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As part of our Philanthropy study we interviewed John Gardner in
1999 and again in 2000.
Gardner sought excellence in every
domain—he memorably observed that excellence in
plumbing was
as important as excellence in philosophy. In Gardner’s view, ethical
work,
without excellence, is equally ineffective. And as we learned
from the Philanthropy study,
good intentions do not always lead to
good work. For example, Gardner describes some
non-profits as
mismanaged organizations that stumble along, trying to do good, yet unable
to do so because they lack the creativity and expertise.
He remarked that such
ineffectiveness can be considered “bad”.
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In his own words:
"Bad in the sense of pious continuance of not competent or creative work, which in a way
is damaging. Damaging because it uses up well meaning dollars, because it breeds
discouragement in people who just feel “We’re working so hard and we’re just not getting
anywhere.” And I think there’s a fair amount of that in the nonprofit world. And there’s
something about lofty ideals that are at odds with clean-cut self-evaluation. You know,
'How can you criticize us when our ideals are so great?' That’s why I like that cartoon of
Peanuts on the pitcher’s mound saying, 'How can we lose when we’re so sincere?'"
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