As it is with each of our Consultant Immersion Courses, the focus began far beyond the question “What do I have to do to effect change in my community?” Instead the class began where we begin each time, asking, “What does it mean to be the change I want to see in my community?”

I hope that begins to answer why conversations here at the blog have ground firmly to a halt.  The week was an intense cap to one of the most intense months we’ve experienced in quite some time. It started with a trip to Chicago as the “founders of the diaper banking movement,” to meet with leaders from ten diaper banks from across the country.  It was powerful to see what this small band has accomplished already, and more powerful to consider what they could accomplish together that none of them can accomplish on their own.

The month included a week of preparing for our immersion course, and another week teaching that course. It included visiting a dear friend for several days, knowing it would be the last time we would see him. And then the month included not only his passing, but the sudden passing of another member of our extended family - a 33 year old man who was a mentor to my daughter. Death and birth and intense work marked the month of October.

And transformation. Thinking about our Consultants Immersion Course last week, I am realizing the extent to which teaching this class also transforms me. October’s class was Class #4, which means I’ve been transformed 4 times now. Class #5 will join the team mid-November, which means I am due for the next morphing of my own being. What a gift that is!

Participants in the courses have included both independent consultants and leaders of management support organizations (volunteer centers, United Ways, etc.). They have included a 77 year old who is ready to greet whatever life has in store for her next career, and a 35 year old who is at the exact same place.

Some have been relatively new consultants, wanting to form effective “community change habits” right out of the chute.  Some have been consulting for 30+ years, knowing the course would stretch them beyond their very comfortable comfort zones, and further knowing that is precisely what it will take to be the change they had hoped their consulting work would have created by now.

All these individuals share one thing in common: A commitment to doing whatever it takes to be the change they want to see in the world.

They know that the 3 tiny words “be the change” includes two critical components. The first component lies in the words the change.  Exactly what change is it that we want to see?  That change is nothing less than our highest potential as consultants and as change facilitators. Spending time to identify the change takes the phrase beyond a trite saying, and begins to make that change real and possible and powerful.

Secondly, “being the change” requires that we understand the being part. What does it mean to be that change?  What does it mean to be our own highest potential as change agents?

As I get my sea legs back after the intensity of last month, I hope the transformation of last week’s class spills over in this post, and spreads over your own work.

What is the highest potential for the work you are doing?

And what will it take to accomplish that success - to BE the change you want to see in the world?

We hope you will consider joining our merry band of change makers. Classes are scheduled throughout 2010.

In these conversations, people consistently share this:

I have been consulting to community benefit organizations for a long time. And I have been frustrated for a long time. I am really good at what I do, yet I can only bring my clients so far and no further. They are not creating the kinds of change I know they can create. Your work is the first place I have seen that says, “It can be different. We can indeed create more significant community change.”

They are not alone in their frustration. These days there is a rising cacophony of voices that see the potential of this sector and lament what it has not yet accomplished.

Most recently, this article from the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal has been making quite a splash, yet another voice touting the newest movement to solve the sector’s woes: the “Social Investment” Movement.  This movement is the promising progeny of the Charity Watchdog Movement, which itself was the promising result of the three-headed marriage between the Measurement Movement, the Capacity Building Movement, and the Run-Like-A-Business Movement.

Just as it is in a family of talented children, none of these movements has disappeared as others have jumped on the frustration band-wagon.  Also interestingly (but not surprisingly if you are familiar with our work on Problem-Solving), none of those movements has created any change in the circumstances they sought to address.  (For an analysis of the failure of these movements to change those conditions, download this - it’s free.)

Which brings me to a realization that has swept over me as I’ve listened to the dreams of the individuals who will join us next week - people who will absolutely have their work (and their whole being) transformed into powerful agents for change:

The difference between the work we are doing, and the dictates of the pundits and the “movements,” is that our work is, in fact, work.

We are not laying blame and dictating “shoulds”. We are creating change in communities.

The consultants who have come through our courses are bringing warring factions together to aim at overall community change.  They are moving community conversations from woes and troubles to potential and possibilities. They are changing legislation to create sweeping results. They are changing the focus of organizations from “our own survival” to “engaging the community in what is possible.”

It is one thing to be an armchair activist, pointing fingers and pontificating from the sidelines.  And I guess there is a place for that.

Through this week’s conversations, though, I am realizing where our place is: actually doing the work that needs to be done.  Our place is creating real change in communities, and sharing with others how they, too, can be the change they want to see.

Let the pundits and watchdogs keep talking and pointing fingers and vying for the spotlight. We’ve got real work to do.

Change your work and change the world.  The Pollyanna Principles will show you how.

My initial thought has always been that using the term “Community Benefit Organization” would not be a legal term - it would not replace IRS or other taxing entity language. It would just be what we call ourselves.

I’ve ranted about this for a long long time (like in this video that many of you have already seen).  As an advocate for this sector’s ability to create massive visionary change in our world, my purpose in raising the issue everywhere I speak is all the points I posed in that post - that the term “nonprofit” is confusing, negative, and often downright debilitating.

Because empowerment of what are currently called “nonprofits” has been my primary purpose in suggesting the change, it has only been as an afterthought (and a powerful afterthought at that) that I have begun strongly considering the question that was raised by that post.

If the term is simply a self-identifier with no legal requirements, could such a language change help bridge the gap between the various types of legal entities who are all aiming their work at Community Benefit? If an entity chose to state that its primary purpose was Community Benefit, would its tax status really matter as much as its intent?  And if so, why?

I confess that I haven’t thought it through entirely, and that my thinking might change. But for the life of me I cannot find a downside in having the term be used broadly by any entity whose self-defined primary purpose is Community Benefit.

A government health office whose primary focus is improving health outcomes in a community. A privately held business whose primary purpose is the same.

For me, the important thing is the end result we are aiming at. We all know we cannot build healthy, resilient, strong, engaged, compassionate communities if we are each working behind walled siloes. And yet I am struck by how often my suggestion that we tear down those walls is met with a clinging to the very walls we all say we abhor!

If an entity is dedicated to building healthy, vibrant, engaged, humane, equitable communities - and if that entity happens to make a profit by doing it - does that matter? If so why?

And if the term has no bearing from a legal / tax perspective, and is simply the term we use to define the purpose of our work - is there a reason such a well-meaning business / organization should not call itself a Community Benefit Organization?

Lately we hear a louder and louder drumbeat to stop using what my friend Mark Riffey calls “the other N word.”  Nonprofit.

This post will not be about that.

After all, if we’re mounting a campaign to move to more positive language, it’s pretty self-defeating to have that campaign itself be negative! The command to “STOP using negative language” is about as self-contradictory an oxymoron as one could find!

So herewith, 6 reasons to move TOWARDS a positive name for the work we all do - Community Benefit work.

1) “Community Benefit” Says What Our Organizations Are and Why They Exist
Imagine you’re going on a blind date.  You ask, “What is Joe like?”  And you are told, “Well he’s not very tall or thin.  He doesn’t like Italian food. Oh - and he doesn’t have a dog.”

There is more going on in this description than merely failing to provide pertinent information.  The real result of this description is to focus you on particular aspects about Joe.  Further, you will notice that none of those aspects is important to who Joe really is.

Is Joe an opera singer? A gourmet chef? A rocket scientist? Is he the most attractive and phenomenal lover the world has ever known?  You don’t know, not only because I have failed to tell you, but because the facts I HAVE chosen to share are irrelevant to being an opera singer or an amazing lover.

Calling your organization a Nonprofit focuses the world’s attention on a particular inconsequential aspect of your being - the financial means that allow your work to be accomplished.

Calling your organization a Community Benefit Organization declares to the world your primary purpose - to provide benefit to the community.

2) The Meaning of “Community Benefit Organization” is Straightforward and Clear
Misperceptions often arise from the emphasis the “nonprofit” label places on money.  And while those of us who live and breathe Community Benefit work cannot fathom how confusing the term can be to people who are not similarly immersed, here are just two examples from my own experience.

True Story #1: I was on a plane next to a young man who had just finished his second tour of duty overseas in the military.  He asked about the work I do, at which point he asked a question that had been nagging at him for years.  “How do they get anything done? If they’re nonprofit, doesn’t that mean they can’t use money?  How do they pay for things?”

True Story #2: At the end of their fiscal year, a small arts group was showing a profit. The board believed that was not permissible, because they were a “nonprofit.” They voted to donate every penny of those funds to another charitable organization.

I am not alone in these observations. Ellis Carter, an attorney to Community Benefit Organizations, shares similar stories. “This seems so obvious, but I get at least one call a year to settle an argument about whether all the organization’s money has to be spent by the end of the year.”

Calling your organization a Nonprofit leads people to make all sorts of assumptions about the financial means by which an organization is permitted to do its work.  Because those assumptions are overwhelmingly incorrect, they can actually cause harm.

However, if (for example) the arts group thought of itself as a “tax exempt Community Benefit Organization” - and the word “nonprofit” had never been uttered - it likely never would have occurred to them to give away their profits.

3) The Term “Community Benefit Organization” Creates a Strong, Powerful Self-Image
The term “Nonprofit” feeds our insecurities. It isn’t often you hear the term used as an excited exclamation: “We are a Nonprofit!”  Instead, the term is used (for example) when asking for a discount.  “We can’t afford much - we’re a nonprofit.”  No surprise there - the name almost screams, “We have no money!”

The term also puts organizations on the defensive, as the name itself is a comparison to something positive, stating unequivocally, “That thing you think of as positive - profit - we are NOT that.”

As a result, in addition to the “run like a business” mantra, we are now seeing entire promotional campaigns that declare “Nonprofits Are Businesses Too!” This attempt at self-justification saddens me every time I see it.

Positive words, on the other hand, make us feel - well - positive!

In keynote speeches, when I suggest to the audience that they are NOT “nonprofits” - they are Community Benefit Organizations - audience members sit up straighter in their seats. They gasp. They applaud and cheer.

Whether I am providing a 20 minute luncheon keynote or a full-day workshop, the thing that sticks in their minds as they fill in their evaluations is not the main subject matter, but an almost unanimous reflection: “I love the term Community Benefit Organization!”

Referring to your organization as a Nonprofit makes board and staff feel defensive and weak.  A sense of weakness is almost guaranteed to lead to fear-based, short-sighted decisions and plans.

Referring to your organization as a Community Benefit Organization generates an almost palpable sense of strength and power.  That sense of strength then pervades every decision that is made, and every action that is taken.

4) The Term “Community Benefit Organization” is Inclusive
Creating visionary change in our communities will take more than just one or two organizations. It will take linking arms between community organizations, government departments, elected officials, social entrepreneurs, and businesses large and small.

Because the term Community Benefit Organization focuses on a group’s intent in the world, the inclusiveness of the name allows for its use by all those entities - not just traditional “nonprofits.”

A business, for example, might rightfully feel uncomfortable telling its stockholders, “We have a nonprofit component to our work.”  However, that same project might be received quite differently if instead they said, “We have a Community Benefit component to our work, because strong communities are a critical component to our long term success.”

By using the term “Nonprofit,” we are suggesting that only tax-exempt organizations do good for the world. That divisiveness precludes our working together to build strong, resilient, vibrant communities.

By using the term “Community Benefit Organization,” we encourage anyone and everyone to join in the effort to build strong communities.

5) The Term “Community Benefit Organization” Provides Direct Marching Orders to the Board: Focus on Providing Benefit!
When a board believes it is a “Community Benefit” Board, the name proclaims the board’s marching orders - to provide the most benefit possible.

Conversations at the board table will focus primary accountability on the benefit you have promised to provide to the community.

Similarly, the goals of your organization’s annual plans will aim at the benefit you have promised to provide.

And that brings me to #6.

6) “Community Benefit” is a Promise
The brilliant Zach Braiker of the international business strategy firm Refine & Focus states, “Your name is your promise.  What outcome is the highest priority for you? That should be your name.”

So what is the highest priority outcome of this work we are all doing to make our communities amazing places to live?  Is it to vow never to make a profit?  Or are we promising to provide benefit to our communities, now and into the future?  Are we promising to build strong, healthy, resilient, vibrant places to live?

In the end, if that community benefit is what we are promising to provide, then that is the promise we should proudly proclaim in our name.

We are Community Benefit Organizations!

Watch the Video and get Community Benefit mugs for your board!

For the often unrewarded and unrecognized work you do, every single day, you deserve a gift - a boost you can share with everyone you know who is also working to create an amazing world.

You are amazing. You are doing amazing work. Thank you for doing it, and thank you for caring about doing it even better.

Have a great Monday and a great week, all!

I am grateful beyond words to Marion Chapsal and Tanveer Naseer for sharing this wonderful short film via Twitter.  You can follow them on Twitter here @MarionChapsal and @TanveerNaseer.

Parents see that all the time. Our kids show us remarkable behaviors, and when we comment on those behaviors they tell us, “I’m just doing what you always did.” We had no idea they were watching so intently.  We had no idea we were influencing anything. We were just doing what needed to be done.

I talk here every once in a while about the Diaper Banks Dimitri and I founded - the first-ever diaper bank here in Tucson, and its sister diaper bank in the Phoenix area. We built the diaper banks for one reason: we saw the need, we knew how to do it, and no one else was doing it.

Tonight we are in Chicago as part of a small group that has been convened for a diaper summit of sorts - 10 diaper banks from around the country, getting together to share opportunities and issues. We had no idea when we arrived that every one of them would greet us as if they already knew us, thanking us for the inspiration we gave them, for the groundwork we laid.  We had no idea we would hear the words, “I feel like I’m meeting a rock star!”

We were just doing what needed to be done.  We had no idea.

Throughout the day, people talked about the overwhelming need for disposable diapers - a must for leaving a child at daycare, a must for an elderly parent, a must for a disabled teenager. They talked about the need for national legislative advocacy, to have diapers included in WIC and in Medicare. They talked about raising awareness of the reality of living in poverty - eliminating stigmas and myths and creating real understanding of what poverty really is, really feels like. And they talked about what it might take to create communities that one day will not need diaper banks.

It is inspiring to realize that this amazing legacy - it’s OUR legacy! An issue, a campaign, a nationwide movement. We had no idea.

People often ask us, “What made you decide to give up 5 years of your life to do this?”  Our answer is always the same.  There was no decision. No thinking feeling human being can see such a need and walk away and do nothing.  We didn’t know it would take 5 years away from our business. We didn’t know we would be in a room with 20 people, each coming to us, one by one, thanking us for the inspiration we gave them.

We had no idea.

Which makes me wonder: What in your life are you not realizing you are influencing? For starters, your family absolutely - but who else is being influenced by what you do, what you say, how you be in the world?

In the 60’s, filled with youth’s unique blend of anger & idealism, we chanted, “The whole world is watching.” In this interconnected world, more and more people really are watching, all the time - more than we could ever imagine. Each and every one of us has no idea the influence our actions may have.

We really are creating the future. Tonight I ran into that face to face, and it startled me, amazed me, overwhelmed me. We are creating the future with every single thing we do.

Fancy that.

Several months ago I began to wonder if the highest potential in each of us isn’t simply to encourage the highest potential in others.  That question has been a powerful force for me, bringing with it all sorts of other questions.

What is it that inspires us humans to be our very best - to reach for our highest potential?

We all know that when someone is aiming their passion at something they care about, magic not only can happen, but routinely does happen.  How can we encourage others to find that magic inside themselves?

According to research by Dr. Barry Schwartz (as described in his talk at TED here), the thing that inspires us to do right by others is the extent to which we tap into the  “practical wisdom” each of us possesses, based on our own experience.

As consultants and teachers, as social workers and directors of arts organizations, as parents of young children and as adult children of aging parents, how can we bring out the highest potential in those around us?  How can we trust the wisdom of others, to inspire what Dr. Schwartz describes as their own “moral skill and moral will,” leading them to that high potential?

How can we get beyond words that show how little we trust the judgment of others?

• Have to / Must / Need to
• Should
• Convince / Persuade / talk them into / get them to do it
• They refuse / won’t

We are all so quick to assume others will not rise to the occasion (or even more harmful, that they are incapable of doing so). What words can we use, to substitute for the list of shoulds and cannots and will nots?

What words are you using? What questions are you asking?

In each and every part of your life, what are you doing to inspire the practical wisdom that exists in others - and in yourself?

Photo credit (me): 5th Ave Taxis thru the Lalique Windows at Henri Bendel

Some days it is easy to forget that we are indeed creating the future with every single thing we do. We know intellectually that every assumption we make, every action we take, every word we speak is creating the future.  And yet sometimes we see only what is frustrating, annoying, maddening.

And then…

This week will be an intense one for us - many things going on, all exciting, some stressful. Can I remember to look beyond the behaviors of those I encounter - to find what they are experiencing behind what they are showing to the world?

Here’s to all of us remembering to take a deep breath when we perceive people as being difficult.  Here’s to our remembering to take that opportunity to encourage their goodness - to hug them each time they ask, “What is that?”

Have a great Monday and a great week, all!

First there was this week’s live Twitter Chat, where consultants from around the world grappled with the extent to which inspiring vs. prescribing to clients is most effective. In that context, the words Best Practice came up often.

Then I received an email from a reporter, with questions about Best Practice for governance. And then, not 24 hours ago, I scanned the latest copy of the Blue Avocado newsletter, only to find an admonishment that we reconsider what we mean by Best Practice.

For the record, the term Best Practice doesn’t make me crazy because it is overused or even because it is less than honest, as noted in Blue Avocado.

The term makes me crazy because much of what is declared to be Best Practice is actually to blame for why the Community Benefit Sector has not significantly and overwhelmingly changed our communities!

“Best Practice” Issue #1: The Answers Are Outside Us
One issue that became clear in the Twitter chat this week is an issue I raised in The Pollyanna Principles - that organizations have much to build upon, and that when we use systems that build upon a groups’ own wisdom, they are more likely to own and then act upon the results.

Best Practice throws all that out the window. Best Practice assumes the answers have been predefined from outside the group, and that failure to adopt what the rest of the world is doing will be perceived as less than professional.

Best Practice suggests the group isn’t smart enough to come up with its own answers. Best Practice leads to seeing others (especially consultants and academics) as having those answers.

Encouraging a group to rely on Best Practice, then, is reinforcing for the group that they are not as smart as those other experts. Rather than empowering a group, reliance on Best Practice takes their power away.

In a world where boards so often feel like fish out of water, deferring to EDs out of their own sense of inadequacy, encouraging a board to focus on externally imposed Best Practice simply reinforces that sense of inadequacy. Use of Best Practice therefore creates weaker, less confident leaders, who do not own the results of their work, because that work was generated outside them - by experts providing externally developed Best Practice.

“Best Practice” Issue #2: Who Says It’s Best? And What is Best About It?
Blue Avocado points out that what is commonly accepted as Best Practice is more often than not simply common practice - what everyone else is doing. (Can’t you just hear your mother asking, “If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you?”)

Board gurus often cite all the Best Practice sources - BoardSource, Standards for Excellence, even the articles at our own Community-Driven Institute Library.

But what makes those sources “best?” Best at what? If, as an example, board effectiveness is measured by board participation and enthusiasm, or by an accountability-for-the-means checklist - but not by the extent to which that board is aggressively pursuing the organization’s vision and mission in the community - is that really “best?” Or have we replaced our vision for what is possible with a set of minimum standards and simply chosen to call those “best?”

“Best Practice” Issue #3: When “Best” is Actually Bad
That leads to the hardest issue to face: What happens when what is touted as Best Practice is actually harmful?

Best Practice in Governance that rewards accountability for the money (means) with zero accountability for community-driven results (ends).

Best Practice in Board Recruitment, that provides a matrix of pro bono roles to be filled (attorney, accountant, PR person, etc.), when in fact, recruiting board members for the purpose of receiving pro bono help is actually a direct cause of micromanagement.

Best Practice in fundraising (and in providing funding as a grantor) that teaches organizations to become more competitive / to sell themselves as “better than their competition” - while simultaneously bemoaning that those groups have trouble working cooperatively with the very organizations they have been instructed to “differentiate themselves against” (i.e. make themselves appear to be better than).

In just these 3 cases, adherence to Best Practice leads to and reinforces

• a lack of board accountability for end results in the community
• board micromanagement
• the assumption that organizations must treat the very people who care most about their mission as enemies

These practices move far beyond simply being “not best.” These Best Practices have caused dramatic harm - within individual organizations, within the Community Benefit Sector as a whole, and within the communities we all care about.

What To Do Instead?
If we humans are more likely to feel ownership of work we create ourselves, the answer becomes clear: Have groups establish their own “Best Practice.”

For simplicity’s sake, let’s use the board recruitment example. By scrapping the Best Practice board recruitment matrix, we can facilitate the group’s wisdom instead, asking such questions as:

• What are the qualities we want to be sure every board member has?
• What are the qualities it would be nice if some had, but not everyone needs to have?
• What are pro bono positions we wish the organization would attract? (Let’s be sure to recruit those separately as volunteers, rather than assuming we must add these folks to the board)
• What are the characteristics we never want to see on our board, ever ever ever?

From the lists of answers to these and other questions, each group will own its recruitment criteria and from there its recruitment process. And the same method of asking and encouraging the group’s own wisdom could then apply to all the other issues for which groups seek outside expertise.

As you seek to inspire and energize your board, your staff, your volunteers - even your donors - you may just find this lack of Best Practice to be the “best” practice of all!

What This Means for Consultants and Other “Experts”
As consultants, we are used to being asked for our expertise. Everything about the way we do our work changes, however, when instead of assuming the answer is outside the group, we assume the answer is in the room, and that our job as the consultant is to guide the group to find its own answer.

If we see our role as inspiring our clients’ own wisdom, then the consultant will ask instead of telling.  Instead of a magic bag of checklists and answers, the consultant will have a magic bag of probing questions.

Instead of enforcing external standards, the consultant will practice eliciting a group’s own standards.

The consultant will still have topic-specific knowledge to inject into the discussion where needed. But that topic-specific knowledge will be a perk, an incentive for the group to want to learn more, rather than the definitive word.

In the end, the approach you choose will come down to a question that is simultaneously simple and complex:  How much do you trust your own judgment and ability? And how much do you trust the judgment and ability of your clients?

If you are a consultant, join us at our new blog: Consultants as Catalysts for Community Change!

Photo credit: “Not What it Seems” by Hildy & Dimitri

I had a conversation on Twitter this weekend with David B Dale, an author who writes entire novels in 299 words or less.

The conversation started with my mentioning I’d been reading the stories of Jorge Luis Borges.  I knew this was a dangerous alley to enter, but I walked in anyway; discussing fiction always leads to my wanting to do nothing but curl up and read all day.  And so, as our conversation wound from Borges to the works of one of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino, I began pulling book after book off my shelf, browsing through favorite passages - a pure delight for someone whose life is, in great part, words and stories and writing.

But this post is not about fiction, nor is it about writing. It is about creating the future.

And it all starts in one of the fantastic cities Calvino imagines in his work Invisible Cities - the city of Andria.

The city’s calendar is so regulated that jobs and offices and ceremonies are arranged in a map corresponding to the firmament on that date: and thus the days on earth and the nights in the sky reflect each other…

“Our city and the sky correspond so perfectly,” they answer, “that any change in Andria involves some novelty among the stars.”

As for the character of Andria’s inhabitants, two virtues are worth mentioning: self-confidence and prudence.  Convinced that every innovation in the city influences the sky’s pattern, before taking any decision they calculate the risks and advantages for themselves and for the city and for all worlds.”

First, I love the image. Every single time I read the two-page passage that describes the imaginary city of Andria, it takes my breath away.

Secondly, though, and to the point of this blog:

Imagine making every decision knowing it will affect eternity!

Notice I didn’t say, “Imagine each of your decisions would affect eternity.”  We already know that is true. We are creating the future with everything we do.

But instead, imagine making decisions always mindful of the fact that we have far more power than we could ever dream possible. That we are the ones we have been waiting for. That we are the future, because we are creating that future, right now.

And so as I read and re-read that story this weekend, I said aloud the words I say every time I read those pages. “Imagine how we might make our decisions if we knew each and every action would affect the very stars in the sky.”

Photo credit: NASA