Have you wondered why endurance athletes compete in a pack? What law of attraction pulls so many people together in such a close proximity? There are some demonstrated benefits, such as drafting a competitor in a cycling race can provide 30% less work than leading. But why is it rare for us to see a marathon or stage of the Tour de France where a lone competitor strikes out by themselves at the start and attempts to solo to victory. Breakaways take place but often the attempts become more bold when the finish line is closer and the certainty of reaching it becomes higher.
How often is our strategy determined by what our peers and competitors have done? Many organizations perform an environmental scan prior to launching a strategic planning effort. This exercise can be illuminating and constraining at the same time. I frequently find organizations gravitate towards changes that competitors have made. Another enterprise hired a Director of Advancement to help them with their fundraising effort. The conversation quickly becomes, ‘should we hire a professional for our development campaign?’ Organization X will produce a unique marketing piece and suddenly replicas appear from other organizations. Mirroring another cause is human nature but expecting to standout by staying in the pack is difficult and sometimes irrational.
Is your goal to finish the race with the other organizations? Robert Egger in his book, Begging for Change would argue that this strategy can be optimal for your organization if you rely on the success of partner enterprises. It is a worthy philosophy to consider.
Are you in the race and running with the pack because it is the optimal way for your organization to advance its mission? Are you trying to standout as an organization? So when do you take over the lead? Do you even need to be in the race?
If you could ask one celebrity or person of notoriety to present your cause to a stadium of philanthropically minded patrons, who would you choose and why?
If you were unable to use numerical or financial metrics that your organization commonly relies on to demonstrate its effectivness, how would you describe your cause’s impact?
Great reminder for those of us in fundraising. I was recently speaking with an organization that asked a donor for a leadership gift. The donor has a long history with the cause and has been very supportive in the past. The individual even said the request was with her capacity range. The donor said she would consider the request but wanted to speak with her husband. After a spousal conversation the couple contributed at a generous level but many factors below what had been requested.
Perhaps the spouse should have been at the initial meeting. The donor understood the opportunity and found it compelling. The donor was unable to align her husband’s willingness to make a philanthropic investment with her passion. The enterprise realized too late that it was missing a critical decision-maker when it scheduled its original meeting.
Do you have the right people in the room when you are requesting a philanthropic contribution?
Is your cause trying to rebuild or re-establish its membership base? Have you launched an initiative to diversify your service group? Interesting and unique lessons from the transformations taking place at the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Thinking about developing a mentoring program? A technique that came to my attention the other day was the concept of tandem running. The process was one of the first discoveries of a non-human teaching another non-human a skill. Tandem running is a method that ants use to show other ants how and where to locate food. The lead ant has the knowledge and moves ahead and waits for the trailing ant to follow. The second ant runs behind but frequently veers off-course and explores the surrounding terrain. The lead ant waits for the second ant to catch-up. The lead ant moves forward when the second ant prods it to move forward. By allowing the second ant to explore the surrounding environment the lead ant enhances the second ant’s mapping of the local environment and improves it chances of returning to ant hill with food.
What could we learn from a self-paced mentoring program? What if a mentor showed as much latitude as the first ant? Would it lead to a vibrant and enriching experience?
I just finished the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath. The concepts in the Heath’s book regarding managing and influencing change were as insightful as any resources I have encountered. I was a big fan of their previous effort, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. I am thrilled to incorporate key concepts and methods into my current strategic planning engagements. The key framing around which the book centers involves the following analogy presented by Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Happiness Hypothesis. Using Mr. Haidt’s foundation the Heath’s defined the three areas as the Rider, the Elephant, and the Path. The Rider is the rational side, the Elephant represents the emotional side, and the Path is the route. The Heath’s take the analogy and uncover remarkable examples of successful change and utterly disastrous models of failing to change. Their case studies are enlightening and they offer a final section on how to overcome common obstacles.
If you are looking for a playbook on how to address or lead change, I see many applications for the social sector coming from the pages of Switch.
Checkout the book’s website for great resources.
How well does your organization maintain confidentiality? Do you trust your staff and board? Can you bring sensitive information to Executive Session? Are you able to gather the resources and opinions you require to make confidential decisions? Can you ask your Executive Director what keeps them awake at night and expect an honest answer?
What model do you use? What has been successful? What challenges your organization’s confidentiality?
Watching my kids pack-up their sleeping bags this morning I was reminded of the importance of the first move. They both gentle filled their respective stuff sacks with a small portion of their sleeping bags. Each kid then proceeded to put more effort into getting the remainder of the sleeping bags into the stuff sack as they ran out of room. The end result was a partially stuffed sleeping bag. Had their first move been an energetic thrust of sleeping bag into the bottom of the stuff sack then they would have had a chance to succeed. They could not overcome a poor start, no matter how much effort they put into the last portion.
What first moves does your organization do exceedingly well? Do you recruit and orient new board members better than anyone else? Do you thank first-time donors with more passion? Do you celebrate your volunteers’ talents more personally than peer causes? Do you welcome new staff members in a memorable manner?
What-if-concepts 