A Week In Review

End of the week thoughts and queries on several themes as informed by my week:

• If you have a job in this horrific economy, what are you doing to keep it? What about the job--or having the job--makes you grateful? What about your employment status makes you complacent?
• If you are looking for work, what are you doing that truly sets you apart from ordinary, or in many cases, sets you apart from the many candidates who are overqualified for the same position you seek?
• Getting stuck in a cycle of negativity happens to all of us. What does it take to get you out of the cycle? What's on the other side for you?
  
• When you are done...finished...over it...what does it take for you to proudly, from the place of self awareness and clarity, act on it? You've made your decision so act on it.
  
• Volunteers are amazing! In our time-strapped society, to give freely of time is extraordinary. What lights you up about the volunteer work you do? If you do not volunteer (typically: "I don't have the time"), what will it take for you to find the time to enrich your own life by being of service to your world (for free)?
• Planning is not easy. In fact, planning can be exhausting. And at some point we need to stop the planning and begin the doing. What do you notice when the cycle of planning continues...and continues? How do you break the cycle? What is it about the doing that is being avoided?
• We are measured and held accountable in countless ways in life. And, we measure and hold accountable too. A lot! What's all the resistance to measurement and accountability about? We do it and yet we don't want it. What's being held so deeply here?
• There is the actual doing the job and then there is the way in which we do the job. What do you do and what is the way in which you do it? How aligned are the two? If they are not aligned, what can be done?
• There is a vast difference between capacity and willingness. You may or may not have the capacity to do something and you may or may not have the willingness to do something. It's the combination or alignment of the two that tells the story. And your story is...?
• What did you learn this week? What totally new, mind altering thing did you learn...something that took you to a place you had never considered before? What's next?
• The older I get I realize that to be truly independent I am surrounded by people and support. In other words, independence is not a solitary existence, it is a way I carry myself, a belief system, a freedom that comes from connection. What do you know about independence?
• Turning deep, personal pain into triumph and blessing is remarkable. pain is real and needs to be experienced. It's life. And yet, to be able to turn that pain into a blessing, a tribute, a law, an awareness is inspiring. How have you turned your pain into an inspiration today?
• Maintaining physical health and well being can be challenging in our lives. And yet, having a healthy, well balanced body is essential to having a good life. We forgo the essential for the inessential. We know we have to make these biological entities last a lifetime (not at all long when we think about it!) and yet we make choices daily that potentially shorten the shelf-life of the body. How aligned is your value for your body, your hopes and aspirations for your life, and how you treat your body?

And how was your week?

Enjoy the weekend!

We Can Do Better

This fundraising campaign called BuyLife, for the organization calling itself "Keep a Child Alive," leaves me cold! Everything about it strategically and tactically is just wrong. Wrong! It's not clever, edgy, ironic. It's just bad.

A simple breakdown of the campaign: A wide range of celebrity-type people will cease all fan contact (being promoted as a "sacrifice") through their social networks from December 1, 2010 until $1 million is raised (collectively) for the charity. From the campaign website:

How many real lives can be saved by sacrificing a few digital ones? Millions...

Starting December 1 - World AIDS Day - the world's most followed celebrity Tweeters are sacrificing their digital lives to help save millions of real lives affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

That means no more Twitter or Facebook updates from any of them. No more knowing where they are, what they had for dinner, or what interesting things are happening in their lives. From here on out, they're dead. Kaput. Finished.

But they don't have to die in vain. And they don't have to stay dead for long. Just watch their Last Tweet and Testaments, and buy their lives back.

Every single dollar helps Keep a Child Alive fight this terrible disease. And when $1,000,000 is reached, everyone will be back online and tweeting in no time.

You can even join the fight yourself by sacrificing your own digital life. If Khloe and Kim can live without Twitter for a few days, maybe you can too.

Together, with a little digital sacrifice on our parts, we can give millions of real people the care, love and hope they deserve.

We can give them life - the one thing none of us can live without.

Simply stunning!

Fundraising campaigns centered around celebrity are very tricky. These celebrity-driven campaigns will succeed (or not) based upon the public's affection for the celebrity and the authentic connection between the celebrity and the charity.

As evidenced in this campaign, the public has an incentive NOT to give: These celebrities will be silent until the $1 million dollar goal is reached. To the general public weary of the over saturated celebrity-driven culture, this is the best money people do not have to give.

Screen cap of the campaign at 10:30 AM, approximately 35 hours after the campaign began, showing $160,310 raised so far

The focus of the campaign is on what the donor will not get (your favorite celebrity Tweet, for example) and says nothing specific about what the donated dollars will do for the charity and the people the charity serves. Donors do not give when threatened with deprivation (No Tweets for You!), rather donors give when convinced their gifts make a difference by credible organizations and they feel valued for making the gift. Donors don't want to give to dead celebrities; they want to give to living people with real needs.

The ad campaign depicting living "dead" celebrities in glammed up casket shots is just creepy. The photos are not attractive nor do they tell a story about the cause or the charity benefiting from this campaign. They really aren't all that provocative, shocking. They aren't even disturbing. They are just creepy.

Since when is "sacrificing" digital use the "ultimate sacrifice"?

The campaign makes light of death, dying, sacrificing, giving, buying. I believe in an appropriate context even darkness can be light, but not here. The campaign asks: "If Khloe and Kim can live without Twitter for a few days, maybe you can too." In the context of this ad campaign, is this levity really compelling? Appropriate? Funny?

The on-line medium for giving has been grossly underutilized! And most celebrities under utilize the value of their celebrity for good. What would be possible for children with AIDS if these celebrities used the breadth of their virtual social networks and the power of their celebrity to reach their followers with a message stating why they sincerely believe in the cause, why they actively support this particular organization, why they are making a meaningful financial contribution to the charity, and then urgently inviting their fans to participate. How many children will die from AIDS while these "dead" celebrities participate in this empty gimmick?

Message for leaders of non-profit organizations:

• Your fundraising campaigns are a reflection of you, your image, your reputation, your creativity, your authenticity, your need, your effectiveness, your programs. What do your current campaigns say to you about you?
• Celebrity endorsements mean different things to different people. Ultimately, a celebrity lending his/her celebrity as a fundraising tactic is viewed quite differently than a celebrity who actually volunteers and gives money to the charity they endorse. What do your celebrity endorsements say about your organization? For scale, a "celebrity" can be a local visible person of note. Same impact.
  
• Sometimes our ideas miss the mark. Badly! If you run a campaign (or develop a program, or approve a policy...) that misses the mark, how do you know it? It's that "yeah, but..." moment that is often ignored: "Yeah, the campaign is good, but..." What do you notice when the "but" is present? What do you do? "But" is usually a warning to check your gut!
  

I have seen some bad fundraising moments in the non-profit sector; this is a new low!

We can do better than this!

P.S. World AIDS Day, December 1st of any given year, was designed to be a solemn, reflective day about the millions of deaths so far, the tens of millions of people infected with HIV today, and filled with a global education and prevention messaging. When did the World AIDS Day "brand" become so watered down to now include the salutation "Happy World AIDS Day"? Really?

Sacred Cows

I have been to India twice. Once as a college student studying abroad and once for a summer with my then ten-year-old son to retrace my steps thirty years earlier. I love India for many simple and many more complex reasons. It is a country that has been home to me and where I have roots.

One of the most life-changing experiences I had as a college student in rural India was living with a cow shepherd and his family for a "home study" program. He, and they, spoke no English. I spoke very little Gujarati at that time. Their lives and culture were completely unfamiliar to me. I was a mystery to them and to their community. My entire experience living with this family was hard work and it changed me. Side note: as I reread this post up to this point, I get reflective and my words become jumbled...chaotic...and I am reminded that India is just that, a chaotic jumble that cannot easily be described with words.

My host father--Mohanbhai--and I got on extraordinarily well. And he was eager to teach me everything there was to know and experience of his home and family, his village, and his shepherd community. All of our communication was through the earnest attempt each of us made to speak a foreign language and the exhausting use of hand signals and other non-verbal communication tools we had available. And we communicated very successfully!

India and the rich life I lived there comes forward for me quite often, and sometimes quite unexpected. For example, yesterday a client of mine was describing the poor board governance skills of some members of the board by describing the behaviors as "entrenched" and "sacred cows." These sacred cows were longstanding issues/behaviors exhibited by officers of the board that went unchallenged because of the fear of upsetting these volunteers who were also major donors. I smiled at the warm India memory stirring in my spirit. Way back then, through large, animated hand gestures and sounds and a passion from his soul, Mohanbhai taught me about sacred cows in the Hindu faith, and the holiness of cows all over India, especially the few dozen in the yard just beyond where we were speaking. It did not take much to understand how these sacred cows dominate life, conversations, actions, belief systems, ritual, faith. At this particular conversation, what Mohanbhai was trying to describe to me was that even sacred cows get in the way.

In India, it is not easy (and sometimes impossible) to live with sacred cows. They walk down the street. In traffic. They will sit on the stoop of a shop or wander into the school yard. They are noisy and their size is pretty intimidating at times. They deposit waste everywhere. And yet, these gentle creatures are everywhere and they are sacred. Do not disturb. Do no harm. Walk around. Ignore. Some even have dots of red powder on their foreheads or garlands of flowers around their necks because someone stopped the sacred cow to get and give a blessing! Sacred cows...

So this client and I talked about sacred cows as metaphor for some board-related issues. We discussed the presence of behaviors we tolerate, the presence of certain volunteers or leadership styles we enable or indulge, the existence of programs or traditions or practices we do because it's what we do. We talked about how sacred cows require our respect or acknowledgment, but not our inaction. Even the cows of India eventually get moved along with a poke of a walking stick and a continuous beep of a car horn if they block traffic too long. But only after they are blessed with a prayer! I believe India is quite effective (for the most part) at honoring sacred cows while also advancing life, business, faith, progress. The sacred cows are noticed, acknowledged, honored, and moved along!

What are the sacred cows in your organization (or relationship, job, family, etc.) that you notice? How do they show up? What sacred cow is in your way that you feel so reluctant to do anything about for fear of upsetting it? What are you accepting or tolerating simply because you always have?

Perhaps it's time to get your walking stick, poke the sacred cow, and move it along!

Now go!

Fire away!

A local discount store had this content on the cover of its recent sales circular in the newspaper:

"I appreciate complaints.

I really would like to know what you think of our stores...how you've been treated, the quality of our merchandise, the fairness of our prices, the good deals you've scored, the times you've been disappointed...for without your feedback, we can't make things right...for you or for our employees. Thanking you in advance for your comments, both good and bad.

Why solicit complaints? If we are doing something that irritates or offends you, it probably irritates or offends other people. I know we have plenty of room for improvement and that our customers see things and experience things that we can't. If you share your information and observations with us, we have a CHANCE to correct them. We think that's a "win-win" deal.

Praise is also welcome...it makes it worthwhile emotionally, which probably is almost as good!"

The invitation to customers to support this company being better at its work couldn't be clearer. I love that! And I wonder, what our growth as people and organizations would be like if we openly encouraged complaints. Not the focus group or "put your anonymous note in the complaint box" type of complaints, but serious, thoughtful, inspired complaints that are offered as a tool for us to grow, to change, to rise up, to be better! And what would it be like to allow people a moment to vent also, a clearing moment, "getting something off of your chest" kind of venting so that when the energy has passed, a constructive complaint can emerge? What are we afraid of? What holds us back form leaping in? All we have to do is listen!

In the non-profit world, the stakes are too high for everyone to simply "take my business elsewhere..." when a complaint (or series of complaints) goes unaddressed. Organizations must make it a regular practice to collect information from supporters and respond to it. Quickly. Authentically. And on the flip side, supporters of non-profits must kindly, productively, honestly, helpfully offer up ways for the organizations we support to grow while standing by, not threatening to leave, being a part of the change we wish to see. And complain we must!

Supporting a non-profit is typically relational, not transactional. I am invested in a non-profit organization becasue I am in realtionship with it, its staff, volunteers, and other supporters. It is important to me and central to my life. I feel very different about my relationship with my clinic or library or community center or school than I do about a department store or supermarket or utility company. While the for-profit institutions may call me a member or valued patron and my business may be valuable to their bottom line, my relationship with them is pretty thin; I purchase what they have. I do recognize how many for-profit institutions do a much better job at appreciating my business than others (I suppose the relationship can deepen, actually create some loyalty--thanks, Costco!), but for the most part, I am not invested in their success or failure. With the non-profits I care about, I really care...enough to speak up when they are great and when they fall short. And I stick with them!

So complain today! Get it off your chest. And what would it take for you to offer your complaints in a manner that deepens your relationship with the person or organization receiving your complaint? What would it be like for you to complain and feel better and create an opportunity for the other person to grow (vs. alienate them with your words and energy)?

Enjoy the day!

Simplify

It doesn't have to be complicated! Really...really!

Often the resolutions to our challenges are right in front of us. It would appear--especially for those of us affiliated with the work of non-profit organizations--that it is our belief the resolutions, in order to be effective, have to be more complex, detailed, tested, expensive, debated, focus-group approved, consensus made, stakeholder engaged, consultant-driven. We have convinced ourselves that reaching out to the problem solving industry is better than accessing our own common sense and intuition. Think about it!

Now, it is true, some challenges we face require additional support. Big support. And, sometimes the resolution to what feels like a major institutional problem is just plain and simple:

• Offering a contract to the new hire may help them to stay longer and alleviate your fear of an abrupt departure.
• Hiring an electrician to relocate the electric outlet which will enable the computer to be moved so that the greeters' backs are not facing guests as they enter the building.
• Adjusting or amending your strategic plan (or Bylaws, for that matter) when it fails to inspire or organize people toward goal achievement.
• Requesting that a disengaged board member step down prior to the completion of a term.
• Replacing meeting mechanics (i.e. Robert's Rules of Order) with a dose of healthy facilitation skills, hearty discussion, and a clock to keep time.
• Treating anyone in your midst as a potential donor and using every gathering of people as a cultivation opportunity.
• Keeping it real...simple...real simple.

It is pretty typical that the biggest challenges are resolved with the simplest solution, the solution that is intuitive and readily accessible. It is our belief that the resolution has to be bigger (smarter? expert? expensive?) that keeps us from actually resolving what ails us. We fall into a cycle of avoidance, overwhelm, fear, perfectionism, procrastination when we know--in our hearts--that the solution we seek is right in front of us. This does not have to be complicated.

Think about your challenges for a moment. Give them some order, biggest to not biggest (rarely are our challenges viewed as small). Now consider the biggest challenge and what you know is the resolution. Go deep. You probably know the ways to address the challenge. Now think about what you are actually doing to address the big challenge. What is the gap between what you know/intuit and what you are actually doing? What would alignment between the two look like to you? What are the barriers in the way of your intuition coming forth and resolving the matter? When you say "yes" to an overly-processed solution, what are you saying "no" to? What would simplicity look like?

Take the biggest challenge on your list and resolve to resolve it...today!

Word for the Day

What are you grateful for? What does gratitude feel like for you? For me, gratitude is more than offering "thank you"...yet that is a start. What does an expression of gratitude look like to you? What gets in the way of offering gratitude? Or acknowledging gratitude? Or receiving gratitude?

Think of a gratitude that you wish to offer. Got it?

Now go do it!

Discovery

I am my family's historian. It is a self-appointed position that I love. I am the keeper of the family tree database, a process that began over 35 years ago on scraps of paper and index cards and is now tracked on an elaborate database. I scan old photos that are then appended to individual records. I get mysterious documents and photos translated from their original languages (usually handwritten Yiddish or Old Russian). I search for vital documents on web sites and in libraries and court houses. This past summer I spent two weeks in Poland on a genealogical trip of a grand scale visiting the villages of my ancestors. I track down distant cousins on the Internet and make visits and telephone calls to collect information and solve mysteries. I am really serious about this project. My hobby is my passion.

And what I am deeply aware of when indulging this passion (almost daily!) is the depth of my passion for this hobby. I am totally committed. I am in it! When I am in pursuit of a genealogical fact, I can get lost in my effort for hours...the world is blocked out...I am in pursuit of something important...a resolution...mystery solved. I notice my focus is clear and directed. I also notice, depending upon the fact-chase I am on that my heart begins to race and I my body speeds up (I type faster on the computer keyboard). It feels very "hunter"-like, as if being in pursuit of big game. Adrenaline. Hunger. Goal.

This project has been a powerful metaphor for many aspects of (my) life. And today I am aware of how my individual efforts (daily research, collaborations, dedicated pursuits) have created a body of work. Years of research tasks have begun to show a full picture of a family. There is something very individual, singular about the work with something very collective in the result. In the same way, there is something very individual about life in a family while also being a very collective, group experience. Big picture. Goal. Eye on the prize.

So, the learning for me today is to remember the small pursuits--tasks, efforts, achievements, ideas--can add up to something bigger, richer, more complete. Research becomes a body of work. Raising many small donations becomes a new facility at a wildlife sanctuary. Making multiple employment inquiries leads to a new job. Falling repeatedly on the snow leads to mastery of jumps, grinding rails, and a half-pipe on a snowboard. Attending years of school leads to high school (and college) graduation. With each birthday, there is wisdom (hopefully) and some gray hair. The challenge is to execute the individual efforts with a conscious nod to the collective goal.

What are you passionate about, so passionate that you get lost in it? What do you notice about your body when you are indulging this passion (heart racing? focus?)? Think about your individual or daily efforts and how they contribute to a larger collective goal. What is easy, familiar to you? What is difficult? What motivates you when the goal seems so far away or incredibly difficult to achieve? It isn't only the successes that leads to the goal; what does it take to be okay with the collective failures that lead to growth and learning? What are your doing today, or this year, or for years in service to tomorrow?

Enjoy the day!