You still have it when you give it away

You’re a hard worker and diligent learner.

You’re always looking to gain some new knowledge that will help you master your systems and reach your goals.

And you try to fill your team — small as it may be — with folks who have that same drive.

So, while you’re busy learning and improving, who else is gaining from your knowledge?

Are you sharing it with your team, in a way they can easily use it?

They’re as driven, and curious, and goal-oriented as you are.

Wouldn’t they be happy — and more effective — if they could access what you’re learning?

Funny thing, though:

Everything you've stored in your brain is still hiding there, unless you've recorded it somewhere and shared it with someone.

Skills and knowledge are like gold for your team. If you’ve got it, find a way to share it. Unlike actual gold, you don’t lose it when you give it away.

All the best,
A.

Win or lose

This weekend I competed at a local sports tournament.

I won about as many matches as I lost. Some players lost all their matches, others won them all.

Sure, everyone felt great when they won and disappointed when they lost.

But every single player at that tournament had this in common:

Win or lose, they went back and re-watched their videos to learn more about what they did right and what they did wrong.

At least, I hope they did.

Because that's where the real win happens: in long-term improvement.

Here’s the thing:

Hitting your goals is nice. But analyzing and improving your systems will position you for continually improving your results.

That's the long-term value of setting goals, whether you win in the short term or not.

All the best,
A.

Where to?

Whatever road you’re on, wherever you’re starting, the journey is better when you know where you’re going.

It's more effective, it's faster, and it’s more enjoyable along the way.

Sure, sometimes it’s nice to just wander about, but that’s not a journey. It’s just wandering about.

If you’re working hard to accomplish something good, it’s worth taking the time to define what you’re really after.

If you can get there, then you can decide what to go for next; and if you don’t quite make it, you’ll have some good context for understanding what stopped you, so you can do it better next time.

All the best,
A.

In it for the income?

If you’re a leader in a community-driven organization, I’m guessing you’re not in it for the income.

But I bet you are — at least a little bit — in it for the outcome: the impact you make in the lives of people you care about.

What outcome are you hoping to see? And what transformation will you need to make in your organization to make that happen?

If you’re focused on that, getting what you want is just a matter of time (plus a little consistent effort and iterative improvement).

All the best,
A.

Goal-setting is a practice

Setting and achieving goals will probably require you to hone your skills, and maybe learn some new ones.

But it turns out setting goals is a skill in itself.

And like any skill, it only gets better with practice.

All the best,
A.

Cold calculation: cost vs value

Say you’re considering a new project or improvement to your systems.

And let’s assume you also want to get a healthy return on investment so as not to waste precious resources.

So you’ll have to consider both the expected cost of this project and the expected value of completing it successfully.

Here’s a good reason to consider the value first:

As human beings, we are generally — and unfortunately — not as always honest with ourselves as we think we are.

There's quite a bit of truth behind the saying that people buy based on emotions and then justify that purchase based on logic.

It's just part of who we are as human beings.

And usually we don't even notice it.

So let's say you calculate the cost first. Now that you have some number in mind representing the cost, it's very easy to let that influence your calculation of the value.

The more excited (emotionally invested) you are about this project, the easier it will be for your brain to inflate the expected the value until it's higher than the cost, in order to justify the project.

On the other hand, if you calculate the value first, there’s no such temptation; since you haven’t spent a moment on estimating the cost, there’s just no way for that to influence your value estimation.

Here’s the thing:

Our excitement and emotions are powerful things. They can be one of the most effective motivators to carry us to completion when things get tough.

But when it’s time for cold, rational calculation, letting them sneak in is usually a mistake.

Do what you can to keep your business decisions objective and rational. Calculate the value before the cost.

All the best,
-A.

Consider the value before the cost

When you consider starting a new project, do you like to think of the cost first, or the value?

Naturally, before undertaking a new project you’ll want to consider both cost and value. If the value isn't worth the cost, you can just avoid wasting the resources.

But for me, something odd happens at this point:

Before I spend even 2 seconds thinking of the value, my mind leaps into a calculation of the cost. And that leads quickly into a flurry of ideas about how I could get it done:

• Who I can hire, and how much that might cost

• Technologies I might use, and the ease of maintaining them after launch

• All the features or systems I'll have to build, and how much of my own time that might take

Frankly, that's a lot of fun to think about.

But all that planning takes time. And that time is an investment all by itself.

And if I go that route, I'm making that investment without ever once thinking about the value of what I'll get at the end.

So I've learned to stop doing that.

The better way:

First I think about the value.:

If I complete this project successfully, what will it get me, and what is that worth to me?

In dollars, or hours saved, or in some measurable unit, I want a specific number that tells me the value of this investment.

Only then is it time to think about cost.

There are two reasons why this way works better:

1. Expected value determines maximum investment.

As fun as it is to dream up the “right” way to solve a problem, the truth is there are a million ways I could do it.

By putting a real number on my expected value, I can put a realistic cap on what I'm willing to invest.

That allows me to focus on solutions that will get me most or all of what I want, within that cost, instead of some “ideal” solution that may cost far more than the value I'm expecting.

2. Cost analysis is an investment in itself.

The lure of building solutions in my head is so attractive that it's easy to begin, even if there turns out to be zero measurable benefit.

It's so easy to run off and begin something that just seems like it would be nice to have.

But by exerting the discipline of calculating the benefit first, I can quickly decide if it's worth the time to workout even a rough sketch of a solution.

Here's the thing:

This isn’t just a story about me.

I see the same “rush to solutions” mindset in the words and actions of my friends, colleagues, and clients.

Maybe, if you pay attention, you'll even see it in yourself.

Don't let it get you.

Put a number on the value first.

And only then allow yourself the fun of planning the investment.

All the best,
A.

What is a coach?

The word started as a description of a method of transportation. Think stagecoach, or motorcoach (more commonly a "bus" here in the U.S.)

Turns out it's the same in business, as in athletics: a coach is someone who can take you where you want to go.

They don't do the work for you.

But they should be helping you reach your destination in ways you couldn't do on your own.

Of course, deciding where you want to go ... that's up to you.

All the best,
A.

Community works: reCAPTCHA problems fixed

A few of my clients have been having problems with Google reCAPTCHA in the past couple of months.

Apparently Google has changed reCAPTCHA so that it's more strict — which is nice if you absolutely never want a bot on your site, but not so nice if you absolutely want every real person to have an easy time giving you money.

Unfortunately, there are no settings to make it more strict or less strict. It just is what it is, "you get what you get", and all that. This means the only option is either to use it or not use it.

Well, that was true. Until now.

Others in the CiviCRM community noticed this problem as well, and someone out there created a fix, just today, actually.

The Form Protection extension will, in its next release, offer setting to adjust the sensitivity of the Google recaptcha checks.

So if you're getting too many legitimate users being treated as bots, you can make it less strict to compensate.

Likewise, if you're getting too many bots being allowed through as legitimate users, you can make it more strict.

Here's why this is cool:

My clients noticed this problem and had no way to deal with it. They could have paid me to implement a fix, but instead they decided to just disable Google reCAPTCHA for now, and take the “wait and see” approach.

Meanwhile, someone else in the community came up with a fix — at no cost to my clients.

And here's the bigger point:

Sometimes you experience a problem, and it's urgent enough that you're willing to pay to fix it.

But sometimes, somebody else takes care of it, so you don't have to.

That's part of the beauty of open-source software like CiviCRM.

We're all working together. We all help each other. We all benefit.

Not too shabby, right?

All the best,
A.

Don’t be a spammer (or look like one)

Crafting the perfect email appeal is a worthwhile investment.

But when that email lands in your recipient’s Junk folder (or just gets rejected entirely), it’s not worth much.

Big email providers like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are constantly working to protect their users from anything that even smells like spam, and Google and Yahoo have announced specific changes that will make those protections even stronger.

Nobody will make you keep up with those requirements. But if you don’t, you can expect your emails to start landing in the Junk folder more often. (See yesterday’s email for actions you need to take to avoid this.)

Would you like an easy way to test whether your outbound emails measure up?

There’s a free service at mail-tester.com that does just that. It’s not a complete solution (nothing ever is), but its tag-line “Test the Spammyness of your Emails” is accurate enough.

I don’t get paid to tell you this. I just think it’s a useful service.

Actions you can take now:

1. Head over to mail-tester.com and notice that it generates a unique email address for your test (something like test-cls74kxqtx37f@srv1.mail-tester.com)

2. In CiviCRM, generate an email to be sent to that address (e.g. on one of your Draft mailings, send a test message to that address; or, create a contact with that address and send an email to that contact.)

3. Head back to mail-tester.com and click the “Then check your score” button.

4. Observe the results. If you’re seeing problems with DKIM, DMARC, or SPF, or any other domain-related problems, take action to address those issues.

If you don’t have someone on your team who can address these issues, please reach out to me (or your favorite CiviCRM specialist) to get it fixed.

Leaving these problems unattended will increase your chances of landing in the Junk folder.

And that’s not where you want your lovingly-crafted emails to end up.

All the best,
A.

Avoiding the Junk folder: Gmail’s new rules

Do you send newsletters or other mass emails via CiviCRM?

Do you want to avoid those emails landing in the Junk folder, or even bouncing altogether?

If you do, you'll want to be aware of some new requirements that Gmail and Yahoo are implementing very soon — and be sure you're ready to comply.

"What, more requirements," you ask?

Yep, more requirements.

I get it, it's a pain in the neck. Sometimes I feel like I’m chasing an ever-changing set of requirements to make sure my emails actually land in the recipient’s in-box.

That's because email providers like Gmail and Yahoo are constantly looking for ways to reject spam intelligently, without rejecting legitimate subscribed content. And that’s because they’re constantly slammed with spam; they have to deal with it somehow.

So, sometimes they make changes aiming to kick out the spammers and let the good emails through. And then it's up to us as senders to jump through their hoops, so we don't look like spammers and get blocked.

So here’s the thing:

As of February, Gmail and Yahoo will start gradually increasing the strictness of their anti-spam requirements. Legitimate senders (that's you and me) will need to ensure we’re doing everything right.

For example:

1. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email authentication for your sending domain.

2. Ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse-DNS ("PTR") records.

3. Keep spam rates below 0.3% (as reported in Google Postmaster Tools).

4. For direct mail, the domain in the sender's From: header must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain.

5. Use a TLS connection for transmitting email.

6. Lots more ...

SendGrid has a great article explaining these requirements and others.

Please take action on this.

If you have someone on your team who knows what all those things even mean, and can ensure those requirements are met, please discuss this with them.

And if you don't, please reach out to me (or a CiviCRM specialist you trust) about it.

Your email lists are a precious resource. Writing emails that motivate people is important.

But then, you also have to make sure those emails actually make it to the in-box.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: “It’s one app”

Here's one more misconception that trips people up, especially in the beginning.

CiviCRM misconception #5: "it's one app."

In a world of single-purpose apps and services, CiviCRM at first looks like just another app or service, as if it were a single piece of software from top to bottom.

This leads to a number of assumptions that aren't quite right:

• That there's a company behind it that guarantee the certain level of service;

• That once you install it, it's self-contained and ready to go;

• That any organization using this product will have access to the same set of features.

Now, this is true for CiviCRM Spark and other software-as-a-service CiviCRM offerings.

But it's not true for CiviCRM itself, in the way that most organizations use it.

Instead, CiviCRM functions more like a platform for building your own customized CRM system:

• You'll install it into your own Drupal, WordPress, or other content management system (CMS).

• each of those CMSs offer their own unique set of features, with a number of modules or plugins to augment CiviCRM’s interaction with the CMS.

• You also have access to hundreds of CiviCRM extensions to customize the functionality of itself.

• Many organizations have at least one or two custom-built CiviCRM extensions by which they modify its functionality even further.

• Even without all that, CiviCRM is highly configurable, to the extent that you can configure it in ways that are nonsensical or counterproductive for your work.

Here's the thing:

Yes, CiviCRM is a mature and well-built software system powered by a dedicated core team and an active community of professional developers.

But thinking of it as a single product will tend to overlook its incredible flexibility, as well as the amount of effort you might need to make it do everything you want — not to mention the fact that you actually can make it do things that only your organization needs (unlike other CRMs which really are “a single product”).

It can be more useful to think of it as a powerful CRM platform, which gives you a ton of great features out of the box, and which you can use to build a fully customized CRM for your organization.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: “It’s easy”

When you first try out a live CiviCRM demo, it's looks pretty nice.

Everything is set up for a hypothetical organization with hypothetical needs, and it all runs quite smoothly.

This leads to CiviCRM misconception #4: "It's easy."

Sure, CiviCRM makes a lot of things much easier than they might have been, and you can get a lot done with it.

But expecting it to be “easy” is probably a mistake.

As with anything, you'll need to do a good bit of work to shape it to your needs.

• Set up compatible hosting.

• Set up outbound email services and payment processes.

• Tweak the configuration to sit your needs for memberships, events, contributions, and more.

• Import existing data from other systems

• Development a training plan for you and your team

• Implement a permissions scheme that gives staff only the access they really need

• ... and more.

In short, you'll have to make CiviCRM work for your real-world needs, not just the hypothetical needs of a hypothetical demo organization.

And, as always, you'll have to make hard choices about which goals you'll pursue — and which ones you won't — and how your CRM can support this goals.

But of course, that's always true, whether you're using CiviCRM or not.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: "It's free!"

More CiviCRM misconceptions to deal with — Thanks again to all of you who are sending these in!

CiviCRM misconception #3: "It's free!"

This one is totally understandable. As a community-funded organization, every expenditure counts. So a CRM that demands no fees is naturally an attention-getter.

And it's really tempting to take that at face value. Because it just sounds so great.

But of course, there's a cost to everything.

• The time you and your staff spend learning managing anything is a limited resource, and it's precious.

• Any online system has to live somewhere, so it requires hosting and infrastructure, which will have some kind of cost.

• Hiring outside help is an investment of time and money, and there's a good chance you'll want to do that with CiviCRM, at some point.

It can help a lot to have some idea of what those costs will be before you dive in. But the irony is that, without experience, it can be hard to predict those costs.

Here's the thing:

CiviCRM is free, in all the meanings of that word:

• It's free as in "free beer." Since there are no licensing or subscription fees, you can install and use it without paying a dime, ever.

• It’s free as in "free speech." Because it's released under an open-source license, you can always do whatever you want with it, or modify it however you like. The sky's the limit.

• It's free as in "free kittens." It's fun to play with in the beginning, and then it's up to you to take care of it as it grows. Feeding, vet bills, scratched furniture, and the rest.

And as with anything, the important question is not, "How much does it cost?" but, "What is the value of it, and is that worth the investment?"

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: “Just another plugin”

Here's another CiviCRM misconception I'm hearing about:

CiviCRM misconception #2: “It's just another WordPress plugin / Drupal module / etc.”

The premise here is that since CiviCRM operates as a plugin in WordPress (or a module in Drupal), that installing and managing it will be like most other plugins/modules.

But if you've tried that, you'll know it's not that simple.

• Typical plugins install — and upgrade — easily with one click via WordPress's plugin management feature. CiviCRM installation is significantly more involved.

• Typical plugins offer a few features and no more. CiviCRM offers a whole raft of features (and thus, more complexity).

• Typical plugins will run properly on any server that supports WordPress. CiviCRM has a few additional system requirements.

Naturally, there are plenty of good reasons to clear those hurdles and put CiviCRM to work in your organization.

But knowing that the hurdles exist in the first place can make the whole "getting started" experience a lot smoother.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: “It’s perfect for us!”

Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday's email on CiviCRM misconceptions.

Here's one that I really like:

CiviCRM misconception #1: "It's perfect for us."

If you thought this at the beginning, you've almost certainly found some ways that it's not completely perfect for you.

Sure, it might be the best available choice. And you might still love it for the value you get out of it.

But like any software (or any system), it's not without its flaws:

• Bugs do appear now and then.

• It makes assumptions that are sometimes different from yours.

• When its features are "just right," it's great; but when they're "just almost right," it can get a little frustrating.

Here's the thing:

Even with the most "perfect" system, there will be challenges.

But if you can pick your battles wisely, and take steps to master that system for everything it can offer, to be in a good spot to make it work well for you.

You’re not just looking for “perfect tools” — you’re looking to perfect your entire way of working, and that’s a never-ending process.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions?

You've been using CiviCRM for a while now.

There are probably some things you learned along the way that you wish you'd known from the beginning.

I'd really love to hear what those are, for you, personally.

Please shoot me a quick reply. I'll summarize the responses in another email to the list (but of course won't share your name or private details, unless you want me to).

1. What do you wish you'd known about CiviCRM from the beginning?

2. How would knowing that have changed things for you?

Thanks,
A.

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

— Attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of European Allied forces in WWII, later U.S. President

An old military adage asserts that "no plan survives the first contact with the enemy," yet military planning is still taught as an essential skill for leaders in all military organizations.

I'm not convinced that all plans are useless, or that they all fall apart when the action begins, but it's worth asking: If that were true, why would planning have any value at all?

Because the environment will shift. Staff turnover, new technologies, changes in regulations, competition for your audience's attention, all of that and more conspire to derail your plans.

But planning makes you think ahead.

It forces you to define your goals, and the metrics by which you will measure success, and the resources that you have available, and the challenges that you may face, and the methods you will use to achieve your desired outcomes.

If you're doing that, you'll be ready to shift with the changing environment.

Here's the thing:

You can't predict the future. But thinking ahead, in detail, makes you all the more ready to respond to everything that will happen on the way to your goals.

All the best,
A.

P.S. The Eisenhower quotation above is a very popular form of his statement, but the specific phrasing seems to be Richard Nixon’s.

Writing down your goals

When you set a goal for the coming week, or quarter, or year, are you writing them down?

Sure, there's nothing truly special about writing down a goal.

But it does allow you to double-check whether that goal is well articulated, and specific.

It also gives you a chance to reflect on whether it's reasonable, and to consider the objective metrics you'll need to achieve to get there.

It's nice to say that you have goals.

Writing them down is one way to help ensure you really know what they are.

All the best,
A.

Win or lose, you’re gathering information

When the time period for your goal is reached, you can see pretty clearly whether you’ve achieved that goal or not.

It’s tempting to think of those as winning or losing. After all, if you failed to reach your goal, it feels like a loss.

But remember: While the results of an achieved goal are valuable in themselves, there’s a valuable win for you in either scenario.

That’s because the process of setting goals and measuring against them is not just about getting the results as a one-time effort. It’s a way to learn some very important things about your processes:

• Were your goals realistic and well informed?

• How effective are your strategies and tactics?

• How well do you understand the tasks and objectives that lead to desirable outcomes?

• How good are your processes in carrying out those tasks and reaching those objectives?

• Where could you tweak your processes to improve any of the above?

Answers — honest, well-thought answers — to those questions are the real, valuable outcomes of your post-mortem inquiry.

Whether you achieved your stated goal or not, that post-mortem is your chance to regroup and improve your processes for your next goal.

Here’s the thing:

Because you’ll always be trying to improve your results, a goal is not merely an effort to achive a certain outcome.

Most importantly, it’s a test of your proceses. And if you’re not testing and improving your processes, you have no reason to expect improvement in the outcomes.

All the best,
A.