduced you and in in the organization you're with, but but yeah I haven't really asked you to share much about what it is you're doing to serve the community.
00:06:45
Speaker
And we'll talk about more about maybe your mission and your vision later, but just could you just give just a brief synopsis of who is the Furniture Bank? Yeah, so the Furniture Bank exists to help families in our community who are going through some sort of life crisis have access to the basic furniture and home goods that they need as they navigate that crisis. And so you can think about, you know, the worst moment in your life that you're whatever challenge you're going through.
00:07:14
Speaker
But imagine going through it without having ah couch to sit on or a kitchen table to have a meal at or even worse, a bed to sleep on. And just the the lack of furniture just, you know, makes the impact of that challenge that exponentially more difficult.
00:07:32
Speaker
And so we provide that basic furniture so that they can focus on whatever that next step is in their journey towards where they want to go in life. and And so it's it's a very simple, collecting a lot of furniture and then getting it back out to the folks in our community who need it.
00:07:50
Speaker
Tom Dauber here for Abundant Vision Philanthropic Consulting.
Consulting and Strategic Planning
00:07:54
Speaker
Fundraising can be hard work and it can be hard to mentally get into the place you need to be in order to see new opportunities.
00:08:02
Speaker
Everyone struggles with it. We are like the fish in the fishbowl who just can't see the water they're swimming in. That's when having outside expertise comes in handy. For 25 years, I've been helping nonprofits analyze their challenges, discover new ways forward, and develop clear plans that lead to greater fundraising revenues.
00:08:22
Speaker
Now I am available to help your organization develop the abundant vision it needs to inspire new levels of philanthropy at your nonprofit as well. Check out AbundantVision.net to start your journey toward greater fundraising success today.
00:08:37
Speaker
Now, back to the show. Yeah. You know, you know there there was a time in my life and I and didn't think about myself as as homeless at the time, but because of the way, you know, I had rented the house I was living out ah to somebody else and I was looking to move and I was in contract and the the the home didn't pass inspection.
00:08:58
Speaker
and And all of a sudden I found myself without any place to live. um I was living in an RV in a good friend's driveway. um And One day I was sitting there thinking about this issue, was reading about it.
00:09:13
Speaker
You know, what is housing insecurity? I'm like, oh, oh, that was me. I fit that. And of course, here I am, full-time job and all these things. And yeah we made the best of it. We were staying at my my kid's close friend's house and they had a swimming pool. It was a very fun summer for us living in the camper.
00:09:31
Speaker
But i was I was fortunate, though, because you know the the property that I did own as a homeless person had a large garage. And so all of our stuff was in the garage. But had I not had that...
00:09:44
Speaker
you know and And let's say we did we did eventually take possession of but of ah of a house to live in a few months later, but but to go into that without beds, without you know all those different things, and I was certainly not in the financial place to you know outfit an entire house. So...
00:10:02
Speaker
I can ah certainly have not had the experience that many of your clients have, but I can really think about, wow, that that would really be helpful. Or you see the folks, you know, at the intersections, or you see the tent communities, you know, there at the at at the the off-ramp.
00:10:19
Speaker
and And you think about those folks, you know, God bless them. Hopefully they do find a home. But what's that going to be like going from, you know, everything I have fits in a tent and now I've got, you know, maybe a 600, 800 square foot home.
00:10:34
Speaker
Where do I even start? So so your your organization is really providing a great level of support and and a a vital support for our community.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's, it doesn't take a lot of, of creative thought to kind of realize really just how important furniture in home goods are to someone's life. You know, it's, it's, and, and, and obviously getting a roof and and four walls around someone is, is the first step, but it's not that much of a step up from sleeping on the ground to sleeping on the cold floor of an apartment.
00:11:13
Speaker
Right. And so, um It really is such an impactful point in someone's journey to getting back on their feet and and whatever that looks like ah based on whatever challenge that they're going through.
00:11:29
Speaker
Now, and just to shift back to it for a second to the idea of of Lean Six Sigma and operational excellence and all that great stuff.
Commitment to Excellence in Nonprofits
00:11:37
Speaker
so So somewhere in the listening audience right now, there's an executive director who's thinking, oh man, I've i've never thought about applying these principles to my organization.
00:11:48
Speaker
Where would someone like that even start? Like what would be the questions maybe they they would want to ask themselves to begin thinking about how do I improve processes at my organization?
00:11:59
Speaker
Well, I think it you know it starts with, are we committed to to excellence as an organization? Are we committed to improving everything that we do, even if we think we are doing it the best way possible? um you know I think a lot of times there's this this subtle belief that, well, it's always been done that way, so we don't need to improve, right?
00:12:27
Speaker
And and and and as you know as a CEO in particular, I think we have to get that you know out of our minds and constantly asking the question, well, can we improve? and and and And is this the most efficient way we can do something? And then And then, and and I think it starts there and and then you can begin to breed a culture around, you know, continuous improvement. And I think a culture of ownership, you know, and so i you know, I use this example of, you know, yeah if if, if, if people don't feel like they own something, they don't take any responsibility.
00:13:02
Speaker
fall And so i when I was going through my Lean Six Sigma training, I kind of did a little bit of an experiment just to kind of gauge, What's the culture of the organization I was with at at the time? And so there was a delivery of of printer paper that got dropped off right in front of the the copying machine.
00:13:22
Speaker
And so I slid the boxes of printer paper over right in front of the copying machine where it made it really inconvenient for people to like either go make copies or to go pick up their, you know, whatever they printed.
00:13:37
Speaker
and And I just wanted to see what would happen. and And luckily, my my cube cubicle was like right where I could kind of see and just watch and observe. And what was funny is like it went a week of people just kind of trying to inconveniently work their way around this box and and and and and go about their business versus it would have taken one person 30 seconds to move the boxes out of the way. And then it wouldn't have been there, you know, in anybody any anybody's way.
00:14:08
Speaker
But it it was really emblematic of, you know, I think everybody just assumed, well, if they're there, they're there for a reason. And it's not my responsibility. So I'm just going to leave them there.
00:14:18
Speaker
and and and i And I think that that that that that showed we we had a pretty low ownership culture. And so I think as a CEO, one of the big steps is how do you improve ownership?
00:14:30
Speaker
How do you help everybody in the organization feel like, hey, i'm I'm a part of owning this mission, owning this vision, owning everything that we do. And when I see something, even if it's not my responsibility, but if it looks out of out of place or it needs fixed, I'm going to bring it up.
00:14:49
Speaker
you know or yeah Or if I have the ability and the authority, I'm going to fix it myself. and And I would say that's a great place to start. did Did people bristle when you brought that illustration, that example up of what you saw?
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, you know, because I think a lot of people are like, well, it would you know, they they go to that defensiveness. Well, it's not my responsibility. That's, you know someone's so's responsibility to put the paper away. And and it and and yeah, that is their responsibility. But, you know, I think in an efficient efficient and effective organization.
00:15:20
Speaker
we all have a responsibility to when we see something that is in hit, that's inhibiting our effectiveness, we have a responsibility to, to, to raise the red flag and say, Hey, is this supposed to be there?
00:15:32
Speaker
And even if it's not your job to actually move it, it could have been just the simple question of like, Hey, is this supposed to be here? Is there reason this is here and whose responsibility it is could have said, Oh, I didn't know it was delivered.
00:15:44
Speaker
You know, thanks for letting me know. I'll do i'll get it taken care of. Right. And so, you know, that That ownership and that that desire to say, hey, i want to be as efficient as possible with my time for the organization.
00:15:57
Speaker
and I'm going to call out these things when I see them and and and try to find a solution for it. And if it's not a solution i can I can come up with, I'm going to bring it to the people's attention that can come up with the right solution.
00:16:08
Speaker
so So once you identify an area of an improvement and you and you share that information with folks and you see that response, well, what you're really trying to do is change the culture of the organization, trying to mediate change.
00:16:21
Speaker
That can be challenging. Do you have advice to folks? Maybe they've already done some of this stuff, but now they're thinking, oh my gosh, how do I change some of these deep rooted cultural issues in my organization? Do you have advice for those people?
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think it comes down to values. you know When we as an organization you know revisited our values a couple of years ago, one of things that we set and and and set as an expectation is that we do things with excellence. you know and And that comes down to every aspect of how we how we operate, from from the way that we collect furniture from furniture donors but We want to treat each of those donors ah well and and with respect and dignity and and and be be careful with the furniture that they've donated to us to help another family.
00:17:15
Speaker
But at the same time, we want to we want to serve each and every client with excellence and with dignity. and And although I can't control what furniture I have in inventory for them, and a lot of times it may not be as nice as I would prefer it to be, but I know that they'll appreciate you know, having any couch over no couch at all.
00:17:36
Speaker
But I can still make sure that how we treat them and how we care for them and the whole process that they go through is done with excellence. And so, you know, having that value as a stated value that then every person that comes into the organization, you know,
00:17:52
Speaker
hears about and learns about and and and and agrees to, i think that goes a long way to to to you know, helping to change the culture of the organization.
00:18:02
Speaker
Now, I'm not idealistic enough to know that you're going to get 100% buy-in, but it really, you know, the longer you go and the the more you really instill those values and show that it's being demonstrated at every level of the organization, the easier it is to say, hey this is ah this is a part of who we are as an organization. And that's really the expectation that we have of each and every That's all the time we have today. But be sure to tune in next week to hear the next part of this exciting conversation. Now, if you've enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on your podcast provider.
00:18:39
Speaker
I'm your host, Tom Dauber. Thank you for joining me as we journey together towards major gift mastery on the Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast.