The Strategy Problem Your Nonprofit's Operating System Can't Solve

Over the last few posts in our Strategy For What's Next series, we've looked at taking stock, clearing the decks, using our strategy framework, Ariadne, and rallying your board. In this post, what to do when you have great execution but unclear direction.

Too Many Meetings, Not Enough Meaning

I've had three conversations in the past quarter that followed almost the exact same script.

Each nonprofit had adopted a popular "operating system" and followed it faithfully for a year or two. You probably know the one I'm talking about. It includes structured weekly meetings, quarterly "rocks," scorecards, and accountability charts.

And each executive director described the same frustration:

"We're really good at our meetings now. Everyone knows their numbers. We hit most of our quarterly goals. And yet … I'm not sure we're actually moving forward. We're busy and we're organized, that's for sure. But something's missing."

One executive director put it perfectly: "We've become excellent at executing. We're just not always sure what we're executing toward."

What Operating Systems Do Well

Let's be clear: operating systems can be really helpful. They can solve real problems for organizations that need to get things done. And since that's pretty much every organization, implementing some kind of standardized system to discuss and transact your work makes a lot of sense.

They create meeting discipline when your calendar was chaos. They build accountability when no one was tracking results. They establish quarterly rhythms when everything felt reactive. They define roles when responsibilities were blurry.

For organizations stuck in operational chaos, with too many fires, too little follow-through, and too much confusion about who does what, these systems can be transformative.

The structure they provide is genuinely valuable. Weekly check-ins keep everyone aligned, quarterly goals create focus, scorecards make progress visible so that issues get surfaced and solved systematically.

However, because these systems put focus on the process, over time they usually create new problems. The team becomes focused on repetition, rather than creativity. And the culture slowly starts to erode until it feels like a slog. 

You're making good time, and yet you never really seem to get anywhere. 

Strategy Isn't Paint By Numbers

By definition, operating systems are designed for execution, not strategy. 

They help you run your organization efficiently. They don't help you decide where your organization should go.

These systems typically address:

• Meeting structure and cadence
• Quarterly goal-setting and tracking
• Accountability and role clarity
• Issue identification and resolution
• Metrics and scorecards

But they don't address the strategic issues that usually keep organizations from growing:

• What value you create, and for whom (beyond a general target market description)
• What makes you different from other nonprofits doing similar work (beyond a few surface-level differentiators)
• Where you'll focus resources to create the most impact (strategic trade-offs and choices)
• Why your particular organization is positioned to succeed (competitive advantage in your mission space)

Most operating systems include vision and values work at the top, then jump straight to quarterly goals and weekly metrics.

They skip the layer where strategy lives. 

When you have operational discipline but strategic ambiguity, you get a kind of efficient busyness. 

You complete your quarterly goals—but they don't connect to a larger direction. You hit your numbers—but you're not sure the numbers measure what actually matters for mission impact. You solve issues efficiently—but the same fundamental problems keep resurfacing quarter after quarter.

And worst of all, your team is sitting in too many meetings, talking about issues instead of talking about people, values, culture, challenges, and dreams. 

Your Mission Is Not A Computer

Strategy isn't a fill-in-the-blanks undertaking. You can't use a mad lib to make your organization valuable and vibrant. 

Clearly, I'm not impartial. More For Many helps organizations with strategic planning, not execution worksheets. But again and again, I see operational efficiency that is hollow because it isn't adding up to anything meaningful. 

An "operating system" is great for a device that needs to do the same thing over and over again. But your mission is not a computer. Your mission happens through passion and people.

Yes, repetition and execution are important. However, for most of the groups I work with, those aren't the challenges.

The challenges are responding dynamically to a shifting environment; talking openly about problems; building the patience and runway to try new things; finding the time to slow down and better understand the landscape. 

If you look at your strategic initiatives from three years ago and realize you're still working on essentially the same things, you don't have an execution problem. You have a strategy problem.

Finding the Thread

This is exactly the gap our strategy framework, Ariadne, is designed to fill.

Remember the story about the thread that guides you through the maze? Operating systems give you the discipline to move through the maze methodically. But they don't give you any guidance about where to go.

The Ariadne process helps you find the thread that shows you which path to take.

If you know your vision, and your quarterly goals, but aren't sure how pursuing the latter gets the world to the former, then Ariadne can help by challenging you to think specifically about that connection.

What specific value do you create, and for whom? Many organizations either haven't thought about this, or answer it in broad strokes: "We help people in need." Which people? What specific transformation do you create? Who needs you and why?

What makes you different from other nonprofits doing similar work? We don't always like to think about it, but our donors, funders, and constituents have a choice in the groups they support. If the only thing that makes you different is "our people," then you do not have a strategic differentiator. Everyone has great people. What's defensible about your organization?

What three to five strategic initiatives will drive the most impact? I've written this before, but most nonprofit strategic plans I review confuse outcomes (what you are working towards) with the actual initiatives you'll take to achieve them.  I commonly read "diversify revenue" and "strengthen our brand" in strategic plans. These are not strategies, these are outcomes. How will you diversify revenue? How will you strengthen your brand? 

The Focus layer in Ariadne helps you get specific:

• Value Creation: What problem are your constituents counting on you to solve? What tangible, immediate value would they miss if you didn't exist?
• Differentiators: What makes you uniquely able to create that value? Not "we care more"—the actual, specific reasons people choose you over other organizations serving similar populations.
• Strategic Initiatives: What major directions will you pursue over the next several years? Not everything you could do. What are the few things that matter most for mission advancement?

These aren't quarterly goals. They're the deeper choices that determine whether your quarterly goals actually connect to something meaningful.

How to Use Them Together

If you're already using an operating system and it's working well for execution, you don't need to abandon it. You just need to give it the strategic foundation it assumes you have.

Here's how that works:

1. Use Ariadne to build your Focus layer. Work through the Value Creation, Differentiators, and Strategic Initiatives questions. Get clear about where you're going and why you're positioned to get there.

2. Let your operating system handle Execution. Use whatever quarterly planning, weekly meetings, and accountability structures you've already built. They're valuable. Keep them.

3. Connect the two explicitly. Every quarterly goal should tie back to one of your Strategic Initiatives. Every metric should measure progress toward your value creation. When you set your quarterly priorities, ask: "Which Strategic Initiative does this advance?"

4. Review Focus annually, adjust Execution quarterly. Your Strategic Initiatives shouldn't change every 90 days—that's not strategy, that's chasing trends. But your quarterly priorities should show steady progress toward those initiatives.

The Question to Ask

If you're using an operating system and feeling stuck, ask yourself this:

"If someone looked at our last four quarters of goals, could they figure out our strategy?"

If the answer is no—if your goals look like a disconnected list of projects rather than a coherent path toward something—you don't have an execution problem.

You have a strategy problem that no amount of operational discipline will solve.

Want to fix that? Start with Focus. Gather your key leaders, print out the Ariadne worksheet, and spend an hour or two creating clarity on how you create value, how you are different, and what your strategic initiatives really are. 

Then let your operating system do what it does best: execute the strategy you've actually decided on.

Need help building the Focus layer your operating system assumes you have? We work with nonprofit leadership teams to clarify strategy before execution. [Learn about our strategic planning services →]

This article is the fifth in our series Strategy For What's Next, designed to help you create meaningful plans and excellent results in the year ahead. Read the earlier posts: Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4