Rather, organizations benefit from adaptation more than prediction and agility more than planning. Historically, the cycle of a nonprofit slows from inception to maturity. Better communication practices and tools and more knowledge sharing between staff and among staff, board, customers, and other stakeholders are keys to rapid innovation and the ability to turn on a dime. The need to collaborate internally and externally is at an all-time high. Powerful collaborations require new project management tools, faster and more regular communications among organizations, and new understandings with donors, grantmakers, and trustees.
Creative people are scarcer than investment capital.
Selection, retention, and motivation of employees, partners, and trustees is more significant than ever. Innovation blossoms when there is a mix of talents, backgrounds, and personality styles in the workplace. As we have written previously, some knowledge management practitioners treat this emerging field as a technology-driven focus on capturing and storing old news. By contrast, the most exciting new ideas are focusing on relationships, on innovation and the creation of new knowledge, on speed and flexibility. That's where we see great promise for the social sector, whose staff, trustees, and volunteers hold sharing as a core value.