Three ways to make your mission come alive on a Monday morning
- Mon, August 22 2011
- Filed under: Nonprofit leadership
Are you struggling to excite your staff or supporters about your cause? If you’re flagging in the inspiration department this Monday morning, try taking three steps to generate greater excitement around your mission.
1. Paint a clear picture of one big achievement you aim for THIS YEAR. This is a good cure for motivation problems. What amazing thing could be finished by December 31? The reason this approach is helpful is that it gives people an interim endpoint for your broader mission. It helps them feel together, we are going somewhere—and getting there soon. Without this kind of picture, people get tired with the unending bigger goals of fighting poverty, ending a disease or improving the environment.
2. Set a “black and white goal.” This is a good cure for inaction. I borrow this term from Dan Heath, who argues for setting an all-or-nothing goal to get people motivated to consistently do something. It worked for me with blogging this year. I wanted to “blog more,” so I set a black and white goal of blogging every single day. What daily, weekly, or monthly black and white goals can you set for your team or supporters?
3. Make your efforts visual. This is a good cure for exhaustion. Show progress toward your mission with fun visual elements, on your website and the walls of your office. At Network for Good, we have giant thermometers for our goals around the office. We also have glass walls filled with orange ping pong balls to show how many nonprofits we’ve helped. We add balls as we increase our impact. It also gives us a great visual aid for visitors to make our work more tangible and exciting.
Have a wonderful, inspiring week!