Tag Archives: organization

Launch Recap

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I had every intention of blogging each day of Launch501c3… so much for intentions.
Craig Gross (XXXChurch), Jake Larson and myself were joined by Jamie Tworkowski (TWLOHA) and Chris Dumas (DonorTools) for this small gathering of non-profit founders and launch leaders. Our hope is that each person left invigorated and better equipped for the challenges that lay ahead of them in the start-up phases of their new non-profit organizations.

Having been friends for a long time, it is always great to see Craig in his energized and creative modes. He shared lessons learned by tracking back through the years of daring ideas, provocative approaches to ministry and sharing about the personal risks he took for the vision that he has. I can’t imagine that there was a person who walked away not inspired to try some new things in their endeavors. To this day I still believe that I have not yet encountered another person who has the same amount of marketing genius and creative social entrepreneurial insights as Craig.

Not ever having met Jamie in person, I was impressed by his humility and his authenticity to bring hope and healing to those who are ready to give up on life. But beyond his incredible message and his well documented victories, it was great for each person here to be able to learn as he relayed accounts of his personal sacrifices, struggles and obstacles he has had to overcome to hold onto his initial vision.

Chris gave some insightful pointers about fund-raising. He and his partner have effectively and insightfully created an  donor management tool that really takes a lot of the pain and headache out of the admin. process related receiving donations. In fact, I would say that their tools energize us more to more actively engage with each of our donors.  Beyond this tool though, I was extremely impressed by Chris’ deep knowledge and experience with nonprofit start-ups & donor development.

We are already developing new ideas and content for next year’s Lacunh501c3 group.
Thanks to all of you who participated. We are looking forward to seeing you change your part of the world.

1 Life, 3 Words, 6 Steps

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Overwhelmed and stressed out by all of the crap that keeps stacking up?

Try this —> I give you my “Money Back Guarantee” on the start of a kick-ass, productive work life! It is centered around those 3 words that sometimes rule our lives “NEED TO DO”. You are about to experience one of the best investments of 30 minutes of your work week.

step 1 – BE ALONE; singular, by yourself, only 1. Tune everything out. Turn off your computer & your phone – close your door – be alone & free from distraction.

step 2 – GET 2 ITEMS, a piece of paper & a pencil. We are going old school.

step 3 - Write down everything you NEED TO DO (the key 3 words) – include everything that comes into your head or that is stressing you out.

step 4 - Write “Today”, “This Week”, “Next Week”, or “Future” (1, 2, 3, or 4) next to every item for priority indicators

step 5 – Select 5 or fewer TODAY ITEMS; be VERY realistic erring on the side of conservative.

step 6 – Take 6 DEEP BREATHS; enjoy your life and the moment

NOW you can go get started. Work really hard. Eliminate distractions, time killers and losers. Quite no later than 5pm. Have a nice beverage. Enjoy your family.

Chunk Planning

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Even the best planners and strategists can be overwhelmed by the entire picture, so don’t be disappointed when you are daunted by the thought of outlining the key steps to your next major goal.

Think in terms of chunks or key pieces.

  1. Open up a fresh document and type out what you believe are the key ingredients.
  2. Then, open another new document and put just 1 of those key ingredients at the top.
  3. I am a bullet point guy, so below I would start my bullets and then seek to list all of the items that must be done or met for this area to contribute to the bigger goal.
  4. Repeat step 3 for all of the areas.
  5. Get a 2nd and 3rd set of eyeballs on your initial brain dumpings… this is great because in just 60 minutes (or less) you can draw up some pretty comprehensive, logical and strategic steps towards accomplishing your big goal.

Pick you next goal and try it. It works.

Get it done!

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Who wants to hear anyone frustrated at them for not getting stuff done on time? Not one of us, but yet, it seems that for some of us as the work load is piling up, we have a hard time just “getting it done”. Here are some basics to consider and integrate into your work life when you need to just get some crap done, out the door and delivered.

  • Get alone – Find a quiet place (don’t tell me you work best at Starbucks) where NO ONE will bother you; politely tell the nosy person next to you to be quiet if you aren’t allowed to leave your work space. When you are done you can go out for drinks and make up later.
  • Set aside a chunk of time - More than you realize, most everyone has a hard time sitting still and just doing some work. Before prioritizing your list, schedule your next isolated work time right away on your calendar. Block it out as an appointment to yourself and make every effort to keep it as though you were meeting with your boss.
  • Turn off your email & cell phone - Seriously… you are wasting more time there than you realize and it distracts your focus.
  • Brainstorm your tasks - Everything you need to accomplish should be in one master list. Yes, it must be digital! Don’t tell me your notebook works, your grandparents didn’t have to hold onto as many details as you do today. Don’t worry about sorting yet, just get it ALL done on a list… think through every aspect of your life: work, projects, home, personal goals, honey-do’s, etc.
  • Most important stuff first - Use the #’s 1, 2 & 3 to prioritize your list; #1′s being urgent items, #2′s being important & #3′s being items that you would someday like to get to.  Since it is on the computer you will be able to sort it (see the genius now?).
  • Do it NOW! - If there is a project that is due today, the get to work on it now! make a sub-list for the project of the things associated with it that you need to get going on. enjoy the victory of checking things off.
  • Easy stuff 2nd – There might be more projects to do, but with you next allotment of time (now or that time you set aside) use it to clear a bunch of easy things off your plate. you will feel much better.

Tech info. - if you run on a PC, then just use the Outlook task pad; I used it for years and it is VERY robust. if you are MAC, you can use Wunderlist, Things, Task Paper, or OMNI Focus.

at all costs, DON’T kill Mo

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laws of physics state that objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion unless met with force or resistance. this was very evident to me this week as i was pulling my rig up a hill into the Rockies. the grades ranged between 6-8%.  some were straight, some were windy, some were clear sailing and while others had trucks crowded to the right and speeders flying to the left. a certain grade presented a dilemma that most of you will answer quickly. if you have some momentum and are going faster than the trucks in the right lane, do you get over to left to keep going even if you might frustrate some of the traffic there who end up following?

answer = YOU BET!

if you answered NO, you have never faced the challenge of pulling a load up a steep incline.

Momentum is a critical ally in leadership. building ‘MO’mentum takes hard work, well developed strategies, diligent oversight, lots of cheering, clarification of mission and goals, and the celebration of victories. quite possibly it will take many cycles off these to attain it. you will know that you have MO when as some would say “you feel things begin to click”. victories come easier and more often. goals and objectives are being reached and when your mission is being achieved (in part or whole) right in front of your eyes. then invariably, you will come to a juncture where you and other leaders will face some tough decisions about the continuation of things from the past and opportunities that are presenting themselves for the future. with each of these decisions, you must ask this important question:

WILL THIS KILL OUR MO?

Sometimes the killer of MO will be resistance to growth. Or it could be resistance to change. Or it could be the desire to go faster (throttle down) than your group can keep up with. Or…. i think you get the idea. it could be a lot of things. but know this, once momentum is lost, it is a hard slog back up the hill to where it can be recaptured again.

side note: Momentum and Rhythm are closely related but not the same. you can get into a rhythm but have no momentum. Both are important but momentum is more important.

2nd side note: this nugget easily applies to bike riding, rv pulling, building teams, organizational progress and to leadership.