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But it’s a particularly crazy time we communicators are living in: We’ve got all this cool free/cheap technology that lets us do things that would have been impossible or unaffordable years ago (but still take time) — and we’ve got even less time to allocate to them than ever as staff gets stretched thin due to budgeting.
Some nonprofit communicators spend all of their time mired in the day-to-day details and lose sight of the bigger picture, missing huge opportunities along the way. Others spend so much time planning and moving projects forward they never really get their hands dirty with details that might really benefit their organization, like testing or segmentation.
There’s got to be a better way to work.
Seems to me the way to tackle this dilemma is to create structures that force you to move through all layers of your work at appropriate intervals. For instance, what if you tried to spend:
- 3 hours a week devoted to tending the long view (watching and learning from other nonprofits, monitoring best practices, reading up)
- 10 hours a week devoted to the treetops (budgeting, planning, conducting research, organizing, and managing)
- 27 hours a week in the trenches (writing, designing, dealing with vendors, testing, coding, social media production, etc)
(Because we all know you work a 40 hour week, right? Cough, cough.)
In truth, most people get caught up in the trenches and find it hard to get their heads out of the details and look around. But starting with the bigger picture, or, at least visiting it periodically, might be a real game-changer. You’ll be better equipped to respond to ‘what if’ questions, build buy-in for change when you see it coming, and understand how your situation compares with others more realistically.
How do you do it?
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Hitting the Email Inbox
Hitting the Email Inbox
