By Julia
So. In our first post, I brought up the idea that sometimes it’s good to look at an idea with fresh eyes. This is something I like to practice all the time - and different situations require a different reset button. Day to day, it’s nice to take a 10 minute break (my break of preference is a dance break) and come back to whatever it was you were working on. But, then again, I’m new in my position so my major issues to tackle often just take a moment to step away so I can return to think creatively. But what happens when you’ve been in the position for a few years? How do you get those “fresh eyes” to look at what you’re doing?
In grad school, I was introduced to the practice of “zero-based budgeting”. As opposed to cost-based budgeting (which looks at previous budgets and uses this historical data to inform expense and income projections) zero-based budgeting asks you to look at your programs and evaluate, “if we were to start up today, would this still be here?” and create a new budget from scratch. It’s a painstaking process that most organizations don’t always willingly choose to enter - but it is sometimes necessary to get an accurate picture.
A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting where the consultant we are working with said, “Sometimes it’s good to look at your marketing practices and ask, “if we were to start this today, would we be doing the same thing?” ....Looking back at my notes from the meeting I scribbled down “zero-based marketing???” My world was rocked a little.
I think before I had thought about zero-basing things as this awful, tedious practice - a black hole in the arts management world. But if it’s used as a tool for evaluation, why should it be scary? It’s a chance to be creative! If we look at everything we do and ask “If I started from scratch, would I be doing it this way?” and take stock of the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes (intended and unintended) of our daily activities - couldn’t we find a more efficient way to do it?
Pause. Let me rewind because this is getting complicated. Let’s look at a task, a real life example from what I zero-based recently.
Task: So… I have this PDF form that gets sent out to accompany our Student Matinee performances. Teachers print it out, and then send it back to me complete. I now have piles of paper that just sit on my desk and don’t get updated in any sort of database. You know, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure no one reads it anyway, they just sign the last page.
Input: These are the resources I put into the task. Let’s just say it’s all human resources and time. I’m going to be chasing down people, asking for this form, waving it in their face if they don’t have it upon arrival… I have no way to track who signs it and doesn’t sign... And honestly, that's going to be a lot on my plate on busy Student Matinee days when we just want to efficiently get people in the door!
Activities: This is what I do from start to finish. Well, ok, I have to email this PDF form. I then have to wait for it to be either mailed back or given to me in person. Once I receive the form, I put it in a file. If I have time, the info gets updated in our database. (HA! When does anyone in the non-profit world have time?)
Output: What am I actually producing through these activities. As of right now, nothing. Whoops, this is a huge red flag - but I’m not entirely convinced it’s a task that should be cut yet. Because the form is going to busy teachers and I’m a busy arts manager, we just sign this form and say “Ok, done!”, even though the form actually has all the information you’ll need in it.
Outcomes: So these are the changes and benefits that result from my activity. So, as I said, right now, I’ve got nothing. The answers that are in the PDF form are frequently the questions I receive and teachers don’t get the form until after they’ve asked the question - proactively answering questions is a potential outcome. And I would really love to have a system that automatically tracks who has turned in the form so I’m not asking every.single.teacher that arrives “have you filled out the form” which I then can use to help update my database. And it’s just so much paper that’s going to waste at this point! I realized in order to get the desired outcomes I had to change one of the previous components.
So, do I change my input? Well, I’m always going to be the putting in the hours to get stuff done - the only resource I can afford at this point is my time, but that is a precious commodity. Next in component is activities. Ok, let’s look at what I’m doing - well, that seems like a lot of work. I bet I can streamline it. Output - Am I not producing anything? Is anything is being communicated in the way I want it to be? OK! I’ll check back in with my desired outcomes and see what I want to ultimately accomplish. Oooooh! TIMELY, EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION THAT IS TRACKABLE AND SAVES TREES!
Zero-based anything doesn’t have to be big. It could be as simple as looking at what you have always done - I email out a PDF form that people need to sign and mail back - and if it has true value and potential for impact so it’s worth keeping around, look at what new advancements/possibilities/ways to streamline there are - you mean I can do this on Google Forms? Ok! This minor re-evaluation does not have to be extensive and can be in every part of your job that is done as often as you need that “fresh eyes” feeling. Just ask yourself, “If I started this task today, would I do it the same way?” and then take a step-by-step evaluation of what it is you’re doing and what you want to accomplish.
Warning label: I just took two theories and mashed them into one. I tend to do that. I see a theory I LOVE and I find a way to make it mine. In this case, I took the principle of Zero-Based Budgeting and looked at how to re-evaluate its necessity by using the Logic Model. I was introduced to the Logic Model and the Theory of Change while working at an arts organization along side of a social worker. I think all non-profit arts should adopt it across the board. But that’s probably another post for another time, dear readers.
Question: If everything you do can be reduced to nothing, then what is nothing?
Answer: It’s a great place to evaluate what you’re doing and make it fresh! Get creative!
In grad school, I was introduced to the practice of “zero-based budgeting”. As opposed to cost-based budgeting (which looks at previous budgets and uses this historical data to inform expense and income projections) zero-based budgeting asks you to look at your programs and evaluate, “if we were to start up today, would this still be here?” and create a new budget from scratch. It’s a painstaking process that most organizations don’t always willingly choose to enter - but it is sometimes necessary to get an accurate picture.
A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting where the consultant we are working with said, “Sometimes it’s good to look at your marketing practices and ask, “if we were to start this today, would we be doing the same thing?” ....Looking back at my notes from the meeting I scribbled down “zero-based marketing???” My world was rocked a little.
I think before I had thought about zero-basing things as this awful, tedious practice - a black hole in the arts management world. But if it’s used as a tool for evaluation, why should it be scary? It’s a chance to be creative! If we look at everything we do and ask “If I started from scratch, would I be doing it this way?” and take stock of the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes (intended and unintended) of our daily activities - couldn’t we find a more efficient way to do it?
Pause. Let me rewind because this is getting complicated. Let’s look at a task, a real life example from what I zero-based recently.
Task: So… I have this PDF form that gets sent out to accompany our Student Matinee performances. Teachers print it out, and then send it back to me complete. I now have piles of paper that just sit on my desk and don’t get updated in any sort of database. You know, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure no one reads it anyway, they just sign the last page.
Input: These are the resources I put into the task. Let’s just say it’s all human resources and time. I’m going to be chasing down people, asking for this form, waving it in their face if they don’t have it upon arrival… I have no way to track who signs it and doesn’t sign... And honestly, that's going to be a lot on my plate on busy Student Matinee days when we just want to efficiently get people in the door!
Activities: This is what I do from start to finish. Well, ok, I have to email this PDF form. I then have to wait for it to be either mailed back or given to me in person. Once I receive the form, I put it in a file. If I have time, the info gets updated in our database. (HA! When does anyone in the non-profit world have time?)
Output: What am I actually producing through these activities. As of right now, nothing. Whoops, this is a huge red flag - but I’m not entirely convinced it’s a task that should be cut yet. Because the form is going to busy teachers and I’m a busy arts manager, we just sign this form and say “Ok, done!”, even though the form actually has all the information you’ll need in it.
Outcomes: So these are the changes and benefits that result from my activity. So, as I said, right now, I’ve got nothing. The answers that are in the PDF form are frequently the questions I receive and teachers don’t get the form until after they’ve asked the question - proactively answering questions is a potential outcome. And I would really love to have a system that automatically tracks who has turned in the form so I’m not asking every.single.teacher that arrives “have you filled out the form” which I then can use to help update my database. And it’s just so much paper that’s going to waste at this point! I realized in order to get the desired outcomes I had to change one of the previous components.
So, do I change my input? Well, I’m always going to be the putting in the hours to get stuff done - the only resource I can afford at this point is my time, but that is a precious commodity. Next in component is activities. Ok, let’s look at what I’m doing - well, that seems like a lot of work. I bet I can streamline it. Output - Am I not producing anything? Is anything is being communicated in the way I want it to be? OK! I’ll check back in with my desired outcomes and see what I want to ultimately accomplish. Oooooh! TIMELY, EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION THAT IS TRACKABLE AND SAVES TREES!
Zero-based anything doesn’t have to be big. It could be as simple as looking at what you have always done - I email out a PDF form that people need to sign and mail back - and if it has true value and potential for impact so it’s worth keeping around, look at what new advancements/possibilities/ways to streamline there are - you mean I can do this on Google Forms? Ok! This minor re-evaluation does not have to be extensive and can be in every part of your job that is done as often as you need that “fresh eyes” feeling. Just ask yourself, “If I started this task today, would I do it the same way?” and then take a step-by-step evaluation of what it is you’re doing and what you want to accomplish.
Warning label: I just took two theories and mashed them into one. I tend to do that. I see a theory I LOVE and I find a way to make it mine. In this case, I took the principle of Zero-Based Budgeting and looked at how to re-evaluate its necessity by using the Logic Model. I was introduced to the Logic Model and the Theory of Change while working at an arts organization along side of a social worker. I think all non-profit arts should adopt it across the board. But that’s probably another post for another time, dear readers.
Question: If everything you do can be reduced to nothing, then what is nothing?
Answer: It’s a great place to evaluate what you’re doing and make it fresh! Get creative!