Page 175 - The Drucker Lectures

156 [ The Drucker Lectures

ing on in a small group. We call it the Drucker Foundation Self-
Assessment Tool for nonprofit organizations [the latest incarna-
tion of which is the book The Five Most Important Questions You
Will Ever Ask About Your Organization]. Here too, the question is
asked, “What are results for us in this organization?” It is a very
tough question to answer for the hospital or for the community
organization. And yet it is crucial. Good intentions are not good
enough. Good intentions only waste time. The most precious
commodity, in addition to money, is the goodwill and hard work
of volunteers. So we have to learn how to manage them.
There are limitations. The first one is don’t try to do too many
things. Try to concentrate on one thing. And the second one is
do it well. You manage for results; you don’t manage for good in-
tentions. The third thing to say is that you have two constituen-
cies. One is the people who benefit from what you are doing. But
the other consists of the people who work for you—especially
the volunteers. If you do a good job, you may do more for them
than you do for your beneficiaries. This is, in part, because they
learn so much. And it’s partly because it means so much to them.
They can see results.
Here is a daughter of mine who is hard working in her job,
who is married and has two children of her own, and so I asked,
“How can you spend two evenings a week on that school board
of yours?” And she said, “You know I have a wonderful job. But
at the bank, I am so far away from results. I don’t see what I con-
tribute. On that school board, I see it the next week.” And that
is what one hears again and again.

From a talk delivered during a symposium in Tokyo.