Principles and Progression
progression
noun
the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state.
principle
noun
a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning.
Inspiration for this blog post:
An article or comment on an article that I can’t find anymore making an argument for hiring programmers to write code instead of using no-code or low-code approaches.
A number of years ago, it was all the rage for nonprofits (the ones that had the necessary funding) to be building proprietary technology systems and databases. Then there was a phase of shedding these proprietary systems in favor of investing in “all-in-one” systems that (supposedly) could take care of all needs out-of-the-box without many changes. When that dream didn’t quite materialize, we started to accept more technology landscapes that included many different modular technology systems ideally integrated to one central database. Then came the explosion of the no-code and low-code tech systems and highly customizable platforms such as AirTable, Monday, and Notion. And now with the recent evolution of AI and Machine Learning, we’ve have more choices then ever of systems that could really help us increase our impacts.
Throughout all of this progression there has been a consistent underlying theme of wanting to make the life of a nonprofiteer easier in terms of how they use data and technology. Unfortunately, the way that “making it easier” has often presented in these systems as covering up the foundations of how these technologies work. Beautiful user interfaces, drag-and-drop functionality, AI suggestions…all of these amazing advances make for truly gorgeous systems that “anyone should be able to use.” Is that how it has worked out for you?
Hiding the more technical stuff under beautiful websites has the potential for greatness, but also has the unintended consequence of separating people further from the knowledge and experience of the basic principles of how data and technology work. These principles are so key to being able to have a successful and positive relationship with technology and to be able to ride the waves of new advances that come at us rapid fire.
As we build and customize more of our technology systems and processes with the help of low-code and no-code tools and with the help of AI, it is paramount that the next progression of nonprofit data & tech work be centered on sharing knowledge and spreading skill. These things happen already, of course, but we need to have a much greater emphasis on building the knowledge, skills, and confidence of all nonprofit staff members in data & technology specifically. We need to constantly be evaluating where our staff members are at, making sure that they have a solid grounding in the foundational knowledge of approaches to using data & tech and that they have consistent and sufficient support for continuous learning and professional development.
Start with the principles, and hang on tight for the progression. We’ll know we’ve gotten to a more advanced state of nonprofit work when the culture of data & technology at the organization is one that is raising the bar for everyone’s skills and knowledge - program staff, development teams, and IT teams alike. It doesn’t mean everyone is in a boot camp for programming. It means that everyone is on the continuous path of learning so that they can make their data and technology work for them.
