Management guru James Collins’ concept of “Good to Great” can be a significant motivator at a nonprofit, even in one as seemingly unlikely as a zoo.
While greatness may seem to be more intuitively defined by metrics in the for-profit world, the concept can in fact resonate more strongly with employees who are motivated by a personal passion and dedication to an organization’s mission.
Within the nonprofit sector, how we define greatness and/or measure our metrics needs to clearly align with our organization’s mission, and achieving these metrics is much easier when playing to one’s strengths.
The San Francisco Zoo has been considered a good zoo for most of its 85-year history. I like to say that our mission can be defined by three C’s: connect, care and conserve. In other words, at our zoo, we connect visitors with wildlife; we care about wildlife; and ultimately, we conserve wildlife.
It is a relatively straightforward mission, but a rather complex one to measure or define.
Trouble ahead
When I first took over as president, our annual attendance was dropping to about 600,000 visitors. As a nonprofit, we could have stayed there. But since our primary mission and one of our key strengths is connecting visitors with wildlife, I challenged my colleagues on whether we could — or should — be satisfied with declining attendance.
We thus began to explore ways we could more readily connect with visitors: improved access, public events, social media, etc. Seven years later, we’re now hosting nearly 1 million visitors per year, and I suspect we’ll surpass the million mark in annual attendance very soon.
Most nonprofits have, as Collins likes to say, Big Hairy Audacious Goal — we’re all driven by a passion to make a difference in the world. By the same token, failure hits us particularly hard. Again, I find it best if our audacious goals align with our strengths. For example, the San Francisco Zoo is located on the Pacific Ocean.
For years, this was something we ignored and even rejected, as it involved the environmental challenges of any oceanfront property: sand, wind and fog. Now, we’re beginning to see it as one of our key strengths, for we are one of the only zoos in the country on a coastline, and this provides us with unique opportunities to talk about the symbiotic relationship between land and sea.
In our strategic planning, one of our audacious goals is to embrace the ocean, and I suspect we’ll soon be one of only a handful of zoos that will incorporate the coastline in both its messaging and experience.
Keep reaching for greatness
We also have other audacious goals at the zoo: saving species, rescuing injured animals, free access for more children, etc. These goals remain measurable, but also attributable to that elusive notion of being a beloved asset of the community. Indeed, I contend achieving these goals will make us one of the greatest zoos in the nation, if not the world. Stay tuned! ●
Tanya Peterson is the president and executive director at the San Francisco Zoo.
