Author: whatifconcepts

Empowering those that inspire so they can excel at the work that matters.

Social Media Recommendations, Less Valuabel Than Last Year

A current survey shows word of mouth is trending towards a less trust between friends who make recommendations on social media.  Last year the level of trust was 50%  this year it has fallen to 27%.  People were not always satisfied with the recommendations that received online, some of it erroneous.  Now they are looking for 3-5 additional recommendations before taking action or feeling more assured.  The research comes from Ricahrd Edelman who was interviewed on the Marketplace radio program.


With nonprofit organizations initially being the fastest sector of adopters of social media and relying heavily on Facebook and Twitter for marketing the impact of the survey may be noticeable.  How do you make sure you have authentic, transparent reviews of your organization?  Are you getting a variety of view points to give greater assurance that you are everything you claim to be?  Are you using a bullhorn to shout about your great programs or are your fans spreading the word for you?

Facebook vs. Google

How quickly can your competitive advantage erode?  A Wall Street Journal article detailed the steps that Facebook and Google’s Gmail are taking to customize their features to look more like their their competitor.  Changes to status updates, email inbox and their respective layouts are starting to erode the competitive advantage between the two companies.  It appears that once one company started to cross the design lane that separated the two, the other company moved immediately moved closer.  Competitive advantage is not a protective blanket if it can be easily duplicated.  Real competitive advantage needs to have a serious moat in front of a castle.  Force a competitor to swim across and try to scale the walls.  If you have a well designed competitive advantage then you will force another organization to expend significant resources to try and challenge your position.

Burning Your Boats

“Cortez resorted to a simple but drastic expedient. Once he and his men landed on the shores of Mexico he burned his ships.”

Allen Weinstein and R. Jackson Wilson, Freedom and Crisis, 2nd ed., 11.

 I stumbled upon a post by James Stripes about the historical accuracy Hernán Cortés‘s actions.  Mr. Stripes points out that the boats may have been grounded instead of burned but the legacy of the moment continues to have an impact on our language and motivational planning today.  Perhaps the incident is most memorable for how extreme Cortés’s actions appear.  To reach a foreign destination and immediately destroy any chance of retreat typically gets people’s attention.  Today’s equivalent would be tossing your passport, iphone, wallet, and email addresses overboard (physically or virtually).  To underscore the seriousness of his commitment to the exploration and demonstrating this a public manner, Cortés destroyed the ships.  Change became reality, the exploring party’s charge was clear and survival could not be debated.

Society sends mixed messages on change.  Marriage is proposed but a prenuptial agreement is signed.  Two airline companies merge but they remain in their respective headquarters, flying under their pre-merger logos for months.  New software is rolled out but you can regress to the old version if you wish- consider the two versions of Microsoft’s control panel with a classic and new display.  New Coke was launched but apparently somebody thought they should keep the recipe for Classic Coke just in case thing did not workout.


Sometimes change needs to be cautious and prolonged but the motivation for commitment stagnates with the passage of time.  When I was a trip leader in the Wyoming wilderness change took place the moment the van drove away from the trail head and the group was left with what it could carry in its backpacks.  A successful trip became contingent on everyone’s participation.


When a common focus is built on the foundation of a compelling purpose and the right team is gathered, change is possible.


How have you addressed change?  Do you stay in a lifeboat by a sinking ship or seek shore?  How do you secure a group’s commitment to seek a common goal?

Recognizing Volunteers

Just received the Annual Report from the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.  One of the fascinating elements about the report is that it lists volunteers before donors and provides a notation about how each volunteer donated their time and talent.  The report says a lot about an organization and its values.

How does your organization prioritize its recognition of volunteers, donors, sponsors, and in-kind donors?  Is your recognition consistent with the organization’s stated values?  Have you asked each of the aforementioned groups how they wish to be recognized and if the current process matches their expectations?  How have you been personally recognized by other causes that was particularly compelling?

Megaphone or Flute

Social media applications are offering an interesting shift to marketing and promoting causes.  The more you shout about yourself, accomplishment and ask for immediate attention the less likely followers are going to stay in-touch (the exception seems to be celebrities or organizations that are hard to duplicate).  Have you seen organizations start their Twitter experience by promoting everything they do.  Tweets always focus inwardly on their programs, people, accomplishments, deals.  Interestingly, according to a number of social media leaders this does not appear to be the most effective way to build a base of followers.  Customers and fans who you already have a relationship with outside of social media may follow you but new users may not be as quick to be part of the ‘all you, all the time’ network.

The strategy that appears to have the greatest success comes from those individuals who can serve as connectors.  These networkers are spending far more time promoting the work of others, sharing memorable resources and links.  They are acting like a whitewater river rafting guide.  As a passenger in the raft your eyes are focused down river but these social media guides are helping steer you towards the most memorable rapids.  You develop a trust and are more likely to click on a link or read their posts.

Are you using a megaphone to shout about your services?  Is it all you, all the time?  Are you a champion of your partners?  Do you help rise all boats by raising the tide?

I believe social media is teaching us how to be a Pied Pipers, playing a memorable tune and leading others along the way.  Looking for more specifics, here is a great article by Tamara J. Erickson.

 

Landing the Plane

Arriving by plane Chicago last night the orchestrated dance of landing patterns was visible watching the planes with landing lights circling the airport.  It was a great reminder of how much energy and planning it takes to land a plane in a busy airport.  The stair-step altitude approach with reductions in speed and course all to funnel the plane into a final approach to one of the runways.  
When leading an organization do we take into account the energy and expertise required to alter the course of an existing program or initiative.

  • Some secondary schools are closing foreign language programs in favor of another language or budget cuts.  The school must support the students enrolled in the existing language courses as they sunset the program.  If they are launching a new language program they must prepare for a programatic shift.  For a period of time a school may have a duplication of staff, classroom constraints, scheduling conflicts and other challenges as they navigate the process.
  • A local foundation is moving from granting individual scholarships to a model that awards restricted funds to youth organizations.  The youth programs will then distributed the funding to children enrolled in the programs.  The end result for the recipients is the same but the process has changed dramatically.  New partnerships, forms, schedules and resources have been required.
  • The Girl Scouts of America amended their business plan and in doing so launched a realignment initiative that reduced its local and region councils from over 300 to almost 100.  This transformation has take multiple years, required a significant investment of time, money and resources.  It has been a priority and other opportunities have been delayed.

Are you committed to the change you are considering?  Do you have the time and expertise necessary to “land the plane”?  Is your organization prepared to change speeds and altitude?

Hello

Just finished meetings today that outlined the importance of introducing yourself (a nod to the book, Checklist Manifesto).  A case study from an independent school where a divide between faculty and staff was creating growing tensions.  An outside facilitator worked with both sides, bringing attention to the issue.  No formal mediation was done, just focus groups to collect information and feedback.  Two weeks later the issue was reportedly resolved in feedback from the faculty and support staff.  No action steps had been implemented, no group discussions, gatherings or reports.  It appears that a raised consciousness had allowed both sides to take the extra step of introducing themselves to each other and individuals spent a few extra minutes having meaningful conversations.

Who could you introduce yourself to that you have taken for granted or assumed you had already been introduced?  What difference might it make?

Jet Fuel and Supplies

Does your organization have a budget that forecasts three years from today, five, ten, or twenty?  Has anyone taken into account that the new building you about to put online will increase utility and maintenance costs?  Is there a line-item to show that the grant which has allowed the organization to hire two full time equivelant employees will expire in two years?

Many organizations hold strategic planning session and annual retreats to try and expand their horizon somewhere beyond the next board agenda.  The ideas and concepts that are developed are often inspiring.  A great retreat can plaster the most dynamic and liberating ideas all over the walls with the help of Post-Its and large poster boards.  The energy is palpable and the groups exits with the belief that their organization is going to shine brighter than ever.  What so often gets missed is the power of inertia.  If the financial realities of the planning is not developed in concert with the ideas, there will be no fuel in the rockets and breaking your organization’s current orbit will be impossible.  A year goes by and the organization is on the same trajectory, circling the same star, in the same order it has always held.

Part two of a great planning exercise should be the consideration of the resources required to launch the initiatives.  It takes a tremendous amount of power to break an organization’s current orbit.  Change can be scary, difficult and require lots of energy.  When it is happens it is remarkable and can alter the shape of your universe.

Does Age Matter More or Does Your Time in History?

Interesting article in BusinessWeek on the The Lost Generation of Entrepreneurs who did not have the opportunity to launch and guide new enterprises from start-up to more mature organization. An opportunity that had benefited the generation that proceeded them in the 1990’s.  Given the economic challenges these opportunities have been far more scares. Guest blogger Jeff Bussgang explores the very small list of entrepreneurs who succeeded from 2000’s compared to their predecessors.


Recalling Malcom Gladwell’s, Outliers: The Story of Success which looked closely at the birthdates of successful entrepreneurs:  Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Balmer, Steve Jobs, and Eric Schmidt all born in the years between 1953-1955.  Their births seems to coincide with a moment in time when technology was in its infancy and the canvass was blank, awaiting their artistic touch. 

It makes me wonder what will this period in time be known for when we reflect back?  Will it be banks to big to fail, quants, two wars, deficits?  Or are we going through a transformation so dynamic that the seismic impact is just beginning to reach the surface?  Consider the following fact from the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink.  

The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimates that in the United States, only 30 percent of job growth now comes from algorithmic work, while 70 percent of job growth comes from heuristic work.

First let me define courtesy of Mr. Pink.  “An ‘algorithmic’ task is one in which you follow a set of established instructions down a single pathway to one conclusion…a heuristic task is the opposite.  Precisely because no algorithm exists for it, you have to experiment with possibilities and devise a novel solution.”  Essentially it is a checkout clerk vs. a marketing agent.

Are we so focused as a country on trying to save the assembly-line job that we are missing the transformational uncoupling of the Industrial Revolution paradigms from a global workforce?  If the ownership and development of ‘ideas’ (non algorithmic careers) are in demand, would we rather own the rights to creative copyright as a nation or assemble the finished product?  

When we look back, how will this lost generation be viewed?

Blame

Blame is easy, convenient and it provides a simple answer to challenging questions.  

  • Many political figures are masters of blame.  In brief ten second sound bite they address their talking points.  With outrageous metaphor they must outline how they as an individual, their party, and their legislation has been held hostage by the the opposition.
  • Nonprofits use blame.  Foundations are blamed for not approving grants.  Boards are blamed for not attending meetings or be disengaged.  Volunteers are blamed for not completing tasks professionally.
  • Donors use blame.  They give without condition but then blame the charity when they cannot get tickets to a sold out event or are seated poorly at a gala.
  • Members blame organizations for not getting enough benefits in return for their investment.  They become transactional with the institution.  Customer service becomes the focus instead of the organization’s ability to meet the mission.


Much of what incites us to blame is the lack of easy answers.  Blame covers large gaps in understanding with a blanket statement.  If you are using or hearing blame in your organization, pause and consider what questions have gone unanswered.  The power of being inquisitive can lead to extraordinary results.