My Plan for Surviving Zombie AttacksThe Making of an Effective and Successful Nonprofit Organization

I have this unreasonable fear of zombies. Yes I said zombies – the walking, flesh eating, reanimated and

blaming the world for it, dead. Zombies. I can’t help it. I never watch scary zombie movies or indulge in

Kimbundu romanticized folk lore, yet I can’t help but find myself waiting for some virus, chemical spill, or

super-villain-genius-type to release an army of the pulpy-perusing undead on densely populated regions. Don’t

think me crazy, I know in my heart of hearts that zombies are completely fictional, something constructed out of

Voodoo lore and Romero-ian special effects. I get it on a rational level. However, it never fails that anytime I

walk into a new location, or down a dark alley I can’t help but think through all of the possible scenarios in

which myself and/or the group I’m with would go about protecting each other and evading a possible zombie

attack in the afore mentioned unfamiliar local. I rationalize this neurosis by claiming such obsessions are

imbued with the innate attribute of preparedness in any circumstance.

While some may look on at my inane, fictitious fixation and recommend immediate medication, I have

actually come to embrace this quirk and grown to find merit in the mental practice of Zombie Survival

Approximating. In fact, Zombie survival isn’t that different from the practice of nonprofit (NP) growth and

management. Just like the living must cautiously traverse the undead world, so too must NP leaders walk with

informed intent and purpose through a varied terrain of organizational best practices and pitfalls. The NP sector

is

Internal Culture

The first thing any forward thinking zombie survivalist will tell you is that there is strength in numbers.

Get together a helpful and trustworthy group of humans. Survival will never be sustainable if you go at it alone.

Because we are at our strongest when we can collaborate, augment weaknesses and solidify strengths, it is

imperative that these groups clarify the internal expectations and operations that will be implemented when the

zombies rise up. This same truth exists when looking at the pre-zombie world and the internal operations of

nonprofit sector. A successful and sustainable internal culture from this perspective should have the following

survival tools firmly in place: (1) A Clear and Discernable Vision and Mission, (2) Integrity in its Leadership,

and (3) Accountability in its modes of Governance.

(1) Your Guiding Compass and Map: Navigating with your Vision and Mission

Before you and your team does anything in the newly zombified world, you must take the time to plan.

Once again, you must plan out your destination before you move through the undead world. Haphazardly

moving from town to town will inevitably get you and your team served up at a somnambulist buffet. As a

NPO, a clear and direct vision and mission is essential when starting off on the journey as well. To quickly

gloss over this step, or to make overly general and undetermined destination points can leave a NPO

meandering in unfamiliar streets. This meandering will never lead to any sustainable good. At best your NPO

will become just another of the zombie horde: enough activity to keep moving, but no objective other than the

insatiable acquiring of the next fleshy meal.

In light of both the vision and the mission, quiet believes that we are functioning in our fullest capacity

when our structures are created through lasting and sustainable community relationships and artist partnerships.

Needs to be much more research oriented claims that support and illuminate good practices in creating

and implementing a strong vision and mission. Then conclusion …

The vision and mission will keep us anchored as we navigate the nonprofit sector and clarify our

particular niche in the larger arts community. By using our vision and mission as canonical reference points, all

members of the quiet team can be assured of our trajectory and encouraged to journey forward together, rather

than chasing after some indescript sound or fluttering shadow.

(2) Your Trusty Socks and Boots : Integrity in Leadership

Imagine the following scenario for me. The zombie horde has risen. You and a group of survivors have

banded together and begun your escape. Your destination and route has clearly been identified – you are

heading north. The cold will slow the undead’s marauding movement, and the densely vegetative terrain will

only further serve to impede the uncoordinated actions of the newly reanimated. Roads are becoming less and

less of a luxury, as civilization slowly begins to erode. Walking has now become your most viable mode of

travel and the journey is long. The worst thing that could happen on this trek is for you to neglect your most

indispensable vehicle: Your Feet.

Without clear and deliberate maintenance and care of this most valuable resource, it will only be a

matter of time before unswayed advances of the zombie mass and your infected, metatarsalgia-peds intersect. If

you and your team want to survive, you must set up guidelines and integral plans for the care of all members of

your group. If one member flippantly cares for their feet, the whole group gets put at a greater risk of being

caught.

Leadership in an NPO is the most vital mode of transportation for all the members of the organization. If

the leadership gets laxed, or falls into unhealthy habits and practices, the whole team will suffer the

consequences and ultimately be less likely to reach their stated destination. For a NPO to stay viable and be

successful in its vision and mission it must have clear guidelines and maintenance procedures in place to insure

leaders are functioning to their greatest potential and leading the group in a sustainable and healthy direction.

quiet has developed a set of seven (7) guiding principles for leaders to aim for. Each principle acts as a

protective covering, from sock to boot, that will serve as an insulated wall for the leaders. Such protection will

help the leaders avoid infection from external forces, as well as provide structure and support when the terrain

becomes increasingly difficult and trying. The Principles are as follows:

1. Serve the Community – advocate for goals, ideas, and decisions to be made out of service to the

community.

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community. And as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no brief candle for me; it is a sort of splendid torch , which I have got hold of for a short moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” – George Bernard Shaw

2. Inspire Dreaming – create an environment that allows people to dream beyond any boundary or

restriction.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

3. Collaborate – foster a work ethic that promotes and encourages teamwork through the use of dialogue,

bridging and conscious conversation.

“Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.” – Jesse Jackson

4. Endorse Justice – value the importance of equal opportunity through service.

"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." – Martin Luther King Jr.

5. Pursue Excellence – encourage others to strive for their best through their sense of dedication.

“Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not 'making friends and influencing people' — that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Peter F. Drucker

6. Be Self-Aware – recognize that I am not perfect, and that it is not all about me. I must take

responsibility for my actions.

"Servant-leadership begins with the desire to change oneself. Once that process has begun, it then becomes possible to practice servant-leadership at an institutional level." – M. Scott Peck

7. Promote Change – set an example for change that is rooted in the need for transformational teamwork.

"I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a "transformer" in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires

vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader." – Stephen R. Covey

(3) Building A Sustainable Fortress: Accountability in Governance

In the world of zombie survival, a fortress does not refer to an adolescent structure of collective trashed

materials and half hammered-in nails. For the zombie survivalist a fortress is an impenetrable structure that has

the built in ability to operate as its own self-sustaining biosphere. When dealing with the living dead, the

successful construction of a fortified home-base is a fundamental goal you and your group should strive

towards. Evading the zombie throngs is only the beginning. If the group plans on living in the undead world,

measures must be implemented for an offensive defense. This will be most powerfully executed through the

creation of a strong hold that has clear and agreed upon modes through which it will operate and sustain.

Much like integrity in leadership functions as your vehicle, accountability in the governance of a NPO

is the place you want that leadership to take the group. Governance refers to the decision making processes that

defines the expectations and norms of the group, as well as grants power and allows access for all those

involved. Like a fortress of protection from the zombie invasion, a well thought-out and accountable mode of

governance will allow the NPO to not only create a high functioning community of individuals, but it will also

allow for the that community to move successfully into the world outside their walls and as such become an

instrumental addition to the larger society.

As quiet continues its development, taking time to think through this mode of accountability in

governance is a vital landscape to camp on for awhile. Keeping the vision and mission in site, I feel that such

accountability measures can and should be accomplished through the following areas: Empowerment, Dialogue,

and Awareness.

1. Empowerment

quiet’s vision states: Art = Change. One way in which this is accomplished is by providing venues and

opportunities for individual and group voices to be heard and celebrated. In particular, quiet wants to give place

to cultures that have historically and systematically been denied opportunities to tell their stories and share their

culture within a predominately Heterosexual Western Anglo-European social worldview.

With this understanding as the foundation, it becomes quiet’s responsibility as an organization to select

works that empower the voices of those in socially disenfranchised groups. One way that quiet can stay

accountable to this mission is by maintaining up-to-date information on social, political and cultural research

being done around the world.

quiet’s production decisions will thus be informed by the information gained regarding the access

particular groups are currently being given within our social structures. At the same time, this research support

will serve as clarification and communication points when we inform our Partnering Artists, Volunteers, and

Partnering Organizations what works were selected for production by quiet.

2. Dialogue

As part our core values, quiet articulates the use of art as a vehicle for dialogue around misconceptions

concerning current social topics and underrepresented cultural groups. As such, the works selected must be

formed not just solely for the individual’s personal opinions, but rather for a place of communication, respect

and dialogue (actively listening and actively participating). This requires the work that quiet produces to be

held in the context of community conversations. Each project that quiet works on will contain some avenue

through which anyone in the broader community can engage in the conversation (even this blog post!).

As we dialogue together, we will inevitably be transformed and changed through the process. Learning

from each other in a respectful and invigorating environment is central to quiet’s ethos and passion. What better

way to talk than over a piece of art!

3. Awareness

Another core value within quiet’s mission is to use art as a vehicle for bringing awareness to social

issues and individuals’ agency/choice. When selecting works for production, quiet wants to clarify to our

partners and various volunteers the difference between individual troubles and social issues. For the purposes of

quiet’s mission and project selection, social issues are things that; (1) negatively affects a large number of

people, (2) stems from a social cause, and (3) can only be addressed through some type of social action. Using

this definition as a starting point, quiet will be able to further clarify which stories will be selected for

production and hold them accountable to the larger mission.

It is not enough to simply have an understanding of the issues within our global society, but quiet also

seeks to engage its audience in active participation within their society. This is an essential component to

quiet’s process of promoting social change and connects directly to the larger organizational vision. When

audience members are not only made aware of issues within their society, but encouraged and given resources

to take action, then we can see the beginnings of social change.

Without this opening door, quiet would become a constraining tomb, rather than a primed place of

community and growth. Therefore, it is exceptionally important to stay accountable to it. As we solicit new

works and art projects from partners, we must make this principle transparent and prominently featured. To

understate this point would only serve to cloud the expectations we have for the work produced by quiet, as

well as compound the possibilities for miscommunication.

External Impact and Beyond

I get it, zombies are not real (yet?). The threat of some viral, infected corpse roaming the streets in

search of succulent sapiens is farfetched to say the least. I understand that my rationale in terms of the Army of

Undead is camping on the “in” side of sanity. None-the-less, I still contend that such preparation and thought

out planning, when applied to the nonprofit sector and the creation of sustainable NPOs, can be practicable and

practical. As the nonprofit sector continues to grow, and as organizations like quiet seek to have an impact in

the larger society, we must be resolved towards intentionality in procedures and sustainability in our practices if

we wish to be a success.

Yes it is true; zombies are not banging down the doors of communities. The undead are not amassing an

unholy militia to feed on the citizens of this world and those reanimated monsters of the silver-screen are not

waiting around the corner or in dark, abandoned warehouses. But there are plenty of NPOs out there that have

lost their heartbeat of purpose and operate on minimally functioning brainwaves. There are NPOs that have

given up the journey towards community and success and instead retreat to an undead existence. There are

zombies wandering this sector.

When I think about quiet, I want nothing more than quiet to live. Live to its fullest and most vibrant

ability. I want blood to be pumping through its veins and its movements to be motivated by more than a need to

devour. This “want” will require preparation and planning. If done appropriately, acknowledging some of the

principles mentioned above, I am confident that quiet will endure.

quiet will survive!