May 21, 2009 | Tom Suddes
Deadly fact: You cannot ‘MANAGE’ your way out of these challenging times!!!
The following appears a little bit like a ‘ramble’… but it’s actually an amalgamation of field work, thought leaders I really respect and my own entrepreneurial background.
Here are 7 things that I believe can help you FLOURISH, not just SURVIVE, in times like this.
- THINK BIG. Now is the time to talk about your VISION and TRANSFORMATION and QUANTUM LEAP!!!
*Yesterday I was in two separate sessions with College Presidents and their Vice Presidents for Development. In both cases, we spent all of our time talking about Vision, Thinking Big, Quantum Leaps, the Message, our Very, Very Best Prospects, etc.
- FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS!
“In times like these, you get a chance to show your STRENGTH.”
- Jim CollinsNow is the time to get back to your core… focus on your strength… do what you do better than anybody in the world!
***Nick and I looked at each other yesterday (in one of our many fun-filled brainstorming sessions) and concluded that now is the time to stop doing anything that isn’t central to our core vision and mission.
- “CRAZY TIMES CALL FOR CRAZY PEOPLE.” This is an old line from Tom Peters that I love. I think it was from back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. If he thought things were “crazy” then, think about what’s going on now!
The point of this is that ‘MANAGERS’ are, by definition, NOT CRAZY.
These times call for mavericks, crazy people, thought leaders, innovators, creative destructers (to quote Joseph Schumpeter’s definition of an entrepreneur).
- WHAT BOX? This isn’t just about “thinking outside the box”. This is about challenging the fact that there is even a BOX to get outside of! In times like these… THERE ARE NO RULES!!! (Beyond the obvious moral, ethical, do what’s right stuff.)
- ACT NOW.
True entrepreneurs thrive in times like these… because they see so many OPPORTUNITIES to CHANGE the GAME.
Times like these require massive amounts of CREATIVITY and INNOVATION.
REMEMBER: CREATIVITY is about ideas… INNOVATION is about turning ideas into action!!!
ACT NOW!
- WORKING ON THE ‘NUMERATOR’… NOT THE ‘DENOMINATOR’. More budget cuts are not the answer!!! (However, this is a perfect time to reallocate resources, change the people on your bus, and change seats.)
These are the times to focus on your NUMERATOR: SALES, THE TOP LINE, NEW REVENUE STREAMS, etc.
This is what we do. We’re constantly trying to help people increase their TOP LINE, their NUMERATOR. (It’s so much more fun talking with LEADERS and ENTREPRENEURS who understand that they need to ‘SELL’ their way out of these challenges… vs. talking with MANAGERS who want to ‘CUT’ their way out of these trying times.)
- STOP LISTENING TO THE DOOMSAYERS! Trust me. True entrepreneurs are spending absolutely no time whatsoever reading the front page of the newspaper nor listening/watching the three major news networks.
In our world, if you were to believe 90% of what you read and hear… NO ONE IS GIVING TO ANYTHING because of the “terrible economy”.
That’s just bull honky. Last week, the Chairman of the Board of Habitat for Humanity made his move from SUCCESS TO SIGNIFICANCE by investing $100 Million in Habitat’s work. (I did not see anything in that announcement where he was complaining about the “state of the economy”.)
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? ‘Managing’, ‘tweaking’, ‘cutting more from a budget that’s already showing more bone than a well chewed chicken wing’ just isn’t going to get you where you know you need to be.
THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR!
P.S. In Inc. Magazine’s 30th Anniversary Edition, there is a terrific article by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last. He was asked what we might expect in the next 30 years.
His answer: Uncertainty, chaos, turbulence and risk. As Inc. says, “In other words, it’s not a bad time to be an ENTREPRENEUR.”
March 25, 2009 | Tom Suddes
(This was taken from an article in Ode magazine and excerpt from Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls Jr.)
The authors talk about Jeffrey Hollander, Founder and CEO of Seventh Generation, a $100M firm that is into green cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap, etc.; and about his relationship with Wal-Mart. Lynch and Walls suggest that Hollander’s answer to the “WHY” (he is in business) embodies the core principle of SOCIAL ENTERPRISE:
“We are not in business to be in business. We are in business only because of our mission.”
I also believe that this Step 3 around ‘CHANGE‘ is one of my most powerful admonitions to an ENTREPRENEUR. CHANGE rules. CHANGE the rules. (There are no rules.) CHANGE or die. CHANGE to live. CHANGE creates huge opportunities. CHANGE is the only constant. Etc., etc., etc.
December 1, 2008 | Tom Suddes
If you are a SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR, For Impact Leader or aspiring ‘wannabe’, you need to get Seth Godin’s new book TRIBES… TODAY!
This guy is a brilliant thinker and a powerful writer. Simple. Clear. Direct.
TRIBES is all about CHANGING THE WORLD… MOVEMENTS… and LEVERAGE.
I will write a better review/summary shortly, but you need to get the book NOW.
9 ACTIONS to Change Your Organization
November 11, 2008 | Nick Fellers
Change can be difficult. A lot of the organizations we work with are 40, 50 or even 100 years old. Speaking openly and broadly to those organizations looking to make a change or transform, I would give the following advice:
- Make Visits: This is pretty simple. It doesn’t say make a leap to Major Gifts. It doesn’t say role out a ‘culture of philanthropy’. If, as an organization, you simply resolve to make visits, that is — get out, visit with prospects and stakeholders and share your story, present the opportunity to help — most organizations would find themselves completely transformed after one year (or even 100 days) of this commitment. It’s often difficult to “turn the battleship” so let’s start with baby steps. As an organization, commit to making visits.
- Get 3 Entrepreneurs “On Board”: Entrepreneurs know how to make things happen. They don’t ask the “what if question”, they ask “What else can we do?” They burst through barriers. They bring the kind of attitude and vision an organizations needed to grow. Entrepreneurs embrace change.
- Start Thinking… Stop “Re-Thinking”: Most organization never really stop and take a timeout to think about the really big questions like “Why do we exist?” Regarding re-thinking, most organizations come together and have retreats to create more and more plans and if you look at it, we’re really just re-thinking the same things over and over.
- Change People: One of Tom’s favorite quotes is “It’s easier to change PEOPLE than it is to CHANGE people.” Kets de Vries (via Tom Peters). So don’t try to change people. Actually put in different people to help the organization change. This is not a reflection or a judgment on the current people, it’s just that change sometimes requires change.
- Think Bigger: We can’t limit ourselves to what’s been in the past. See 9 Big Board Questions.
- Create Your Own Reality/Create A New Reality: We become what we think about. Part of this is about vision. I’ve watched hundreds of times as an organization clearly defines where it wants to go. It makes a decision to think about itself in a different light. All actions and decisions end up framing themselves around this reality. Often the change I see as an outsider is that an organization simply learns to think about itself differently and all the pieces then fall into place.
- Identify Strengths – Give Them Steroids: A couple thoughts on this. One, regarding Marcus Buckingham (Soar With Your Strengths), find the things you’re doing really well and try to do a lot of it. But two, stop the things we’re really bad at that consume our time, energy and effort and have little to no return at the impact end and/or the income end.
- Cook the Cows: The “nonprofit” world is full of sacred cows. (What’s a sacred cow? Look at any ‘nonprofit conference’ and the list of topics – for starters). Almost everyone knows that a lot of what nonprofits do doesn’t make any sense (read Tom’s ebook: Change [the] Rules). Yet, we continue to do them because it’s the way it’s always been done. Don’t do something if it doesn’t make any sense.
- Stop Special Events: I’ve watched dozens and dozens of organizations find a transformation in this idea alone. (1) Stopping special events frees up a ton of staff and volunteer time. (2) It requires that we do something different. (3) It really boosts morale and (4) it forces change.
New e-book: Change (the) Rules
November 7, 2008 | Nick Fellers
Yesterday, Tom was in Colorado Springs speaking to the AFP with Robbert Egger about Change. Today, I’m at AFP in NW Ohio talking about more of the same. However, I think Tom had more gumption. He put together an entire e-book on change 
Change (the) Rules (DRAFT) includes all the ‘no-mores’, quotes on change and lots more vocabulary. Tom and I have both been framing our discussions around this quote from Tim Kight:
“Every Organization is Perfectly Designed to Get the Results that it’s Getting.”
Our message, this book and just about everything else we’re doing is about CHANGE, specifically the CHANGE we make to get different results…. Change RULES!
November 5, 2008 | Nick Fellers
Last week I re-posted ‘stop being a not-for-profit‘. This week I want to re-post another one of the posts from the ‘way back’ (first composed in 1998 and revised several times since then).
Change Your Vocabulary
If you get the whole change in thinking from ‘not-for-profit’ to ‘for-impact’ then here are several other CHANGES to help you change the way you think. More than some ‘language game’ this is really important stuff — it represents a completely different attitude!
| Not-for-profit | FOR IMPACT |
| Charity | PURPOSE |
| Mission Statement | MESSAGE |
| Survival | VISION |
| Inform | INVOLVE |
| On the board | ‘ON BOARD’ |
| Competition | COLLABORATION |
| Donor (Donation) | INVESTOR (INVESTMENT) |
| “Warm fuzzies” | RETURN ON INVESTMENT |
| Transactions | RELATIONSHIPS |
| Ask for money | PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY |
You can also download the PDF
October 30, 2008 | Nick Fellers
Stop being a not-for-profit.
Why do we define our selves in the negative? It makes no sense. Does your organization exist to ‘not make any money’? Or, does it exist to save lives, change lives and impact lives?
Stop defining yourself by what you’re not. Start defining yourself by what you are for: impact.
More than a shift in language we need a different way of being.
This shift is about attitude. It’s about your purpose (the WHY). It’s about re-thinking an entire sector (or two).
In 1950 Earl Nightingale wrote The Strangest Secret to Success. The secret (common to many beliefs, all sectors and all definitions of success): "We become what we think about". What becomes of us when our entire thinking is about nonprofit? What if we think instead about changing the world?* What becomes?
Then there is some great thinking from Peter Drucker who wrote, "Every organization has to prepare for the abandonment of almost everything it does." That’s powerful. We agree. A lot of ’stuff’ needs to be abandoned**.
| Think not and be not about: | Think and be about: | |
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*The Movement: We’ve been sharing this message for the last 15 years and living it for longer than that. The past few years has given rise to an incredible conversation around this VOCABULARY and CHANGE: Social Benefit (Drayton). Social Entrepreneurs/Enterprise. Pierre Odimyer and other change agents are putting resources into ‘for-profits’ that change the world. Google.org comes out and says they will have a ‘for-profit’. It’s no longer about not-for-profit vs. for-profit. It’s about For Impact.
**Abandonment (a start): Direct mail. Lengthy Case Statements. Feasibility Studies. "Volunteer Solicitations". Survival Pitches. Small thinking. Cultivation. Special events (that aren’t special and don’t raise money). Letters that read “We are a 501(c)3” (who cares?). Committee Reports….