Field Note: We Sometimes Make This Harder Than it Needs to Be

By David Goodman, VP of Learning and Impact

David shares a pattern he’s seen over and over: organizations don’t take a step back to understand and explore the challenge they’re trying to solve before they jump right into applying a solution. Often they’re treating symptoms and not the root cause.

After years working with organizations across sectors, I've noticed the same pattern over and over: leadership feels constant pressure to "become data-driven," and that pressure pushes people toward the wrong first move. They buy the shiny new platform. They hire the big-box consultant that their board member used to work at. They copy whatever the org down the street just did. All three feel like progress. All three usually waste a lot of time and money and secretly make your colleagues more frustrated. 

It's not really anyone's fault. Nonprofit staff are stretched thin, boards and funders want to see action, and funding cycles don't leave room for "let's slow down and think." So people jump to a solution before they've actually pinned down the problem.

Here's the thing I keep coming back to: most organizations think they have a hard infrastructure problem — the tech, the tools, the databases — when the real gap is in their soft infrastructure: who owns which decisions, how teams are structured, and what the actual workflow is for turning data into action. You can buy all the software in the world, but if nobody's agreed on who's responsible for what, how you raise questions and make decisions, and you've just bought yourself a more expensive version of the same problem.

You can usually spot it by the symptoms: individual teams build their own workarounds to fit their own needs; those "temporary" fixes calcify into permanent redundancies; and the pile of workarounds slowly erodes the trust and coordination you'd need to actually fix things.

This is exactly why we at DARO started encouraging organizations to spend some time exploring their problem or challenge through a quick and affordable “diagnostic” before buying the latest and shiniest technology or hiring the flashy consultant that promises success through a really, really expensive engagement. 

A diagnostic allows an organization to simply step back and determine not only the root cause of the problem or challenge, but to do so in a way that follows a structured process involving the relevant teams and departments within the organization. In many ways, it's about slowing down to go faster and the collaborative nature of this work ensures that all opinions and perspectives are incorporated, capacities are considered, and solutions are agreed upon. 

I saw this play out with an education program operating across ten countries. There was no integrated, standardized way to collect or report student and teacher data, so nobody could say with confidence what was working or make a solid call on what to do next. We helped standardize data collection and reporting while, at the same time, building the human processes and team structures needed to actually use the system — piloting it in a few countries before scaling further. The goal throughout was to put local teams in the driver's seat, not hand them a tool and walk away. That program now supports thousands of teachers across more than a thousand schools, with clear roles and accountability built in from day one.

That's the difference between fixing the visible problem and fixing the real one. The visible problem is always "we need better tools." The real problem is almost always "we haven't agreed on how we work together around the data we already have."

So here's my ask: before you sign the next contract for a platform or a consultant, stop. Spend twenty minutes with someone who isn't trying to sell you a system, and figure out whether you're actually dealing with a tools problem or a people problem. 

If you're wrestling with that question right now, send me a message today or book a consultation:  https://wearedaro.com/diagnosticconsultation — I'd rather help you ask it before you spend the money than help you recover after.