Better results?

"We don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems."

- James Clear, author of Atomic Habits: Tiny changes, Remarkable Results

The systems you have in place now — for outreach, for fundraising, for team communications, for personal time management — are perfectly optimized for the results you are getting now.

If you want to improve those results, why would you not want to improve the systems that generate them?

All the best,
A.

How to run a marathon

Say you're taking up running, and you've set a goal to run a marathon in the coming year.

How can you make that happen?

The simplest answer is something like, "Pick a marathon, register, and go run it."

But that's obviously incomplete.

If you've never run a marathon before, your chance of just showing up and completing one, on willpower alone, is just about zero.

To achieve this goal, what you need is to become a person who can complete a marathon.

And that will require a system of training: A series of daily and weekly habits that you adopt to build your endurance and your understanding of the marathon experience.

That's not just a commitment to running a marathon. It's a commitment to daily improvement.

So here's the thing:

If you have goals for the coming year, that's great (and if you don't, I hope you'll take time to set some}.

But to reach those goals, you'll probably also want to think about what it will take to get there, and to build in daily and weekly habits that will make it more likely to happen.

Goals are important to aim for. Systems are important for getting you there.

All the best,
A.

Finding help that fits you

Are you a person who loves to learn new skills, to really understand how things work and why? Let's call that "curiosity-driven."

Or are you more interested in seeing the results, and don't care much how they get done? Let's call that "outcome-driven."

We all have a little of both.

And most of us are more curiosity-driven in some areas, more outcome-driven in others.

Here's a question:

When you're seeking outside help with your systems, do you take time to get help that matches your curiosity-driven or outcome-driven interest?

Service providers aren't always clear about which one of these is a good fit for them. Some love to deliver outcomes, and hate explaining things. Others love to satisfy your curiosity, and care less about doing the detailed work for you.

Outcome-driven vs curiosity-driven.

If you want help that you're happy with, take a moment to figure out which of these describes your own motivation, and then take time to find a provider who likes to fill that need.

All the best,
A.

The hidden cost of delegation

When there's too much work to do yourself, it may be time to delegate: You can assign the task to one of your team, hire outside help, or even make a new internal hire.

But there's a hidden cost of delegation you should be aware of.

Because the ideal of delegation contains an important contradiction:

• You'd like someone to do it for you. Just take the task from you, get it done, and come back with everything finished.

• But you also want them to do it the way you would have done it.

The more you care about how it's done, and the more you care about the specific details of the implementation, the more time you'll have to spend in training, or at least in communicating your wishes.

The alternative is to address that contradiction in one of two ways:

1. Work out an efficient system by which you can get the work done yourself.

2. Decide to care less about how it's done and more about the outcome you aim to achieve.

There's a third option, too: Once you recognize the cost of doing it yourself and/or delegating, you might decide that the task is not worth doing, at least right now.

And that's totally okay. Picking your battles wisely is a valuable skill.

All the best,
A.

3 options for CiviCRM support

Let's look at your three general options for keeping your CiviCRM installation (and the Drupal or WordPress site that contains it) in good working order.

We'll compare these across three criteria:

• Reliability / ease

• Customizability

• Affordability / Low cost

Remember, the central question here is:
Who is the specific individual responsible for making your site do everything it should?

1. CiviCRM as a service

This includes CiviCRM Spark and similar hosted offerings.

• Reliability / ease: Pretty good. These services will make sure your site is always running well, but you can still screw up the configuration if you're not careful.

• Customizability: None, really. To achieve that “pretty good” reliability at a reasonable expense, these services will lock down the features and even limit you to a predetermined list of available extensions. You won't be able to add your own custom extensions, either.

• Affordability: Pretty good. CiviCRM Spark is incredibly affordable, and the others are not too bad.

2. Full-service agency support:

This is an arrangement that you might make with a CiviCRM provider be your hands-on maintenance and configuration team. In its most full-service form, you'd be calling them for almost any configuration change that you want.

• Reliability / ease: Very high, assuming the provider is as responsive as you need. (This can vary by provider, and like anything, that can be hard to know until you've actually worked with them.) Part of their service will be to tell you when you’ve asked for something that’s unwise, and to ensure all configurations actually make sense in terms of what you want.

• Customizability: Very high. A provider who is offering this level of service will be able to create whatever custom features you need, and then make sure it works well with your configuration.

• Affordability / Low cost: Not so great. The provider is potentially performing a lot of work at your request. They're also taking on the responsibility to make sure everything works flawlessly. You can expect to pay handsomely for this level of service.

3. In-house expert (with or without outside help):

This is the model most of my clients are using — which is not surprising, because it's also the model that I most like to support.

In this model, you'll designate one of your own staff to be the in-house expert. This is your responsible person. Any questions about the system come to this person. Any change to the system is done by this person or their staff.

• Reliability / ease: Varies, depending on the attention this person gives to their responsibility.
  
  in the beginning, this in-house expert will often need help from an outside expert. That need generally decreases over time, as they become more familiar with the system.
  
  But any problems with your system (or improvements to it) will always be the responsibility of one of your own staff.

• Customizability: Very high. Your in-house expert can install whatever extensions they like, and if they want they can hire someone to develop custom extensions for them (or even learn to do that themselves, if that's their thing).
  
  In truth, this system belongs entirely to your organization, and you can make it do anything you want.

• Affordability / Low cost: Rather low, but this varies. Your cash outlay to outside providers will be fairly low. But you should also count the staff member's time. Even if they're a volunteer, time is a limited resource, and its use is an expense.

So to sum up, to might choose:

• CiviCRM as a service: If you don't need customization and are fine with the limited features, but like the reliability and price.

• Full-service agency support: If you have a business case for expensive white-glove support.

• In-house expert (with or without outside help): If you want maximum flexibility and are willing to put in the work of mastering CiviCRM.

And if none of those exactly work for you, talk with a CiviCRM partner. They may be able to work out some hybrid that meets your budget and your preferred balance of freedom and responsibility.

But all of these options share two caveats. Can you spot them?

I'll spell those out tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Support options: Trade-offs

So you're running CiviCRM (probably under Drupal or WordPress) and somebody is responsible for making sure the site runs well.

Naturally that person reports to someone above them, and possibly they have a team working under their direction.

But who is that one responsible individual?

You've got a few options, and they all represent a trade-off between:

• Reliability

• Customizability

• Low cost

And the options, boiled down to a few categories, are these:

1. CiviCRM as a service

2. Full-service agency support

3. In-house expert (with or without outside help)

Remember, everything is a trade-off. Probably none of these will be "perfect" for you, and none of them are even "best" for evrey organization.

But one of them — or some hybrid of them — will be.

More tomorrow.

- A.

CiviCRM support: arrangements vary

If you're running CiviCRM (and probably Drupal or WordPress as well), there’s someone who is maintaining and supporting that site.

It might be one person, or a team of people.

They might all be your internal staff, or a mix of outside contractors.

The essential question, though, is this:

Who's responsible for coordinating that effort, and who's accountable for making sure the site runs well?

The are a variety of common arrangements to assign that responsibility.

I'll cover some examples in the next few days.

But ultimately, if you care about the value you get from your CRM, it's critical that you know who's the one individual person responsible to keep it running smoothly.

(Hint: If you don’t know, it might just be you.)

All the best,
A.

You might have to swim the river

Having a good map is important when you’re navigating unfamiliar territory, but even that isn’t as good as the experience of someone who's been there.

Imagine that your map shows two routes to your destination.

One of them looks far shorter than the other.

An experienced guide can tell you, "Yeah, we’ve had some heavy rains, and that bridge might be washed out. If we go the short way, we might have to swim the river."

Sure, there could be many good reasons to take the short route anyway. But it's nice to know what you're letting yourself in for.

Here's the thing:

There's almost always more than one way to do something in CiviCRM.

New extensions and core features are popping up all the time that offer wonderful possibilities.

And the challenges of those new options are not always obvious.

It never hurts to reach out to your coach or advisor for some preliminary giudance.

It helps to know ahead of time if you might have to swim the river.

All the best,
A.

The coxswain isn’t rowing

If you’ve ever seen crew rowing, you’ve probably noticed there's often one person in the boat who isn’t rowing — at all!

There she sits in the rear of the boat, just watching, and talking (often shouting).

What the heck? Is this person serving any purpose at all? Isn't she just dead weight?

Nope.

That's the coxswain, and she (or he) is filing a very important role.

The rowers is all face the rear of the boat. They can't see where they're going.

They also don't have a clear view of each other.

But the coxswain faces forward and sees all of them. The coxswain is there to steer the boat, and to coordinate the power and rhythm of the rowers.

Far from being a deadweight impediment, the coxswain is critical to the success of the team.

Here's the thing:

Any project you undertake, any coordinated effort among your team members, needs somebody to watch, and steer, and coordinate.

Some outsiders, or even some team members, might assume that person is not pulling their weight.

But without that coordination, everybody's work is at risk of failure.

All the best,
A.

Your organization doesn’t exist

What is your organization going to achieve in the coming year?

What actions will it perform to achieve those goals?

Let me suggest to you that those are trick questions.

Your organization doesn't hope, doesn't act, and doesn't achieve.

Only its people do that.

• Any accomplishment is based on the individual or collective actions of one of more people.

• Any goal that's genuinely pursued is based only on the hope and commitment felt by specific individuals.

• Any sense of joy in accomplishment is felt only within the minds of the people who worked hard to achieve it.

Here's the thing:

As a leader in your organization (which you are, regardless of your job title), what are you hoping your people will achieve?

If you really want that to happen, it's up to you to connect those people to that goal — inspire their hopes, coordinate their efforts, smooth their challenges, and in the end, encourage them to celebrate.

I get it. It's a habit for most of us to focus on the organization as a whole, as if it really were a thing that exists on its own.

But just because that's our usual way of thinking, it doesn't mean it's really effective, or even true.

All the best,
A.

A goldfish grows as big you let it

Every project or campaign you might undertake will consume some amount of your resources.

Time, money, mental energy, goodwill.

In fact, that project will usually be quite happy soak up as much of those resources as you let it.

There will always be "just one more" little feature to include, no matter how much time or funding you add to the project.

It's something like a goldfish, that always grows to fit the size of the fishbowl.

But here's the thing:

Projects grow in scope — and in corresponding delays and maintenance costs — only if we let them.

And usually, the only reason we let them is that we forget the value of a project that actually launches, compared to one that's always "almost done.”

All the best,
A.

Facing adversity

Have you ever been snowed in unexpectedly?

Ever run out of gas in the middle of nowhere?

Ever had an internet outage or a burst water pipe make your office unusable for a day or two?

You've probably had lots of experiences like that: unexpected events that create significant inconvenience and even physical discomfort.

And you know what?

You came through it.

Here's the thing:

Even when a surprise development is really difficult to deal with, most of us come through it just fine.

Sure, it can be a setback, and it's worth planning to try and avoid such things.

But when those things happen — in your career, or your organizational mission, or your team development — remember that you will get through it.

Whether it was caused by your own lack of planning or something completely unforeseeable, that's a question for the post-mortem analysis.

In the moment of trouble, it's important to keep a cool head, lead your team by example, and deal with matters at hand.

Get through the initial "freak out" as quickly as possible, and face this thing head-on.

Because you can.

Whatever the challenge, you will deal with it.

Then you'll learn what you can from it, turn blame and regret into wisdom and experience, and move on to the next thing.

We're people. That's what we do.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM training resorces

Introducing new staff to CiviCRM can be a daunting task.

There’s just a lot to cover, and it can be challenging to decide which parts to introduce first.

Fortunately, the CiviCRM Training Guide is a great resource.

It outlines three fairly complete curricula:

• 1-day Administrator Training

• 2-day Administrator Training

• 1-day Fundraiser Training

As with most things, you might want to modify the plan a little to fit your needs.

But these courses are a great start for taking new staff through the basics, or even walking yourself through the learning process.

Give them a look, and see how they might help you empower yourself and your staff to work more efficiently.

All the best,
A.

Empowering your staff

Investing in your own skills development is a powerful thing.

• Taking time to experiment and learn on your own

• Attending a structured training course

• Just making a regular effort to read up on the latest trends in your sector.

All of that is an investment of time that empowers you to make better use of your time going forward.

In other words: you invest time wisely, in order to recoup that time and more.

So, what about your staff?

How can you help them get that same benefit?

One way is to conduct regular staff trainings.

• Pick a schedule that works for you, say, a short session every two or three months.

• Cover topics that will empower your staff jn their work.

• Listen to their questions and feedback, and let that inform future sessions.

Naturally this is a bigger investment of time than just educating yourself.

But then, you can also expect a bigger return on that investment — since it's your whole team who will benefit.

All the best,
A.

Data is confidence

Let’s say I asked you how confident you were that you could drive from your house to the airport in under two hours. (Yes, it’s the same question I posed in Monday’s Everything is a bet email.)

There’s one very important factor in deciding your confidence level, which you might not even have thought about because it’s so obvious: having some clue about the typical drive time.

• Have you ever actually made the drive?

• If not, have you checked the drive time in your maps app?

• Or, do you even know roughly how far the airport is?

If those answers are all “no,” it’ll be very hard to claim you’re at all confident about the drive time.

The good news is, you can dramatically increase your confidence very easily: just turn any of those “noes” into “yeses.”

Here’s the thing:

When you have little-to-no data, you should have little-to-no confidence.

By adding even a small bit of data — even rough estimates — you can significantly increase your reasonable level of confidence.

And, the bonus question:

Of the three yes/no questions above, which one do you think is the easiest to turn from “no” to “yes”?

Probably, it’s “checking your maps app.” You don’t actually have to make the drive yourself to find out.

Often there’s an easy and good-enough way to close the data gap, so you can get to a confidence level that suits your risk tolerance.

All the best,
A.

P.S. Yes, I checked the correct plural of “no” and “yes.” Yes, it looks funny to me, too. So does the other correct way. C'est la vie.

Risk aversion, or procrastination?

So, if Everything is a bet, you might want to do all you can to get to 100% certainty before investing your limited resources.

But that would be a mistake.

Virtually no future prediction can be 100% certain. We must always proceed — if we’re going to proceed at all — in the face of some uncertainty.

insisting on 100% certainty means never taking action.

And in terms of results, doesn’t that inaction look an awful lot like procrastination?

All the best,
A.

Everything is a bet

How confident are you that you could drive from your house to the nearest airport in under two hours, say, tonight?

You might be tempted to answer as a certainty: yes, or no.

But think a moment: If you say "no way," are you sure it’s literally impossible? What if you got insanely lucky with traffic and drove like a demon? Couldn't it be something greater than zero percent?

And if you say, "yes, absolutely," are you really that sure? Car trouble, traffic, accidents, family emergencies — a dozen things could slow you down. Couldn't it be something less than 100 percent?

Somewhere between zero and 100, there's a number that matches your level of confidence.

Why does this matter?

Because everything you do is a bet.

To attain a certain outcome, you'll make an investment of time, money, and mental energy.

And you might still fail.

This means that there are no sure bets. You must take on some risk.

So, how much risk is tolerable? Only you can decide.

Back to the airport:

If you're 50% sure you can make the drive in two hours, would you be okay with that? Or would you invest more time?

Is 80% certainty enough? Do you need 90%?

Here's the thing:

Your level of comfort with risk — your risk tolerance — is a real thing. It can actally be measured. And your organization’s risk tolerance is real and measurable, too.

Pay attention to that comfort level. Get a feel for your risk tolerance - and your organization's.

It will help you in making honest decisions that don't pretend to be 100% certain, and in making rational decisions about whether and how to proceed toward your goals.

You can’t win every bet.

But you can learn to measure your certainty and to move forward only when the risk is tolerable.

All the best,
A.

SCOTUS case could impact associations

If you’re a director at a professional association, take note:

An antitrust case now pending with the US Supreme Court could have major implications on association membership, particularly recruitment and retention.

The legal rubric is more than I want to get into here (especially since I'm no lawyer), but if this concerns you, I recommend the ASAE article here:

What a Pending Supreme Court Antitrust Case Means for Associations

All the best,
A.

“Teach me to code?”

Now and then, a client will ask me if custom development is something they could handle in-house. And if so, could I help them get started?

To the second question, the answer is: Yes, I can certainly help you get started. Actually, I could help you get pretty far along on that path.

And to the first question: Could you do that in house? Sure.

What's not being asked here is, "Should you?"

• Do you personally have any experience writing custom code?

• Do you have someone in-house who is?

• Considering the steep learning curve, is this the best use of your time?

• Considering that many people do this kind of thing as a career, is this something you want to add to your job description?

In most cases, the answer to all of those is, “No.”

Here's the thing:

Given enough genuine interest and dedication, there is probably no skill that you cannot acquire.

The important question is: Is it worth it?

But isn't that always the question?

All the best,
A.

Tools for in-house documentation

If you care about mastering your CRM and other systems, you’ll want to start building a library of documentation for yourself and your staff.

But where to start?

Google Docs (or something similar) is a fine start, but it probably won’t long until you notice its biggest limitation: because it’s so flexible, it provides very little structure for building an organized library of content.

As a result, you can quickly find yoruself with a lot of documentation that’s just hard to use.

Here are some alternatives that will provide that structure and allow you to easily organize all of your in-house documentation:

Use your CMS:

If you’re running CiviCRM under Drupal or WordPress, then keeping your documentation there can make a lot of sense.

• Your staff already have a password, and you can protect your in-house documentation behind that CMS login.

• Your CMS probabl already has a dedicated module or plugin for structuring this kind of content.

Under Drupal, the Book module is a great option. It’s part of Drupal core, so you only need to enable it if it’s not already enabled.

From drupal.org:

A book is a set of nodes tied together in a hierarchical structure, with chapters, sections, and subsections. You can use books for manuals, site resource guides, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), novel, or curricula. …

Users who have the right permission can create a book and write, review, modify, or rearrange the nodes that are part of a book. Many users can work together on a book; you can allow or disallow collaboration, to whatever extent you want. …

It also provides smooth navigation up and down the heirarchical structure (chapters and section), and to “previous” and “next” pages in each section.

If you’re running WordPress, you’ll probably want to try the PublishPress Series plugin (though there are many other options, as with almost everything in WordPress).

From publishpress.com:

PublishPress Series is a publishing plugin that allows you to organize posts into issues or series. This is ideal for magazines, newspapers, short-story writers, teachers, comic artists, or anyone who writes multiple posts on the same topic.

… You can organize chapters into an overall story.

Like many WordPress plugins, this one does offer a “pro” upgrade option with additional features, but you’ll probably be quite content with the free version.

Use a dedicated documentation wiki:

Maybe you’d rather have a separate dedicated site for your documentation.

Check out DocuWiki. It will run alongside your Drupal or WordPress site (or on any hosting platform that supports PHP — which is essentially “everyewhere”), and offers some advantages over using Drupal or WordPress:

• Wiki-like editing (a la Wikipedia) keeps track of previous versions, provides heirarchical navigation, search, and more.

• Dedicated interface that’s completely separate from your CMS — could be attractive if you’re not yet confident about adding plugins and managing permissions on your own live WordPress or Drupal site.

• Narrow set of formatting options — you can’t just “format content any way you wish,” which is actually an advantage because it tends to enforce a common structure on all of your pages.

Summary:

Google Docs is great to start, but its lack of structure can create challenges as you grow.

A dedicated documentation wiki, or a set of structured content in your Drupal or WordPress site, can make it all much easier for you to manage — and for your staff to use.

All the best,
A.