History and mistakes - Life gets in the way part 4

Review of life gets in the way series to date:
1. Importance of history and taking time to review as a part of your plan
2. Finding a priority, knowing what is important is the key to using tech effectively
3. Forget the Tech! That is right, drop the tool focus and look at the mission

But then after posting and promoting #3 I realized I missed something, but what was it? I had an unfinished thought in my head.  What were the lessons I learned when implementing #3? OH yeah, then I went ahead and added this:
3b. Mission critical is not mission impact

I added that even though it wasn't part of my original plan or thought process.  As I worked through the process of these blog posts and re-read the articles, it brought up a question I never fully resolved. Which leads me directly into this post.

Years ago a small team of YMCA IT staff collaborated to create the IT Alignment model that I talk about so much. The explanation of how this model was created is a great example of reviewing history, learning from mistakes and incrementally adapting your strategy.

It was a slow start to creating the model, we all wanted fast results. But we kept taking time to talk through the successes and failures we were all having and adapted it to our strategy. We would review what others had done or were trying. We would look for model or best practices.  We would just try things.

In the end the key seemed to be persistence and adaptation. We didn't let the slowness of the process or the false starts stop us. Rather we used that history and those mistakes to drive our future success.

Anyway, here is that history:
http://steveheye.blogspot.com/2009/03/it-alignment-over-years-story-and.html

I know this is weird to promote my blog on my blog, but hey its my blog and I will cry if I want to... oh wait I think I just confused myself with song lyrics. Why is it so easy to get distracted? Anyway I better get back to, oh wait, is that a red notification number on my Google +...

Mission Critical or Impact? - Life Gets in the Way part 3-a

I was going to move on to part 4, but decided I can make my own rules and decided to have a part 3-a. It's my blog so I can do what I want.

In the last post I talked about the role technology can play in meeting your mission. Since I posted it though I can't stop thinking about mission critical technology versus mission impact technology.

For years we have talked about the importance of planning for disaster recovery and business continuity on your mission critical systems. My definition of mission critical is a technology that dramatically impacts your ability to meet your mission. But I think the key to that phrase is "your ability". A mission critical technology changes the way you work or improves a process in such a way that it helps you meet your mission.

But when I talk about technology helping you meet your mission, I want to focus on mission impact technology. Meaning that you implement technology in such a way that it directly meets your mission, not just improves a process or assist you, it actually makes touches those you serve.

I think the distinction between a technology being mission critical and having mission impact is an important one.

An example within the YMCA is our membership databases could be considered mission critical. But our use of tools like ActivTrax to plan workouts, track nutrition and provide guidance directly impacts our members goals and our mission of healthy lifestyles.

Another example could be our website and email blasts as mission critical. But if we were to adapt those tools or social media to connect our members together in order for them to support and encourage each other on their fitness goals, it gets closer to mission impact.

It is not always clear cut, some technology can be both but only when used correctly.

There are other examples, what are yours?

Forget the Tech - Life Gets in the Way part 3

In our last post our heroes were too distracted with fighting fires and "she can't give much more, I'm an accidental techie not a miracle worker," were themes.

This time we find our heroes have finally built a stable infrastructure of technology and are now looking to have a real impact, not just be effective. We are looking to meet our mission.

WOOHHH, hold on there little horsey before I buck you right off. How can we jump right to the mission like that? Well actually if you don't have the mission as your goal, how do you know you will get there? And why bother doing something if it doesn't lead to meeting your mission.

Yes, there is a lot of technology that is just there to help us work and doesn't directly impact our mission. Well here is my thought about that. If technology doesn't tie directly to your mission, let someone else manage it. John Merritt likes to call that non-mission impact technology your commodity technology.

Why should you spend any of your time coming up with strategies and plans on your commodity technology when that just distracts you from doing these awesome steps below that transforms your technology into an ART that helps you meet your mission?

Below is an excerpt from an amazing blog post from John Merritt on his blog, be sure to visit and read the whole thing.

Matching Tech to Mission ~ Read and Understand the Strategic Plan

Knowledge is power and one of the best places to seek knowledge about your organization is by reading the strategic plan. Techies often feel the strain of being "misunderstood"; I would challenge each and every nonprofit technologist to begin by first understanding their organization.

It's All About the Relationship ~ Getting Connected Even if You're Not Wanted

How do you build a lasting and functional relationship with your organization even when you're rejected by the very people you struggle to support? You keep trying and you change your approach to meet each situation.

What does a Strong Relationship Between Tech and Staff Look Like? ~ Metrics

So, you've done your homework, read the strategic plan and your questions and relationship building have begun to bear fruit. What, then, does the tech/mission aligned organization look like? Have you really attained higher function? Here are a few examples in support of alignment and tech working in partnership with staff.

The Organizational Chart ~ Look for Obstacles

The way in which mission focused technology comes to be is largely based on the organizational chart, that funny diagram made up of boxes and lines that either puts tech on the path to success or the highway to, well...

Conclusion

"Forget the Tech, Let's Talk Mission" is about using the information and resources readily available in each of our orgs to develop questions and talking points to move technology closer to supporting the mission. Using available information and resources -- strategic plans, org charts and staff knowledge -- what questions can you ask that will bring better mission support and extension via technology?

Using Tech Effectively - Life gets in the way part 2

"The servers can't take much more...."
"But we need it now!"
"If we push them too much they will blow, I'm a techy not a miracle worker! Give me some time and a tech budget and I can make it better."
"We don't have time or money, just do it!"

(In case you didn't catch it, that was supposed to seem like Star Trek.)

How many times do we sacrifice effectiveness in order to make it happen? How many times do we give on working better just to get through the day?  We all know there are better ways to do things, but do we have the time to make the change?

One trick to making this change is to pick a priority and start there. Dedicate some time each week to that priority. And when that time comes, turn off the phone, email and everything. Just focus on that priority.

But don't shoot for perfection or finishing everything. Rather pick something that can be accomplished and implement it. Perfection can be the enemy of done. If you always wait until everything is spotless, you may never finish.  Get it out there and keep moving each week.

Once you have made some progress, look to add in another priority or switch for a while.

One of the things that can trip you up though is picking the priority.  Many people jump to getting a group consensus on the priorities, which is good some of the time. However if you are fighting fires, laying a foundation and just getting started, you may end up just wasting time getting the group together. When numerous technology problems exist, just get it working right first. People will be unable to think strategically about technology when they cant get their technology to work right.

Once you have the tech working, then you can move on to some of the organizational needs. Once you get past those levels, then you can look to use technology to make an impact.

SO in that thought pattern, this is #2 in my life gets in the way posts. This one is inspired by John Kenyon and the Ten Nonprofit Technology "Commandments," that he wrote back in 2003. And why does this fit in this blog post? Well this is where I would start if I was trying to pick a priority in the midst of a fire. This list will help you focus.

Here is a an abridged list of the commandments from John Kenyon's post. Be sure to go visit his blog and full post.

After people, Data is your Most Important Resource

Act accordingly in planning and allocating resources. 

Your Results Depend on your Investment in Data

Dedicate staff time to collecting, maintaining and understanding it.

Define and Know your Data Needs and Uses

Define the data that your organization needs to fulfill its mission. 

Seek out Data and Keep it Flowing

Actively seek out data that could help you succeed – include data on clients, funders, members, donors and employees. 

Define your Needs in Detail BEFORE tool selection

Define and create the best system you can to hold and manipulate your data. 

Honestly Look at your Information Systems

Take an honest, detailed look at how your systems do – and do not – work. 

Maintain Commitment of Board and Staff

Get agreement from staff, management and the board to make an ongoing commitment of resources to improve operations.

Have an Ongoing Conversation about Data

Have an ongoing discussion in the organization about the best ways to use your data, and what you can learn from it. 

Keep in Touch with other Organizations

Keep in regular contact with other organizations and the nonprofit technology community in order to keep up to date with tools and solutions. 

Knowledge Eases Fear, Gather/Share Knowledge

Identify and confront techno-phobia in all its forms. 

Life gets in the way.

What is the latest trend? What is the new thing in Tech? How are nonprofits using these new tools? So many times, the best answer to questions about your future is to look at your past and go back to the basics.

We tend to complicate our decisions out of fear of the unknown, fear of failure or fear of change. But I would actually challenge that statement, is that really true or are we all just nodding our head because we all say those things so much.

Anyway, I am only two paragraphs into this post and I have already lost my focus. Isn't that really what the problem is for so many of us? We sit down to think strategically, look at the big picture and dream, but we end up getting buried in the stuff that is happening now, doubt creeps in, we question the possibility of success and we get distracted.

It is hard to separate yourself from today and your worries to think about five years from now.

I have found that the best way for me to get past those road blocks is to step back into the past or to shift the focus back to the basics.  History teaches us about who we are and the basics remind of us of what is really important.

For years now I have written this blog, but I have never been able to keep it going consistently, life just gets in the way. And that is exactly what happens at work too. I always mean to go write that integrated communications plan, create a vision statement for our website, build a storytelling culture, etc, but life gets in the way.

Over the next couple posts I am going to explore some of my favorite old posts from NPTech Rockstars that may help all of us to take a minute and reflect. (Special thanks to John Kenyon for the inspiration for this, he just reposted his Ten Nonprofit Technology "Commandments" which made me think about this).

My "back to the basics" list:

Ten Nonprofit Technology "Commandments" by John Kenyon

Forget the Tech, Lets Talk Mission by John Merritt

IT Alignment History by Steve Heye (I know self promoting, but I said review YOUR history)

Keys to the Kingdom by Peter Campbell

The Silo Situation by Peter Campbell (WHAT@#%$@ Peter gets 2? He is just so smart.... John Merritt would get 2, but he just doesn't blog enough)

How to Become a Technology Change Leader in Four Easy Steps by Dahna Goldstein

The Future of Nonprofits

Innovation is one of those words that is overused and misunderstood. It is slapped on a product, an advertisement and idea in order to convince us that something really is different and better. It isn't just new it is "INNOVATIVE." It just makes you want more.

When innovation is understood and encouraged it can become an unending well of ideas.

So every know and then I pick a book to blog about. The next book that has caught my attention is "The Future of Nonprofits: Innovate and Thrive in the Digital Age." David J. Neff and Randal C. Moss offer insight into innovation within a nonprofit, but more importantly the offer a structure to make it real.

Here is a short video as a taste of what is in the book.

What I learned at 11ntc

General learning

Integrated communications – many are still struggling with how to many the multiple channels we communicate in. The key is to start with a focus and goals, get the content, then work on distribution.

Sessions

Keynote – Dan Heath author of Switch

·      To make change happen you have to direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path:

o   Direct the Rider – understanding strategy doesn’t mean you know what to do to make it happen. Look for the successes and build off of those. We spend too much time thinking about our failures. In life there will always be a number of need

o   Motivate the Elephant – change is sparked by feeling, not information. We think it goes analyze, think, change but it might be see, feel, change. You need to have the desire to change, not just the idea.

o   Shape the path – Make it easy for change to happen. Remove the barriers and create an environment where failure is part of the process.

Small org doesn’t equal small tech – presented this session, but as always learned things.

• Importance of getting focus of technology conversation away from technology: tips-get outside views, form advisory board
• Relying on tech vendors is challenging when you don’t know the technical questions to ask
• Build vs buy conversation is really less pertinent when there are so many buy options with flexibility to build
• Not only are we moving from capital tech purchases to operations expense, we have stopped buying only tech (tools) and started buying ways to run our work (solutions).

Segmenting communications – all about how to do predictive versus regression segmenting

• Sending email to everyone tells an audience that you don’t know anything about them and they stop listening. Messages focused on my interests keep me engaged.
• Just because an email is free doesn’t mean everyone has to get every email, make it matter to that person.
• Segment on RFN – Recent time, frequency and amount of donation.
• Focus on medians when analyzing, not averages. Averages get skewed too easily.
• Content should be dynamic for everyone.

Network Neutrality Keynote – Not too much to say about this one… Fascinating topic with potential for deep impact.

Storyteller kit – ideas and structure to build storytelling.

• Create a safe place before starting an interview (put the camera down, ease into it, prepare the person)
• In a story don’t forget to provide an action
• Content strategy – purposeful, measurable, sustainable. Steps= prioritize audience, what do THEY want, leverage themes, concise message
• Get it all out at once. Even if a story is too long to publish, write it all down. Then you can go back and break it up.
• In stories, write how you would speak
• Write the stories that you cant wait to tell people
• Use pen & paper to transcribe, writing gives physical form to thoughts and is easier to transcribe. (and might be less of a distraction than tech)
• Don’t approach a story as a job, approach it as a chance to really learn about a person through conversation (genuine interest breaks barriers)
• Attention to detail makes a great story. What captures your attention? Not just another formula story
• Storytelling is personal. Make it personal. The reason why you write, connection to yourself and audience.

Hyperlocal session:

• Preventobesity.net has health issue searches at a hyper local level, cool stuff
• o   Also allows parents to find each to work on an issue, like school lunches
• Inform people about what you are doing at the zip code level, makes for a real connection to individuals
• @myimpact is a pretty cool tool, you can track your own impact and share it

Location Based Systems (LBS)

• Most are still new, not widely used beyond techies and aren’t ready\well suited for nonprofits.
• Creative ideas are starting though, like:  Creating scavenger hunts in scvngr, Leaving tips in Foursquare at locations related to your cause, Getting business to donate per checkin, Replacing rewards cards with LBS
• Facebook places is not well adopted yet, even though it is part of Facebook. Although the panel did recommend looking at combining places with your page if you have a physical location, many of the initial concerns have been addressed, but there are still some sacrifices.
• It may take two more years before LBS is really mainstream and ready for cause marketing, but it will be better to experiment before then.
• Mentioned possibility of LBS building ability for a business to add a button to their location checkin page to suggest donating to a related cause.

Failure – session about learning from failure

• ·      Lots of sharing of failures, which in itself is a learning. Sharing our challenges shows our openness and honesty, and how we recovered shows our strength.
• ·      Planning for failure means thinking through when failure is ok. Network crashing or database loss are not acceptable failures. But pilots in social media, processes, new web tools, etc should allow for failure at an acceptable checkpoint.
• ·      A culture has to be built that expects some failure in order to allow experimentation and growth.

Tidbits:

-use a separate app to manage personal & professional networks