During the summer, I've been designing workshops based on The Happy Healthy Nonprofit and Emerging Leaders Playbook.    A great training always start with a great opening or icebreaker.   Icebreakers are discussion questions or activities used to help participants relax and ease people into a group meeting or learning situation.    It is important to build in time for an icebreaker whether it is a staff training, board retreat, or a workshop with people coming together for the first time.

Icebreakers have these benefits:

• create a positive group atmosphere • help people to relax • break down social barriers • energize & motivate • help people to think about what they already know related to the topic • help people to get to know one another

A selected icebreaker game get your training off to a great start, but a poorly chosen and designed icebreaker can have the opposite effect, making people feel nervous and uncomfortable.  A "bad icebreaker" is one that requires sharing too much personal information or touching.  Milk the Cow is one example and while it might have been fun to do different handshakes when you were summer camp in Junior High,  it is awkward and a little creepy to do this type of opener with professionals.  Nonprofit blogger Vu Lee has some tips on what types of openers to avoid.

Before deciding which activities to use, assess your audience for age, familiarity with one another, purpose of the group gathering, and potential considerations for physical abilities.  An icebreaker for a staff training might be different from one that you use at a conference session where people don't already know each other.

Also be aware of the group dynamics.  Not all participants attend a training voluntarily or your training may be the kick off to a more in-depth program and participants may have hopes and concerns about their ability to complete the project.  For example, they may be concerned about the amount of time required for "homework," or the topics included.    Having a opening that creates the space for participants to ask questions, air concerns, and get everyone on the same page is essential in this context.

Sometimes, you can design the icebreaker to connect with the content of the training. No matter what the learning objectives of the training are, participants will already know something about it.  Learning is about connecting the dots to existing knowledge and skills so participants can build on it during the training.  It also helps you, as the trainer, learn a little bit about the group dynamics and participants before getting started. Depending on the context, I might do a icebreaker that is purely to get people comfortable, but I will also do second icebreaker that helps get people ready to learn.

While I love using magic markers and sticky notes or tossing a ball in icebreakers and exercises, don’t only use activities that require having materials or equipment on hand. You can always adapt or improvise.

I have a repertoire of icebreakers and openings that I have done over the past 25 years, but I also know that I can fall into icebreaker ruts.   So, it important to change up your routine.   To avoid getting into an rut,  I keep a notebook to document icebreakers I've used or discovered.    When designing a training, I refer to this and try different from my last training.

Here's a few Icebreaker recipes from my playbook.

(1)      MEET AND GREET:  THROW THE BALL

This works for a group of 5-25 people.    The group stands in the circle.   Each person will have an opportunity to introduce themselves saying their name, title, organization, and a fun fact about them they would like to share.  With that latter point, you can ask for something specific, like their favorite breakfast food or what they keep in their trunk of their car.    The first person to introduce themselves gets to toss the ball to anyone in the circle or the ball can be handed to the next person going clock wise.

(2)    MEET AND GREET: GETTING TO KNOW YOU

This works for a small group of twelve people or less and especially good for a staff training.  You ask each person to introduce themselves and to briefly answer a question that can build a common bond.  These might be questions such as:

* Describe how and when you came to work at this organization. * Share your biggest current challenge you are experiencing at work. * Describe a positive client or audience interaction you have experienced. * Tell your coworkers something you appreciate about your organization. * Tell your coworkers what you appreciate about your coworkers. * Share what you like most about your current job. * Share the funniest or most fun situation you have experienced at work. Here's an excellent resource with tons of great icebreakers and exercises  that can be adapted for staff training.

(3)   MEET AND GREET:  SHARE AND ANSWER YOUR FAVORITE ICEBREAKER QUESTION

This works for a small group of 20 people or less.   I love to use the people shaped sticky notes and speech bubbles, but you can use plain old yellow post it notes.  I ask participants to write down their favorite icebreaker question and give examples like those questions above.   Next, I ask participants to pair up and share and answer their icebreaker questions. I am them to exchange the people sticky notes with their partner.   Then I ask them to pair with another person and repeat the activity two more times.   I bring them back into circle and ask them to write down their answer to the question on they have in their hand and use it to introduce themselves.

(4)  MEET AND GREET:  WORD CLOUD

This works for a small group of 12 or less.   (If you have a larger group, you can use an online polling app like Slido that allows participants to use their cells to share their answers and automatically generates a word cloud.)  You can use sticky notes or capture the words on white board or paper.

Ask participants to jot down "Just Three Words" about what comes to mind when think about the topic you are going to cover in the training.   Ask participants to write one word or phrase per sticky note.  Ask people to introduce themselves and share their words.   Collect their sticky notes and cluster them on the wall into common themes.    Reflect as a group on the common themes and unpack what they mean.

(5)  MEET AND GREET: FUN INTRODUCTIONS

This works for any size group.  You need to have markers and "Hello My Name Is" name tags.   You ask participants to create a first and last name based on words that represent what they already know related to the topic and what they'd like to learn.  Then you have participants do a series of share pairs introducing themselves to each other or you can do it speed networking style with two long lines of people facing each other and one person moving to the head of the line.  I've also used this a closer for people to share what they learned.  Here's a more detailed documentation.

(6)  MEET AND GREET:  MY BURNING QUESTION

This works for any size group.   I use this icebreaker at conference sessions or workshops where there was not an opportunity to do in-depth participant assessments before the workshop.   I ask participants to introduce themselves and their burning question about what they want to learn from the workshop.      If it is a large group or people feel uncomfortable, I have them first write down their questions, and then share with a partner before asking for people to share it with the whole group.

As the facilitator, I capture the burning questions (I don't answer them).   I usually point out what questions will be answered as part of the training and what it isn't included, but mention that I will leave time at the end of the session to address remaining questions.  I keep the burning question list taped to the wall and refer to it during the Q/A.

Here's a list of resources that share some tips and recipes for icebreakers:

MY BLOG POSTS ON ICEBREAKERS AND OPENINGS:

* The Art of Good Openings and Closings * Online Interaction Tools for Icebreakers and More  * Tips for Good Openings * Openings, Exercises, and Icebreakers That Get People Moving * 6 Icebreakers for Training Sessions ICEBREAKER COLLECTIONS

* The Big Book of Icebreakers * Pinterest Board:  Icebreakers * Teampedia: Tools for Teams * Win3 Icebreaker Collection * The Best Icebreakers for Meetings and Trainings * Icebreaker Dos and Don'ts by Vu Lee * Sharing Knowledge: Icebreakers * Mindtools: Icebreakers What are some of your favorite meeting icebreakers?

Earlier this month, I was honored to receive an invitation from the US Embassy in Finland and State Department to teach workshops in Finland for NGOs, Fulbright Finland, Womens Groups, Multi-Cultural Nonprofits, Youth Groups, and a network of Finnish-American Societies as shown in the photo above.    I had an exciting and busy week of teaching public workshops, facilitating informal staff workshops, and meetings at the Embassy mostly on the topic of Networked Nonprofit, digital strategy, and leading on social media.

I really enjoy teaching in different cultural contexts and observing different learning styles and approaches to working for a nonprofit.   While many of the challenges for embracing a networked mindset and implementing a digital strategy that makes use of social media channels are similar for US nonprofits,  there were some unique differences.

When discussing the ideas in The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout, people in Finland have figured out keeping calm versus fire drill culture.   Take for example, Fulbright Finland  where I did a workshop with their staff about personal branding and professional networking.

The above photo shows their conference room where they have staff meetings. According to Terhi Molsa, Executive Director, the painting on the wall is of a lake in Finland, because being near water encourages creativity. The space creates a calm and reflective environment. There are couches and comfortable chairs. How many of us pay attention to the relationship between physical space and our productivity?   The group also paid attention to group energy and taking brief breaks.

The latter may be due how children are taught in the Finnish educational system.   Before I left for Finland, I read Timothy Walker's Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms. In Finland, classroom time incorporates "brain breaks" after 50 minutes when one's natural focus and energy begins to wane.   And, it pays off as students perform better on educational tests than their peers in other European countries.

Taking brain breaks is an important work skill as well.  The secret to being productive in a connected world without working 24/7, is designing your work day around something called Ultradian Rhythm.    As Tony Schwartz has reported, this was first discovered by a sleep researcher Nathan Kleitman found that the 90 minute basic rest-activity cycle is not just part of our sleep, but with us during the day.   During this 90 minute cycle we move from higher to lower alertness and our energy waxes and wanes in these cycles throughout the work day.

Another thing that I noticed is that people in Finland embrace joy and happiness (maybe, in part, because it was the summer months with the extended amount of light.)   It comes as no surprise to learn that Finland's newest core curriculum prioritizes "joy" as a learning concept.     As adults, and working for nonprofits,  it can be easy for us to forget about prioritizing our happiness.  It can be really hard to do when we are having a difficult day, but if focus on prioritizing joy like Fins it can boost our resilience.

Another thing I noticed is that Fins have figured out work/life balance.   When they take vacations, they vacate!   Also, they seem to put good boundaries around "work" time and free time.   Perhaps it can be summed up by the sign I saw at the public Sauna,  about calling it a day.  When you take a break from work, whether it is for few minutes as brain break or not working continuously, you are able to boost your resilience.

I think these lessons from Finland about resilience are very important for us to remember, especially in times of great stress due to what happening in our world, our country today.

Earlier this week, I was honored to do a webinar for Soapbox Engage about self-care and bringing a culture of wellbeing into the nonprofit workplace based on The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout. And surely given events of this past week, we all need to continue to practice a little self-care and nurture a culture of support while standing up for what we what we believe in.

As with every webinar or workshop I do, I ask participants to share one small action step they can take to create a culture of wellbeing in their nonprofit office. One of the participants mentioned that they were going to start regular walking meetings with staff, to ensure they keep moving but also build community.

Meetings can not only be a waste of time but also zap our energy.  Is everyone sitting around the table, but only engaged on their mobile phones or laptops, checking email or looking at social feeds? Is everyone suffering from “foggy brain” caused by too much sitting down meetings?  Walking meetings can help shakes things up.  One recent study at Stanford University determined staff were more creative when they were walking versus sitting and encouraged walking meetings for more innovation.

Wondering how to organize and facilitate a meeting where everyone is on their feet instead of their devices?  Here's a step-by-step guide to get your nonprofit staff walking their way to more productive work.

1.  PICK THE RIGHT MEETING TO EXPERIMENT WITH WALKING MEETINGS

Not all meetings are ideal for walking meetings, especially if you are just introducing the idea into your nonprofit workplace.  To get started, make a list of all the meetings you typically attend. These may include:

* ORGANIZATIONAL MEETINGS: A big part of work life, especially for those who are staff members of traditional nonprofits, are meetings.   Think about all the meetings that are schedule in a typical work week.   Many are face-to-face - these might include 1:1 meetings with colleagues or your boss; small team meeting, or large team meeting. * PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING MEETINGS: Meetings with people for coffee or lunch or visiting their office (or vice a versa) for professional relationship building. * CONFERENCES: Small or large sessions at conferences. * VIRTUAL MEETINGS: Conference calls, online chats, and webinars. All of these meetings can be reinvented as walking meetings, but the easiest way to get started is with virtual meetings when you are participating remotely and don't need to be at your desk to present any material.   Many apps can be easily be transferred to your mobile phone while you walk.    One-on-one meetings, like check-ins or donor cultivation meetings are perfect to do as walking meeting because it is about building relationships - and nothing does that better than walking shoulder-to-shoulder.

2.    THINK ABOUT YOUR GOALS:

Walking has the added benefit of getting your creative juices going.  So, if you are having a brainstorm meeting, making it a walking meeting will make it even more productive.   Or maybe you want to change up the dynamics of  small group meeting by changing your normal routine.    And, if you are doing a 1:1 and improve relationship building, moving is helpful.      Whatever you goals, it is important to frame why you think a walking meeting is a better fit for the job and frame the issue you want to address before.

Karen Bloom, the CEO at Project Kesher, saves up problems that her staff is trying to address and bundles into a weekly problem solving walking meeting.

The FeetFirst site suggests that these tasks are perfect for walking meetings:

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_EDUCATE AND INFORM; educate about things in the environment while experiencing and demonstrating them. Different experts can speak at different locations._

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_PROBLEM SOLVE; Problem solving can be enhanced by the physical activity of walking (“thinking on your feet”), as well as informal interactions among people._

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_ENHANCE CREATIVITY; creativity is enhanced when people are physically active, and stimulated by variety in events and visual, auditory, and other senses._

*

_SOCIALIZE AND BUILD TEAM SPIRIT; relationships are developed while walking and team building occurs while involved in informal activities. The spontaneous mixing that occurs on a walk can enhance interactions._

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_MAKE DECISIONS; walking meetings help prepare for decision making and can result in more options for consideration._

*

_RESOLVE CONFLICT; walks can help resolve conflicts for pairs and small groups. For larger groups the walk improves team interactions and helps generate solutions._

3.  LET PEOPLE KNOW IN ADVANCE

It is important to give enough warning for a walking meeting so people can dress accordingly -- bring a coat or sweater or wear comfortable shoes.    Walking meetings in high heels are not much fun.

4. PLANNING AND PREPARATION

Like any other business meeting, there is agenda preparation but there are some other items you need to think about.     A walking meeting is not just a walk on the beach, you are doing work.  So it is important to layout the topics for discussion and tasks.    In addition, you need to allow time for stretching, and bio break.     Also, allow time to capture notes after the meeting.    I like to take a long a pen and small pad to jot down notes, but I find that if I am doing a walking meeting, I'm retaining information better and some quiet time right after the meeting ends is enough to capture the notes.

5. THE ACTUAL WALK

Plan your route in advance, if possible, so you know how far you can walk in your allotted time and avoid noisy spots or too narrow walkways.   If you have more than one other person, you will have to do a little bit more planning.  According to the Feet First Walking Guide:

* ONE ON ONE MEETINGS: Meeting as a pair tends to be easy. Walking breaks down the barrier of a desk and chair, and lets people communicate more equally. * SMALL GROUP MEETINGS OF 3-5: Meetings with three or more can be affected by the width of the sidewalk or path, variations in terrain, and possible physical barriers. This size group is flexible, as discussion can occur while walking, or if desired the group can stop along the walk. * GROUPS OF 5-16: Meetings with larger groups tend to result in more than one conversation while walking. If the whole group is to be involved, make time to stop and gather as a whole. * GROUPS LARGER THAN 16: These tend to require more planning, with a strong leader and potentially a few assistants if needed. There will be conversations while walking, then planned stops for presentations. Also be sure to establish the rules such as "stay with the group" "Slowest walker sets the pace,"  or "no cell phones,"  before you head out.   If you have a larger group you might want to designate someone as the note taker.   And, if you have more than one person, you might have to break the group up by pace of their walking.      Include stops in your meeting to summarize agenda points and shift into next topic.

6.  INVOLVE DIFFERENT OFFICE LOCATIONS

If you are not doing walking meetings because your nonprofit has different office locations or you have some "virtual staff",  you can still have walking meetings with everyone.   Have staff at different locations organize them at their location and share photos of your walks with each other.  Some organizations have a slack channel or online discussion area devoted to their walks.  ETR does this really well, here's a post by their CEO.

There is nothing better than to boost productivity, build morale, and melt off stress than getting everyone to move.  You can find additional resources on walking meetings here and of course in my book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout, addresses walking meetings in more detail.

Has your organization hosted a walking meeting?  What has been your experience?  What are your tips?

_NOTE FROM BETH:   This week I've been in Finland at the invitation of the US Embassy to do trainings.  On August 14th, I'm doing a FREE webinar with Soapbox Engage on how to raise more money and not burnout.   So, to avoid my own burnout, please enjoy this guest post by Julie Fanning._

7 WAYS TO AVOID FUNDRAISING BURNOUT

With fundraising, especially in the non-profit sector, there’s always more work than there is time. From courting potential donors to hours of grant writing, there are very few times a fundraiser’s job feels done.  The amount of responsibilities mixed with our desire to help others and do a great job is a recipe for burnout.  It is possible to avoid burnout by following some of these tips.

1) TAKE TIME OFF

Take your time off!  Nothing helps rejuvenate us like having time away from work. This may almost seem like a foreign concept for the non-profit world, but trust me, it’s possible! The best, and most logical, times to take breaks are after fundraising events. You worked hard to plan that gala, festival, luncheon, etc. You went to every corner of the earth to recruit donors, vendors, sponsors, volunteers, attendees, etc. so reward yourself with a nice break.

While it may be tempting to get right back on the horse - don’t. You are usually provided with vacation time.  USE THESE DAYS.  Non-profit fundraisers are notorious for working on their days off.  One man I supervise planned on taking his laptop on his honeymoon. Just don’t do that. You may justify it by coming up with excuses like that you are only working for a few minutes, or that the organization really needs your help.  Or maybe it’s that if you take time off all the work is just waiting for you when you come back and it will be overwhelming.  Stop the excuses.  Take your time off.  The world and your employer will survive without you for a bit.

2) #BORINGSELFCARE

There is a recent hashtag out there all about boring self-care.  These are the things we do that aren’t fun or exciting.  It’s the boring things that are important to our well-being.  This means that you pick up the medications you need from the pharmacy, go to the dentist, clean your bathroom, do your laundry, pay your bills.

We are creatures of habit, and it’s been proven that those who do things like make their beds each day, tend to be more mentally resilient.  It’s the little things, the necessary things, the routine things that we need to make time for.  When a person is busy, it is easy to let everyday tasks fall to the wayside.  Carve out time for the boring self-care.

3) REFRESHING SELF CARE

Not all self-care is boring.  Don’t do a disservice to yourself by not having moments of indulgence.  Get a massage, go on that hike, read that non-work related book, watch too much Netflix, get a pedicure, do whatever your heart desires.  Moments of indulgence can go a long way to helping avoid burnout.

4) DON’T ISOLATE – BE SOCIAL

At the end of a long day of meetings and phone conferences, sometimes the last thing we want to do is talk to more people.   We deal with people all day, so wanting down time is normal.   It is easy to not pick up the phone when your friend calls and to say no to a night out.  Honor your need for alone time, but don’t isolate.  Don’t let all the fun social activities just become tasks you want to avoid.   Find a balance between being alone and socializing. We thrive on connections and having a support system, and that alone can help stave off burnout.

5)  GET SUPPORT FROM YOUR BOSS OR PEERS

 You have a supervisor for a reason.  When you are stressed or overworked or feel like you’re out of ideas – talk to them.  Hopefully, your supervisor has lived through similar experiences and can offer advice and validation to help you. If you don’t have a supervisor, or have one you struggle with, find a mentor by consulting with someone who has more fundraising experience than you and is therefore more likely to have helpful tips.

6)  TAKE A FIELD TRIP OR LEARNING DAY

Burnout happens for fundraisers when you get removed from the actual mission and programs that you are raising money to support.    If you are too focused on the campaign logistics and stressed about meeting goals,  take some time for a field trip to talk with people who have benefited from your organization’s programs.  You will feel inspired  and re-energized.

Taking seminars or attending workshops fundraising topics or professional skillscan be a real boost to motivation.  When you get caught up in day-to-day drudgery, it can cause you to forget what you love about your work.  Find a training that sparks your interest.  When you learn about a topic you love, it makes your job more welcoming.

7) CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESSES

Every day in a non-profit there are big and little successes.  Don’t forget to recognize and celebrate your successes and accomplishments.  There are so many in each day – someone calling you to thank the organization (or you personally) for what they do, offering to volunteer, realizing that your networking is paying off when you’re connected to a new potential donor through a mutual contact, and, of course, securing new donors and sponsors. Remember that you are helping your organization keep its doors open one more day than before, allowing them to continue to serve their community.

You know you went through all of that schooling and hard work to become a non-profit fundraiser for a reason. Burnout doesn’t have to be inevitable. As long as you take a little time to do even a few of these things, you’ll have no trouble remembering why you love non-profit fundraising.

JULIE FANNING is a licensed clinical social worker (MSW, LCSW), and she also gives advice to those pursuing a degree or career in social work over at MSW.

Recently, I was invited to participate in a staff "Lunch and Learn," by Connor Diemand-Yauman, CEO of Philanthropy University, about building a culture of wellbeing in the nonprofit workplace and capacity building.

One of the things I immediately noticed in the office, is that they displayed their values on the wall (the sign with the different color circles).  Many organizations do that.  But there was also another sign on the wall that described their Quarter 3 theme word "Mindfulness" and a reflective question, "What behaviors and processes can we establish to engender more mindfulness and presence in our interactions."

I asked Connor about how they use this particular cultural nudge and cue.  First, they selected the theme "Mindfulness" because it hits across many of their core organizational values, including "See the whole person" "Be vulnerable" and "Move with Purpose" and "Seek Joy"

He and his team identify a  "theme" for every quarter, something that they want to work on or reinforce that is aligned with their organizational values.   He asks his team for regular, concrete interventions that reinforce that theme.  Says Connor, "_These printouts are a simple cue reminding us to be more __mindful and present. You can't look anywhere in our office without having them in your line of sight; they're inescapable__."_

Another intervention that emerged was a solution to "techno-interference" at meetings where people are not giving full attention to the meeting because they were on their devices.  This is a common challenge for many nonprofits.

Philanthropy University has created large, green "Digital Detox Boxes" that sit outside their meeting rooms. The rule is that the person running the meeting can require that people put their devices in this box before coming into the room.  Connor notes, _"I'm so much more present without devices in reach -- I'm a better manager, more thoughtful teammate, and more active listener. The 'detox box' is akin to collecting your friends' keys at the start of a party; but instead of curbing drunk driving, we're stopping distracted discourse."_

The ability to pay attention AND influence your nonprofit's organization culture is an incredibly valuable skill to master, regardless of your position or the stage of your career. While organizational culture may be driven by leadership, it is often reinforced by others on staff. Leaders and all staff for that matter have an essential role in creating a culture that encourages the best work and promotes the growth and development of individuals and teams.

If your organization or team has not identified its cultural values, here's an exercise from the Emerging Leaders Playbook that can help get you started and a few good articles to read.

How does your organization connect its stated values to actual workplace mindsets and actions?   Is mindfulness a theme that is important to your nonprofit?  How have you addressed it in your culture?

Reflection is a critical step in assessing individual and team performance at your nonprofit.  A reflective process, whether it is a structured process for individuals or groups, can give us insights about what worked and what could be improved.

Reflection requires hitting the pause button and asking and answering questions.  How many of us as individuals have the discipline to notice what we’re doing with our professional work or our team?  Our natural tendency is to keeping moving forward on the to do list, to forget, not to notice, or to be so caught up with our own world that we fail to be sensitive to the possibilities.  What works?  What doesn’t?  And most importantly what and where to improve or repeat what worked.

Many organizations skip reflection processes or only do it after a major event because it does not feel like checking something off your to do list or moving forward.   But, without this important step, we are doomed to repeating the same mistakes, over and over again.

But how to create a routine around reflection for yourself and at your nonprofit?   For individuals, it can be simple as keeping a journal, even a one-sentence a day journal or using the 18-minutes a day technique.    It is also important for your team or organization to create and use a habit of reflection as a group, but not just quarterly or after a major event, but as a regular routine that can drive organizational learning, transparency & cohesion.

Here are few ideas:

* BUILD INTO RECURRING MEETINGS:    Add a permanent spot on the agenda of regular staff or team meetings for reflection.   Just like many meetings begin with introductions or sharing the agenda, make sure your ending includes a few minutes of reflection time.   This is different from summing up tasks and deadlines at the end of the meeting.  It is asking the simple question of how to improve a process, project, or even the meeting itself. * USE SIMPLE QUESTIONS:   Cue up a couple of guiding questions to drive your reflective discussion or have staff members prepare them in advance as part of the pre-work.   A few examples of guiding questions;

_-What worked well?_ _ -What did we do really well that we don't want to forget the next time we do this?_ _ -What could be improved?_ _ -What could we change?_ _ -What didn't we do that might have worked better?_ _ -What did we learn?_ _ -What surprised us?_ _ -What still puzzles us?_ _ -What questions are not yet answered?_

* USE A STRUCTURED PROCESS LIKE "AFTER ACTION REVIEW":   One easy way to incorporate team reflection is to integrate a review process at the end of a project and include others from your organization not directly involved in the project. This is known as an “After Action Review” or “AAR.”  This is a structured way to capture the lessons learned from any project, with the intent of improving future performance. It is an opportunity for a group to reflect on a project, activity, event, or task so that they can do it better the next time. It can also be used mid-way through a project or strategy or at the end.

A structured process has a number of benefits.  It can get a lot of useful information out in a short amount of time.  It creates a safe space to share learning in a way that isn't about pointing fingers or blaming (if facilitated in the right way).   It is also inclusive of different perspectives, from senior leadership to front line program people.   And, it dramatically reduces the internal echo-chamber where we restate each other's points rather than generating new insights.

As part of the Emerging Leaders Playbook Toolkit, you can find an easy 30-60 minute recipe for conducting an After Action Review at your organization.    This process can be particularly useful for debriefing after a major event or strategy.

How does your nonprofit routinize reflection at staff meetings, after major projects, or in other ways? What techniques and methods have you used? What works?

NOTE FROM BETH: _ __ My colleagues at See3 had some fun using some of the ideas in The Happy Healthy Nonprofit  and apply it to creating an organizational digital strategy. This post shares a useful exercise for your digital team to reflect on what not to do for your digital strategy!_

STRATEGY AS WE-CARE: AN EXERCISE - GUEST POST BY MIRIAM BROSSEAU, DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT, SEE3 COMMUNICATIONS

Organizational self-care needs a strategy, as we all learned in “The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit.” And it’s true! (And something we take seriously at See3.)

Simultaneously, a sound (digital) strategy can be the biggest driver of "we-care" in the organization. Here’s the deal -- Every nonprofit gets told that they need a strategy (and you do). But you know what’s even more pressing? _Simply deciding what you *don’t* do._

And that’s 80% of strategy, really. (Though, admittedly, the other 20% is where the fun and the magic happens.) Setting healthy boundaries. Sound familiar?

Take a moment to look at the self-care checklist in The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit. Here are a few things that stood out to me:

● Taking lunch away from desk and email ● Not working on the weekends, or over vacation ● Taking comp time when earned ● Setting limits in client relationships

You see what I’m getting at? Healthy boundaries. Saying no. Stopping.

Most of the time, we burn out because we’re just doing too much. And more than that, we’re getting caught up in the wrong things (the tactical treadmill, as we sometimes call it at See3 - the near-constant upkeep of digital channels driven almost exclusively by external expectations and not by internal motivations or goals).

So, the first step in strategy as we-care is to figure out what those right things are, and get rid of the other junk. Easier said than done, for sure. But here's an example and tool to help play that out --

See3 recently facilitated a workshop for a national nonprofit working to align its chapters around a signature program - everyone was doing it differently, which is no way to scale (and no way to work). The lack of consistency amounted to a lot of wasted time and effort, and a lot of overtaxed staff and supporters. Everyone saw the missed opportunity in a program that, with more cohesion and focus, could not only double the revenue it brings in for the cause, but provide some much-needed support to the folks working tirelessly to make it happen.

So, at one point in the course of the workshop, we did the following storytelling exercise with them to start figuring out the right things to be doing and set the program strategy - to delineate its healthy boundaries. (We did it in terms of this specific program, but the exercise could be done for a digital channel or any other aspect of an organization):

● NAME YOUR AUDIENCE. Think of one person. Describe them in detail - what do they care about? What do they worry about? What draws them to this program, channel, event, etc.?

● SET YOUR GOAL. But in a specific way: Name the following four outcomes: after engaging in this experience, what do you want this particular person to: ○ Know - what new information will they have? What will they have learned? ○ Do - what new, specific action will they take? ○ Feel - what emotion do you want them to walk away feeling? ○ Belong - after this experience, what sense of fit or connection will they gained, and with whom?

● DRAFT STRATEGIC ELEMENTS. Looking at the list above, what are a few key things that *have to happen* over the course of their interaction/experience (during the event, while on the website, etc.) in order to reach those outcomes? Be critical and make sure you're considering what really leads to the above outcomes, rather than squeezing what you've always done into a new framework.

● TELL A STORY! Tell a first-person, best-case-scenario narrative that hits on all of the elements above. (In the workshop, we used a fill-in-the-blank sheet with prompts specific to the event, which included things like, “The first thing I noticed was…”; “I’ll never forget when…”; and “I knew this was the place for me when…”) This is the heart of this exercise, so don’t skip it over. Storytelling is all about communicating impact (which is what we’re all going for, right?), so the key here is to unlock the story that your audience will walk away telling. Then you can then design the experience for that story.

● Ok. Now the fun part. READ THE STORY (out loud, with gusto!) and notice what themes come to the surface. What really matters here? What does this mean you can *stop doing*? What’s currently part of the experience, but not adding to the impact/outcome? Essentially, what didn’t make it into the story?

● Now the hard part. _Stop doing that thing_ (and see if anyone complains - or even notices).

This exercise is best when done in groups, telling several stories, accounting for several audiences, so you can draw out broader themes and build connections and consensus. But it’s something you can test with any aspect of an organization to help set healthy boundaries and stop doing the stuff that a) doesn’t contribute to the impact, and b) burns you out. It allows you to focus in a human-centered way on what really makes a difference, so you can start setting effective strategy and stop chasing tactics that, frankly, just wear us all out.

There’s an odd sense of relief when you realize that a program element that is a logistical nightmare, or a complicated web platform that never quite functions properly…are actually things you could (and should) drop entirely. For one group in our workshop, they realized that the impact of the program was almost entirely in the opportunity to connect with the families their organization served - and not at all in the five food trucks at the event (needless to say, they didn’t make it into the story). So…why not just have one food vendor and save the trouble, time, and lost sleep?

Now, of course it’s never that easy. There’s always more to consider - buy-in from leadership, culture, legacy, etc. And that’s different in every organization, and should be approached with care.

But here’s the point: Just as self-care needs to be a strategy, strategy itself can be organizational (and personal!) self-care. And it begins - first and foremost - with stopping.

_If you’re ready to push pause and reset your digital strategy, contact Michael Hoffman (mhoffman@see3.com) and_ _the See3 team__ today._

Miriam Brosseau, Director of Engagement, See3 Communications

Working as a nonprofit consultant can sometimes feel isolating.  That's why it important to have networking opportunities to connect with professional colleagues face-to-face beyond online groups.    I try to make an effort to do this regularly.

This past week, I met up with nonprofit consultant Carrie Rice. We met in a nonprofit conference space of another colleague, Corey Newhouse, executive director of PublicProfit.   Her organization helps youth organizations do program evaluation using data. _(If you are a trainer and looking for interactive ways to teach about using data for improvement, be sure to download their free guide "Dabbling in Data" or their train the trainers workshop.)_

While we were using PublicProfit's conference room, I happen to notice the "Wall of Accomplishments" (see above) It was dated July, 2017 and filled with sticky notes about the small wins that the team has accomplished. According to Corey, it is used a staff meetings to celebrate accomplishments and helps motivate and inspire everyone.

There is a lot of science and research behind this simple idea of celebrating accomplishments.  One the best known researchers is Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School and whose research focuses on what makes people creative, productive, happy, and motivated at work.

For nearly 20 years, she has studied the psychological experiences and the performance of people doing complex work inside organizations. Early on, she discovered that a central driver of creative, productive performance was the quality of a person’s inner work life—the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions over the course of a workday.

The research involved having participants track their daily workdays (overall mood, specific emotions, and motivation levels.)  In analyzing these work journals, she discovered that there are predictable triggers that inflate or deflate inner work life, and, even accounting for variation among individuals, they are pretty much the same for everyone.

One finding is something that she calls "The Progress Principle."   If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that he or she made some progress. If the person leaves the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is most likely to blame.

The simple act of making progress visible can help support motivation.  And that's exactly how PublicProfit uses its "Wall of Accomplishment."   This is a wonderful low tech way of applying the progress principle and of course, there are also apps, like "IdoneThis"

How does your nonprofit motivate its staff and improve productivity?

One of my colleagues, Nada Hamzeh, a nonprofit capacity building consultant from Lebanon, tagged me when sharing this striking image that depicts how can easily develop a behavior addiction to our mobile phones. As Aliza Sherman and I wrote in the Happy Healthy Nonprofit  the apps on our mobile phones can be agents of distraction, but they can also be agents of calm.

When researching the book, we came up with a curated a list of our favorite technology wellness apps.   But last week, I was honored to do a webinar for Whole Whale where George Weiner and I discussed apps. I learned about a few more amazing apps. So, I thought I would take the opportunity share a few more.

_(BTW, THIRD PLATEAU IS OFFERING A CHANCE TO WIN FREE COPY OF THE BOOK, IF YOU EMAIL THEM YOUR FAVORITE WELLBEING APP.)_

PRODUCTIVITY

Sanebox - Email causes a lot of stress for everyone with a never ending dump of 24/7 messages.    Sanebox can help you clean up your email and make it manageable so it isn't a time suck.

InBox When Ready -  This a chrome plugin for gmail that maximizes the time you spend in email.  My colleague, Meico Whitlock (aka "Mindful Techie") has more suggestions as does this recent post.

Moment -  If you are trying to break your addiction to your mobile phone, the first step is to become aware of how often you pick up and how many hours per week you spend on your phone.  This app will give you a regular report as well as what apps you are using.

GTimeReport -  We often feel time starved, too many tasks, too little time.  And that causes stress unless we reflect and analyze how we are actually using our time.  This tool, which works with Google Calendar, let's you export your calendar information to a spreadsheet.

FocusBooster - Are you putting off more important tasks and doing less important tasks or simply avoiding them all together?  That  is procrastination and is one symptom of being distracted.   The Pomodoro method and app is one way to avoid the productivity loss of procrastination.

Idonethis - A simple app that helps you and your team track what’s been done.   Most people write “to do lists” that are never ending.  As soon as you tick off completed tasks, you add new ones.    Tracking what you have done allows you to track what you have accomplished and reflect on it, not bury myself in busyness.       Here’s a guide to this useful productivity habit.

WELLNESS

SuperBetter - This app helps you increase resilience or ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of obstacles. Created by gaming expert Jane McGonigal when she needed to recover from a concussion, it gamifies the process of creating good wellbeing habits.

StretchClock - Sitting is the new smoking.  And being sedentary for too many hours can lead to poor health outcomes.   This useful app gives a regular reminder to stretch.

CharityMiles -  This app tracks your steps and converts them into donations for a charity of your choosing.  You can also do a mini-competition using the leaderboard feature.

Flux -  Staring at your computer screen in the evening can disrupt your sleep because the bright blue light tricks your mind into thinking it is morning and time to wake up.  This app can help reduce the amount of blue light on your screen.  If you use an iPhone, you can do the same thing with the Night Shift feature.

HAPPINESS

10% Happier  There are many apps that can help you practice meditation. This one is based on the book, 10 Percent Happier by Dan Harris and makes it easy.

Instacart -  Instacart lets you order groceries online and have them delivered.  Why include this app?  A recent study about happiness found spending money on time-saving purchases promotes daily happiness and reduces negative mood, because it protects us from the time stress that we feel in our daily lives.

Moodnotes - With this app, you can track your emotions in different work situations and it prompts you to reflect on the situation and how to manage it.    Having this self-awareness lays the groundwork to help you effectively manage your stress triggers at work and make you happier.  There are many Mood Trackers, apps that let you you chart your emotions and thoughts and test different self-management techniques.

What's your favorite app for productivity, wellness, or happiness?

_NOTE FROM BETH:  One of the things that I enjoyed most about IFCAsia was the networking opportunities to connect with other people in the region who share interests.  One of them was Vincent Law who is doing interesting work with teaching young children about giving and philanthropy.   When he told me the name of his program, I got excited because I had done a lot of research and writing about "PhilanthroKids" and he mentioned he was inspired in part by that post.    He has taken the idea and created an amazing program.  Read on for more.   We know that young people like Generation Z are future donors, so programs that help introduce philanthropy at a young age will a big pay off down the road._

EMPOWER YOUNG CHILDREN THROUGH PHILANTHROPY - GUEST BLOG POST BY VINCENT LAW, CEO AND FOUNDER AT PHILANTHROKIDS ACADEMY

As you might know, the English word ‘Philanthropy’ has a Greek origin. It has two parts: ‘philos’ meaning ‘loving’ and ‘anthropos’ means ‘human being’. In other words, philanthropy means the love of mankind. Throughout history, philanthropy plays a very important role because it directly impacts our wellbeing. Different culture has different understanding of philanthropy and we use different words to represent various aspects of the concept. In most cultures, philanthropy existed a long time ago.

The world’s largest association in advancing philanthropy is probably the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) in the US. Founded in 1960, it has more than 30,000 members in over 240 chapters around the world. Not only as a professional member, I served as a chapter president and on International Board of Directors for the past 4 years. Each year AFP organizes an international fundraising conference, attracting more than 4000 professionals from 60 different countries to attend over 100 different sessions over 3 days. In 2010, the conference was held in Baltimore, Maryland. At one of the pre-conference master classes, I met 2 young women from Cairo. One of them was the curator of the world largest archaeological museum, Grand Egyptian Museum.

It was her first time to attend such a large conference. I was there as a new trainer. She came up to me and said she was very impressed by the history of American philanthropy and the AFP professionalism. I then said to her ‘Don’t you know that Egyptian has a longer history of philanthropy than the Americans?’ On the first page of the 300 page manual in your hand, it was written, Throughout history, since the Egyptian Book of the Dead 6,000 years ago, people have believed that helping others was a key to happiness and good works.’

So while we admire the wonders and success of others in philanthropy, we could have a look at our own culture and we might find a longer and more impactful history of philanthropy in our own society. Kids in Philanthropy

Among various kinds of philanthropy, I have a passion for children’s well-being especially the psychological aspects. So in 2006 I founded a charity called Child Psychoecology Foundation (CPF). Our aim is to promote the psychological well-being of young children in Hong Kong through parent-child activities using media such as art, music, drama and story-telling. We organize educational talks, workshops, exhibitions and public performances. In our 10th anniversary, CPF collaborates with AFP to develop a philanthropy program for young children aged 3-12. The purpose is to empower young children through engaging them in philanthropy. We call this program ‘PhilanthroKids’ or Kids In Philanthropy (KIP) because it complements their youth program ‘Youth In Philanthropy, which is designed for teenagers from aged 13-18 and this extends the professional training of fundraising practitioners to philanthropy education of young children and their parents. International Statement of Ethical Principles & 10 Principal Values of Philanthropy

The PhilanthroKids Programme is created based on values from the International Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising which was signed by more than 30 associations around the world in Holland in 2006. The Statement contains Five Universal Principles guiding professionals engaging in philanthropy which are Honesty, Respect, Integrity, Empathy and Transparency. These international standards not only are recognized by practitioners, they are also valued by philanthropists.

Based on the Five Universal Principles, we develop the Ten Principal Values of Philanthropy which include Kindness, Honesty, Respect, Openness, Generosity, Gratitude, Sympathy, Empathy, Responsibility and Trustworthiness. These fundamental values help children develop their philanthropic characters in life. Of course there are many important life values but these values are essential to philanthropy and transcend across different culture, race and faith.

LEAD BY ACTIONS

American writer and Polymath Benjamin Franklin once said, "Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I will learn."

To help young children understand, we tell international folk stories to illustrate our ten values. These stories come from all over the world such as US, China, Russia, Japan, etc. For example we use the Chinese folk story, The Empty Pot to teach kids about honesty. The story was about the Chinese Emperor looking for his successor from a group of children. All were given a seed to go home to grow but they did not know that all the seed were cooked beforehand. Nobody could have grown anything however all children came back with tall and healthy plants. Only one boy who showed honesty by not replacing with other seeds was later declared by the Emperor as the future King.

But for older children who are cognitively advanced and understand geography and landmarks, we use real life philanthropy stories. We tell a story about the Statue of Liberty and how the little children helped to raise money to build the pedestal stone for the status in 1886.

The statue given by the French people was ready but it lacked the money to build the foundation. Joseph PULITZER, renowned for his International Prizes in Journalism later on, was the owner of newspaper The World. He pledged that anyone who donated would have the name printed on the newspaper. So in 5 months, they raised the $100K. About 121,000 Americans donated (most of it in less than $1). There were a lot of children names. This real story tells us how children could be mobilized to participate with the help of the adults.

1000 ACTION TASKS

Knowing the values is only the beginning. Ultimately, putting them into practice regularly and eventually make it a habit is what we want. That is why we need to show them clear instructions and reward them with praises. So based on each of the 10 Philanthropic Values, we list out 100 different tasks they can do daily. These tasks span across 3 main areas in children’s lives, such as at Home, in School and within Communities. So in total we created over 1000 different action tasks for children to follow. So it is the action tasks that we engage children to do that completes the learning cycle. In PhilanthroKids Programme we encourage 3T Giving. 3T stands for Time, Talents and Treasure. We want children to learn to be aware of their various kinds of resources and put them to good use in philanthropy.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Ever since the launch of the PhilanthroKids Programme last year, I have spoken many times in Hong Kong and in international conferences in Beijing and Tokyo. Over than 2000 people have learnt about the program internationally. In Hong Kong we have implemented the PhilanthroKids Programme in schools as well as at our center. We are now working with an university in Hong Kong to include this program in the training of kindergarten teachers. One of the largest NGOs from China with tens of thousands of family members came recently to Hong Kong to study the feasibility of implementing it in Shanghai and other cities. In Japan, we not only discussed how we can learn from each other through international collaboration but also set up networks of PhilanthroKids and even Awards within the region.

SUMMARY

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, The Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond TUTU, was a keynote speaker of the AFP conference. He called fundraising ‘a noble profession’. I believe each of us has a higher calling. My calling is to empower children through my knowledge of philanthropy. And whatever good work you do, please make teaching young Korean children philanthropy a priority.

At last I want to share with you the story about a young Canadian boy Bilaal Rajan who was awardee of the AFP Outstanding Youth In Philanthropy at 13. He volunteered at UNICEF and raised $6,000 to help children affected by tropical storms in the Caribbean. He later initiated the UNICEF Canada Kids Earthquake Challenge, through which Canadian children raised $1.8 million dollars. He is the now the UNICEF Ambassador. His desires to help other children started when he was only 4. At the age of 17, he was addressing over a big group of full time professionals with decades of working experience. He asked them a question. ‘Put up your hand if you think that children are the leaders of tomorrow.’ Over half the audience, several hundreds put up their hands. But he said, "No! Children are not the leaders of tomorrow. Children are the leaders of today!"

If the children are the leaders of today, we should empower them with philanthropy to become good leaders.

Vincent Law is fundraising professional with 27 years of solid working experience and the founder of PhilanthroKids Academy.

Recently, a colleague asked me a wonderful question:  How did you learn to become a good facilitator and trainer? Did you read books, take classes, or have a coach? I answered yes to all, but more importantly I think these two methods helped me the most:

* Carve out time for reflection after each training and do an after-action review with yourself. Evaluate your content, facilitation, and logistical skills against participant evaluations.  If time is available, also do a plus/delta exercise with participants as a close out to the session.    Measure, evaluate, reflect, and improve. * Be a participant in other people’s training sessions. Conferences are a great opportunity to take workshops and observe the facilitator's techniques. Many of us do this and take content notes, but it is also great to take notes about instructional design and facilitation techniques.  I typically draw a vertical line down my notebook page, and label each column "Content" and "Instructional Process" to capture both types of notes.   I also pick one thing that I learned in terms of facilitation and commit to trying it out as soon as possible. At the beginning of the summer,  I taught a master class and workshops with colleague Tharum Bunn from Cambodia at the IFC/Asia.  I also had an opportunity to attend a couple of sessions that used participatory facilitation techniques.  Here's what I learned.

SPECTRAGRAM

I was asked to facilitate a small group in a participatory session called "Digital Forum," designed for peer sharing by Marco Kuntz and Mike Johnson.    The session kicked off with a Spectragram exercise involving the full group.     I learned this technique from Allen Gunn from Aspiration over ten years ago at 2007 Penguin Day.  It is also used in education, although it is called something different, "The Human Continuum."

The way Spectragrams worked in those days is that the facilitator identified a couple of provocative questions related to the topic being discussed and had people line up as to whether they agree or disagree with the statement.    It is a useful method for getting participants to express a point of view, engage in debate, listen to others and hear another person's different point of view.   For training where you are focusing on a skill, it allows for folks to express their opinions (negative or positive) and not have debate get in the way of the instructional flow later on.  My colleague, Dirk Slater, has written about how he applies the Spectragram technique in his technology/activist trainings.   Others have also documented and used the technique or taught others how to do it.

If you are new to participatory facilitation techniques, use the Spectagram as an opener and use it to better understand skill levels in the room.  Next, try provocative statements.  To prepare,  come up with statements based on a participant assessment, interviews, or survey and that are related to your training topic.    The statements should express a point of view.

A more participatory approach, and one that Allen Gunn uses, is to crowdsource provocative  questions from participants.  Have them self-organized into small groups of three or four people and use sticky notes to come up with some statements.   Participants volunteer their question for the Spectragram.  As the facilitator, you have give clear instructions to people and keep time.

At the Digital Forum Session at the IFCAsia, we did the Spectagram twice to help to identify different skill levels of participants and their organizations capacity levels.

FOUR CORNERS/BRAINSTORM SMALL GROUP FACILITATION

The meat of the session was done in small group work using a technique called "Four Corners" where participants go to four different corners of the room to focus on a specific sub-topic. There are different approaches to assigning people to groups and facilitating small group discussions, but it is used to have the same facilitation method for each.

In the Digital Forum, the session organizations recruited people with both subject matter expertise and facilitation experience. We were assigned a topic, but we also also used the same brainstorming and synthesis techniques in each corner.

The topics

1. Social Media (Facilitator: Beth Kanter) 2. New Audiences and Acquisition (Facilitator: Christoffer Holm - Amnesty International) 3. Digital Fundraising (technology, skills and staffing) (Facilitator: Meredith and Martin - Homemade Digital) 4. Content (Facilitator: Kavita and Michael - GlobalGiving)

We had roughly 40 minutes for the small group sessions.   We did a classic brainstorming/SWOT analysis exercise related to our topics.

Each facilitator's "corner" has two pieces of  flip chart paper on the wall which was divided into a two x two grid and a stack of colored sticky notes.  We were asked to brainstorm ideas in each category, jotting down notes on the post it notes and adding to the wall.

a) Green: Great things you've heard of, or done yourself b) Blue: Things you've heard of, or done yourself - that failed c) Pink: Name all the things getting in the way of (topic) d) Yellow: Name all the things that you can do to get over those things standing in the way

As with most brainstorming techniques, you get participants to generate as many ideas of possible and categorize the ideas into different clusters or themes.  As a facilitator, there are different ways to do this and they work best depending on the size of the group.   The final task was to do a synthesis, using this fill-in-the-blanks:

The closing part of the session was used for each group to give brief report out  and Q/A.

This approach to brainstorming and synthesis is based on Design Thinking methods.  Here are few nonprofit toolkits that can help you adapt this exercise to your nonprofit.

ROUND ROBIN BRAINSTORMING

Michael Gale and Kavita Mathew from Global Giving hosted several sessions on Crowdfunding, including a lunch and learn on Crowdfunding in Asia.  It is always a challenge to deliver an informative and participatory session in less than 60 minutes, but this session succeeded in doing so.

Since it was a lunch session, we were seated in a private area of the restaurant in rounds of about 6-8 people.   We ate lunch first.  Then Michael and Kavita gave a brief overview of crowdfunding in Asia.    The next, they gave each table a sheet of paper and we were asked to brainstorm challenges to crowdfunding and identify what we thought the was the biggest challenge.   We were given approximately 10 minutes.

Next, the facilitators collected each table's paper and give it to another table.   Next, we were asked to brainstorm ideas to address the challenge.   We were given ten minutes.  Finally, each table reported out on the challenge and their ideas for another ten minutes.  This was followed by group discussion and Q/A.

This design reminded me of a brainstorming technique from Luma Institute called "Round Robin,"  which is inspired by a game played by Surrealists called “Exisquite Corpse.”   All participants are giving a piece of paper to write down an idea for a campaign or strategy, they pass the paper to another in the room who writes down the reason's why the idea won't work, and the paper if passed to a third person to revise the idea. Usually this generates many ideas and variations on ideas and you spend the next time identifying the best ideas and fleshing them out.  Here is a simple step-by-step template to follow if you want to try it at your organization.

Does your nonprofit uses participatory design and facilitation at meetings or for trainings?  Share in the comments.

Last month, I was honored to co-teach a master class and workshops on digital strategy and crowdfunding with Cambodia colleague, Tharum Bun, at the first IFCAsia in Bangkok.    I learned so much about the digital challenges facing Asian NGOs, how these are similar or different from NGOs in other regions, met and connect with amazing people, and was inspired by the speakers I heard and the workshops I took for my own learning. The IFCAsia delivered on all the reasons why someone should attend.

These are two photos of me and Tharum Bun, a Cambodia blogger I met via our blogs back in 2003. In 2005, we got a chance to meet face-to-face in London at the Global Voices Blogging Summit after I transitioned from being the Cambodia bridge blogger. In 2007, over ten years ago, I launched a crowdfunding campaign to participate in the first ever Cambodian bloggers conference, organized by Tharum and colleagues. We've stayed in touch over the years - I've visited him in Phnom Penh and met his family, he has visited me - we even walked the DISH at Stanford.

Tharum has served as a communications director for a number of international NGOs based in Cambodia, but recently launched his own communications agency.  So, it was really a great honor to co-teach a master class on digital strategy and two crowdfunding workshops.   When you teach internationally, it is important to localize your content and Tharum was able to provide many local and regional examples and tips.   We also had an opportunity to make a recording to deliver some of the content from our workshop that the IFC will make available to small NGOs in other parts of the world.

One thing I really enjoy about the IFC and it was true for the IFCAsia, is the curation and the high quality of the sessions.   The plenary and big sessions were thought-provoking as they were inspiring.

The opening plenary was hosted by the renowned Usha Menon, past chair of the Resource Alliance and celebrated speaker, connector and consultant to the social impact sector.   One of the speakers, Professor Jen Shang, who later did a deeper dive into her research report " “Tomorrow’s Philanthropy:  Insights into the Future of Philanthropic Innovation."   I was expecting a boring academic presentation, but Prof Jen is Shang one of the most dynamic speakers I've ever heard.   Her report touched on the need for sector collaboration, celebrating mistakes and failures, and innovation.

There was also awards ceremony co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Resource Alliance has been presenting the NGO Awards in Thailand, India and Vietnam for 10 years, but 2017 marked a substantial change in the award program’s focus and delivery. The change is intended to honor efforts from all sectors that work toward creating positive, lasting change in the Asia Pacific region: NGO, CSR, individual philanthropy, social enterprise, fundraising, volunteerism, and others. They also had a talented filmmaker capture the winners' stories in brief videos. If you want to see storytelling at its finest, coupled with breathtaking social impact, watch the videos.

The closing plenary featured Jack Sim, the founder of the social impact movement, The World Toilet Organization.   He shared how he built a global cross-sector movement to support sanitation in developing countries.    He was hilarious as he was inspiring.  He spoke about networked mindsets and how to work across sectors.  If have never heard him speak,  I urge you to carve out 20 minutes and listen to his most recent TedTalk.

He also shared some insights about his new venture,  BoP Hub, a non-profit venture that aims to provide a global platform to forge strategic partnerships between the private sector, social enterprises, subject matter experts and the BoP community, to give individuals at the base of the pyramid a chance to participate in the marketplace activities as consumers and entrepreneurs.

I always welcome the opportunity to observe and participate in other sessions, especially when they use participatory techniques.  Not only is the content superb, but I also observed and took notes about some excellent participatory facilitation techniques.   As a trainer,  one way to learn is to observe and take process notes.   I'll share that in my next post!

Last week, I was honored to do several workshops  hosted by the Fund for Santa Barbara on how nonprofits can link a culture of well being to outcomes based on my book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout.

The workshop includes a facilitated process based on the "World Cafe" method where participants work in small groups to discuss the challenges in the workplace and how to address them.  They capture their discussion by taking notes on the "tablecloths,"  (in this case, it is flip chart paper).

One of the topics includes stress triggers in the workplace.   As I do this in different places around the world with different types of nonprofits, different themes bubble up.   In Santa Barbara, a common theme was that their nonprofits operated in "Crisis Mode" all the time and it has created a culture of stress.

CRISIS AS WORKPLACE CULTURE

Crisis mode happens for a variety of reasons. First, there are social service agencies that work with people in crisis and it becomes part of the workplace culture.  Also, staff exposed indirectly to trauma through hearing about the difficult experiences of the people they serve or "secondary trauma"  can lead to burnout or "compassion fatigue."

People who work in this environment often feel they can't take time off or practice self-care because if they do their client will suffer.    But, in this type of work, it is critical to incorporate self-care in order to sustain oneself and to serve clients better.

One technique is to weave self-care into your workday .  Rather than having self-care be something “outside” of work, it can be integrated naturally into the course of the workday.  Self care is highly customized to the person, but the trick is to think of it more broadly than physical health and incorporate micro moments of self-care or #boringselfcare.  Maybe its going outside for a ten minute walk or closing your eyes for a few minutes to meditate.

It is also important to become hyper self-aware of when you are not practicing self-care.   Identify your PCI: Personal Chaos Index or when your work is out of balance and you're not taking the time to smell the roses.

In the workplace, especially where staff may be subject to secondary trauma, it is important to create some physical space that is quiet and calm, like a meditation or quiet room.  Or have coloring books or other fun stuff in the break room.

Crisis mode also happens when there is a lack of planning and prioritizing and everything is important! As projects get more complex or your organization is trying to accomplish more with less resources, it gets harder to accomplish without more intentional planning.

Look ahead rituals can build space into your schedule.  Having a staff retreat on an annual basis to map out large projects is also a good idea and anticipating monthly or quarterly key deadlines can minimize stress.    There is even a “look ahead” template for Excel that make this type of planning easier to do.

Look ahead rituals can even be as simple as encouraging staff to take 20-30 minutes on Mondays to look at their week and different deadlines.  Also, it is important to having ongoing communication when priorities shift and be able to ask and answer the question, "What is the most important deliverable on this list of ten things that we need to do today?"

There is also "Fire Drill Leadership" as defined in this article as a shrill voice or tone that makes everything an emergency when it isn't.

The article describes the reasons why operating like this all the time is not a good idea:

1. An actual emergency is not given proper urgency 2. Leader loses credibility 3. Organization loses focus 4. Culture becomes one of detachment and disengagement 5. Roles become murky

It also creates stress and burnout. So, the big question, how do you prevent this or turn it around?

Fires are urgent but unimportant activities that are not a part of your organization's plan, but require a resource investment.  It is your reaction to the fire that needs to change.   When a fire pops up, the reaction is a flurry of unplanned activity that usurps everyone's attention and time.  That reaction needs to be replaced with a phrase like, "Let's think this through."

The phrase reminds people not to just react to the fire, but to consider it relative to other planned initiatives currently being worked on.  Do really needs to attend to this?  Does this fall within our responsibilities?  Is solving this fire now mission critical?  Who can handle this more efficiently? How did this fire start in the first place? How can we prevent it?

You can control the fire by addressing it once and analyze why it is happening or determine and eliminate the root cause through problem solving.   One approach is to harness your inner change maker, and lead a session with your staff on analyzing the problem.   Here's a process that you can use at a staff meeting.

Or if you are a manager and need to manage an employee who thinks everything is urgent, here's some tips.

How does your organization avoid crisis mode and fire drills?

As we enter the age of automation, more and more nonprofits are using bots. If bots are designed well, they can have impact.   The San Francisco Museum of Art recently launched an ingenious bot called "Send Me" that allows anyone to send a simple text message and receive a picture of a piece of art matching the idea, words, or phrase texted.

This is not the first art museum bot, as MOMA launched a bot on Twitter that shares art in 2014 and there are a number of museums that have used Facebook Messenger Bots, like the Ann Frank House to help people plan a visit or learn more about the exhibits. The SFMOMA works with SMS and is designed to solve a particular challenge.

The problem that the "Send Me SFMOMA" project is trying to solve is that The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has 34,678 items in its collection. If displayed all these items, you'd need to walk 121 miles to see them all. Unfortunately, museum only has the physical space to display only about 5% of the collection. And that's where this ingenious bot comes in -- it literally places artwork on the palm of your hand.

According to Jay Mollica is SFMOMA’s creative technologist, they asked the question, _"In a world over saturated with information, we asked ourselves: how can we generate personal connections between a diverse cross section of people and the artworks in our collection? How can we provide a more comprehensive experience of our collection?"_

According to the SFMOMA web site, during the first four days of its testing phase,  more than 12,000 text message requests were received, generating over 3,000 different artworks sent to users across the globe.   According to the Mollica, that is more art than is currently on display.

While the goal is to share the art that can't be displayed, I wonder what the impact will be on visitation at the actual museum?    Nonetheless, the data that they receive from this service should surely offer the curators some food for thought in planning future exhibitions.

If you are need of inspiration or just stressed out, then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art can help you practice a little self-care without leaving your office.   While you can't always take a long enough break during your work break to create a work of art, looking at the right art work can be calming and refreshing.

I texted the word "Calm" and it send a work by  Vija Celmins that showed me the ocean.  It was a nice five minute break from the onslaught of emails and deadlines!

According to the SFMOMA website, all you have to do is  text 572-51 with the words “send me” followed by a keyword, a color, or even an emoji and you’ll receive a related artwork image and caption via text message.    Now it is your turn.  What did you text?  What did the bot send you?

In my book with Aliza Sherman, _The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact Without Burnout_, we offer a framework for practicing self-care and creating a culture of well-being in the nonprofit workplace. The book looks at our relationships with ourselves, other people, careers and money, our environment, and technology—and shows how our relationships with people in our workplaces heavily influence our well-being.

Since the launch of our book, I’ve been teaching workshops for nonprofits on how to practice self-care and bring a culture of wellbeing into organizations. And I keep hearing the same questions and concerns: Inevitably, a nonprofit leader will come up and confide that everyone in the organization is on the cusp of burnout. Everyone works ridiculously long hours, feels under attack from breaking news, has too much work to do, and has too few resources.

Sometimes they mention feeling lonely or experiencing a loss of purpose for the mission that initially energized them. They are passionate about the organization’s work, but they find it hard to continue while feeling devalued. These young leaders desperately want to change their organization’s culture and not have to leave.

Most modern workplaces have become so impersonal and demanding that we’ve gotten desensitized to caring about coworkers. Many people who work for nonprofits suffer from passion fatigue and compassion burnout because they already have to give so much to those they serve that they have nothing left for fellow staff. _Awakening Compassion at Work_, by Monica Worline and Jane Dutton, is a compelling guide to rehumanizing workplaces with love. The book offers a road map for how to instill organizational culture with a deep sense of compassion—something that would make many organizations happier and healthier places to work.

If you think compassion in the workplace only serves to appease hippies or to soften harsh corporate cultures driven by a profit motive, this book may make you think again. Nonprofit workers are experts at being compassionate to the people they serve. But they also need to practice compassion in their own offices. The authors make a good case for why there is no greater power or source of strength in the world than love. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries—and nonprofits need to promote them not only among the communities they serve but also as part of their internal culture.

You can read more of my review of this book published in the Summer 2017 Stanford Social Innovation Review

I've always benefited from learning from colleagues who do nonprofit technology training and capacity but often we come from the same perspective.   I've always dreamed of accessing a diverse network of people who do nonprofit capacity across different disciplines  or what Nancy White has described as "learning from adjacent practices."

This would be a network or community of practice that freely shares and learns from one another about training and capacity building that is participatory, peer-learning, networked, makes use of design thinking, openly shared and a prelude to collective action. The subject matter, of course, the effective use of digital and networks that is holistic and that incorporates on culture change, innovation, and collaboration skills.

That's why I was inspired to read this recently published report "Today's Challenges: Training and Capacity Building," written by Sara El-Amine for the Mobilisation Lab in partnership with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. (I was interviewed for the report).

The Mobilisation Lab (MobLab) has existed for a few years as the internal innovation lab for the Greenpeace’s campaigns globally.   In January 2017,  as the MobLab moved to expand its mission to serve the broader global progressive movement and become a stand alone entity,  they commissioned the report to address these two questions:

* What would a globally connected, thriving capacity-building ecosystem for modern advocacy and campaigning look like? * And how could MobLab best support the creation and/or health of that ecosystem? The reports defines many challenges, but through the research and interviews, there was critical alignment around this all familiar problem:

_"Capacity builders and trainers in the global progressive space are too few and too disconnected to fulfill current demand in supporting social change leaders, practitioners, and activists. Furthermore, many practitioners and individual advocates in the space don’t know about fellow organizations serving similar purposes or filling complementary gaps. As a result, duplicative work abounds, and there is lack of alignment around sector-wide gaps."_

The report goes on to identify 7 more specific challenges facing capacity builders and trainers who work with various social change movements and campaigns in detail and definitely worth reading the report:

* Desegregation and diversification of the progressive movement * Funder misalignment on movement needs * Lack of platforms through which to network laterally * Lack of platforms/resources to facilitate innovations * Lack of shared definitions and shared language * Dearth of resources/cultural practices around curriculum sharing * Need safe and supported spaces for difficult movement conversations The conclusion discusses the need for a more vibrant, networked entities working in concert to “build the capacity of capacity builders” to avoid repeating mistakes made in isolation.  Going forward the MobLab will be working collaboratively with capacity builders to further define this challenge and pilot solutions and new projects.

Michael Silberman, director of the MobLab, wrote this reflection on the report on MobLab's blog, outlining some pilots and opportunities for collaboration.    I'm particularly interested in these three ideas specifically that revolve around reflection, learning, and sharing.

* * _DEVELOP PEER LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES: Many interviewees felt that incentives were misaligned across progressive organizations to facilitate meaningful reflection on what’s working and what’s not. We heard near consensus around the lack of support for entry- and mid-level staff/volunteers, in particular, to admit key mistakes and crucial lessons learned._ * _SURFACE INNOVATIONS MORE EFFECTIVELY: Participants observed that some of the most exciting campaigning was happening “outside of the typical slate of progressive institutions.” Movement members and leaders alike cited the absence of effective forums for exchanging these reflections and learnings._ * _DEVELOP SHARED TRAINING CURRICULUMS, RESOURCES: Most participants acknowledged a lack of entry-level programs or available trainings for digital advocacy and other modern campaigns skills. “I’m not sure where to go for tools to train my team, and it seems like the people at the top who should know these things aren’t sure either,” one practitioner summarized._ MobLab is moving forward to support the initial stages of this work, working collaboratively on a number of projects (see the full list here) and initiatives.

If you do capacity building and training on advocacy for social change, especially in the digital area, does this resonate with you?

This week I facilitated a Happy Healthy Nonprofit workshop for nonprofit professionals hosted by CVNL in Marin County.    Before focusing on workplace strategies and culture change, participants go through some reflective exercises, including taking the nonprofit burnout assessment, identifying stress triggers and reactions before creating a self-care plan.

As a group, I have participants take an online poll, answering the questions, "What are your workplace stress triggers?"   As the word cloud appears on the screen, we discuss the triggers and reactions.

A "Stress Trigger" may not need to be defined, but it is something or someone that causes you to have a impulsive reaction that may not be the best response to the situation and create more stress.   If your stress is being triggered repeatedly at work (or elsewhere) this can lead to burnout.  And sometimes, we are not even aware of the symptoms, let alone changing the situation.  Anne Grady, in a recent HBR blog post, describes the harm that repeated stress triggers can create in the workplace:

_"When you are triggered, the emotional part of your brain takes over. You are flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, the same neurotransmitters and hormones that have evolutionarily protected us from threats like bear attacks (freeze, fight, or flight). Your logical brain temporarily shuts down, and you lose the ability to solve problems, make decisions, and think rationally._

_When this happens, you have been emotionally hijacked, and it is difficult to see things as they really are. You go into protection mode, and until the perceived threat or trigger has dissipated, you will remain there. Over time these reactions can lead to acute anxiety, depression, irritability, fatigue, and other health problems from heart disease to lowered immune response."_

As the above word cloud indicates, sometimes stress is triggered by other people at work, leadership, board, or co-workers.  One of the ways to reduce handle this stress, is to flex your emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. (Daniel Goleman who coined the term “emotional intelligence” brought it to a wide audience with his  book of that name, and it was Goleman who first applied the concept to business with a series of HBR articles.)

These qualities may sound “soft”, but Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable results. With regular intelligence,  you are generally as “smart” now as you ever are going to be.  People learn new facts but their intelligence, or their ability to learn, remains largely the same.  Emotional Intelligence is a flexible skill that can be readily acquired and practiced.  People can actually increase their emotional intelligence by working on the skills - and manage their stress better.

1: MAKE TIME EVERYDAY FOR REFLECTION:  KEEP A JOURNAL

The first step is self-awareness and that happens through tracking and observing yourself in work situations that trigger stress.    One way to do this is to build in some reflection time into your day and maintain a journal.   Self-care and managing your stress is all about establishing and maintaining good habits, and writing it down helps you change and commit to the good habits.

There are also many other benefits to writing a journal.  Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision-making and critical thinking. It also helps you keep track of progress made towards goals.

If people at work are triggering your stress and challenging your emotional intelligence, use these journal prompts to help you reflect:

* How is it impacting me physically, emotionally, and psychologically? * What triggers these feelings and emotions? * What action can I take to manage the situation and my emotional response more effectively? 2: TRACK YOUR MOODS

The above is an example of how to do this with pen and paper, another way is to use apps called Mood Trackers, journals that let you chart your emotions and thoughts and test different self-management techniques.

I tested a number of those apps and found the best one for me was “Moodnotes,” you can track your emotions in different work situations and it prompts you to reflect on the situation and how to manage it.    Having this self-awareness lays the groundwork to help you effectively manage your stress triggers at work.

How you manage stress triggers at work?  Do you keep a journal?  What is your favorite journaling technique?

_NOTE FROM BETH: I recently facilitated a Happy Healthy Nonprofit workshop on bringing a culture of wellbeing into the nonprofit workplace. We discussed the importance of leadership modeling and supporting a culture of  wellbeing. My colleague, Laura Norvig, who works for ETR, a behavioral health non-profit devoted to providing science-based programs and services for youth and families,  shared some great examples about how their nonprofit's CEO, Vignetta Charles, PHd, has helped shift the culture.  Her CEO recently wrote a post  reflecting on their wellness efforts on the organization's blog and she agreed generously to republish this post as a guest post._

ETR STEPS FORWARD FOR WEEKLY #WORKPLACEWELLNESS BY VIGNETTA CHARLES, PHD

Something new is brewing here at ETR. No, I’m not talking about our new CEO (that would be me). Nor am I talking about our group of new hires, although they are all very cool (and, BTW, we do have several current openings).

I’m talking about _walking_. Stepping up. Living our values. It’s ETR’s very own weekly step challenge, and it’s helping us make some impressive changes within our own workplace.

FROM SIMPLE START TO GRAND GOAL

It started simply—as all great movements do. A few ETRians who like walking or running decided to set up a weekly step challenge together. The group grew, and so did the number of steps logged. It didn’t take long before a hearty cadre of 8 steppers racked up a 5-day workweek total of 468,731 steps. Nice job!

But we are an organization that believes in continuous improvement. “Hey,” said one of the steppers. “Let’s get some more folks involved and set ourselves a goal of one million steps over 5 days!” The group got bigger, the step count grew, and all kinds of discussions about physical activity began to circle around our offices. “Can we count swimming?” “What if I don’t have a Fitbit?” “How are you keeping yourself motivated?”

The steps are adding up. The energy is building. This may be the week we reach that million step goal!

POSITIVE RESPONSES

The steppers are liking it, but they’re not all walking for the same reason. For some—like me—it’s competition. For others, it’s the overall camaraderie. Several people have talked about how this is giving them the inspiration to go another 10 steps, or another 100.

Here are some of the things our steppers have to say:

* As a remote worker, joining in the Weekly Workplace Wellness effort has helped me connect and bond with colleagues I don’t usually interact with. Fun! * I finished two audiobooks and started a third this week, mainly because my ETR Stepper Peeps motivated me and kept me on my toes. Literally. * I’ve got my Fitbit set to remind me to take 250 steps an hour. I’ve been trying it out this week, and I’m feeling more alert at my desk through the entire day. * I’m not very competitive by nature. But the Fitbit app displays our Workweek Hustle rankings and lets me know if I’m close on the heels of another stepper. I’ve noticed that’s enough to motivate me to get out and do a few more steps. * It definitely feels good to have some top down support for wellness. Fun to have your CEO join your Workweek Hustle group! Photographic Evidence We’re also seeing some great photos of the walks folks are taking. Here’s early morning at the Santa Cruz Wharf:

Here’s one of our ETR intrepid training teams (including colleague trainer Miguel Taveras, from Proceed, Inc.), up at 4:00 a.m. West Coast time to get their steps in before their event in New Orleans (photobomb by Michael Everett, trainer extraordinaire, with a supportive cheer in the background)

EXTENDING AND GROWING

As the leader of this mighty band, I am indeed proud of what I see happening here. We are supporting each other in making healthy choices. This is a way for us to live one of the bedrock values of our organization. It helps us move from talking to walking—figuratively and literally.

There is praise aplenty for every participant’s achievements (no matter how large or small). There is felicitous collegiality (“Let’s do a walking meeting today.”) There is thoughtful wit (“There’s movement afoot…” A pedestrian cliché…).

There are even, good heavens, walking haiku:

Craving to be fit

Walking, trekking, counting steps

Stronger than before

I love the way this effort is extending and enriching our connections and genuinely changing our behavior. We may have started with eight people, but I’m setting my sights on 80—and beyond!

I hope with all my (healthier from walking) heart that you are being equally inspired in your own workplace. I’d love to hear about the wellness efforts of your organization.

Vignetta Charles, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer of ETR. She can be reached at vignetta.charles@etr.org.

Last week I facilitated a workshop on the Happy Healthy Nonprofit:  Linking Nonprofit High Performance to Wellbeing in Santa Cruz hosted by the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County.

Part of the workshop included an assessment and reflection about the causes of stress in the nonprofit workplace. I had participants use an online polling app to type in their answers and the combined responses generate a word cloud.   The word "Perfectionism" was the most frequent response.  It made me wonder how much workplace stress is self-inflicted.

Don't get me wrong.  There are many external circumstances that cause lots of workplace stress in nonprofits - lack of resources,  difficult circumstances of people the nonprofit serves, demanding boards and leaders, and so on.   But, some of our stress is self-generated.   One way to reduce some stress is to find ways to turn that around.

Perfectionism is an internal mindset where we tell ourselves that bad things in the world will happen if our campaign, program or whatever is not perfect from the beginning , delivered with 500% and on a self-determined, but unrealistic deadline.  Perfectionism is the enemy of learning and ultimately of getting improved impact. It also makes work life really stressful.

If we can take a look at our own inner perfectionism and how it permeates our work life, it might help us reduce some stress.    If we don't understand this, then all we do is try to design the perfect program or campaign, one that is way too complex and takes many months to complete.  Or we look at every task on our daily to do list as having to be done perfectly and comprehensively.   That is exhausting.

I came across this wonderful 99U article called "Satisficing."     The opposite of "satisificing," is when we try to make everything we do awesome, an A+,  or the best we've ever done.

Satisficing is the act of stepping back and stopping that perfectionism behavior - and feeling that good enough is okay.    Many people who work in the nonprofit sector are driven by passion for their work because we are doing good and many of us share being over achievers.    So, it is hard for us not to give our complete energy, even at the expense of our well-being and stressing ourselves out.

The article offers several tips for applying "Satisficing" in general to our lives:

_1.  Accept you won't get everything done_ _2. Keep a new ideas journal and don't feel like a failure if you don't implement everything_ _3. Prioritize your well-being_ _4.  Ship early, than iterate _

The article suggests that we in our work, we should avoid aiming for brilliant out of the gate, do the basics and then recognize that with almost anything in our work, we can refine, edit, and iterate.     Why is it so hard for nonprofits to work this way?

Why not have an experiment that puts satisficing to the test.   Create a hypothesis about the amount of time it takes to do a work task and see if anything bad happens if you invest less effort or time.    What if you cut the time for meetings from 60 minutes to 30 minutes for a week, would you get through the agenda?    Maybe you learn something about how much at 60 minute meetings is wasted because you scheduled it for 60 minutes or maybe something about designing a more streamlined agenda.     What if we looked at different organizational work processes and tested a more streamlined approach.  Does that blog post actually need 10 revisions and 6 approval chains?

In Santa Cruz, when the word "Perfectionism" bubbled up to the top, it lead to a conversation about "satisficing."    We talked about the benefits and fears of "satisficing" versus "perfectionism."     We talked about how liberating this can be - giving permission to do less - that it creates space for creativity.    You also feel more empowered because you are getting things done and that creates momentum.    And, it also generates a feeling of acceptance and love of other people on your team.    It can be hard to make this shift, and small experiments might help with making it feel more comfortable and not feeling like we are "slacking off."

The concern of course is applying it in an organizational context.  What is the organizational standard of  "good enough.?"   What happens if you practice satisficing but others think you are just aren't doing a good job and just point out the rough edges.   This is part of the culture change, getting everyone on the same page about the ship early and iterate often approach.   Good enough is also a very subjective.  Of course, organizational leaders need to model this mindset and people in the organization have to practice it.  It also takes a lot of mutual respect so you don't just focus on pointing out flaws.

I'm trying to apply this to my own work and it isn't the easiest thing in the world.  How have you applied the "satisficing" to your work for your nonprofit?   Is it part of your organization's work culture or viewed as "slacking.?"

My colleague, Julia Campbell, has just published a book, "Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits" and was kind enough to share an advanced copy.

In a digital age where there is so much online available online and attention is your supporter’s most precious resource, are you saving or seizing it?  If your organization has the skills to craft authentic, real, _emotional_ stories about the work that you do every day and make those stories social, you will be able to grow support and keep donors engaged.  And, that's where Julia's book comes in.

This comprehensive book covers the following:

* PART ONE addresses storytelling readiness, especially now to transform your nonprofit's culture. * PART TWO covers the mechanics finding, writing, and sharing compelling stories, as well as addressing some very common storytelling challenges. * PART THREE provides tips on the digital tools you need to use to share your stories with supporters I was immediately drawn to the chapter that describes common storytelling challenges and solutions.    While there are many challenges, many times nonprofits are dealing with clients who can't really share their story because of confidentiality restrictions.   Julia has some great practical advice here:

* Shield personal details. Use a different name and identifying characteristics when describing the person. Make sure you are transparent when doing so. Include a footnote saying that some details have been changed to protect identities. * Use a creatively-staged photo.  While showing the faces of the people served is very powerful, sharing a story with an imaginatively shot photo can also work well. * Speaking with alumni of the program—people who are not currently using services and who are not in immediate distress.  Gather their success stories (or their on-the-road-to-success stories—maybe their story is still being told). * Collecting stories from your donors as to why they give and from your volunteers as to why they volunteer. They all have stories of their own and a reason to be giving back to your organization. * Finding a local celebrity.   Invite a person who is well known and respected in your community and who supports your cause to share a story or two with your audience. Through this book, Julia offers many great examples, tips, worksheets, and very practical advice about the whole process of storytelling in a digital age.   This book will be a valuable addition any nonprofit's communication's toolbox.

How does your nonprofit use storytelling effectively on its digital channels?