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This month we are taking a moment to say YAY! We don’t do that very often. Okay, I think we’ve only done this one other time in our 18 years at Foraker – that’s when we launched our book, Focus on Sustainability, A Nonprofit’s Journey. So, for the second time we will pause for a moment and celebrate the launch of our new website. I hope you will take some time to explore it because, after all, we built it for you. First, what I hope you notice is it’s still us – serving as your support, your Partner, and your friend in strengthening your mission from the inside out. I hope you see yourself and what you want to do, whether it’s finding a network of support, or diving into your next plan, or working on building a skill as a board or staff member. I hope you feel inspired to take on a public policy challenge facing our sector, or hear your own voice amplified around issues that matter to you. I hope you find not only what you need but what you want from us.
This is the third time since we opened our doors in 2001 that we have updated the website. Thankfully, technology has leaped ahead and we can do much more with a website than we could 17 years ago. That said, you won’t find shinny distractions in our revised site. We opted for simplicity to describe the complexity of our work. To be sure, the tabs have changed to make the options for engagement clearer. But more than anything, what has changed is our understanding of you – the nonprofit professional, volunteer, and board member who is looking for support.
Like you, we know this is a big undertaking and one not done lightly. You likely have a project like this. You know the ones – they are big, they take a lot of time, they take some money, and more than anything they take digging deeply into expressing what matters most to both your internal team and to the people with whom you are communicating. Maybe for you it is also a website project, or articulating your purpose and values, or crafting any number of plans, or maybe it is about launching a new service or a collaborative effort. What all of these need for success is clarity.
This kind of clarity comes from knowing the answers to some fundamental questions: Who are we talking to, who is our audience? What do we want to say? Why do we want to say it? What is the best way for our message to be heard? These questions and their answers are also the basis of every successful communication strategy. Unfortunately, way too often we jump into projects without first diving into these questions. Instead we start by talking about the way we will deliver our message. Those conversations often go something like this: “Hey, let’s do a newsletter.” Or “Let’s write a letter and send it to everyone.” Or “Let’s create a website.” Newsletters, letters, websites etc. are simply vehicles for our messages but without knowing the answers to all the other questions, we are likely to miss our goals. Why? Because likely when we start with the deliverable, we end up creating something that is great for us, but not right for our intended audience.
Audience, after all, has to be specific. And “the whole community” doesn’t count as a focused audience. I see the temptation to say: “The whole community needs to know about us.” Or “If the whole community knew about us then…” Perhaps I am the bearer of bad news, but unless we can be more specific about the “who” is in the “community” and “what” we want them to do when they hear the message, then we will spend a lot of time, money, and energy for little return.
Imagine instead gathering your team and starting the conversation not by asking: “What are we going to do?” But “Why do we want to do it?” The magic word in this new question is “why.” Knowing our “why” dramatically shifts the conversation. There is a great tool to use called the “Five Whys.” This is truly one of my favorite tools in the tool box. It is simple to use, but so rich in results. The simplified version of the way it works is to start with an idea and sincerely ask “why.” Then once you get that answer, ask “why” again. With every “why” the answers should likely dig deeper and more clarity will surface. The true magic of the “Five Whys” is that the process helps to uncover assumptions, it moves away from the simplistic answer and it gets down to what truly matters. A note of caution: if you and the team find yourselves giving a simple answer or circular answer – stop and regroup. And commit to digging more deeply into assumptions. That round robin can sound something like this: “We need to raise more money. Why? Because then we can do more things. Why? Because more things will help us generate more money etc.” Stop – go for clarity.
Sometimes I think of this process as “asking a better question” or certainly “asking a different question.” An example of how this might look happened recently when I was talking with a CEO who was feeling stuck. Her board was MIA on a key issue. She had tried her regular path of communication. It didn’t work. As we talked, she realized she needed to ask her board members a different question and she exclaimed: “I know that I am not asking the right question when I can’t solve the problem.” Indeed, if we can’t solve our problem or see our way forward then we are likely asking the wrong question to get us where we need to go. We talked about her “whys” and she figured out that she needed to take the challenge in front of her and pivot her question to get to the “why,” which was the core of the problem. She was getting stuck at her first interpretation of the problem and not seeing the real issue she faced. Of course, clarity does not always solve things right away. There is still plenty of work to do. We have learned this in our website project and maybe, like you, our fellow CEO has a journey in front of her. The good news for all of us is that with clarity comes action and with action comes results. Just like her, we can all do that. We can stop. Breathe. Gather our team. And dive more deeply. Ask the better question. Question our assumptions. And know our “why.”
I started this article celebrating our latest way of serving you and the nonprofit sector—a renewed website. But really, this is just the tangible result of our team asking a lot of “whys.” And because of that process, we have wrestled with ideas, explored our own assumptions, and found another layer of clarity in our work. It is not every day we get to see the results of this kind of work. Whatever the project is you and your team are working on, I hope your “why” is clear and your results are amazing. I hope you will share them with us so we can celebrate with you. Until then, thanks for clicking into our front door. We invite you in to look around and let us know what we can do to make you feel at home.