I’m a consultant to nonprofits, with an emphasis on research. An organization hired me to help with the design of a major new initiative. The CEO was very open with me. He gave me permission to interview anyone on his leadership team, and he gave them permission to copy to me internal documents I felt were needed. Before long, however, he was starting to wonder if all the research I was doing was necessary. Part of my reply to him:
“1. I’m thorough. For a project like this, I look into a lot of things, and gather a lot of information, that will not show up in the report. I seek it for background and perspective. I might learn 100 things and write on 10, but the fact I know about and understand the 100 allows me to do a much better job on writing about the 10.
“2. For a project like this, I pursue a lot of lines of inquiry not knowing which will prove to be helpful or important. I might look into 10 things and find that only one of them was pertinent, or five. I don’t know at the outset what’s going to be most useful or helpful, because I don’t know at the outset what I’m going to discover as I dig.
“3. It’s important for me to understand your organization and understand it well. I’ve learned a lot, but some things are still not clear, as to what’s happening and how things work. I need to keep talking, asking, and listening, until I get the understanding I need to serve you well on this project.
“4. Planning has to do with devising a way to get from Point A to Point B. Yes, you have to understand Point B well, the desired objective. You also have to understand Point A well, where you’re starting from and what you bring to the project.”
The moral of this story: never be afraid of thorough research. Be transparent and let the researcher probe and learn. Unless you have something to hide – but that’s another topic.
love, joy, peace … Michael
www.michaeljaffarian.com. I’m a freelance consultant to nonprofits, with an emphasis on research. I’m keen to learn about your organization, and you might be interested in learning more about what I do. Let’s have a conversation. Write to me, people! emichaeljaffarian@gmail.com.
Vol. 1 No. 52