Episode 6 | Inherited Assumptions: Hidden Beliefs Shape Nonprofit Decision-Making | Owen Fitzpatrick

Ninety-four percent of nonprofit professionals say they want their organization to shift its fundraising strategy. Most organizations are still doing the same things they did ten years ago. In this episode, host Derric Bakker is joined by Owen Fitzpatrick, a social psychologist, author, and expert on how beliefs shape leadership, decision making, and organizational change. Owen has studied belief and propaganda from the outside in, traveling to places like North Korea and Rwanda, and from the inside out, working with senior leaders at companies including Google, LinkedIn, Pfizer, and Morgan Stanley. He is the author of Inner Propaganda. Derric and Owen start with the paradox from DickersonBakker's national study of nonprofit professionals and ask why a sector that agrees change is necessary still struggles to produce it. Owen's answer is inner propaganda, the campaign the brain runs to keep itself safe and stable, which is why beliefs so often feel like facts. They trace how the fundraising systems the sector inherited took hold because they worked, why success itself makes an assumption harder to challenge, how a leader's beliefs become an organization's culture, metrics, and incentives, and what it takes to close the gap between wanting change and producing it. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 Cold open: the changing times are making change mandatory 00:33 The paradox: 94 percent want change, most organizations are stuck in neutral 02:50 Meet Owen Fitzpatrick 03:25 What nonprofits can do better: feeling and identity 04:50 What nonprofits should stop doing 05:45 From North Korea to inner propaganda 07:30 An inner dictator, not an inner critic 10:37 Why the brain runs a propaganda campaign: safety and stability 13:55 Did we ever choose what we believe? 16:14 The assumptions we inherit in fundraising 17:42 Why smart people get stuck: the curse of knowledge 21:59 Why wanting change is not enough 25:10 Feels right, fits in, makes sense 26:04 How a leader’s beliefs become the organization’s culture 30:46 Just because you say it doesn’t make it so 32:27 Strategies are downstream from beliefs 33:52 How to surface the assumptions you no longer see 35:23 One idea to put into practice 36:40 Where to find Owen ABOUT THE GUEST Owen Fitzpatrick is a social psychologist, author, and expert on how beliefs shape leadership, decision making, and organizational change. He first used the term inner propaganda in his 2016 TEDx talk, and is the author of Inner Propaganda, a keynote speaker focused on belief leadership, and host of the Inner Propaganda newsletter and podcast. RESOURCES https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5GKDQHL, by Owen Fitzpatrick, available nationwide in the US and on Amazon, https://innerpropaganda.com/ Owen Fitzpatrick, https://owenfitzpatrick.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Better-Way-Fun..., by Derric Bakker DickersonBakker, https://dickersonbakker.com/ ABOUT THE SHOW The Better Way Nonprofit Podcast explores the ideas and opportunities reshaping the future of the nonprofit sector. Each episode features candid conversations with innovative leaders helping nonprofits find better ways to lead, grow, and thrive. Hosted by Derric Bakker, founder and CEO of DickersonBakker.