The end of the year is a good time to stop, reflect, and look ahead. Clear, effective communicators might try these three actions:
- Take stock.
- Make a plan.
- Do one new thing.
The first two steps are standard operating procedure – part of the normal planning process. If we need help, it’s a book or website away.
Step 3 is outside of standard operating procedures. That’s why I’m recommending it – for myself as much as for you.
In our personal lives, we need to do something radically different from time to time just to keep our minds and hearts alert and responsive to the ever-changing reality of human life.
It might be a good idea for organizations and communications programs to do the same. Maybe it’s time to change something.
Your One New Thing doesn’t have to be a big thing. In fact, maybe it should be a small thing so you can feel good about it without having to put it through the strategic planning process.
The point of the One New Thing is not to win more money or reach more people or whatever your strategic plan says your communications program should accomplish.
The point of the One New Thing is to make you feel good about what you do.
The best way to explain what I mean is to roll out a few random examples. Your One New Thing could be to:
- Write handwritten thank-you notes to every December donor. Every donor, not just the big-ticket ones.
- Record a video thank you for online donors.
- Run a contest in every (print or e-) newsletter, with a small but meaningful prize for the best response.
- Take a reporter or blogger to lunch, even when you don’t have a story to pitch. (Yes, you’re supposed to be doing that anyway as part of your media cultivation, but you’re not, are you?)
- Throw a little party for the program people on the day you put your annual report to bed, just to thank them for contributing.
All of these suggestions involve giving to someone else in an unexpected way.
I think that any of them could improve your “bottom line” – money, people, whatever goals you identify in steps 1 and 2.
I know that, if your One New Thing makes you feel good about what you do, you’ll be better at doing it.
Think about it. What could you do in 2013 that would help to renew your passion for your work?