How Do I Make The Case?

I’m at the NTC (Nonprofit Technology Conference) in San Francisco this week, soaking in all the knowledge, wisdom, and information I can.

I just finished a session from Dean Hollander (Fenton Communications) about strategically re-designing your web site. In the Q&A session, one person after another stood up and said, “At my organization, we need to change our web site but I’m not sure how to convince management to invest time in it…” or “How do I convince my boss not to put an essay on the home page?”

I raised this exact question in a session yesterday about branding and my qualms about asking my directors to re-open the branding process that they just completed (see my last post). It sounds like a lot of us in the nonprofit communications field are butting up against this issue – managing our management.

We know the value of communications and the web site and e-newsletters, et. al. but we’re struggling to find the words, tactics, language, tools that will make our bosses see the light. It seems so apparent what we should do to us, but we know that there will be push-back from above.

I’m not sure there are any general answers to these questions – only experience will help… and learning from others’ experiences.

To this end, I’ll write about my experience over the next weeks and months about convincing my organization to re-brand and re-design. If I crash and burn, at least you’ll all know what not to do!

A Dicey Branding Situation

Day 29

When I joined this organization nearly month ago, there was good news waiting for me… and bad news. The good news was that the executive committee had taken the big step of engaging in the redesign of the organization’s brand – a name change, a new logo, a new tagline, the whole works. They had lived with the same brand for years (maybe even decades! The history is unclear) and it was courageous of them to both recognize that they needed a change and start the process of change.

The bad news is that the result of their re-branding process was less than inspiring. In fact, it looked like more of the same – a vague name with a vague tagline and a forgettable logo. As I learned more about their process, it sounded like they had violated all the ground rules of re-defining your organization.

First, they had changed the organization’s name so that it better reflected what they thought they did. They didn’t seem to consider whether this new name would mean anything to their constituents and audiences, whether it would engage, spark, or intrigue people, or whether it would be a recognizable something that people would want to be part of.

Second, they didn’t seem to consider how this name change would differentiate themselves from their competition (other organizations that advocate for similar issues). In fact, when I asked one of the directors about their choice, she stated that they chose the name “because it will be more like what other organizations are doing.”(!)

Third, they didn’t plan the release of this new brand to coincide with any external or social event. Instead, they assumed that the name change itself would be enough of an event to get people excited. They didn’t seem to realize that people get excited about the issues we work on and the work we do, not about any organizational restructuring or internal redefinition. As has been said many times in the nonprofit marketing world, it’s not about you! It’s about what they think of you.

This is a sticky situation for me. They have invested a lot of time and energy (and money) on this rebranding process. But I believe they are making a big mistake and missing a huge opportunity. I’ve prodded one director a bit about how open they are to reconsidering the new name/brand now that I’ve joined the team and the answer was, “Not much.”

So how do I address this situation? How do I get them to see the opportunity they are missing? How do I get them to revisit the issue without denigrating the work they have already done?

I could let it lie and just go with it, but I feel it is my professional duty to pursue a better outcome to this process. Any suggestions?

Investing for the Long Term

First of all, sorry for the absence. I got taken down by a cold (probably from the stress of a new job) so I haven’t been able to get any thoughts in order lately for public consumption.


The big news to report over the last ten days is that the executive committee of my organization has done an impressive thing – they have put aside the immediate in favor of the strategic.

After three weeks on the job, both my directors and I observed that I was getting inundated with projects. Sending photos to publishers, preparing promotional packs, organizing contact lists. This was not what they hired me for. Certainly these things needed to get done and eventually they would be my responsibility. But this was not what they hired me for.

So we all sat down and returned to their vision for this position – someone who develops strategy for better advocacy, who understands the issues and the field, who can see the best directions to go in. Executing the strategy is part of the job, but it is not the most important part. My value to this organization lies in the big picture arena.

So the executive committee did a bold thing. They declared that my responsibility for the next 3-6 months was to learn. Not to produce or execute, but to learn. They passed the pressing and immediate communications tasks to other staff to do on a part-time basis and opened my calendar to any and all opportunities to read, network, attend seminars, review materials, explore ideas, and develop my understanding.

While the organization is pressed for help with daily communications tasks, they understand that dumping all that on my plate would just be a short-term solution to an immediate problem. Allowing me to embed myself in the field for a while will pay off in the long term with much richer, deeper communications strategies that will have more impact.

In this stressful climate, when our organization like many is counting its pennies every month and fearful of layoffs, it is impressive for this committee to make a long-term investment. I suspect that this is the kind of choice that has made this organization successful over the years. It makes me happy and proud to work here.

When Did I Become A Manager?

Here’s a list of things I did yesterday:

• Tracked down the email list that was being reviewed by John, a program manager, and had settled into the mountain of papers on his desk
• Talked to Oliver, the IT guy about upgrading our publishing software
• Talked to Jeannie, the staff member, who is producing the layout for a promotional packet
• Uncovered the list of possible funders that we should be in touch with and reviewed them for Alex, our development person
• Checked in with Canton, a staff member, about the promotional board for the front of the office
• Met with Jamie, a director, about re-writes for a presentation packet
• Searched for tools to use to re-organize our overflowing image collection (15,000+ !)
• Stared at the screen for ten minutes as my brain began to melt down

You will notice that nowhere on this list is the word, “wrote,” or, “produced,” or , “designed.” Somehow I spent my entire day tracking people down, tracking things down, and tracking the status of projects. At no point did I do any actual communications work.

I guess this shouldn’t be too surprising as part of being a director involves overseeing the whole program and making sure it keeps moving toward the goal. But I guess I envisioned at least some of my work involving the act of communicating – writing, designing, creating, producing.

The flood of projects, large and small, that pop up each day, that need to be done by tomorrow, by Friday, by next week, means that management is going to be a big part of my job. I will have to manage the flow of the projects. I will have to manage the people contributing to the projects. I will even have to manage getting my bosses to finish things for me.

Taking out time for writing, turning off my email to think about a design, finding a quiet conference room in which I can sketch out my thoughts – these things are going to be hard to do. I will have to consciously block out time for this work. I will have to intentionally set aside the more immediate, pressing concerns and focus on the creative task. I will have to make my need for this clear to me and clear to all the people putting things in my In-box that they needed yesterday.

This is a challenge I was not prepared for. I kind of like the idea of stretching myself in this direction, trying out the management hat, seeing if I can do it. But for both my professional success and personal satisfaction, I need to keep creative time as a conscious priority and not let it get swamped by the here-and-now.

Thoughts?

So, What Do You Do?

Thursday I went out to lunch with some people from a nonprofit development organization that we occasionally work with. It was a kind of meet and greet thing, just to get to know each other better and keep the working relationships going.

Since I was the new guy, one of our program directors introduced me around as the new communications director. Everyone nodded their head at that and we got down to ordering our lunch.

But when the food came, one of the development people turned to me and asked, “So, what do you do?”

“Well, I’m the Director of Communications for our organization,” I replied.

He looked at me quizzically.

“I do the communications and outreach for the organization,” I offered.

“Oh,” he said, “you mean like the web site?”

“Yes, but its more than that. I’m in charge of spreading the message about our work. I write descriptions of our projects and create graphics for flyers and such.”

“Oh,” he said as he turned back to his chicken curry.

I knew I had missed the mark. My description of my job carried none of the excitement I feel about the work. I wasn’t making sense to him. I wasn’t bridging the gap between people who do the programs and people who communicate about the programs. I wasn’t making him see the value of quality communications and how they are so critical to nonprofit work.

It wasn’t until later in the day that I was able to think of a better way to answer the question, “What do you do?” I realized that my communications work is not just about making tangible changes, like redesigning the web site, producing ‘leave-behind’ materials, or creating a regular newsletter. My role is not defined by these things that I make.


As the communications director, my job is to be the Storyteller in Chief for the organization. My job is to capture the stories that drive the organization’s work. I look beyond the technical aspects of the programs they run to the human emotions and qualities that make it all happen. I draw pictures of the challenges they face in this very personal work of changing their part of the world.


I also realized after that lunch that facing this question and sorting out my answer to it is a critical part of my work. If I cannot explain my value to someone in the nonprofit world, it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to sell the broader audience on the value of our organization. I definitely should take advantage of lunch meetings like these to practice my messaging!

Seven Days In

Let’s take a look at some of the tips and tasks that I’ve already run into in my first six days on the job.

#11 Assess the mess & #12 Deal with the mess
In the first few days, I toured the communications archives of the organization – the piles of leftover flyers and handouts, the folders full of media clips, the server storing hundreds of photos, documents, and various graphics. There was some semblance of organization to it all, but for the new guy coming in, it was a labyrinth to me. Apparently it had grown through accretion over the years. People knew where to find things for their particular needs (a flyer for my meeting, a photo for my PowerPoint), but there was no overall system.

To some extent, this mess feels paralyzing. All these documents, photos, clips, and materials have to be sorted out and organized (and culled!) before I can make any decisions about what materials to make next. But the mess (or messes) will take some serious man-hours to pull apart and re-sort. It feels like a difficult trade-off between going through these archives (looking backwards) and getting projects done today (moving forward). Anybody know a good intern?

#13 Take care of my boss’s pet peeves
My boss is a stickler about photos. All pictures of our work have to show the right angle, the best light, and the critical details. Editing must be done carefully and precisely. Fortunately, several staff clued me in to my boss’s focus on photos so I was well prepared when putting together a small magazine advertisement yesterday.

#15 Find out what your coworkers think your job is
This organization has had two marketing managers in the past but this is the first time they have had a full-blown communications director. While I’m sure that most have them were told that my job will be different from the past, a few people have fallen back into referring to my position as the marketing person” or “marketing director.” I’ve refrained from correcting them (because it would have sounded peevish) but in the near future I should do a brown-bag lunch and present the full gamut of my work. I’ll need my coworkers to support my efforts so they have to see the whole picture.

#18 Review the organization’s 12-month calendar
The calendar of events for this organization, like much of the organizational info, is walking around inside the heads of the directors and staff. So far, they only way I have found out what is going on is through informal conversations with staff at all levels. To keep on top of the calendar, it would be nice to create some system for centralizing this information. But the key players have been doing it this way for years, so I’ll have to work with them for a while.

Fingers in the Pie

One of the key tasks I was brought on to do for this organization is to lead an overhaul of their web site. The site needs a completely new architecture, navigation structure, and graphic theme, not to mention an infusion of updated content, images, video, and applications.

I definitely have my own ideas of how this needs to be done. I come with a vision for a more interactive, more story-centric web site that first engages audiences and then educates them. I also have a sense of how the process should work, especially since the responsibility for making the changes ultimately resides with me.

However, I am realizing very early on that even though I am leading this project, I am not the only authority on it. In fact, almost everyone in the organization seems to have an opinion about what the web site looks like, how it works, and what is on it. The executive director wants the home page to explain what the organization does in full. The program manager wants better graphics for her program descriptions. The receptionist thinks the contact page needs to be reworked. The IT guy is worried about changes to the file structure.

What is interesting about this is seeing how each and every person seems to take the web site personally. They see it not as a functional tool for communications but as a presentation of their identities, both individually and collectively. They feel that everyone in the organization has a voice in what the web presence looks like.

As this process moves forward, we will see whether this universal interest in the web site is a good thing or a bad thing. On the good side, their concerns reflect a strong connection and commitment to the organization. Everyone wants to make it work and help their mission be realized. On the bad side, however, their concerns could lead to fractured decision-making and an inability to move forward on the redesign. The project could be stalled along the shoals of minor disagreements and turf wars.


The key for me, as the communications director and the leader of this project, will be to find the balance between these two directions. I want to harness the organization-wide energy for change and engagement by keeping the process transparent and open to input. But I need to maintain a firm grip on the rudder and steer us through decision-making processes that get us to our shared goal of a new, improved web site. This will take a sensitivity to the politics of the organization and a willingness to make decisions that won’t be universally popular.

Who knew that changing the web site would become an exercise in political management?