Nonprofits are all experiments of arrogance.  None are finished products, nor should they be.

Championing a cause is an onion-peeling exercise of conceit, intended to solve hard problems.

Conceits share a common trait.  When closely-held, personally-motivated core values are involved, arrogances can serve as both driver and hindrance.  And they can save or kill your nonprofit.

Let’s say that you have a colleague who believes that the intention of a program speaks to the heart of the mission.  But the program is costly, inefficient, and glorifies the colleague more than the nonprofit.

Your colleague’s investment is in a program that isn’t serving the mission.  But your colleague is a charismatic leader who believes that the program just needs more of the organization’s limited resources to work.

Attack the program (and your colleague’s values) or let it be?