Crime and Quality of Life

I'm proud of these statistics showing that Lincoln, Nebraska has steadily lowered its crime rate for the past 17 years. The rate dropped from 71.4 per 1000 in 1991 to 40.1 per 1000, down to 1970's levels. That's not to say we don't have serious problems. We certainly have victims, whose pain should never be minimized. Of course there are criminals who revel in malice and violence, or suffer from inadequate mental health care and unresolved social problems. But the residents of Lincoln can expect a high overall quality of life (known in Nebraska as "The Good Life"). Enforcement officers can't do it alone and I think everyone, including the thousands of students who come from other places for college, deserve a pat on the back for rejecting crime and making Lincoln a great place to live. For a visitor's view of Nebraska, visit Carey Smith's inspirational blog, Going the Distance!: Nebraska...The Good Life (Posted November 4, 2007).

Online Gallery Provides Close-ups of Masterpieces

The Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid Spain uses technology borrowed from Google Earth to provide fantastic, zoom-able views of 2000 artworks. Browse the Prado's web site to find out what's in the collection, then set your monitor to its highest resolution and search the online gallery by artist or title to view amazing masterpieces by Goya, El Greco, Leoni, Bayeu, and many others. The descriptions are brief yet informative. But the exciting thing about the online gallery is the photography, which is stunning and allows you to see incredible detail when you use the zoom feature!

The Important Difference Between Nonprofits and Businesses

I've been reading Jim Collins's monograph, "Good to Great and the Social Sectors," which is about the differences between business and nonprofit organizations. I work for a university, and people often say it should be run more like a business. University administrators, who hear it more than I ever will, have taken that sentiment to heart in many ways.

But management expert Collins explains in this little book why that's the wrong approach. For example, he points out "...most non-business leaders simply do not have the concentrated decision power of a business CEO." He talks about two types of leadership: executive and legislative. While executive leaders have the power to make unilateral decisions, in legislative leadership nobody--not even the chief executive--has enough structural power to make decisions on his or her own. That's one reason why we can't run a university like a business. According to Collins, because of this relative lack of power, "Legislative leadership relies more upon persuasion, political currency, and shared interests to create the conditions for the right decisions to happen."

Another idea he explores is the role of money as an indicator of success: "In business, money is both an input (a resource for achieving greatness) and an output (a measure of greatness). In the social sectors, money is only an input, and not a measure of greatness." This is not as obvious as it seems. Educational institutions are pressured to justify their activities economically. We're forced to measure research productivity, technology transfer, public and private support, services, popularity, even educational projects, in dollars. In Nebraska, I've seen this pressure grow in the last 15 years.

Of course, outcomes and indicators other than money are identified in our strategic planning, and even celebrated from time to time. Collins proposes selecting alternative indicators of success that I find very intriguing. His section on "rethinking the economic engine without a profit motive" has great advice for re-phrasing the question "How much money do we make?" This is a short, smart read that may interest anyone who is part of a nonprofit organization.