Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you). The next time you have the urge to utter “I don’t have time for this,” stifle it. Usually the things we think we don’t have time for are precisely the things we should most be doing. Like taking some time off. …
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If we solve the wrong problem, then who cares? In Part I we talked about taking a positive attitude towards the endeavor of solving problems: (1) clarifying that problems aren’t ‘bad’ and there’s no one right way to solve them; (2) people can have different perceptions of the same issue; (3) problems are often in…
DetailsWhat’s the problem? Problems, problems… who’s got problems? We all do, but before we can solve them we must first define them. Otherwise, we’re apt to solve the wrong problem! Sadly, this happens all the time. SO let’s take a page from Einstein’s bo. He is quoted as having said that if he had one hour…
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Preventing beats fighting Remember: Only YOU can prevent [forest] fires. Do you find yourself spending most of your time responding to other people’s crises? Is your day consumed with disruptive activities? Answering e? Responding to texts and voice? Are you constantly reacting, with little time left for acting? If so, you (and most likely your…
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Remember when summer used to mean time for play? Have you lost that playful feeling? Before fall rolls around, let’s see if we can get a bit of it back. Hugh McLeod of Gaping Void recently reminded me that there is no purpose without play. As anyone familiar with nursery rhymes knows, all work and…
DetailsJust because you’ve always done it one way doesn’t mean you should continue to do so. This week Seth Godin exhorts us to adopt a new paradigm in Strategy Matters More Than Ever. It’s not what you do (the potentially bren thing) but how you do it (the potentially bren process/attitude) that separates winners from…
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Does this box need anything else to fill it? Or is it good to go? A recent post by the inimitable Seth Godin poses the question What’s in the box? The point of the post is to make us question our quest for perfection and all the needless worrying we put into imagining every thing…
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Go down the road of ‘good enough’ Do you suffer from ‘term paper syndrome’? Do you mean to revise your website copy or write a funding proposal, but don’t because you feel you don’t have enough well-researched, referenced content? Do you mean to post to your blog regularly, but don’t because the several half-finished articles…
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Philanthropy should not just be about big checks. We live in times of scarcity. How are you mobilizing your community in fresh and different ways? How are you building long-term capacity to sustain your organization? How are you creating stronger, deeper relationships with constituents? 1. Identify where your communities hang out.How? Lo for what groups…
DetailsI just returned from a two-week vacation in which I unplugged. Guess what? This crazy planet filled with crazy people kept somersaulting all around the sky. It didn’t stop. There’s no way to stop it. And guess what else? I relaxed. I even got a little bit bored. And that was a good thing.…
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