Danielle V. Minson — Raising the Bar

June 12, 2017 | 0 Comments

Fundamental #22 — Be In The Gray Zone

For the better part of two years, our Federation team has been making a deliberate effort to define what drives our work and how we do it. The four core values of Community, Inclusivity, Learning, and Integrity rose to the top. The next step was to identify a list of fundamentals: actionable, daily core behaviors that bring our core values to life and define our culture. Each week, we make a point to focus on practicing a different fundamental, and I kick off that effort by sharing my thoughts on each one at the beginning of each week. Here are my thoughts for our twenty-second week:


BE IN THE GRAY ZONE — Not everything in life and work is black and white. While pushing for clarity, learn to accept the ambiguity that’s inevitable in the complex web of connections, relationships, and reporting structures that forms our world.  Though we have policies and procedures, you often need to be in the gray zone, where guidelines and guiding principles are more important than following a rule.

Many of our weekly Fundamentals are similar to those used by other organizations. But this one— “Be in the Gray Zone” was written specifically for this Federation! That’s because this is one of the biggest challenges of working here.  We could have given it a different name—maybe “Some decisions require balancing various goals and risks.”

Whatever we call it, the fact is that non-profits often have less black and white and more gray than businesses do.  And Federations, which have many departments, programs and goals, have even more gray! 

I heard the FRD Team discussing this Fundamental at their weekly huddle. One colleague distinguished between “gray” and “blurry.” “Blurry” is when we have not taken the time or effort to get  clear about our goal or role as we should be, “Gray” is when we get as clear as we can about our goals and roles but we still have to balance several goals or tricky relationships.

This is also the Fundamental that has produced the broadest spectrum of reactions. Some on our staff—not surprisingly especially the finance staff—are especially uncomfortable being in the gray zone.

On the other hand, some of our development and planning staff are more comfortable in the gray zone.  They find it stimulating to have to balance goals and navigate politics. 

I am curious about this one. I recommend asking others you work with (even volunteers), how comfortable they are with being in the gray zone.  This will help you work better together. 

See here for Shep’s comments on all the fundamentals so far.


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