March 13, 2013 | Tom Suddes
“The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong”
IF YOU:
- Work for a ‘Not-For-Profit’
- On the Board of a ‘Not-For-Profit’
- Ever given money to a ‘Not-For-Profit’
- Ever been helped by a ‘Not-For-Profit’
(***Which is everyone, since you born in a hospital and attended a school!)
YOU NEED TO WATCH AN AMAZING TED TALK THAT WAS JUST FILMED THIS MONTH. It’s Dan Pallotta calling out the double standard that drives what he calls “the broken relationship to charities”.
This is the essence of a TED TALK: BOLD. CHALLENGING. PROVOCATIVE.
I urge you to take 18 minutes and 54 seconds to CHALLENGE YOUR THINKING.
Special Note: Dan comes at this a little differently then we do. His message is to stop worrying about how much we spend on fundraising … and focus on how much money is available for IMPACT.
Ours, as you all know, is that IMPACT drives INCOME … not the other way around.
Give me your feedback on Dan’s message.
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March 12, 2013 | Kerry Suddes
Teleseminar: On Board(s) – A Guide for Greater Board Engagement with Tom Suddes
Teleseminar: On Boards – A Guide for Greater Board Engagement with Tom Suddes
Thursday, March 14, 2013 @ 1:00 ET / 10:00 PT
Investment: $45 / Free for first 100 registrants
Paying attendees will receive an MP3 copy of the seminar audio.
‘How do we engage the board?’ This is one of the top questions we receive. This teleseminar is a direct answer to that question. Tom will do what he does best: CHALLENGE (status quo), LEAD and SIMPLIFY. I know Tom’s going to challenge assumptions you have about the board/staff dynamic. Then he’s going to share some of the thinking we’ve been employing in the field, and finish with concrete frameworks (TOOLS) you can use for greater leadership engagement. He will be speaking to board and senior staff.
Included in this seminar:
- A change in perspective. “A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.” – Alan Kay
- How to change the dynamics of the board/staff.
- How to get leaders ‘on board’ vs. ‘on the board’.
- How to leverage a NEW leadership model.
- How to identify the right leaders and champions.
- 3 Key Frameworks (TOOLS) for leaders and leadership engagement.
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March 8, 2013 | Steve Elder
Nick Fellers gave me this great check-in framework the other day that I wanted to share with you. As the amazing president of The Suddes Group, Nick uses this framework to check in with all of us coaches. Try using this to check in with your team, your boss, even yourself!
RESULTS? Against Goals.
ROADMAP? How are we doing on our Plan?
RE-IMAGINE. What can we do right now that will change the game?
Just CHECK IN!
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March 6, 2013 | Steve Elder
I was asked to give a one-hour talk last Friday for our local Nonprofit Day here in Colorado Springs. Since I was supposed to be the inaugural speaker of a new “fundraising track” for the conference, I went right to the point” “Just ASK: The Ask as Dialogue.” It was going really well. They were actually doing some of our practice drills within the hour! But I got greedy. At the end of the talk, I tried The Card Trick. ( (If you have been to our Live Experiences, you have probably seen The Card Trick. If not, well, I think you’ll get it if you read on.)
The method — and teaching point — of The Card Trick is this: ASK a question. LISTEN to the answer. THINK about the response. Repeat until you get to your GOAL (i.e., the card that a volunteer has selected but only you know). To me, this demonstration captures the idea of The Ask as Dialogue.
The “trick” went fine. I got them to the 7 of Diamonds. The problem was that I ran out of time to process the trick sufficiently. The thing about The Card Trick is that it is not a trick! It is a transparent, authentic DIALOGUE. Done well, it seems magical. Why is that? Maybe because we have such dialogues so seldomly? Fodder for another blog. The point here is that I needed to process the trick with them enough that they understood — and remembered — that we are not tricking anyone in our sales process. We are simply “forging a human connection,” as Bob Burg says, toward a goal: IMPACT.
This is what we do in a SALES DIALOGUE: Ask the right questions. Listen — really listen — to the answer. THINK for gosh sakes. Then, ask another great question.
Just ASK!
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March 6, 2013 | Nick Fellers
Teleseminar this Thursday: Make Your Story Awesome
“We fail to realize that everything we say is a story — nothing more, nothing less.”
“Stories impose meaning on the chaos; they organize and give context to our experiences…
Facts are meaningless until you create a story around them.”
“Your life is your story. Your story is your life.”
– From The Power of Story, by Jim Loehr
You have control over the story. That’s the WOW!
This week think about:
- The flawed stories we tell ourselves. “She can’t make a gift of that size because she just made a big gift to the museum.” Stop making decisions for prospects.
- Our funding stories. Do you need money for your annual fund? (Who cares?) Or are we tying the story to the impact?
- Our organizational story. Remember, Braveheart trumps the LIttle Engine that Could.
- The Story of the SECTOR! The Story of our Raison d’être! Are we ‘not for profit’ or FOR IMPACT?
Story – if you get it – is a pretty big deal. We’re devoting a lot of time, direction, and resources to helping the sector with ‘story’. Tomorrow, we’ll be sharing practical examples that help you clarify your vision, articulate your message, inspire your team, and transform funding.
Teleseminar: How to Make Your Story Awesome
Thursday, March 7 @ 1:00 PM ET
Info & Registration
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March 5, 2013 | Steve Elder
"The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin
I’ve found that one thing For Impact coaches bring to our clients — force, (really!) — is time to THINK! Most of us don’t often enough call a time-out on the madness to think and record our thoughts. This is something Tom models really well. He starts almost every day this way. During the day, he takes walks to think and dictate. During group meetings, he pulls people out of the mix to get feedback, dialogue, and seize outcomes. And he does some of his best work at 30,000 feet!
Here are some thoughts from a plane on this:
- Make Think Time.
- Since he’s The Old Guy, Tom can use that as an “excuse” to pull out. (As in, “I’m really old. I have to go away and think about this.”) We all have these excuses if we need them. Make the commitment to yourself, your team, your boss, your family. It’s GOLD.
- Use FI principles and frameworks to ORGANIZE, SIMPLIFY and LEVERAGE your thinking.
- The ALTITUDE framework and Entrepreneur’s Mantra (Think Big, Build Simple, Act Now) are great for this. I just had a breakthrough the other day with two leaders using our PROSPECT framework (ID/Prioritize/Strategize) — on the design of their organization! At the beginning of the session, we only knew we needed a breakthrough. We had no idea where it was going to come from. The framework LEVERAGED our thinking about prospects to the ORGANIZATION.
- Think time is not rest and restore time.
- Thinking takes muscle! Sometimes we say to ourselves, “I’ll think about that/plan that on the weekend/during my vacation.” How’s that working?! Rest and restore time is just as important as think time. (For more on this, see “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy Not Time,” by Loehr and Schwartz. Tom introduced me to this book years ago and it changed everything for me.)
- I like to do whiteboard or flip-chart sessions to get my whole body involved in thinking. Some people like to walk and think. My daughter Kit likes to dance and think! Find what works for you. (For more on the brain-body connection, see “Brain Rules” by John Medina.)
Make time to THINK!
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February 20, 2013 | Tom Suddes
The word ‘February’ comes from the Latin word februum (purification), named for a Roman Cleansing Festival that was held each year on the 15th of the month.
February is a great time to CLEANSE ourselves of the BAGGAGE that is holding us back.
It’s a time to turn every one of our SACRED COWS into HAMBURGER!
It’s a time to totally re-think our models and paradigms that are based on badly dated thinking and totally wrong assumptions and suppositions.
Take a moment to gather your team and write down all of the BAGGAGE and SACRED COWS and ‘THIS-IS-THE-WAY-WE’VE-ALWAYS-DONE-IT’ thinking … and then have a cleansing/purification ceremony later this month.
(Burn the list!)
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February 18, 2013 | Tom Suddes
Having watched hundreds (maybe thousands) of ‘NON-PROFITS’ do FEASIBILITY STUDIES …
I still don’t get it.
INTERNAL staff get together … agree they need more money … INTERNAL groups decides to do a campaign to raise more money. INTERNAL leaders enlist EXTERNAL CONSULTANT to do a feasibility study (board justification, cya and back-up).
Think about this ‘FEASIBILITY’ scenario.
- No sharing of vision.
- No engagement.
- No story.
- No dialogue.
- No involvement.
- No presentation of an opportunity.
If you’re still questioning this, think about the following conversation between ‘consultant’ and ‘prospect’.
“If xyz nonprofit org were to do a HYPOTHETICAL campaign with a HYPOTHETICAL goal … how much HYPOTHETICAL money would you HYPOTHETICALLY give to this HYPOTHETICAL campaign?”
Sign me up.
There is an alternative. We use our LEADERSHIP CONSENSUS BUILDING process to create opportunities for both internal and external STAKEHOLDERS to get involved before being asked to invest.
We have chosen these 3 words carefully:
- LEADERSHIP. Engaging the best internal and external LEADERS in the process of message clarification, prioritization and the funding plan will translate into a huge return of the time, energy and resources invested in this process.
- CONSENSUS. This is the right decision, not necessarily about ‘unanimous’ agreement. Consensus on vision, purpose, priorities, goals, etc. creates commitment … generates momentum … and forces engagement
- BUILDING. We have provided a framework to let top internal and external stakeholders engage and involve at the highest level of conversation.
This approach serves as the most powerful form of PREDISPOSITION:
INVOLVEMENT BEGETS INVESTMENT!
If you’d like more information on this, email me.
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February 14, 2013 | Tom Suddes
Board … Not … Responsible … Fundraising
We’ve been with a lot of Boards in the last few weeks … and it just feels like this needs to be re-stated, re-peated, re-inforced.
THE BOARD … IS NOT … RESPONSIBLE … FOR ‘FUNDRAISING!’
You may have heard this from us before, but just a reminder to everyone who is struggling with:
- Getting the Board to ask their friends for money.
- Sharing names of people who need to be hit up. (“How’s that working for you?” as Nick always says.)
- Handing out 3 x 5 cards and then having follow-up meetings to discuss ‘progress’ (when, of course, there is none).
The Board should do 3 things as it relates to funding:
- CHAMPION … a Cause, a Case and the Organization.
- INVITE … others to be engaged.
- INVEST … with a commensurate commitment.
If they can’t do those 3 things, they are not ON BOARD.
Therefore, they should not be ON THE BOARD.
For more on this, see our Guidebook On Boards.
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February 13, 2013 | Tom Suddes
Eye-opening article in latest (February 2013) Inc. on What Makes Employees Unhappy/Happy.
“One recent report suggests that 86% of employees plan to look for a new job in 2013, up from 60% in 2009(!!!).”
It goes on to talk about what ‘employees’ want (depending on age and gender) such as more money, promotion, reduced hours, flex hours, higher job title, more training, etc.
Here’s the highlight for everyone in our wonderful For Impact world: Real job satisfaction is more than benefits or perks … it’s making progress on meaningful work!
“Of all the things that contribute to a happy work day, the one thing that stands out from my research is making progress on meaningful work. Feeling like you were able to move forward on a daily basis engenders real joy.”
This is from Teresa M. Amabile who is a Harvard Business School Professor and co-authored THE PROGRESS PRINCIPLE: USING SMALL WINS TO IGNITE JOY, ENGAGEMENT AND CREATIVITY AT WORK.
If you are a leader/manager of 1 or 100 employees/associates/team members … if you are involved with search, talent, or ‘bus’ issues … you need to truly understand the following:
“When we looked at the diary entries – and we had more than 12,000 – what stood out above everything else on people’s best day was that they were able to move forward in their work, even if it was just an incremental step forward. That had a huge positive impact on their motivation.”
When asked if ‘managers’ were aware of this, Amabile and her co-author, Steven Kramer, responded: “After we did this study, we surveyed nearly 700 managers asking them to rank five employee motivators, including recognition and incentives. Progress came in dead last.”
This huge disconnect would also seem to help explain why so many people are ‘disengaged‘ at work.
Special Note: For Impact organizations have the best opportunity (of any organizations in the world!) to deliver on this big idea.
What can you do today to help your team …
“MAKE PROGRESS ON MEANINGFUL WORK?”
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Our Point of View, Our Message, and Our Commitment.We Lead, Facilitate, Train and Coach...Based on 40+ years in this 3rd Sector, 30 years in business, $1 Billion Raised, and $1 Billion Trained and Coached.
