Who's Got the Monkey? | Applied Wisdom for Nonprofits

Who's Got the Monkey?

Episode 08

Who's Got the Monkey? Podcast

To create a culture of accountability, reinforce individual ownership of problems. Make sure responsibility stays clear and always ask who's got the monkey.

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A culture of accountability

Nonprofit leaders are often overworked and under-resourced. As a result, staff problems can easily move up the chain of command. You need to create a culture of accountability to ensure that the only issues that land on your plate are the ones for which you hold clear responsibility.

In a culture of accountability, employees are more comfortable acknowledging reality, warts and all. They do not just wait for someone else to solve the problem or hope things improve or spend their time crafting excuses or pointing fingers at others. They take responsibility for finding solutions and improvements for the problems over which they have clear authority.

Organizational structure

The job of a chief executive is to create an organizational structure with functional processes. When the number of staff exceeds a few, if everybody in the nonprofit is reporting to the top executive, dysfunction is inevitable. A good leader needs to be able to communicate that in a growing organization, hierarchy is a good thing. It speeds up decision-making.

To create a culture of accountability, reinforce individual ownership of problems. Always ask, “Who’s got the monkey?”

— Jim Morgan

Organizational structure chapter information

To create a culture of accountability, reinforce individual ownership of problems. Always ask, Who's got the monkey?
— Jim Morgan

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