Feedback: bad, or just negative?

Smart folks, like you and me, try to pay attention to whatever feedback we can get from our target audience.

The more high-quality feedback we can assimilate, the better positioned we'll be to make useful improvements.

Here are two completely made-up examples of feedback for a hypothetical membership sign-up form. Which one is the more useful?

Feedback 1:

I love it!

Feedback 2:

I hate it. There are too many questions on the form so it takes forever to fill out. And I don't understand what these two fields even mean.

Clearly the first one is nice to hear, but it lacks any useful detail.

The second one is no fun, but provides very specific, actionable information.

Here's the thing:

Try not to be bothered by negative feedback, and try not to be flattered by favorable feedback.

Good feedback is useful, actionable, and specific.

If you can get that, be glad.

Flattery, as they say, we'll get you nowhere. Even when you're on the receiving end.

All the best,
A.

Small bets

This morning I stopped to take care of something important on the way to work.

I knew there would be a line, so I got there early. The polls open at 7:00, I was there at 6:45, and there were already 10 cars in the parking lot.

But everybody was waiting in their car.

"Why aren't they lining up?" I thought. No idea. And I'd really like to get this done and get on with my day.

So I got out and went to stand by the door. Before I even reached it, everyone else got out of their cars too.

I was now first in line.

Everyone else's behavior is not necessarily an indication of the “right” behavior. It's okay to go first.

The door was unlocked. I went in and proceeded down the hallway. Everyone followed me.

The hallway was long and winding, and it became clear we had all walked past the voting office.

We all turned on our heels and walked back until we found it.

I was now last in line.

Merely taking decisive action does not guarantee a win. You can still wind up last.

I laughed at myself, but then I realized that everyone ahead of me had already been ahead of me in the parking lot.

I was no worse off than when I began.

A failed attempt is not always a significant loss.

Here's the thing:

The reason small bets can add up to big wins (over time) is because while the upside might be nice, the downside can be very small.

There's often very little to lose, and much to gain, by trying something new.

• Thinking about buying a book, but not sure if it will help you in your work? Buy it and find out. What can you lose, $20?

• Wondering if a newly discovered CRM feature will help solve a problem, but not sure how it works? Try it, carefully, on a small scale, and observe the results. You'll definitely learn something, at a cost of what, a few minutes of your time?

Big bets merit careful deliberation.

Small bets, not so much.

All the best,
A.

Learning that lasts

What I hear I may forget.

What I see I may remember.

But what I do I will know.

— Probably Xunzi

When you spot a gap in your understanding — say, about how your CRM works — and actually want to fill that gap, you've got some options:

• Ask someone to explain it to you, or check the documentation; you'll get a verbal explanation.

• Watch a video tutorial; you'll get a visual explanation.

• Find someone who can guide you while you work through it yourself; you'll get a hands-on experience.

Any of them is much better than not knowing.

But which one is most likely not only to solve whatever need you have in the moment, but to give you an understanding that will empower you in the future?

Isn't it the one that gives you a memory of actually having solved the need yourself?

All the best,
A.

P.S. The quote above is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but that seems unlikely.

The map is not the territory

Your organization's (or department’s) strategic plan is a valuable roadmap for your mission.

But of course, the map is not the territory.

You'll know this, if you've ever tried navigating a new city. Whatever map you're using might be wonderful, but by its nature it cannot show you every potential obstacle, detour, shortcut, and alternative.

It's just a representation, and it doesn't keep up with the very latest changes in the terrain or in your own evolving goals and limitations.

Those will create new challenges, which you must navigate as you go.

Even the best map will have these limitations.

Still, given the choice, would you rather launch into your adventure with a well-designed (if imperfect) map, or with no map at all?

All the best,
A.

The appealing appeal

What makes an appeal ... well ... appealing?

Whether it's aiming at advocacy, funding, or any other call to action, what's the difference between an appeal that generates the desired response, and one that doesn't?

I'll mention three such appeals that I received just yesterday.

1. A friend asked me personally if I would show up in the evening to help set up the stage for their performance.

2. A very likable and energetic stranger phoned and emailed me to ask for my support in advertising at a local business that I happen to like.

3. Another friend tagged me in a Facebook message pointing to a GoFundMe page.

Honestly, these were all people I wanted to help.

But what actually happened?

I agreed to the first one;
declined the second;
and am still on the fence about the third.

Besides what I've previously mentioned about probably having used up my budget of care, I can see other reasons why I agreed to only one of these three requests:

• I believed my help would make a positive impact.

• I felt that I was being personally asked to help; and that, if I declined, they might not have enough help to meet the need.

• I believed that with my help they could actually reach a particular goal.

• I believed I would get something I value (doing a favor for someone I know and like) more than what I'd be giving.

Some of those were true for all the requests. But all of them were true only of the one.

Here's the thing:

When you ask someone for help, there's a good chance they have plenty of other opportunities to do good in the world.

They're probably even being asked for help from any number of other directions.

And they probably won't agree to help all of them.

What then can you do to make your appeal stand out?

What makes your request specifically worthy of their help, and of their time, attention, and care?

The "right" answers will of course depend on whatever you know (or can learn) about your people, your cause, and your way of working.

But in any case, it's surely much more involved than simply informing them that the need exists.

All the best,
A.

The limited budget for caring

It's no surprise to you, I'm sure, that your supporters have finite resources for giving.

Naturally no potential supporter has unlimited funds, or time, or social influence.

But have you thought about their other budget? The one that says, "I've helped enough people today."?

Because that budget does exist.

The desire to help others is a limited, if renewable, resource that ebbs and flows.

When it's high, many people feel a need to give, to someone.
When it's low, the same people will feel reluctant to give, to anyone.

Let's call it a budget of caring. Everyone's budget is different, but even the kindest among us can only care so much.

Why this matters:

I myself have received three appeals for giving already today, and it's barely past Noon here.

I agreed to help one of them. Then, I was somehow less motivated to help the others.

At least one factor there, I must admit, was that I was nearing my budget for caring. Not by some logical process, but by emotional impulse.

So it's worth asking:

• How likely is it that your call to action is the only appeal your people are receiving today?

• Among all the competition for their budget of caring, what makes your call to action stand out?

Let's talk tomorrow about what can make an appeal stand out, and be worthy of your people's limited budget for caring.

All the best,
A.

Cooperative customizations

When you've done all you can to make CiviCRM fit your specialized needs through configuration,
and to modify your workflows to fit the software,
and you still need to close that gap a little further ...

Then you might have a business case for creating a custom extension.

Of course, that falls under customization: Creating or modifying computer code (usually PHP and JavaScript files) to add or alter functionality.

And you already know that if you do that, you could be taking on the burden of long-term bug-fix support for your customizations.

But there's a way you can minimize that support burden:

1. Design your extension so that it could be useful to others.

2. Then share that extension with the CiviCRM community, by publishing it in the CiviCRM extensions directory.

How does this reduce the burden of maintaining your customization?

There's no guarantee, but if you play it smart, you probably find that:

• People you don't know will install and use your extension.

• Software developers you don't know will spot, and even contribute fixes for, bugs in your extension — before you even find them yourself.

That's the beauty of open-source software, and of the CiviCRM community in particular: you help others by offering your customization, and they help both themselves and you by helping to improve and maintain it.

It happens literally every day.

So:

If you've decided that you need to create a custom extension, there's very little downside to availing yourself of the cooperative nature of the open-source community. It’s the classic “win-win” situation.

All the best,
A.

An alternative to customization

When you need to bridge the gap between your organization’s way of working and CiviCRM’s standard features, customization is an option.

And just to define the term, here's what I mean:

Customization: Creating or modifying computer code (usually PHP and JavaScript files) to add or alter functionality.

But as we've discussed, that option comes with a big caveat:

Somebody (you) will have to make sure that your customizations continue to work well under newer CiviCRM versions, indefinitely. And that's a big commitment.

If you're not up for that, there's an alternative.

Stick with changes you can make through configuration — that is, using in-application point-and-click workflows (or, changes to settings files like CiviCRM settings.php) to get a desired outcome.

And if that doesn't totally bridge the gap to fit your way of working, you have another alternative:

Adapt your way of working to fit the CRM.

Remember, what we're discussing here is bridging a gap between two things.

And if moving one of those things doesn't quite bring them together, you can move the other thing.

In the end, everything is a trade-off, a cost-benefit decision. You don't have to make the software fit your needs, if you can make your needs fit the software.

And, if that sounds like too big of a lift — if changing your workflows is just too difficult — you do have one more option. More on that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Customization vs Configuration

One of the great things about CiviCRM is the possibility of tweaking it to match your organization's needs exactly. The possibilities are nearly limitless.

But what does that "tweaking" really look like?
How easy is it to do, and how easy is it to maintain?

Broadly speaking we can divide this into two types of modifications, which I'll call...

1. Configuration: Using in-application point-and-click workflows (or, changes to settings files like CiviCRM settings.php) to get a desired outcome.

2. Customization: Creating or modifying computer code (such as PHP and JavaScript files) to add or alter functionality.

Put another way:

Configuration is stuff your non-programmer staff can do, while customization needs software development skills.

CiviCRM, like any other open-source software package, can be customized in literally any way you can imagine — as long as:

• It's logically sound (i.e. it can be explained in plain English with a set of rules that don't contradict each other), and

• You have access to (and a budget for) the programming skills to do it.

And one more thing: If you're customizing the software, you're on the hook for keeping those customizations working properly into the future.

In other words:

When you upgrade CiviCRM, who will make sure your customizations continue working properly? Nobody but you (and whomever you can get to help you).

Here's the thing:

When you get an idea to make your CRM behave differently, customization (through software programming) is definitely an option.

But if you don't have a business case that justifies ongoing bug-fix support for those customizations, you're probably better off sticking with whatever changes you can achieve through configuration.

All the best,
A.

How to sharpen a pencil

What's the best way to sharpen a pencil?

Don't bother thinking about it too much. It's a trick question, because I've intentionally left out a ton of important detail.

For example:

• Do you just need to scribble some notes, or are you creating a fine work of art?

• Are you sharpening one pencil every 6 months, or 100,000 pencils every day?

• Do you even need to sharpen a pencil? What about mechanical pencils? What about pens?

Truth is, there are probably a thousand different ways to get this done.

And none of them is "right."

Because the method itself doesn't matter.

What matters is the result, and (sometimes) the efficiency.

Here’s the thing:

Sharpening a pencil, or even 100,000 pencils, is a relatively simple matter compared to managing your CRM systems.

But the principles of "prioritize the outcomes" and "no perfect solutions" apply to both.

More important than asking, "What's the best way to X," is to ask:

• Why would I want X in the first place?

• What would that outcome be worth?

• What's any reasonable way to move toward that outcome without spending more time / effort / money / good will than it's worth?

Because a sharp pencil will just make marks on paper.

And chances are, that's not all you're really hoping to achieve.

All the best,
A.

Turning expenses into investments

Distinguishing investments from expenses can make the difference between hitting your goals and running out of resources.

Here's what I mean:

A good investment helps you build momentum.
A good expense just helps you survive.

Naturally, I assume you'd rather thrive than merely survive.

But some expenses are unavoidable. Some examples my clients have faced recently:

• Duplicate contacts in your CRM need to be cleaned out.

• Financial data needs to be replicated and reconciled with your bookkeeping software.

• If a staff member is out sick, someone needs to do extra work to cover for them.

You can’t avoid that stuff when it comes up.

But, what if you could turn an expense into an investment?

What if you could use all the time and effort you spend staying afloat to help you accelerate forward?

Often, you can.

The trick is to look for the opportunity to build momentum, at times when you could get away with just surviving.

Look again at those examples, with actual steps I've seen people take to turn a problem into an improvement:

• Have a big problem with duplicate contacts? Don't just spend time slogging through the deduping process. Use it as a chance to improve your deduping systems.

• Struggling to keep up with accounting integration? Don't just throw more tedious hours at it. Grab the opportunity to analyze the problem (and the business requirements) so you can automate the integration.

• Staff member out sick? You could just scramble to cover for them, or you could take the chance to start documenting their workflows and cross-training your team members.

"But Allen, all of that is more work!"

Sure it is.

It's also a lot more rewarding, and in the end, a lot less work.

All the best,
A.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Yesterday I learned that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and has been since 2004.

That's 20 years, and I'm just hearing about it now.

Maybe we need a “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” Awareness Month.

But hey, it's a good excuse to talk about some easy things that you can do to tighten up your security. Here's a quick list:

• Make sure your site has the latest CiviCRM security release, which came out this week.

• Take a minute to review the list of user accounts that have access to your CRM data, and close any accounts that are no longer used.

• Remind staff of your password policy (or good heavens, create one if you don't have it). That should include things like: not using the same password on multiple accounts; using a long random string instead of "password123"; being just as careful with email passwords as you are with your login password (extra points if you can guess why that matters).

• Document the meaning of each user permission role (and keep that documentation up to date), so you can easily adjust user roles as your staff come to need different levels of access.

• Severely limit the number of users who have administrator access to modify other user accounts. (This is like the genii who insists “no wishing for extra wishes.”)

• Review your data breach response plan, or create one if you haven't already. If something should go wrong, that's not the best time to start thinking about how you'll handle it.

Naturally, the list could go on. Just as it is for the physical security of your office and your home, maintaining tight security on your CRM data is an ongoing effort, not a one-and-done affair.

Chances are, you'll never have to deal with a security breach. But though the chance of one is low, the potential impact is enormous.

October is as good a time as any to pause and make sure you're giving this topic the attention it deserves.

All the best,
A.

Quantity? Quality?

[A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups.

All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

- Ted Orland, in Art & Fear

It’s a story shared a while back on the blog of “writer who draws” Austin Kleon (which is itself worth a read).

So what’s the lesson here for us?

Could it be that putting all your effort into one big campaign is — in the long run — less effective than running a bunch of small campaigns?

Could it be that frequent (even daily) practice in identifying, communicating with, and inspiring your people is — in the long run — more effective than planning “the perfect outreach”?

Could it be that starting with small “test-launch programs” and learning from the results is — in the long run —more effective than waiting until you “know everything there is to know” before launching?

Maybe. What does your experience tell you?

All the best,
A.

What is success?

My local newspaper seems to run a lot of stories on what the local schools are doing.

In almost every article, a school administrator will comment on how important it is to help these young people “be successful."

Funny thing is, they never seem to say what that means.

So what is success?

Put simply, success is reaching a goal.

If you don't have a goal, there's nothing to succeed at.

Of course, if you don't have a goal, you also can't fail.

What this means is:

You cannot have success without the risk of failure.

At the beginning of this week I sat down and wrote out some goals for the week. Mostly small things, but they were all things that I wanted to achieve.

Here's how I've done on a few of them:

• CiviCon North America 2025: Ensure our planning committee has the information it needs to commit to a city and dates in our meeting this week. SUCCEEDED.

• Jiu-jitsu: Record two sparring sessions, rewatch them, and note some things I could improve. SUCCEEDED.

• Personal health: Hit the gym for a good workout, 5 days this week. FAILED.

• Kids’ homeschooling: Catch up on my backlog of unreviewed kids' homework: FAILED.

You'll notice some of those are outcomes and some are just actions. But they're all things I wanted to achieve, and either achieved or did not, unambiguously.

Now nearing the end of the week, it's time to review and improve.

Where I succeeded, I'll:

• Celebrate. This is great.

• Examine my plan and how it worked well (or could have been even better).

• Consider whether (and how much) this success is based on good luck, and improve future plans to anticipate bad luck.

• Consider whether (and how much) to adjust this goal next time.

Where I failed, I'll:

• Lament. It's not the end of the world, but it sucks, at least a little.

• Examine my plan and where it fell short.

• Consider whether (and how much) this failure is based on bad luck, and improve future plans to better anticipate that bad luck.

• Consider whether (and how much) to adjust this goal next time.

Win or lose, the process is fairly similar: because I had unambiguous goals, I can see clearly where I succeeded and where I failed.

Here’s the thing:

Setting goals means risking failure, and that’s a little scary.

But aiming at success, and iterating on a process to improve my success rate, makes it totally worth the risk.

All the best,
A.

Flawless execution…

... is a myth.

If your goals for the quarter, or even for the day, depend on flawless execution of a perfect plan, you've got troubles.

Even the most perfect plan will need adaptation as soon as it comes into contact with reality.

People are imperfect.
The future is unpredictable.
The National Weather Service was founded over 150 years ago, but with all the latest technology and predictive algorithms, your local meteorologist still can't guarantee tomorrow’s forecast.

So instead of betting on flawless execution in the face of unpredictable reality, try this:

• Make your best plan according to your best knowledge and experience.

• Expect surprises.

• Execute that plan as best you can to hit your targets.

• Frequently review, assess, learn, and adapt.

• Repeat until you die.

Here's the thing:

Reality is unpredictable. No plan is perfect.

But continual assessment and improvement is within your reach. And it's the only way you can predictably get better at reaching your goals.

All the best,
A.

A cause worth championing

How does it feel to be a leader in a cause that matters?

You're doing it now. Does it make you proud? A little tired? A little energized? A little frustrated? A little hopeful?

If you're like me, it's all of those things. And in the end, absolutely worth it.

Within the larger world, your organization is a champion for some specific goodness.

No doubt, this makes the world a better place.

So let me ask:

Within your organization, who is championing the goodness that makes your organization a better place?

Because there are things that matter there. Think about just a few:

• Relationship development

• Constituent engagement

• Constituent retention

• Data integrity

• Data privacy

• Data security

• Usability

• Team morale

Is someone passionately and attentively advocating to improve these areas in your team?

Could it be someone who hasn't been asked to do it, but just cares enough to try?

Is it you? Could it be you?

If those things aren't valuable within your organization, what is?

And who's going to champion that cause?

All the best,
A.

Decisions that can’t be made

"Hey, there. I need Mary to enter a few contributions we got over the weekend. Can you upgrade her permissions temporarily? She hasn't really been trained, but I'll walk her through what she needs to know for this."

Sounds like a pretty simple request, right?

But is it really? Of course not.

• How long is “temporarily”?

• What are all the permissions Mary will need?

• How will that affect other staff members who have the same role as Mary?

• What are the security and privacy implications?

• If something goes wrong, how will we handle it — or even know about it?

• Who’s really thinking about all these questions and has the understanding to answer them? ‘

Sometimes even the simplest requests can be surprisingly hard to deal with.

In a very small team, you can afford to make such decisions ad hoc. You might even have to.

But in a larger team, where several departments have varying levels of access, the potential risks become substantial.

If you have clear lines of communication, clear policies that everyone understands, and a clearly designated administrator for those policies, this can all go very smoothly.

But without those things, you can find yourself in a position where nobody is able to make an effective decision.

That's a formula for delay, frustration, and error.

Putting those things in place takes time and effort, but they are essential. The time and effort is absolutely justified.

Here's the thing:

If your organization is growing and struggling with questions like these, take a moment to think about where the bottleneck is.

Do you have the policies? Do you have the clear lines of communication? Has someone been designated to answer these questions?

If yes, then you should be good to go. If no, then it's probably worth thinking about.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM Security Release: Oct 16, 2024

Get ready for an upgrade to CiviCRM. The announcement is below.

Here’s how you can prepare for this important security release:

• Understand the importance of security updates. This is not the kind of thing you want to skip.

• Test your backups. You’ll want to perform a full site backup before upgrading, and have confidence that you can revert to that backup in case of any surprises during the upgrade.

• Get a preview of any extra steps that may be needed. CiviCRM upgrades can require some additional manual steps, and you typically won’t know what those are until you read the on-screen instructions during the upgrade, which is not the most convenient time to learn about them.
  You can prepare ahead of time by previewing those messages in my CiviCRM Upgrade Messages Previewer.

This update will be released on October 16. Don’t wait until then to start preparing!

All the best,
A.

P.S. Here’s the original announcement from the CiviCRM Core Team:

There will be a security release for CiviCRM on Wednesday, October 16 (US/Pacific Time). Updates will be provided for the following versions:

CiviCRM v5.78 (https://civicrm.org/download)

CiviCRM v5.75 (current ESR; see https://civicrm.org/esr)

We expect the release to become available near the end of the day (TZ conversions).

Slow website problems

This week I got a question from a client who's struggling with performance issues on her Drupal/CiviCRM site.

The public-facing side runs fine, but for logged-in staff users, many of the admin pages are excruciatingly slow.

I had them reach out to their hosting service, who of course wants to be able to see it happening in order to diagnose it.

Unfortunately, things seem to be running fine now.

Yes, “unfortunately” — because it's pretty hard to debug a problem if you can't see it happening, and recreating a performance issue is a lot like trying to recreate a traffic jam: everybody knows what one looks like, but it's not so easy to make it happen on command..

So what to do? Well, she has a few options:

1. Record the problem happening.

She could wait until it's happening again, and record a screencast showing that the front end operates normally, and that certain admin pages are very slow.

She could at least show this to the hosting support team as evidence that the problem actually exists.

If she tells them exactly when it was happening, and the IP address from which she was accessing the site, they may even be able to find something in the logs that will help identify the problem.

2. Just be persistent.

Even without such a video, she can continue describing the problem to the hosting support team and hope that persistence persuades them to at least propose some solution.

3. Experiment with other hosting.

She could try hosting the site somewhere else: a larger server with the current hosting provider, or a server at a different provider. This might even be a temporary experiment, in which she could decide to go back to the original hosting service.

If the problem never appears there, she could assume it must have been something with the current hosting setup and then decide whether to go back to that or continue with the new service.

If it does appear under the new hosting, that's an indication that something is amiss in the site itself, and we could dig in further to identify what that is.

4. Quantify the problem in order to budget for a solution.

Any given problem has some quantifiable cost. It may not be easy to identify that quantity, but there's probably some way to put a number on it.

If she can do that, then she can make a rational decision about how much to invest in a solution, and when to just live with it because it's not worth the cost of fixing it.

Here's the thing:

Performance issues can be hard to debug. And any sporadic problem can be really hard to debug.

It's usually worth considering a few different options and then making a rational plan.

It definitely sucks, but deciding how much it sucks can help a lot to determine how hard you're willing to work to fix it.

All the best,
A.

Content that helps

Something more on reciprocity:

What do we mean when we say, “content that helps the folks who are reading it?”

This morning I received an email newsletter from one of my local organizations, an org that provides low-to-no-cost mental health services to families facing trauma and crisis.

This newsletter goes out to hundreds of folks each month; some are clients or potential service recipients; others are just interested in the organization’s work.

There are 5 content items in this newsletter:

1. “Trick-or-Treat” (link to a calendar of local Fall festivities and events)

2. “DIY Costume Ideas!” (link to a great article on easy costumes — including Bob Ross, WTH!)

3. “National Bullying Prevention Month” (link to the “Parents” page at stompoutbullying.org)

4. “Salvation Army: Angel Tree” (link to the “Apply Now to Be a Recipient of Angel Tree” page at the local Salvation Army website)

5. “New Service Available” (in-email announcement of a dedicated computer kiosk at the local library where the organization’s client’s can apply to various agencies for help with housing, employment, etc.)

It looks to me like maybe 100% of the content here is mean to be immediately helpful to the reader or someone they know. Perhaps #3 is a call to action, but it’s definitely not a call to help this organization.

What does this do for the organization?

• It directly furthers their mission, which is to support families dealing with trauma and crisis.

• It demonstrates that the organization (more specifically, the people at this organization) actually care about these families.

• It reminds both potential clients (service recipients) and potential donors of the good work this organization continually does in the community.

All of that while almost completely avoiding words like “we,” “our,” and “us.”

In other words, this newsletter is about you. The only “we” here is the fact that it came from us.

That’s content that helps the reader.

And that’s a way to do the mission — and build support for the mission — while increasing good will among the people who make the mission possible.

All the best,
A.