What is your endorsement worth? What is mine worth? How might we put our reputation behind a cause? What if we endorsed a movement? What if nothing happens? What if everything happens?
Endorsement
Celebrate
How often do we start or finish our conversation (and meetings) with a point of celebration? Even our problems can be high quality challenges that 99% of peer organizations in our sector would be desperate to contemplate solving. Mindset matters and our attention and work follows. Celebrate, even if it is a rainy, cold, headwind. It might make you stronger and certainly provides the foundation for a remarkable story.
Human Needs Translated to the Social Sector
Tony Robbins proposed there are six human needs. He defined them as follows:
1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure
2. Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli
3. Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed
4. Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something
5. Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding
6. Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others
If we overlap the six human needs with the social sector, there are interesting alignments.
Certainly= endowment, balance budget, founder still engaged, sustainability, cautious resource allocation.
Uncertainty/Variety= Executive Director transition, new program launch, board member rotation, deficit budget, mergers, new grant application
Significance= awards, accrediation, recognition from political and business leaders, bequests, waiting list for board service, sold out programs
Connection= strategic partnership, social media followers, gala fundraiser, requests to partner with other organizations, online groups
Growth= capital campaign, hire more staff, expand geographic service area, expand board, new organizational lifecycle
Contribution= annual report, services and programs, community engagement, grants, financial aid, free programs
What would you add to the list?
Ambition
Sometimes we have to try to accomplish more than our personal best. To reach for new heights. The safety of ‘normal speed’ stalls our attempt to reach for the stars.
Competition or Collaborator?
Do you know who your competition is? Do you have clarity about your strategic partners and collaborators? Do they overlap? Are you better off when your competition is still in the game? Is your competitor’s success, your success? How might your participation improve the game?
Gratitude
What is something you are grateful for every decade of your life (e.g. age 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc)? Simon Sinek facilitated this moment with Omar Brownson at the end of his recent podcast and it was remarkable. It is a new icebreaker that I am adding to my tool kit.
The Power of Recommendation
Like this? I so, I think you might like this other thing. What might you recommend that your super fans will enjoy?
Getting the Right Work Done, is a book that is helping my consulting clients succeed.
Keep Exploring
Some group of explores kept going as they mapped the deepest know cave in the world. There are plenty of dead ends and logistical issues to overcome. And the journey is not over. This cave exploration starts like every other one, somebody was curious and did not settle for labeling a hole in the ground as another cave.
Who Decides?
Who decides if an idea, concept, or effort is stupid. Conventional wisdom? An urban dictionary? The majority of social media followers? Stupid covers a lot of ground and acts as a major headwind but if we choose to rise above it, we find it is a concepts that does not have a lot of depth or meaning.
Conceal
We can confuse and disorient with a corporate language. When offered a ‘bespoke opportunity,’ we might wonder if the intend is to enlighten or hinder comprehension. Slogans and catch-phrases sound appealing but may be an attempt to cover rough terrain with smooth fabric.
What-if-concepts 