Silo Situation- Life gets in the Way part 6

"...allowed their culture to dictate their obsolescence." says Peter Campbell in his post about the Silo Situation.

It reads like a preview for a Hollywood script written by John Grisham starring John Cusak. It all seemed simple enough, the organization had the right hopes, the right mission and the right people but somewhere along the way they "...allowed their culture to dictate their obsolescence." This is the story of the one man who witnessed the whole bizarre series of events....

I have worked in a couple organizations where this Silo Situation was rampant. Each department, each team was so self sufficient that you would have no idea they were all one organization. But they were each successful and funding was flowing. So why question success? Why question what is working?

The silos were created because a grant was funding the program, so the team worked in an isolated group. Or this was a pilot program and needed to be secluded in case it didnt work. Or staff performance is only reviewed based on individual and department success. Or culture encouraged hoarding of information to gain power. Or leadership played favorites and kept secrets. There are so many reasons silos start.

We rest on our current and past success which clouds our ability to see the "silo situation." At the organizations I worked at you could always hear whispers about how bad the silos were.  But no one was willing to speak up, because those that did had faded off into the sunset. Suddenly though a big change happened, a funding problem, a crisis, change in leadership or whatever. Then one day we are all wearing buttons that say "silo busters." The org is buzzing with rhetoric and focus groups to destroy the silos. But don't we store all of our grain in silos? (sorry couldn't resist the random comment, just seeing if you are still reading)

When will we learn that collaboration is not new and is not a buzz word? Please don't let life get in the way of finding the silos in your org.

And oh yeah, go read Peter Campbell's AWESOME post!  (this time I will remember the link... sorry Peter)

Keys to the Kingdom- Life gets in the Way part 5

In the midst of spending time reviewing history that is a great reminder to keep records today. I am not talking about time consuming, heavy duty documentation. I am talking about a simple fail safe. Dont let your IT staff end up being an island.

We all like to spend a lot of time on the corner of not us and maybe tomorrow. We all want to think that our whole team will be around forever and we can trust everyone. But things happen, relationships sour, people have flaws, etc. We can all look at our past and remember the one time someone close to you did the one thing you never thought they would.

So before life gets in the way, get your IT staff person off of their island. Don't let them be the only ones that know information that can make or break your org.

Peter Campbell always has great advice about "all things IT" and this is no exception.  He has a great post all what he calls the "Keys to the Kingdom." These keys are things like the network admin password, software licenses and other documentation. Often we only have one person that understands these things and we allow them to be a single point of failure. We cannot allow a single person to have that responsibility.

Peter talks about the following in his post:

1. Follow procedures: get some basic procedures in place and allow time to follow them.
2. Involve all stakeholders: Don’t assume that your It staff – who are already struggling to juggle the big projects with user support—are keeping good records. Audit them, assist them and back them up. Finance can take a role in tracking license keys along with purchase records. 
3. Foster a culture that allows technology staff to succeed

Peter then continues with some awesome advice for all the CEOs in the house:

1. Have realistic expectations for IT. 
2. Participate. 
3. Be appreciative. 
4. Don’t hire extremes.

I would suggest reading his post right now, before life gets in the way.

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 +...

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. 

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

Surf the crowd or create a mob? (Part 8 of 11 NetNon series)

“The inmates are running the asylum.”

“We know what our audiences want.”

“We have been doing this for 20 years.”

“We need to control the quality and protect the brand.”

“Crowds are one spark short of a mob.”

Can’t you just hear the conversation now, you just asked leadership if they would allow you to crowdsource your next campaign. Yikes.

The conclusion to Chapter 8 in the Networked Nonprofit says it like this:

‘Some critics may sneer at what they believe to be amateurs bumbling around in territory formerly the reserve of professionals. And organizations are still ultimately responsible for how their efforts unfold.

But at its best, crowdsourcing is a marriage between professionals and volunteers who have the goodwill and passion to work together to benefit an entire community. Leveraging crowds  is an important and inexpensive way to lift the oppressive weight that so many staffers feel on their shoulders. And by microplanning, organizations can reduce the risk and fear that traditional planning processes create and enable more people to participate in more meaningful ways for social change.’

The book does a great job providing real examples with real results, plus very actionable steps to make this reality.

The part I really clicked with is the microplanning.  “Microplanning is an iterative process of small experiments that lets organizations change, scale, or scrap them easily, quickly and inexpensively.”

So instead of long drawn out plans, with lots of research, steps, stats, industry standards and time spent coming up with one awesome plan, you just start with small ones and see what works. Then build from there.

As you run these small tests you learn about your audience\crowds. You learn to plan your goals, the actions the crowd will take, who to target and what you will do with the crowd input.

"The inmates wont run the asylum, but they may tell you what to improve."

"You may know what your audience wanted yesterday, but they change."

"We have been doing it right for 16 out of the 20 years, not so much in the last 4."

"You can’t control the brand and quality doesn’t matter if noone cares about it."

"Crowds will teach you to be a better organization and yes there may be a mob out there."

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 8 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Scope Creep the band - an interview

A quick side diversion from the usual blog post to talk about a small project that we are working on to help support the NTEN scholarship fund for the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference. Please sit back and enjoy this interview.

If you hide your struggles, how can you get help? (Part 6 of 11 NetNon series)

Family Restaurant may have to close after 75 years of operation. In the days of fast food and big chains, small restaurants depend on their community to support them. The Family Restaurant is the poster child of this impact. If you want us to stay open we need you to visit us.

How many times have you seen a story like that, remembered the place fondly and then went to visit to support them?

Budget shortfalls, program delivery challenges or even mistakes can be opportunities to garner support for your organization. But we treat them as shameful things that expose weakness. We hide our problems, we mask the truth and we put on a happy face.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are things that have to be and should be confidential, but at what point do you tell the truth. I know what you are thinking, why do we have to tell the truth, why open up our books and share our dirty secrets? Can’t we just come up with a good slogan, rally a cause and raise money?

That might work, but what if you are missing a different opportunity by hiding information from those that want you to succeed. What if money isn’t the only problem? What if you allowed your supporters inside your walls, get their hands dirty and fix the root causes, not just give money.

Obviously this is easy for me to just type and say, reality is a lot harder. But here is what I would challenge you with. What is your organization’s first thought when it comes to information? Is it, noone can see this until it is approved? Does the question even get asked, should we share this?

The Networked Nonprofit Chapter 6 is all about transparency and a culture of sharing. The point of sharing your struggles isn’t the focus, but it was the core thought that I grabbed onto. The book does a great job of talking about the different types of orgs with sharing: the fortress, transactional and transparent orgs.

Sharing numbers is super easy

Sharing stories takes time

Sharing who you are and the challenges you face takes courage

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 6 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Social media doesn’t create friends, people do (Part 5 of 11 NetNon series)

Listen, converse and build strong relationships. There are many different variations of the basic steps of social engagement, but they are all very similar. But how does that fit in with reality?

The reality is that many orgs have a couple designated people that are allowed to speak on behalf of the organization. Those people “know the party line” and can answer properly. We have been burned before so staff are asked to not reply on behalf of the org. This causes a direct conflict with the listening and conversing steps if the people starting your social media aren’t one of the “designated people.”

So we stumble across some mentions of our org, but we don’t reply because we don’t have the authority and it isn’t a big enough deal to pass up the food chain. Strike that up to missed opportunity.

Social media gets launched and so begins the next internal battle, will we use our powers for good? Do we start with the intention of being social or are we so focused on the end goal that we miss the party? Do we try to maintain control so tight that we push everyone away? Do we create a sense of trusting the good in people or are we always braced for the worst?

So many people think that the reason starting or running good social media is hard is because the tools are technical, technology is advanced or above their skill level. But the real challenge is in why you are using it, is your org really ready to be social?

Social media doesn’t create friends people do.

Don’t just read that sentence and move on. Really think about it. The social media tools don’t mean anything without the people behind it. So are there people behind your social media strategy or a set of processes, programmed responses and one way communications?

If every conversation has to start with YOU saying something, I will get bored. If you let ME start a conversation and YOU reply, that means more. You actually wanted to know what I have to say and replied.

Think about it, don’t have that friend that always wants to drive the conversation, you have to talk about what they want…. They are so annoying. Maybe I have something to say about a different topic.

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 5 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Try it and fix it as we go (Part 4 of 11 NetNon series)

"Try it and fix it as we go" Hmmm. That is one idea. Or we could make sure we have the right strategy, do a deep risk analysis, get the right staff, run an RFP process for a consultant, build some "must follow" processes, have a committee write a plan and vet all decisions through senior management. We should wait until we are ready.
I know many of you are thinking, yeah, you are so right Steve. "Try it and fix it as we go" isn't a good idea, we should think this through. We should make sure we are ready.  Wrong, ok well mostly wrong.

We tend to use phrases like:
"Go big or go home"
"Failing to plan is planning to fail"
"A consultant knows best."
"There is no try, only do or do not."
"The risk outweighs the benefit."
"Always be prepared."
"We've always done it that way."
"My experience tells me..."

OK, I think you get the point with the quotes. Sorry I got carried away there. But do you see how our old way of planning, strategy and decision making has to shift in order to use social media well?

Yes, "Try it and fix it as we go," is a good way to think about creating a social culture. And here is another favorite quote from the book. "Failing Fast." OK, seriously we don't want to fail, let alone fail fast.

Does this mean we don't plan or think this through, we just start? NO. Rather we plan and think through a methodology to allow for experimentation and ongoing changes tied to a set of goals that are measured with agreed upon metrics of success.  We also clearly state expectations of appropriate behavior in a social media policy for all staff. We help clarify the role of the individual vs org, public vs private, personal vs professional. We spend time crafting what we want the voice of the organization to be. We think through how we will react to and learn from failure, because it will happen. We come up with ways to encourage staff to grow and share in a positive way.

The plan isn't about the steps, tools and getting it right the first time. It is all about how you manage the culture, experiment and keep moving forward.

This chapter spends some time thinking about a social media policy, which is a great opportunity for conversation about social media across your full organization.  But a social media policy shouldn't be a list of do's and dont's. It needs to set the tone of your social culture. It needs to provide the framework to encourage you to "try it and fix it as we go" and "fail fast". (and here I thought the words try and fail should never be in our policy.)

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 4 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Understanding Social Networks (Part 3 of 11 NetNon series)

"Traditionally, organizations have viewed themselves through an organization centric lens. Envisioning oneself and one's organization as the center of the universe with other people and organizations circling around it---providing it with funds, attention and volunteers as needed---is at odds with a world energized by social media and connectedness. Other organizations and individuals are not waiting for instructions for what to do; they're talking, doing and connecting based on their own needs and interests. Networked Nonprofits know this and are reorienting themselves to engage with individual free agents and organizations in their networks."

"How can I use social media to do fundraising, get attention for my organization, promote my event?" Those are the questions that I hear a lot. But if you are still working from an organization centric lens, which the questions above suggest, then you misunderstand the structure of social networks. The real question may be, "how do we incorporate social networks to be ready for people to get involved in the way they want to?"

Taking time to understand how a social network works, what it is used for and by who will greatly enhance your success but may also shift your goals and plans.  Chapter 3 does a great job of explaining the structure of social network. A network basically consists of two things; nodes (people\orgs) and ties (connections between them). The book goes on to describe how people connect, share and form groups.

Slight detour below.

"I've got some loose ends to tie up." We have a tendency to want control. We have a tendency to want to hang out with those we are closest to. We have a tendency to want order. We may have to rethink this.

Loose ties is what it is all about.  Within your organization's social network map you will have some strong ties to key supporters, which you have always been able to tap. But with social networks you can directly tap the LOOSE TIES. "Loose ties are lighter connections that friendly acquaintances have with one another."

"Tell your friends about..." Isn't that what we always add to the end of any pep talk? Now with social networks we have a more direct route to tell their friends or arm our friends with an easier way to tell their friends.

Detour was meant to have a point, not sure if I made it though. So like a fairy tale book, I will just say it. The point is, It is important to know who your strongest ties are, but don't loose focus on those loose ties. In order to do this, you may have to loosen control, hang out with your friends' friends and allow a little disorder.

Back on the road.

Social Capital. At the end of the chapter the focus turns to social capital. Here are some ways to social media builds social capital:

• People are easy to find online and on many channels
• Talk is cheap
• Serendipity is enhanced online
• Reciprocity is incredibly easy 

 Reciprocity is incredibly easy. That point struck me hard! It is so true. And reciprocity isn't just easy in social media, it is so powerful. A public thank you, compliment or positive interaction that people can over hear is incredible!

Anyway, my thoughts were really scrambled and random on this chapter. But in the end, understanding the structure of social networks, knowing your role\network, leveraging your ties and building social capital is how it starts (not asking how do I promote my cause.)

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 3 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Challenges & Trends of a Networked Nonprofit (Part 2 of 11 NetNon series)

Free Agents. When you dont know who else can you turn too? Your team is almost complete, but you need to bring in that one player from the outside who will push you over the top. You need a Free Agent. They know they are good, they know they are in demand, they want to help.  Free agents is a great term and I love how it plays out in Chapter Two of the Networked Nonprofit.

Paraphrased from chapter:

We are facing a leadership crisis arises from:

1. Rise of professional staff, replacing volunteers
2. Funders focused on professionally staff org, not volunteer staffed
3. Orgs looked to budget and staff growth as indicators of success

Things rings so true to me. Resources were abundant, growth was everywhere. Training and leveraging volunteers was not as effective as just hiring the staff.  I have actually said those words so many times. But in the midst of this, you lose involvement of your supporters, you lose connection to the community and so much more.  We built structures, policies and big budgets: we were building empires to serve a cause.

Revolutions are often started by a single person with a simple idea and they use their influence to build a movement, they are Free Agents. (I hope that doesn't go too far from the books definition).

Free agents are those that take it upon themselves to make a difference, take action or start a movement because they care. They have some sort of connection, passion or personal reason driving them, so they act. But they don't always want to join forces with some org that will just slow them down.

Free agents today have a secret weapon in social media. A single person can spark the hearts and imaginations of hundreds, thousands or millions of people. However, our organizations are not always ready to work with that Free Agent, we just want to hire them. But many of these Free Agents will come and go, a cause will attract their attention only until they are satisfied and then they move on.

Many orgs are scared of this type of relationship.  How can I trust, work with and equip a Free Agent when I cant control them and I have no idea how long they will stay involved? How can this one person or group of people do anything better than our org that has the best staff and years of experience? We are so busy how can we possibly focus our time on Free Agents?

I think I need to go back to the point from Chapter 1 where we talked about that we have already lost control. We don't want to control the Free Agent. They have something we need, influence within the community.

Maybe the next time we have a need, require fresh energy or look to hire more staff we will turn to a Free Agent to save the day.

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 2 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

NTEN Tech Leadership Academy and what I learned already.

While I have been working on my transition from Steve Heye to just "the Steve," I have been too busy to post to my blog.  So instead I am just going to share some of the things I have learned while preparing for the upcoming Tech Leadership Academy from NTEN. I'm presenting with John Merritt, but I have already learned a few things without the event even happening yet, just imagine once it does happen.



Incredible training op from NTEN - Technology Leadership Academy! This is a free training for smaller orgs, but it is so much more than just a training.  They have assembled some of the best trainers, well plus me, to cover the spectrum of technology topics.

Apply before July 30 right here! http://www.nten.org/techacademy

Part of what they will be covering in the Academy above is a great diagram that is in a slideshow from the awesome Holly Ross . The slide shows an adapted, simplified version of the IT Alignment stages that I refer to a lot. But they have added some arrows indicating that as alignment increases the technology brings additional service to the mission.  I like the simplicity of it.

But then she also a second diagram (but it looks like she is borrowing it from Save the Children) of a IT Strategy pyramid that talks about how to progress forward in these IT Alignment stages. This diagram helps illustrate that only one of the levels is solely focused on tech tools, the foundation.

The second level requires examining your operations and tech. The third level is not just business steps, it is how you deliver your programs, serve your constituents, meet your mission with tech.

The top of the triangle is all about what you do differently, this requires not just thinking about how you deliver services, but how you can leverage technology to completely change your whole organization, add a new service or completely redefine the way you meet your mission leveraging technology.

To see the full presentation that Holly created you can visit SlideShare at: http://www.slideshare.net/nten_hross/let-a-thousand-tech-flowers-bloom

Thanks for inviting me to participate Holly, looking forward to it!

IT Manifesto and Collection of things...

Holly Ross posted "A Leadership Manifesto: Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom" on the NTEN blog. Please take a minute to go to this post and make your comment, especially if you have a different viewpoint. This is a great post.  Here are a couple quotes that I cant help but share.

"Right now, in our sector, we need technology leaders.  We are standing right on top of a critical inflection point, and we owe it to our causes to make sure that we navigate the change as best as we possibly can. So I am calling on all of you to stand up and lead.  We will follow you."

"The old style of IT management was a command-and-control model.  It was about "experts" making decisions for the end users and mandating those decisions. These days, there are more experts than you think. innovation and expertise in technology can come from any staffer in any role, and technology leaders need to recognize and embrace that.  We need to run IT shops that protect our assets while encouraging this innovation. When everyone's a part of process, the revolution happens much more quickly."

And from out of the comments from Holly:
"tech is definitely undefined and muddy now. It's out of the back room and out in every department at your organization. Think about how we used to deal with IT...."  "now technology is a completely different beast. It's about communicating, conversing, collecting, sharing, advocating and more. It's about all the ways that we meet your missions."

Holly hints that the conversation about technology leaders has only just begun for the next year.  I cant wait to see what comes out of this.

And here are a few other gems I want to share:
Recording of a presentation on IT Alignment that John Merritt and I did for NTEN. It is worth a watch, we were on something of a roll that day.

Slideshow of Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom from Holly Ross.

Forget the Tech, Lets Talk Mission - Great article from John Merritt (he wrote it and just added my name)

And now for something completely different, be sure to take time to order your copy of Beth Kanter and Allison Fine's new book the Networked Nonprofit. Read more about the book and the launch!

Flickr Photo credit: Chris.Corwin

Stop selling Slurpees and Lead with questions

Solutions. That is what IT Staff is good at. We see a problem or opportunity and we come up with solutions.  We have a fantastic ability to know and quickly identify possible tools or even process changes to make impact. We are quick to offer help and jump to the easy fixes.

But I would argue that this solution pushing turns us into a convenience store. We are only asked about things when a solution is needed.  Why do we need to be part of the planning when all we do is provide the solution?  People would rather finish their planning, identify what the problem or need is, then step up to the Slurpee counter and order the quick fix.


By acting under the orders of "the customer is always right" and "Service with a smile", are we really providing the best services to our organization?

Most of the Nonprofit Tech Staff that I know have much deeper skills than providing icee beverages when people need a quick fix.  We have a set of skills that complements the rest of organization very well but I dont see it used enough.  We are very analytical, process oriented, mission driven and creative with a unique perspective, plus the knowledge of tools and methods that many others dont know.  So why do we squander it?

Here is my proposal.  When a request comes in, lead with a "Yes but I have some questions..." Spend some time asking questions about what they are working on, what is the end goal, what would success look like.  And dont ask these questions in a formal document or a survey, try talking to your colleagues.


Or better yet, here is my ideal request.  Dont wait for people to come to you looking for solutions. Target one group of staff that is working on a great program within your organization.  Work within your IT team to come up with a set of questions about that program that would help you understand it better. Come up with questions about what the planned impact is or what long term success would look like.  Then invite a couple of those staff to your IT Staff meeting and have a conversation with them about it.  Dont even talk about tools or solutions. Just ask questions to better understand the program.  Showing interest in their program and asking questions will develop a relationship that will benefit everything you do with them.

In general, I think we all need to start leading with questions, not answers.  Try to listen and not jump to the solution.

My more formal notes from #10ntc

#10ntc is the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference hosted by NTEN. These are my short, more formal notes.  This in no way covers the new people that I met, old friends I connected with, vendors I discovered, laughs I had and doesnt do justice to the Awesome-Sauce that the NTEN community is.  Maybe that will be my next post.


Summary of YMCA Day - April 8

Group of about 10 YMCA staff gathered and did a round robin of sharing projects they are working on.  The range of projects was from Sharepoint and websites to underwater pool safety cameras and video conferencing.  The group was excited to share and connect with other YMCA staff responsible for technology.

My biggest learning from the YMCA day was that we need to find a better way to stay connected with what other YMCAs are working on in order to not duplicate efforts and share learnings. Also that there is some sense of wanting to share tools and resources across tech staff but they meet resistance from leadership back at their centers.

There was a lot of mentions of YMCAs growing their use of Sharepoint as an intranet, document management and communication tool. However one of the more interesting side notes about intranets and websites was a debate/conversation about who owns it (Marketing, IT, Finance, Operations or ?).  YMCAs also seem to still be facing some of the struggles of centralizing IT and mixing it with operations as they grow and add centers.

Overall NTEN conference summary - April 9-10

The conference did not have a central theme, but if I had to pick one for what I learned it would be "rethink what drives your strategy."  

Your online engagement strategy should be 90% story, 10% technology. Find your audiences and adapt to where they are. GEORGE WEINER, Do Something <@georgecaweiner>

Our social media policy in 140 characters: Be transparent. Be responsible. Be Non-Partisan. Be Trained. Be Responsive. TAMMY GORDON, AARP <@AARP>

People don’t hate change. They hate disruption. PETER CAMPBELL, Techcafeteria <@peterscampbell>

For example one of the keynotes, Andrew Sullivan, suggested that people connect with another person online, not an organization or company. So your communications and web approach should walk the line of official org messages versus messages from individuals from within the org.  So this would make you question what drives your communication strategy to leverage those personalities within your org.

Another example is more specifically in the website strategy.  In order to have a full online presence strategy you need to include a large group of people.  Like Marketing for messages, IT for tools, program staff for content, operations for process, fundraising for philanthropy, and so on. But the key here is to change what drives the meetings, spend time talking about what we want to accomplish, what we want our audiences to do and what our audiences are interested in at the big group meetings.  Then let the decision makers that have been given the authority make it happen (IT, Marketing, etc). But those roles and that web strategy planning process has the be clearly defined so that while big and inclusive it still allows room for things to move fast and well.

Another example is around how we tell our stories of impact.  Right now we simply state that an event happened, maybe tell an anecdote and some stats, but it isnt a story.  If we want to change our stories to get people to act, then we need to rethink how and why we write stories. A story needs background, a conflict with resolution, a heartfelt connection and an easy to grasp message that ends with a call to action. We dont have a culture that creates and shares full stories, we focus on the outcome and miss the struggle and end with call to action. We need to change why we write stories and provide a better structure to those who are expected to write them.

General Conference thoughts

Combined Communications strategy - Lots of talk about social media, social networking, web 2.0 and sooo many tools, but the theme this year was to have a strategy that drives it all. Stop picking a tool then a strategy for that tool, rather have a central plan for what you want to say, who you want to converse with, what you want to hear and what you want people to do.  The tools like Facebook, MySpace, etc will keep changing, so set the strategy not the tool.

More interaction with audience - stop talking to people and have conversations with them. Heard this in social media sessions, website strategy and communications areas. People dont want to be talked to from an org. They want to have a conversation with a person.

New ways to educate audience - games, mobile devices, e-learning and more ideas are coming up that arent broadcast methods, rather they are ways to interact with a purpose.

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Session notes:

Create a Culture of Storytelling 

(1 set of slides at http://www.slideshare.net/Loudmind/creating-a-culture-of-storytelling)

Stories have to come from your heart before they will go to people's heads. Dont tell stories that you arent so excited about that you run home to tell friends & family about it. Storytelling is weaved throughout ALL messages, pages and sites. Stories don’t belong solely on about us area. We need a writer on staff to drive this process and culture! It is good, actually encouraged to repeat a point across stories, can take 7 plus times before somebody remembers something. Seize opportunities–when feedback is asked for on another site about your cause, push your supporters to go and give it! Social media for non profits is just as much about listening as it is about sharing your mission.  Pick the words you want to use or not use! Are they victims or survivors (as an example). 

Making it Real: Getting Project Management Right for Content Management Web Projects

A central website strategy tied to a communications plan is needed for a successful website implementation and CMS project. A clear owner of the website strategy is needed, but has to be supported by a full representation of the organization. Stressed importance of content gathering to start early in the process to enable a better site map and navigation. Group debated whether to start or end with web design. On one hand people love to see the graphics and the visuals but on the other we loose sight of the message when focusing on details of design.  The purpose of the website should drive design in the end, but people clamour to see the structure. So providing early and frequent glimpses through sitemaps and wireframes are critical so people can see what you are talking about. They walked through steps of I was hoping to get more project management tips from this session, but it went offtrack and got too simple.

Secrets of Landing Page Testing: How to Optimize PPC to Convert More Donors, Activists, and Email Subscribers 

(slides at http://www.slideshare.net/robinpsteffek/secrets-of-landing-page-testing-132-steffek)

Really focused on use of combination Google Optimizer and Analytics to test the effectiveness of your website efforts and conversions. Landing pages are becoming even more important because search results and web campaigns aren't taking you to home pages any longer. Discussed how to do some A-B testing and how to evaluate the results.

Forget the Tech, Lets Talk Mission (IT Alignment materials Click HERE)
I presented this session with John Merritt from the San Diego YMCA.  Two organizations provided us sample strategic plans and supporting information.  We did several group exercises to try to demonstrate some tactical and strategic ways to move IT from being reactive to working toward the mission. It was great to be able to talk through some of challenges and objections people face, then work through ideas to make a difference.

Social Media's Potential for Faith Based Communities

I also presented at this session. It was interesting to debate through how allowing people to connect personally to church leaders may cause challenges of separation between leaders and members. The debate really brought to light the need for a purposeful discussion around the organizations versus individual voices. We also really highlighted the opportunities in social media for education around delicate or private topics. E-learning and resources are more readily shared in today's social media structure.

When Tech takes over! Beware.

I am at the nonprofit technology conference in Atlanta hosted by NTEN, it is my annual dose of information and inspiration to refill the my NPTech well. Last night I did an ignite presentation and had a lot of fun. (Ignite is 20 slides, 15 seconds each and you just have to keep up with the auto slide).

I did this mostly for fun, but ended up having one of those moments where something just becomes so clear that it shocks you a little. The point was to watch out how we talk about technology, because what we say isnt what people hear.

Stop involving and informing your stakeholders in technology, rather you should be involved and informed with them.

Dont try to get people on the side of technology. You should be on their side and have a strong enough relationship with your organization so that the technology becomes almost invisible and everyone sees the mission value of it.

Anyway,here is that video, enjoy. (sorry if the quality is weird, filmed on a flip).

Where will we be tomorrow? (Part 11 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

Where are we today is usually what I answer when someone asks me about tomorrow. I figure if someone asks an obscure question that has limitless answers, that will probably only be proven wrong somehow, just answer with another question. ;-0  Just kidding of course.  But there is some truth to the idea that knowing where you are today is key to knowing about tomorrow, although that isnt what I want to talk about in this blog post.

Where will we be tomorrow?

Nonprofits will continue to push the edge of what technology can do to meet their mission while simultaneously allowing their infrastructure, process and core technology idle or fade.

What does that even mean?

Funding. We are able to get funding and a budget for technology or projects that are new and exciting, but can we get the same approval for more bandwidth, replacing PCs, tech support, training, process improvement, etc? This is not a new problem, nor am I the first to mention it. The nonprofit sector will become even more innovative and use technology in ways that gets the attention of the world. While at the same time using an unsupported software, under trained staff and outdated PCs.

As nonprofit techies we are pros at making due with what we have.  We will continue to do this and be proud of it.

Staff. Our staff use, understanding and requests for technology will rapidly change. Technology isnt really just the role of the technology department anymore, more staff are tech savy, have an element of tech in their job description and can be effective at rolling out new technology. Yet at the same time, many of our staff will not get the training they need on the software we use, our internal process and how to work more efficiently with the tech we have. New staff coming in will no longer just expect a desk with a working computer, they will need a mobile phone, faster internet access, video editing capability, access to everything from anywhere, permission to use whatever open source tool they find and more freedom to make their own technology choices.  Are we ready for that? I would imagine that many of us are not, we have rigid technology policies, adequate infrastructure and centralized decision making.

Well anyway, those are the two that I wanted to talk about.  I really didnt do them the justice that I wanted to, but my life has been super busy with a new online registration system, rolling out an intranet, etc, not to mention that whole life at home.

I was finally able to finish this 11 post series in just under 6 months, YIKES. But I really enjoyed it, I will need to help write another book for NTEN so that I have something else to write about on my blog.  I Love NTEN and cant wait for the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference on April 8-11 in Atlanta! I will be there with my partner in crime, John Merritt from the San Diego YMCA to present a session called Forget the Tech, Lets talk Mission! It is going to rock!

Over the last 11 weeks I did a themed series of blog posts. Each week I wrote about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 11th chapter by By Edward Granger Happ called Where Will we be Tomorrow. You should totally buy the book. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

To fundraise well, create a movement? --internally first? (Part 10 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

Build an ever-deepening relationship with supporters, define your cause, state your case, measure your impact, blah, blah, blah...

How is this even important if you first dont have a culture that believes in fundraising internally? What if you have staff that may not even be aware that you are a nonprofit? What do you do when staff and/or board dont understand why they would donate to your org? Or what if there is no general consensus across your organization of what your cause is and why donations matter to it? What happens when we get comfortable with our budget, find other methods for income and the immediacy of fundraising falls a little?

I dont expect that too many fundraising campaigns, no matter how perfect they are, would succeed with some of the above conditions existing. I think I may have just asked too many questions that are too hard to solve and that people dont want to address.  It is just easier to build a campaign, implement the tools, etc. And just tell the staff that fundraising is part of their job and is important to the mission. But is that enough?

At the core most people at the full time level understand basic fundraising, how to build a relationship and even understand most of the tools. But there is a difference between loving an organization enough to work there (for little pay) and understanding the cause the organization is fighting for enough to ask other people for money to support it.

One of the struggles that the YMCA faces is that we have a rich, long history and a very wide range of programs and services which makes it hard to explain our root cause. That history and depth of community involvement is one of our greatest strengths also, we have phenomenal brand recognition, huge support and expertise in countless programs. But our staff, volunteers and members get so wrapped up in running a program, it is easy to forget why we offer it.

For example, swimming at the YMCA. When we were the first organization to create and offer progressive swim lessons, we did it because most of the population couldnt swim at all and noone was changing that. (Yes we really did invent progressive swim lessons). But why do we still offer swim lessons? Is it just cause we may have the only indoor pool in a community? Is it still to teach people to swim? Or is it tied to our greater goal of building Strong Kids, Strong Families and Strong Communities? Or is back to our core goal of building Christian values through programs that build Spirit, Mind and Body?

It is so easy to have a great set of programs and services that really do meet community, family and individual needs. It is great to keep running them and making a difference. But how do we bring a staff of 3,000 people, plus thousands more volunteers, together as a movement in Chicago to see the cause we are fighting for?

In my heart and soul I believe and fight for everything the YMCA is. I have my vision of our cause and it is very strong and more compelling than ever. Is that passion shared across my YMCA and others?

So now back to the NTEN book, sorry got carried away with another rant.  Madeline Stanionis has a great set of seven steps to an online fundraising program in Managing Technology to Meet your Mission.  She even acknowledges right in the beginning of the chapter the need for a cohesive, coordinated approach to fundraising. Multiple depts, staff and volunteers have to work together.  Here are the seven steps that Madeline offers:
1. Plan
2. Dont Plan (even if it seems to contradict, it is so true!)
3. Put Your Website to Work
4. Accept Help
5. Think Campaigns, Not Appeals
6. Be Creative
7. Learn

Madeline offers actionable and reasonable advice, mixed with some great tips and examples. We all have a role to play in fundraising and leadership may have the biggest role of all, living the cause, hiring the staff and approving the strategy.

We all tend to get carried away with the newest tool, best way to make an appeal, but in the end we all need to spend time making sure our staff understand what we are fighting for, the difference we are making, why our work matters and the role they play.

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 9th chapter by By John Kenyon called Effective Online Communications. You should totally buy the book. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)