I started a nonprofit before I finished college, and its mission was to inspire thousands of people to volunteer. Talk about a big goal!
It wasn’t until I read one of my favorite business and psychology books of all time – Switch, By Chip and Dan Heath – that I started to understand the keys to really galvanizing people to take action.
(Spoiler alert: To date, that nonprofit I started has mobilized over 50,000 people to volunteer – so I guess we learned some things!)
Using decades of research on human and organizational psychology, the Heath brothers break it down for us like this:
People are simultaneously rational AND emotional. You’ve got to appeal to both sides of the brain (+ the heart) to inspire movement.
There are so many amazing lessons from this book – and we don’t have the space to cover them all in this newsletter (seriously, go check out Bitesized Books for the key points!). So, I’m going to hone in on 3 in particular:
Bright Spots
As I was saying:
You’re about to launch a new program, and nobody on your team seems nearly as excited as you are.
Like any curious social impact leader, you start asking around to figure out what’s at play here. And you discover something interesting:
One of the reasons your team seems unenthused is that they’re afraid.
They don’t think this exciting new program is going to work.
They worry they’ll put in a bunch of work, and it will fail.
This revelation is actually good news.
Why? Because with this diagnosis, you can treat the symptoms of disengagement.
As the Heath brothers say in Switch, Chapter 1:
“What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.”
You can do this by making it clear how the effort can work. You show them what’s possible, and you do that by finding and showcasing what Switch calls “Bright Spots”.
Bright Spots are success stories.
They can be examples of past success within your own organization, or even from other similar social impact efforts in some other city.
Researching other organizations with similar missions who have made similar programs work would be a great strategy, using this example.
Once you have a Bright Spot success story or two, you bring these to your team, addressing their apprehensions head on, saying: “See? It IS possible.”
Shrink The Change
So you’ve appealed to your team’s rational side by showing them that the impact is possible through Bright Spots.
But it’s clear that achieving success is going to take a lot of work. It’s going to take a lot of brain power, time, and energy.
You can see your team’s eyes glaze over, getting weary with how complex and overwhelming it all feels.
You get it. It’s a big goal. A big effort.
So if you’re going to inspire them to get started, you have to make the seemingly enormous project feel less enormous.
You’ve got to “Shrink the Change”.
In Switch, Shrinking the Change simply means breaking down huge goals and tasks into smaller, manageable steps. That way, getting started, and making progress, doesn’t feel so overwhelming.
Here’s where you show off those solid nonprofit management skills:
Plot out the roadmap to launch your program (or fundraising campaign, or start-up, or whatever it is you need your team to be motivated to do). Do it in writing.
Start with the big end goal (“The program is launched!”), and work your way backwards, writing small steps that will lead to that result. Maybe it’s things like:
- Week 1: “Do a community survey to understand the needs of those we serve.”
- Week 2: “Create a webpage about our program.”
- Week 3: “Brainstorm a marketing strategy for our program.”
And now, the team sees they just need to do one thing at a time. And that getting started isn’t so hard after all.
Shape The Path
By now you’ve appealed to your team’s rational side and emotional side. You’re starting to see signs of life.
But there’s still a little more to be done to create a situation where your team can take action successfully (and easily).
We can be the most motivated people in the world, but our environments can still get in our way.
Ever try to finish an assignment or have a meeting with loud construction happening outside your window? It’s distracting. It’s friction.
We need to remove the friction – obstacles in our environment preventing our team from doing its best work. We need to “Shape the Path.”
Start by identifying the points of friction in your team’s environment – including in your team’s actual physical workspaces, or even the team’s existing routines or schedules.
Your goal is to design a space / schedule / workflow that makes it as easy as possible for your team to take action.
Examples:
- Want better team collaborations? Provide access to more shared workspaces.
- Want increased donor engagement? Set up automated email reminders for your team to do personalized follow-ups.
- Want your team to turn in assignments on time? Visibly celebrate the team members doing it – so the whole team can see this is the behavior to model!
In Conclusion…
There are so many more applicable lessons from Switch for nonprofit and social impact leaders. I’m a firm believer anyone who has a goal of creating social change should go give it a read.
Have you read it?
What did you think?
Hit reply and let me know. 🙂
