Policies and exceptions

Every policy will merit an exception now and then.

So will every standard procedure.

But if you're more often making exceptions than sticking to policy, one of two things is happening:

1. You have a working policy that's not written down and probably should be; or

2. You don't really have a policy at all.

All the best,
A.

Teamwork

Yesterday I ran into an old friend who runs a local brew pub, and he told me how busy he's been since they opened about a year ago.

Like, running-himself-ragged busy. And making-dangerous-mistakes busy.

It was the dangerous mistakes that woke him up. He told me that, as the brewer, the wrong mistake could be fatal.

That's when he started to make sure that he delegates tasks that can be delegated, and that he schedules actual time off.

The great thing, he told me, is that “this place runs a lot better when I act like a CEO instead of washing glasses behind the bar.”

Here's the thing:

If your organization is any larger than a one-person operation, I hope you're finding ways to delegate.

After all, the success of your organization does not depend on the ED's willingness to stay late and empty trash cans.

If you're looking for things that you can delegate, your CRM may be one place to start.

Staff and volunteers can take on many of the tasks of data entry, reporting, and configuration.

I hope you're trying — or will try — some of the following:

• Define rules and permissions that will allow someone other than the system admin to get things done.

• Conduct regular trainings so that staff can learn new workflows, policies, and procedures.

• Consider a few smart configurations such as customized forms for data entry, so staff can perform these tasks without needing full administrative rights to the CiviCRM back-end.

Remember, the great thing about working in a team is that it's a team.

It's not only okay to let other people get hands-on with your data, it's a valuable step in maximizing your organization’s mission potential.

All the best,
A.

Slapping mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are a fact of life in my part of the world.

At any backyard barbecue, you'll probably be slapping at one or two.

But when your patio lounge is overrun with them, maybe something is up.

That unused kiddie pool under the deck, that's been collecting rainwater for weeks? Maybe you could empty that.

Or, you could just keep slapping at the mosquitoes one by one.

Here's the thing:

Duplicate contacts, spam form submissions, incomplete data — all of these are going to happen with any CRM system.

You'll have to smack them down as they appear.

But when there's a spike in any of them, a little investigation might turn up a simple cause.

You can take some time to address that cause.

Or you could just keep slapping at them one by one.

All the best,
A.

Good goals are a little scary

Are you afraid of setting goals?

You probably are, at least a little. That would be normal.

In fact, good goals should be a little scary.

After all, setting a goal means defining some standard by which your work can be judged.

And that means you might fail.

So you'll need to face some fears:

• Fear of responsibility

• Fear of embarrassment

• Fear of real work

• Fear of real change

All that fear is the reason most people have dreams but aren't pursuing realistic goals to achieve them.

If you find that you have big dreams without corresponding measurable goals, ask yourself:

Which of those four fears might be stopping you?

Just naming that fear honestly is a starting point to overcoming the fear, setting the goal, and putting in the work to make it happen.

All the best,
A.

The project that isn’t

Half of my job is talking myself out of new business.

When a prospective client reaches out about starting a new project, one of the first things we'll do is get on the phone together.

It's a chance to make introductions, see if we're a good fit for each other, and dig in a little on what they're trying to achieve.

If you were eavesdropping on my conversation, you might get the impression that I don't want to work with them.

It might even sound like I'm trying to talk them out of working with me, or out of doing the project at all.

That's because it's kinda true.

Some of the best calls I've had in the past few months ended with me and the client agreeing happily on one of these conclusions:

• The problem they're facing is one of policy, people, or politics, and no CRM improvement is going to fix that.
  

• The features they were hoping to build would be fun to have but won't actually solve a valuable business problem.
  

• At their current scale, there's a much cheaper low-tech way to solve this problem.
  

• Instead of diving into the project now, it's better to do a little more research and work out some specific measurable goals that are worth pursuing.
  

• They actually do have a good business case and valuable, reasonable, measurable goals that would likely be met by this project. Try as I might, I've “failed to talk them out of it.” So we schedule next steps to move forward.

Any of those outcomes is a win.

All of them are far better than starting a project that doesn't deserve to be started.

All the best,
A.

Cows vs Sharks

Would you guess that cows kill more people every year than sharks do?

Come on, didn't you see Jaws? That's just crazy talk.

Right. But folks who measure this stuff say otherwise.

According to a few sources like this one, the average annual fatality counts go like this:

• Cows: 22 (U.S. only)

• Sharks: 5 (worldwide)

Here's the thing:

The mere sense that something is “obvious” is not evidence that it’s actually true.

If you want to base your actions on what’s actually true, it's worth taking some measurements, and then paying attention to the results.

All the best,
A.

Pre-mortems

If your project or campaign doesn’t come off as well as you’d hoped, you’ll probably do some kind of post-mortem to assess what went wrong.

Why not try a pre-mortem next time?

Before you get deep into the project, look ahead. Imagine it all goes wrong. Consider what might make that happen.

Then decide how you’ll prevent those things from happening.

Here’s the thing:

You can't see all of the future. But you've been around enough to make some good guesses about a lot of it.

A little structured “time travel of the mind” is a decent way to make use of all that hard-earned insight.

All the best,
A.

Mystery custom fields

Last week I helped a client get her event registration forms sorted out.

She had a required field on the form, but it seemed like people were registering for the event without filling in that field at all.

How could that happen?

Turns out there were actually three different custom fields with the same label in her system.

Online registrants actually were filling in that required field, but her report was referencing a different field.

Once we figured that out, the short term solution was pretty simple:

We just made sure that the report and the registration form were using the same fields.

But the bigger question is:

How did this organization wind up with three custom fields that all ask the same question?

She wasn't quite sure herself.

Nobody seems to remember who created those fields, or when, or why.

Here's the thing:

When you don’t have one dedicated person in your organization who is responsible for your CRM system, things like this can happen — a lot.

And you can lose a lot of time trying to figure out what's going on.

I'm working with her to clean up those fields, decide which to keep and which to delete, and merge the data into the remaining field appropriately.

But more importantly:

We're working now towards identifying one responsible person — one in-house systems expert — who can help ensure things like this don't happen again.

This person doesn't have to become the best in the world at managing CiviCRM.

And they don't have to do every bit of configuration themselves, either.

But by being the designated in-house expert, they will both gain valuable expertise over time, and be a position to help everyone keep the system running smoothly.

Who’s your in-house expert?

All the best,
A.

Are they even reading your emails?

How happy are you with the Open Rate and Click-Through rate on your email campaigns?

Do you monitor those numbers at all?

CiviCRM does a pretty good job of reporting on these stats for each mass mailing you send out.

And with a little care and creativity, those numbers can help you increase the number of people who not only read your emails but actually get involved in your work:

Attending events, volunteering, sharing your message to their friends, and supporting financially.

Monitoring the numbers is a start.

Every mass mailing you send through CiviCRM offers this information in the "report" link for that mailing. And CiviCRM's collection of Mailing reports will help you compare those numbers from one mailing to another.

(And by the way, that comparison is where the value lies. These numbers do not represent absolute truth, for various technical reasons. But comparing numbers between two mailings is still very useful.)

Even better: Test, measure, and adjust.

CiviCRM offers A/B testing features right out of the box.

The idea is to send two versions of your mailing to two small test groups, so you can gauge which one gets the better Open Rate or Click-Thru Rate.

You can then use that comparison to select one of them to send the rest of your email list.

Continual improvement is the big win.

With care, you can start to spot trends in successful subject lines, calls to action, image placement, and more. That’s valuable information you can use to keep improving the effectiveness of your mailings over time.

And what's the value of more effective mailings?

More engagement.

More responsiveness.

More progress toward your goals.

And more benefit to the people you care about.

All the best,
A.

Dashboard lights

Does your car have warning lights on the dashboard?

Sure it does.

When they light up, do you pay attention to them? Do you take action to fix whatever problem they're telling you about?

Sure you do.

That's what smart owners do. We pay attention to the little warning lights.

Do you ever see these little pop-up warnings on the CiviCRM homepage?

Sure you do.

Do you take the time to understand what they mean? Do you take action to address the underlying issues?

Sure you do ... right?

All the best,
A.

What you really want

Do you remember why you started in your work?

Maybe you thought you'd make a difference in the world.

Maybe you thought you could help the people you really care about.

Surely you thought at least this would be something you enjoy.

How's that going?

If it's going well, congratulations! You're either very lucky, or you've remembered to be careful about choosing goals that matter to you and plotting your own course to achieve them.

If it's not going so well, you have my sympathy.

You're in the same boat with a surprising number of leaders in community-driven organizations.

So what can you do about it?

What's one action you could take, today, to put yourself on track to start setting goals you care about, and to start making them happen?

If nothing comes to mind — if you can't think of even one thing off the top of your head — then I think you've found the one thing you can do:

Take 30 minutes today to be honest with yourself about what you really want in your work.

Just find a place to sit quietly and undistributed, turn off your phone, and contemplate honestly.

Of course, merely admitting to yourself what you really want is not enough to make it happen.

But it is a crucial first step.

All the best,
A.

Enjoying these emails?

If you enjoy these emails, and you know someone who might also enjoy them, please do me — and your dear colleague — a favor, and let them know about this mailing list.

Too many nonprofit executives and department heads are on the edge of burnout.

Or caught up in the rat race of merely completing one task after another.

Or struggling to make real progress in their mission, career, or organizational growth.

I'm on a mission to change that.

If these mailings are inspiring you to plan more effectively, think bigger, and work toward measurable goals, please help me get the word out by inviting your friends who might also benefit.

Goals matter, and I’ve got a goal to double the number of subscribers to this list in the next three months.

Because I believe it's making a difference.

I believe we’re doing something special here that empowers community organization leaders, and by extension empowers the communities they serve.

I'm certainly glad to have you along for the ride.

Thanks for all you do. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Tasks and goals

Every day, tasks come to me.

They seem to find me, whether I want them or not.

It's like they're chasing me, with their demands, and their deadlines, and their requirements.

I fight through them one by one, and cross each one off my list like the names of defeated enemies.

I know the next day there will be more.

Goals are more elusive.

I must seek them out. Identify them. Name them. And plot to attain them.

Goals don't chase me.

I chase them.

And when I attain them they are not defeated enemies but dear friends.

I pin them up on the wall like medals.

I rejoice in their accomplishment.

I reflect on them with pride.

Goals and tasks.

Both require my labor, my time, my careful attention.

But it's the goals that give me joy.

And if I'm not careful, the tasks will soak up all that I can give.

So I'm careful to remember that the tasks will always find me, but it's up to me to find the goals.

All the best,
A.

Your CRM is no Honda Accord

The Honda Accord is the most common car in America.

If you own one, and you need mechanical help, virtually any mechanic will do a decent job.

Of course it’s not a very interesting car, but it’s easy to maintain.

At the other end of the spectrum are cars like my friend Howard's 1942 US Army Jeep.

It’s a street-legal piece of history that turns heads wherever he takes it.

And when that thing needs work, Howard's either going to do it himself or take it to a specialist.

Still, you can bet that he isn't about to trade in his Jeep for a Honda Accord.

He knows it's harder to maintain, and he's happy to take that on, in return for the joy he gets in the bargain.

Here's the thing:

The longer you've been running your open source CRM, the more your situation is like Howard's.

What you have there is a rather unique arrangement of features, configurations, extensions, business rules, and work habits.

When it needs work, not just anybody can step in and help you with it.

This usually leads you to one of two choices: do the work yourself, or call in a specialist.

Which choice you pick will depend on your urgency, personality, skills, and available resources.

And either way is fine.

But it does take a little more time and effort than just using some mass-market subscription-based CRM tool.

Hopefully you're finding that it's worth the effort.

All the best,
A.

The “right” way

This evening I went running at the local high school track.

I have a jiu-jitsu tournament coming up in November, and I'm trying to build up my cardio. So I'm at the track running sprint intervals.

Several other people were there, too. None of them were doing what I was doing.

Some were jogging, some power-walking, some just strolling and talking to their kids.

That didn't bother me — why would it?

But it sure used to.

When I first started running years ago — and knew nothing except that I wanted to move more — it was easy to worry about what everybody else was doing and whether I should be doing it too.

I assumed they must know something I didn’t.

But now I understand there are plenty of reasons why we all are — and should be — doing completely different things.

For all the folks I might be watching out there on the track, there are at least three important differences between them and me:

• Are we at the same stage in our fitness journey?

• Do we have the same goals — in the long term, and in terms of what we want right now?

• Does either of us actually know what we're doing and have reason to believe that this activity is going to help us reach our goals?

Here's the thing:

It’s always tempting to compare obvious differences.

When you see all the wonderful (or awful) things folks are doing at other organizations, it's really worth pausing to ask whether the comparison is even useful.

• Are your organizations operating at the same level?

• Do you have the same goals?

• Are their super-cool programs even likely to help them reach their own goals?

Frankly, it would be pretty hard for you even to know those answers.

There's not much use in comparing.

And much less use in copying.

The only "right" way is to decide what your own goals are, and work out your own strategy to go from where you are now to where you want to be.

If you happen to learn from others as you go, that's great!

Just don't get the idea that someone else is holding the roadmap to your destination.

Only you have that.

All the best,
A.

Measurements you’ll actually use

Every day, your CRM is collecting tons of measurable data that you're probably ignoring.

That's expected, of course. You're probably not interested in all of it.

But what measurements would you actually like to have?

When you say, "If I knew X, then I could Y," what's that X?

If it's related to your people — donors, event participants, members, staff — there's a good chance your CRM is tracking it, or could be made to track it, or a meaningful approximation of it, while requiring little effort on your part

You just have to know what it is you want to measure, and why.

Once you have that, actually tracking it might be a lot easier than you think.

All the best,
A.

The best time to get an answer is...

The best time to get an answer is...

... when you have a question.

Something magical happens when we're curious.

There's a gap in our knowledge. We see it. And we feel the need to fill it.

In that moment, there's a little space open in the reference library of our mind — a little spot already mapped out in the structure of our learning, so we’ll be able to find it easily later on.

And it's just waiting to be filled with good information.

That's the beauty of curiosity: it's like a little signal flare that pops off at the times when your brain is most receptive to new info.

When my coaching clients reach out to me with specific real-world questions, in the moments when they need the answers, that makes for some of the most effective instructional time we could have together.

Hopefully, when that little light goes on for you, you've got someone you can reach out to and get your questions answered.

All the best,
A.

What’s shaping your strategy?

Here's a quick list of three different reasons my clients sometimes give for selecting a particular plan of action:

1. “Because this is how we did it last year.”

2. “Because our CRM is built this way.”

3. “Because doing it this way allows us to achieve this specific goal that we've targeted.”

Which one of those do you think is the most valuable?

I'd say none of them are downright useless. Each has its value in the right situation.

But one of them is so much more useful than the others.

“This is how we did it last year”

This really makes me wonder if the directors have put any time at all into assessing whether last year's plan is actually worth repeating.

Was last year's project successful? Then why not go for something better?

Do you know whether the last year's program was smash hit or a complete flop? Do you know what made it so?

Just repeating last year's plan leaves you open to repeating its failures missing out on significantly better results.

“Our CRM is built this way.”

Okay, that's a pragmatic approach. Kudos for working with your tools instead of against them. But I wonder what you're leaving on the table by just going with the flow.

Working with your software instead of against it is one thing. Letting its features define your strategy is quite something else.

“Doing it doing it this way will help us reach our goals”

This sounds like the winner to me.

It starts with the goal and uses it to motivate and inform the strategy.

It looks to the future and starts now preparing for it.

It remembers that there is a purpose for every action, and that action without purpose is wasted.

Whatever campaign you have coming up on the horizon, I hope you can take time to think about the goals you want to achieve.

And then shape a strategy around those goals with an eye on the future.

All the best,
A.

Progress

Do you feel more confident about your CRM strategy, skill-sets, and systems than you did 6 months ago? A year ago? Two years ago?

Are you actually getting more value out of your CRM than you did then?

If you are, congratulations. That means you're making real progress in your ability to put your CRM to work for your mission.

If you're not, it might be worth asking why.

As with so many things — career development, nutrition and health, hobbies and lifestyle — these changes don't happen overnight.

They’re the result of consistent incremental effort over time.

If you'd like to look back in 6 months or a year and know that you’ve increased your ability to leverage your CRM in accomplishing your goals, a good time to start making those incremental improvements might be … right now.

All the best,
A.

3 criteria for good measurements

You can't improve what you don't measure.

(Or at least, if you don't measure it, you can't know if you've improved it.)

But how do you decide what to measure?

Outcomes, outputs, leading indicators, trailing indicators, expenditures — you could measure any of that, and more.

Except, of course, you can't measure everything.

Because even measuring requires an expenditure of time, effort, even money.

Here's a set of three criteria you can use in picking the measurements that will be most valuable to your work.

I recommend taking each of these in order. Start with the first criteria before moving on to the second and third.

1. Is it meaningful?

There's no point measuring something that doesn't matter to you. So to use this criteria, you have to think about what really matters to you.

Of course mission outcomes matter. They're the reason you're doing your work in the first place. So they would pass this criteria.

But other things are meaningful too. Leading indicators of success. Expenditures that might reveal an opportunity for, or the achievement of, increased efficiency.

When you hear yourself saying, "If I knew _________, then I could ...", that blank is something meaningful. Maybe it's worth measuring.

2. Is it measurable?

There are lots of things we'd like to know that are just hard to measure. For example, the actual impact you make in the world can be very hard to measure.

But often there are proxies that can be measured.

If you have access to solid research indicating that students who complete high school are less likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system, then the number of kids you've helped to complete high school is a proxy measurement for how many you've helped avoid jail time.

And for the things that you really can't find a way to measure, either directly or by proxy, the only honest answer is that you can't measure them right now.

And if something's not actually measurable, even by some approximation, isn’t it a little silly to say that you intend to measure it?

3. Is it manageable?

Finally, keep in mind that these measurements will require some level of diligence, attention to detail, and consistency.

And that level is a variable you can control.

Not every valid measurement has to be a randomized double-blind peer-reviewed study fit for publication in a national journal.

But for whatever level of detail you decide to measure, your effort has to be manageable, so that you can do it consistently over time, and so that your measurement will be more than a mere guess.

That means there's no need to get in over your head. You can pick a simple measurement scheme — which will provide a lot more value than no measurement at all — without it becoming a massive burden in your work.

Here's the thing:

Good measurements will provide valuable insights into your work and its effectiveness — and into ways that you can improve that work within your means.

Even the simplest measurement scheme, if it's meaningful to your work, measurable in some quantifiable way, and manageably consistent, really will get you some of those valuable insights.

All the best,
A.