Sachin H. Jain: Twelve angry seniors

Sachin H. Jain shared on LinkedIn:

“Growing up, I was part of a fledgling Jain religious community in New Jersey and visited Siddhachalm, a 108-acre ashram that was started in the 1970s by Acharya Sushil Kumar Ji Maharaj. After his untimely death in 1993, his followers took up his mission and continued the development of Siddhachalam.

Yesterday, I visited the ashram after not seeing it for 10 years and marveled at the incredible progress between the time it was created and today. The Board of Trustees and followers have created a remarkably vibrant and well-funded center for worship and community that has survived the death of its founder and that continues to deepen the ways it serves its key constituencies.

Being at Siddhachalam prompted me to think also of the founders of SCAN—the Senior Care Action Network—started by a group of community activists we affectionately refer to as the “twelve angry seniors” in Long Beach, California.

What began as a grassroots effort to keep seniors healthy and independent is now a $5b organization that serves over 300,000 in 6 states. Few of the original founders could have imagined this growth and, yet, they laid the foundation for an organization whose evergreen mission would guide it for decades.

All of which leads to some deep reflection.

Lots of organizations come and go, but what is it about some that enables them to rise the ups and downs—while others disappear into oblivion?

Some thoughts:

1) clarity of purpose – organizations that endure have crystal clarity of purpose that is largely unchanging; there may be some marginal changes, but the organizing mission remains largely unchange

2) excellence in governance – the people in the boardroom know what it takes to sustain organizations and consistently do the right things; they do the hard things and they refresh themselves with a constant supply of sound, committed leaders

3) strategic resiliency – organizations that ensure are able to align with changes and don’t get stuck in orthodoxy; they change with the times and don’t get stuck in their ways; they reinvent themselves

4) self-regulation – organizations that ensure have the innate capacity to correct course when they go off course; experimentation keeps organizations fresh, but when they go too far off, they return to their essence.

What do you think drives some institutions (of all kinds) to thrive—while others fail?

Eager for your thoughts.”

Source: Sachin H. Jain/LinkedIn