Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity

by Mario Morino

Leap of Reason is the product of decades of hard-won insights from philanthropist Mario Morino, McKinsey & Company, and top social-sector innovators. It is intended to spark the critically important conversations that every nonprofit board and leadership team should have in this new era of austerity. The authors make a convincing case that the nation’s growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving—all with an unrelenting focus on improving lives.
“This monograph is a must-read for nonprofit leaders. It will help you stay singularly focused on your core mission and help you be effective at making a difference in people’s lives.”
—Geoffrey Canada, Founder, Harlem Children’s Zone

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Productivity, Professional Development

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Scot · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating does not reflect my opinion on management based outcomes. I think that management based outcomes make sense for organizations that are interested in evaluation and better tracking of hard data and effectiveness. It seems to translate best to education and social service non-profits, though all types of non-profits can benefit.

The reason I give this book/infographic such a low rating is because the author focuses on making the case for outcomes based management rather than delving deeply into how to do it. We get 50 or so pages on name dropping and a case study as to why the author is qualified to speak about the topic and only ten pages of what this style of managing your non-profit looks like. I am sure the guest chapters written by people who use it are interesting, but by the time I realized that this book was not a how-to, I did not have the drive left to consume them.

I would only really recommend this book for people that are considering making the move to this style of management and have to make the case to their staff and board, essentially organizational leaders and directors. On that note, if anyone out there knows of a better nitty gritty how to, please comments and let me know.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly convincing presentation of the need for nonprofits to focus on effectiveness and outcomes rather than just doing good. Lots of useful resources:

--Amazing resource for developing program outcomes, effective practices, performance indicators, and tools for gauging performance: www.performwell.org (p 52)

--A definition of "performance culture as "the connective tissue that binds together the organization, including shared values and practices, behavior norms, and most important, the organization's orientation towards performance." See "Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results" by Roger Connors + Tom Smith; "Trying Hard is Not Good Enough" by Mark Friedman (p 82)

--"Clarity of Purpose... the value of developing a clarity of focus that reflects the organization's opportunities, core competencies, and commitment." See "Zeroing In on Impact" by Susan Colby, Nan Stone + Paul Carttar; "Managing the Nonprofit Organization: Principles and Practice" by Peter Drucker; "The Power of Vision" by Andrea Kilpatrick and Les Silverman (p 83)

--"Logic Model for Change... how programs and services come together to achieve the organization's intended outcomes" See "The Power of Theories of Change" by Paul Brest; "Using a Theory of Change Approach to Build Organizational Strength, Capacity and Sustainability with Not-for-Profit Organizations in the Human Services Sector" by David E.K. Hunter; "Logic Model Development Guide" by W.K. Kellogg Foundation; "Mapping Change: Using a Theory of Change to Guide Planning and Evaluation" by GrantCraft (p 84)

--Metrics and Indicators. See "Measuring What Matters in Nonprofits" by John Sawhill and David Williamson; "What Do We Measure and Why? Questions about the Uses of Measurement" by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers (p 85)

--Tools for Managing to Outcomes. See "Center for Effective Philanthropy Assessment Tools" and "Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT)." (p 87)

--"Each year the organization must train new group leaders and ensure that they apply the program's strategies consistently. To address these challenges, program managers have developed a performance-management system that is used diagnostically to ensure that staff are monitoring the students and properly addressing emerging behavioral problems. Group leaders rate children's behavior on a weekly basis, and supervisors review ratings prior to regular supervision meetings. Managers also use the system to supervise staff. Group leaders are expected to record a number of "teachable" moments each week , and supervisors read the case notes of those interactions in order to ensure both their quantity and their quality. Finally, managers use the system to make progress on the program's goals... the program aims for all children to achieve a rating of 85 percent or higher on school behavior, as measured by indicators on the student's report cards... group leaders write individualized student plans and share those with teachers ." (p 115)

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Morino has some interesting ideas but I feel like I might not be the correct audience for this book. Morino's ideas seem to apply to CEOs, Executive Directors and Boards of non-profits in creating a culture that allows innovation and demands outcomes.

[Sherilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for everyone in whatever business category you fall. It truly is a LEAP OF REASON that sets the stage for logical, thoughtful decision making.

"When you find a unique opportunity to make a real difference, you focus on it and constantly reassess results. This is discipline." -Peter Drucker

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline." -Jim Collins

"We don't manage outcomes, thus greatly diminishing our collective impact." -Mario Morino

This book will be a constant resource from this point forward and constantly shared with others as a valuable tool.

[Danni Schaust · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly helpful book for any professional seeking advice on how to evaluate programs, outcomes, and develop a performance management culture. This book is geared towards nonprofit professionals, but has lessons easily applied to other sectors. My only complaint is that this book didn’t prescribe specific steps to take to develop a performance management system or a template framework for evaluating program outcomes. Still, a highly helpful read.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audience for this book wasn’t consistent. On one hand it spent time advising funders, then would switch to advice for leadership. The non-profit examples mostly involved social services and education, very different from my NGO. Agree with a previous reviewer that there wasn’t enough how to info.

[Naomi Adland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen, not everything I read is for fun. This is definitely informative and offers some great resources for people starting to think about outcomes in a nonprofit context but I wouldn't recommend it as a pleasure read.

[Nate Mazzuca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is solid though relies on generic terminology and thoughts throughout. Feel like there were applications throughout though which made the short book worth finishing.

[Francis Kyagulanyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource and I highly recommend it.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes some good points and I completely agree that the nonprofit world needs to measure impact and outcomes better so we can really see what we are accomplishing beyond anecdotes. We need to measure outcomes and foster a performance culture. I thought that this was a good list indicating some important steps in creating a performance culture:

* Recruit culture leaders.
* Walk the talk.
* Know what you stand for.
* Answer the question, "To what end?"
* Ensure that everyone's moving toward the same destination.
* Ensure a balance between leaders and managers.
* Be clear and direct about what you expect.
* Encourage self-improvement and personal growth.

This book is a call to action for nonprofit leaders to more carefully measure and assess the impact the social sector is having as a whole. It can be difficult to measure qualitative impact, but as we are more aware of what we are really accomplishing we will be more effective and be better able to change and improve our impact even further. In a time of scarce resources we need to be able to outline our theory of change and impact and then be able to see in real time how well we are accomplishing these goals.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there are some good points here but the delivery is unimpressive - the best thing is that it is short. I would have liked to see more thorough examples of actual things one might do to move towards managing to outcomes. For example, I am preparing to create a logic model, which this text highlights using, but nowhere in the book does it give any details on this process. This book succeeds as a quick glimpse of what managing to outcomes could mean but does little to prepare the reader for the transformation make those steps.

[Andrew Rothstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morino's book takes on the subject of how philanthropy can support non-profits in being outcomes driven in their business model. There are many solid positions taken and a strong framework provided. It is a good primer for granters and grantees both. From this book, non-profits would need to do the hard work of enacting strategies that fit the framework.

Solid and strong thinking to introduce outcomes based non-profit work.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morino is sort of preaching to the choir with this one. I read it on the recommendation of someone I met at a conference and agree with the vision and direction. Wish he'd done a better job acknowledging the extremely limited data capacity at nonprofits in general and that this work is expensive/technical/time-consuming/controversial/take your pick of other barriers. (Or maybe he did and I'm just forgetting; I started reading this almost a year ago.)

[Island Connect Consulting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm grateful to a colleague for sending me a copy of this book and feel that many in Hawaii's nonprofit community (particularly funders) could benefit from reading it. It balances its call to action (to manage to outcomes) with a number of helpful case studies and a helpful resource list of additional resources.

[Terri]

This book is the 101 level - why should we evaluate. I'm in need of the 501 level - I'm way beyond needing to be convinced and need to know how to do. Also, this felt light on substantive content/felt a little padded. It's probably a good book for someone trying to convince their org to do evaluation, but it wasn't what I needed.

[Brian Sooy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a nonprofit board member and advocate for social entrepreneurship, in my opinion, this book is a must read for charities and funders alike. Higher nonprofit performance occurs when the entire ecosystem understands the power of data to drive outcomes.

[Rachel Lustig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made for a great discussion with my leadership team at Catholic Social Services. We were reading it while going through our strategic planning process. It is the direction that I am moving this organizations so it was helpful to have the book to help us move the discussion forward.

[Shila Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a nonprofit Treasurer and Secretary, I really dig this book.

[B. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful for any disciple of M&E practices in the nonprofit or NGO sector. Excellent sources for further reading are included.

[Uma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good start for anyone in Non Profit sector!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!

[Argosy Foundation · Rating 5 out of 5]

philanthropy, social science