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(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

I finally found it – my new apartment in San Francisco. In a little bit more than a month, I saw 40 apartments!

When it came down to the final two, I was stuck trying to decide between an apartment with lots of sun, bay windows and French doors or one with arched doorways, 1,000 square feet and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I chose the view.

At first my choice felt frivolous, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. First of all, every time I look out the window, I stop and I breathe, deeply. The view literally compels me to expand my sights – to look out beyond what’s right in front of me.

And it resonates with a goal that I’d set two years ago, when I took a 3-day class on facilitative leadership presented by the Interaction Institute for Social Change.  Facilitative Leadership calls upon leaders to be “servant leaders” who involve others in the process of change and continuous improvement that our organizations and communities require.

In preparation for the class, we were asked to think about the seven practices of facilitative leadership and then decide which one we wanted to focus on during the three days.

1. Share an Inspiring Vision
2. Focus on Results, Process and Relationship
3. Seek Maximum Appropriate Involvement
4. Design Pathways to Action
5. Facilitate Agreement
6. Coach for Performance
7. Celebrate Accomplishment

It was hard to choose, because who doesn’t want to be great at everything? But I decided that I wanted to improve my ability to convey a clear and compelling vision, closely followed by designing a pathway to action.

Why? Because I have spent much of my career being the one who does what needs to be done, rather than leading a team that carries out the work. As I’ve grown, and increased my area of responsibility, it’s become clear that not only is it impossible to do it all myself, but the outcome is vastly improved when a team of people skilled at working together produces the work.

I wanted to learn how to be the kind of leader that brings out the best in the team and in myself, while also deeply enjoying the process. After setting my focus on learning how to imagine and articulate a clear and compelling vision, the three days of the workshop proved to be just the beginning.

Everywhere I turned, I saw examples of how to do it. I saw it when a colleague insisted that we do regular presentations to staff about the work of our communications team. I saw it in Obama’s campaign, which not only included inspiring articulation of a vision of unity and hope, but was accompanied by a social media campaign that gave people the tools they needed to run their OWN campaigns on behalf of the candidate. And I saw it in fundraising letters that do a good job of describing both the problem and a vision for how the world will be different.

We will not be able to transform the world if we don’t become very good at stopping, taking a breath, and giving ourselves space to widen our sights. We must imagine, describe and co-create our vision of the world that all of our fundraising and advocacy is trying to create. Research shows that people work with greater commitment and excitement when they are guided by a vision and feel their efforts can make a difference.

Can YOU see it?

Substitute  “This is what I want you to do,” with, “This is where I want us to go. Together, let’s figure out how to get there.”

“When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

~ Audre Lorde

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

The movie Avatar has set off quite a buzz.

For some religious conservatives, it’s a blasphemous film that advocates the worship of nature. For some progressives, it’s a film that tells the same old story of racism and colonial domination.

Despite any shortcomings, I am still deeply touched by the film – its messages and its imagery. Having seen the film a second time, one of the messages that resonates most profoundly for me is the power of collective intelligence.

When the Nav’i, the people of the planet Pandora, first meet the human, Jake Sully, the Nav’i tell him that his people are ignorant, and unwilling to learn. They say they have not been able to teach his people because you cannot fill a cup that is already full.

Sully answers that anyone will attest that his cup is empty, because he’s never been a smart man. He’s not a scientist; rather he’s a member of the “Jarhead clan” – a warrior. And he’s a broken warrior at that. A man who’s entire identity has been shattered by the loss of his legs through war. Broken, he is ready to learn a new philosophy, and a new way of being.

What heals Sully is opening up to a different kind of intelligence – one that is informed by interconnectedness. The Nav’i can physically link in to the creatures and the trees of their planet, and literally upload and download memories, sensations and insight from all living beings, past and present.

They have access to a shared pool of meaning, a phrase coined by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Greeny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan, authors of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High.

While researching why some people are more effective influencers than others, the authors found that the super-influencers excelled at managing and facilitating high-stake conversations. These are conversations where big decisions are being discussed and made: salary changes, whether or not to move a facility, a promotion, misunderstandings between staff, giving a boss feedback on how to do her job more effectively, asking a friend to repay a loan.

They found that the people who excel in holding these crucial conversations are able to find a way to get all of the relevant information (from themselves and others) out into the open. “At the core of every successful conversation lies the free flow of relevant information. People openly and honestly express their opinions, share their feelings, and articulate their theories. They willingly and capably share their views, even when their ideas are controversial or unpopular.”

Of course, that’s the key to true collaboration and connection. If I believe that I have all the relevant information, then I feel connected, trusted, part of the whole. The group mind is nourished and the best decisions can be made by drawing upon the pool of shared meaning.

The authors explain that in a very real sense, the pool of shared meaning is a measure of the group’s IQ. The larger the shared pool, the smarter the decisions. And even though it may seem excessive to have so many people involved in decision-making, when people openly and freely share ideas, the increased time investment pays off because of vastly improved decisions and greater buy-in.

The film Avatar invites us to imagine what it could be like – a community that has access to and is enriched by the knowledge that has been accumulated and cherished over generations. Any person can tap in and be simultaneously fed by and contribute to the whole.

What are you doing to make it safe for people to share their experiences, concerns, their dreams and vision? How are you contributing to the development of collective intelligence in your own family, your organization, or community?

Substitute trying to know it all yourself, with asking, “How can I tap into and contribute to collective intelligence?”

Homage to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (deity of Compassion in Mahayana Buddhism)

With body speech and mind in perfect oneness
I send my heart along with the sound of the bell
May the hearers awaken from forgetfulness
And transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow

May the sound of the bell merge deeply into the cosmos
In even the darkest places
May living beings hear it clearly
So that understanding lights up their hearts
And without hardship they transcend the cycle of birth and death.

For full passage, and a description of the sangha (or community building in Buddhist practice), click here.

(Happy Monday and Happy New Year! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

At the start of a New Year, many of us make resolutions. I certainly enjoy reviewing the past year and thinking about ways to improve my work, my health and the results of my actions.

But inspired by color, I’ve decided to approach change differently this year. For the first time, I asked my braider to weave strands of red into my black braids. After all, I told her, it’s a new year, and I have a new job, so it’s time for something different.

But what’s the point? Why does a new job call for new hair? And how much of what seems new was already present? In other words, maybe I’m bringing to the foreground something that I’ve wished for a long time: more color, more adventure, more spark.

I often think of the work that I do — communications and public relations — as a bright and fiery function that inspires action and excitement about the meticulous work and outcomes that an organization creates. My new red strands acknowledge jubilant energy, while reminding me to consciously celebrate and interweave these qualities into my activities in the coming year.

I am reminded of the field called “Appreciative Intelligence”, which encourages us to recognize and act upon what is already there. In their book, Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn, Tojo Thatchenkery and Carol Metzker, say that Appreciative Intelligence is the ability to perceive the potential within the present, to see the mighty oak in the acorn.

Appreciative Intelligence® has three components:

• Reframing,
• Appreciating the positive,
• Seeing how the future unfolds from the present. To learn more: http://www.appreciativeintelligence.com

Substitute, “Resolving to be something new” with “Resolve to be more of you!”

“Where there was desert, [Stef Wertheimer-Tefen] could see vast neighborhoods. Where there was poverty, he could see the unlimited human resource of collective imagination…he reframed everything.”

- Tojo Thatchenkery

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith our Communications expert.)

I admit it. I’ve got Flip fever.

And the fever’s growing now that I’ve won one of those slim Flip cameras! It happened at the recent Pink Magazine Empowerment Conference.

There was a session on social media and meaningful engagement, and because that’s my latest obsession, I went.

Jeannette Gibson, the speaker, was terrific. She’s Cisco’s Director of New Media, and showed some very simple examples of how Cisco has integrated mini-videos – made with the flip – into their communications plans and interactions with customers. (In March 2009, Cisco bought the maker of Flip video, Pure Digital.)

Some examples:

• John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, answered questions on the future of the company, his vision & goals. The questions were sent through Twitter, and the result was a 4 minute video.
• A product manager sits next to a Cisco switch and talks about the product – an alternative to the printed fact sheet).
• And my personal favorite because it’s silly, surprising and gives you insight in the CEO’s character – John Chambers showing his team how to do duck calls. That video has 23,415 views!

At the Global Fund for Women, we recently made our own simple Flip video. After Christine Ahn, a Progressive Women’s Media Resource Center fellow and Global Fund colleague, came back fired up from a weekend training where she learned to make Flip videos, she and another Global Fundie, Preeti Shekar, held up the camera and asked staff one simple question.

Why do you care about violence against women?

The result is a simple, moving 4-minute video that helps viewers learn more about the people behind the Global Fund and the reasons we do the work we do. It accompanied our campaign for the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, and has almost 200 views.

Of course, you don’t have to use a Flip to create simple videos. The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota created a series of simple videos using a Sony camera (with video capacity) on a tripod. With these fun Happy Birthday videos as the basis, the foundation raised almost $5,000 for their girlsBest (girls Building Economic Success Together) Fund – in less than a week! How did they do it? I called their Communications Director, Mary Beth Hanson, to find out.

“With our 26th anniversary as the basis for our online campaign, I really wanted to expand our social-media tool chest to include video,” said Mary Beth. After watching the carefully crafted and scripted videos of other nonprofits on YouTube, she realized that most were too long and not very interesting.

“So, I decided that our videos had to be short and celebratory with surprising content that would get folks interested enough to return daily – for the duration of the campaign. And hopefully donate at some point along the way.”

To distribute the videos and promote the campaign, the Foundation used a daily combination of its nonprofit YouTube channel, Facebook page, website and email blasts. Not only did the Foundation nearly reach its $5,000 goal, it attracted many new donors, recharged lapsed ones, and inspired current ones. The campaign was a resounding success.

The lessons? “Short is better, fun is great! While the issues we’re working on are serious, we don’t always have to be serious in our communications. It’s really important to provide ways for people to celebrate with you.”

Instead of thinking about how hard it is to make videos and engage in social media, ask yourself what can I share? What moves me? What’s fun?

Substitute,”Long and carefully crafted” with “Short and surprising.”

“Short is better, fun is great! While the issues we’re working on are serious, we don’t always have to be serious in our communications. It’s really important to provide ways for people to celebrate with you.”

- Mary Beth Hanson, Communications Director
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

This spring, I attended a talk by Kay Sprinkel Grace called, There’s Got to Be a Pony in there Somewhere: Finding Abundance in a Time of Change.

It was one of my favorite talks that I heard at the time – when so many of us in the nonprofit sector were trying to make sense of what the economic collapse would mean for our organizations and the people we serve. Grace retold the story of the boy who digs with gusto through a huge pile of manure in the barn. Why? Because, he said, with so much s**, there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere!

She did a great job of reminding fundraisers that one of the most important things we can do is to hold and convey the vision of what we’re trying to accomplish, and build relationships with donors that are based on shared values. She also called upon us to not forget to ask our supporters what they think about what we’re doing.

The talk inspired me in a number of ways. . . one of which was to work with my team to make the Global Fund for Women’s donor appreciation lunch more interactive so that donors could share with us and one another what inspired their passion for women’s rights.

Kay’s talk also inspired some radical changes in the production of our annual report. A very important vehicle for thanking our supporters and describing the work of women’s organizations around the world, our annual report tends to be 70 pages plus.

Last year’s annual report was no exception. A combined 20th anniversary book and annual report, it featured a 20 year timeline acknowledging achievements of the women’s movement, highlights of our 5-year strategic plan, and case studies of long-time grantees, which showed the impact of our combined partnership.

This year, in response to the financial crisis, we cut our budget by 6 percent, while maintaining grantmaking at 2008 levels. That meant that I had a lot less to spend on this years’ communications. Looking for the pony, I decided to radically transform this year’s annual report. But how?

The notion of streamlining annual reports isn’t new. A lot of organizations are asking themselves, and their donors, whether anyone really reads the annual report. And if they do, what format do they prefer? Print, online, a cd, a dvd video documentary?

The Communications Network has been a vocal advocate for streamlining annual reports. And the Lumina Foundation recently surveyed their donors to ask preferences and learned that many supporters do still want a print annual report.

Furthermore, a survey of Global Fund for Women donors who read our print newsletter revealed that many of our print readers are not active online. So I knew that making this a web publication alone wasn’t the answer. So, fueled by my work with tompertdesign, and sparked by other annual reports that I’ve gotten over the years, my team decided to center this year’s annual report around a poster!

Instead of 70 pages, I had 16 pages to tell our story, 8 of which would comprise the poster. Through brainstorming and strategizing conversations, we found a way to feature women’s organizations from each region, share reflections from our Board chair and CEO and thank our international network of supporters, advisors, grantees and board. Everything else would be available on our website.

We’re already receiving feedback from donors that they’re thrilled with our decision to save resources and still tell a compelling story. Plus they have a gorgeous poster to remind them throughout the year that Women Hold the Solutions to solving some of our most pressing problems!

Substitute, “We’ll never get through this” with “There’s got to be a pony in there somewhere.”

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”

- Albert Einstein

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

Those of us engaged in social change must ask ourselves, how do we help others see the new world we are trying to create?

It’s easy to get stuck in telling stories of what’s wrong. Yet, while telling stories that show the problem is very important because it helps to wake us up, limiting ourselves to telling those stories won’t get us where we need to be.

That’s why we say, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. . . being the change provides living examples that others can see and then replicate. Even better, be the change and tell the story of how you got there.

I was reminded of the transformative power of being and telling different stories when I saw my dear friend’s new book, Prickly Cactus: Finding Sacred Meaning in Chronic Illness.

I met Concha 9 years ago, when we were taking a writing workshop together. We were both writing non-fiction narratives – mine described my experience with my mother as Alzheimer’s took her memory. Concha’s was called Dancing Still and depicted her battle with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Here was a woman whose life had been a challenge from the time she and her family emigrated from Mexico. She’d struggled with a new language and culture, battled racism, and worked tirelessly to become an advocate for other immigrant families and children seeking fair and equitable access to education. Plus she was a high-performing professor of anthropology and education. Yet, the disease threatened to take it all away. There were times when she was unable to get out of bed because of the insidious and painful toll that that lupus was taking on her body.

Concha and I would meet and share our writing with one another, pointing out places that didn’t work well in the texts and encouraging each other to keep going. I learned so much from watching Concha as she worked on her book. She refused to give up! She’d submit the book to publishers, and get rejected. She’d consult with other writing professionals, and get advice on how to change it.

She’d rewrite the book, finally rewriting the whole thing at least 3 times, and sections of it many more times. Throughout the process, which took at least 10 years, she continued to transform the pain and discouragement — of the illness and the rejections — until she published Prickly Cactus, a beautiful, life-affirming narrative, this year.

In Prickly Cactus, she describes learning how to turn chronic illness into a doorway for achieving wisdom and building community. She talks about the incredible pain that racked her body, finding a way to create a supportive and respectful medical community, and seeking and finding spiritual guidance. She talks about the challenges of day-to-day living which included redesigning her work habits and life so that she could still earn a living. She describes learning how to rest – for the first time in her life! And she tells a lovely story of dating again, and creating a loving, long-term relationship.

Both the process of watching Concha live the lessons gained as she navigated this journey of chronic illness and reading her book, in its newest form, gives me a sense of joy and hope. Her illness was not just an end, but a beginning.

She says, “We need to speak about illness, about potential for healing, and about building supportive communities around us to transform our lives.” Her narrative of discovery and transformation helps to remove the fear of disease by drawing a map for living with joy, engagement and significance, no matter what.

Substitute “I can’t do the things I used to” with “No hay mal por cual bien no venga. (There’s no bad thing from which something good won’t come of it.) Concha’s mom

”When we share our stories, we change our collective stories. The world is an expression of our collective narrative. . . At this moment, we are poised to change our collective narrative . . .”

Deepak Chopra, The Happiness Prescription

( Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

There’s a phrase that used to resonate with me. Talk is cheap. Or to put it like my grandmom used to say, “you’re just talking to hear your head rattle.”

I didn’t have time for cheap, time-wasting, head-rattling talk, so I preferred not to talk a lot, and I certainly didn’t trust other people who rattled on with the first words that came to their lips.

Give me writing and reading. Writing required thought, review and reflection. If it was written down, the words and ideas could be read, scrutinized and the author held accountable. Yes, indeed, I trusted the written word.

But a couple years ago, I started changing my mind. A colleague asked me to be her mentor. When I questioned her choice, she stunned me with an eloquent explanation of the importance of conversations that were honest and that helped her to rethink her perceptions of what was happening in the workplace.

By asking me questions, she was getting “just-in-time” answers that helped her to reframe her own concept of what was possible. The answers to these questions weren’t written down somewhere . . . they were formed in the course of our curious, reiterative interaction with one another. Together, we were co-creating “just-in-time” knowledge and insights applicable to her particular time and circumstances.

Were all my curmudgeonly thoughts about cheap talk just misplaced? Not entirely. Thought, review and reflection have a big role to play in turning talk from cheap to rich. Soon after we began having these mentoring and mutual learning conversations, I listened to a workshop presented by James Lukaszewski, author of Why Should the Boss Listen to You? The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor.

I loved his idea that we consider becoming verbal visionaries. People who can provide valuable counsel, speak the truth with grace and candor, and tell relevant and memorable stories based upon history and the experience of other organizations. Such people can be an inspiration to others.

To prepare, he recommends writing down and speaking ALOUD your answers to a series of questions such as What do I believe? What are the truths of my life? Who am I? What are my personal limitations? What are my principles? What is my daily goal or reason for doing what I do? And what do I want my legacy to be?

Through the process of being a mentor and answering Lukaszewski’s questions, I’ve realized that I can make it a practice to view conversations – whether on the bus, in a café, or in the office – as opportunities for co-creating new ideas of what’s possible. Now that’s rich.

Substitute “Talk is cheap” with “How can I enrich this conversation?”

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”

- Audre Lorde

( Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith. A powerhouse of knowledge about effective communications strategies for non-profits and fundraisers, Sande will be sharing her insights with us once a month. You can read her bio here. Thanks for joining us Sande! )

About a year ago, feeling frustrated with my own career advancement, I asked a friend and highly successful development professional for advice. “How did you come so far in your career, and in such a short time?” I asked.

She told me that one of the most important things that she’d done was join a professional association – the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in fact.

And when she went to programs, she didn’t just sit there. She’d talk to the person on her left and the person on her right. She’d ask them what they were working on, and she’d share her own dilemmas and ask for their opinions. Then she’d follow up with these new acquaintances and ask them to lunch. Oh, and she’d also offer herself as a panelist for programs that the Association was putting on.

“Isn’t there something like that for PR or Communications people?” she asked me.

Actually there was. The Public Relations Society of America. While I’d been a member, I had only gone to one program and I certainly hadn’t volunteered for anything.

Within a month of our conversation, I’d gone to a program, and offered my services as a volunteer for the program committee. After three months, I was having lunch with smart people that I’d met at the programs (on topics such as media relations, twitter & social media), and sharing with my own colleagues what I’d learned.

Within a year, I was on the board of the San Francisco chapter of PRSA as the VP of Communications, responsible for increasing the visibility of the chapter and showing other communications professionals how useful the information and networking available through PRSA is.

Because of my involvement in PRSA, my own career is thriving. Through the contacts I’ve made and knowledge I’ve gained, I’ve placed noteworthy op-eds for the Global Fund for Women. I’ve gained expertise that has led to me heading up the Global Fund’s social media and online communications function and I’m also doing the same for the San Francisco chapter of PRSA.

I have developed new relationships with people in the corporate, non-profit and government sectors, and most importantly, my love for my profession has been rekindled. The value I’ve received has been priceless – far exceeding the dollar cost of membership.

Ask for advice. Show up. And give of yourself. The benefits can be extraordinary.

Substitute, “I’ll figure it out myself” with “Who can I ask for help?”

“Associations are the single largest source of post-graduate professional development for America’s workforce.”

- American Society for Association Executives