10/10/10

Yesterday was definitely a ‘TEN’!!!

10/10/10! It doesn’t happen very often. (Like every 100 years.)

It seems like a perfect time to reflect on your PRIORITIES and your FOCUS for the remainder of 2010!

Not trying to out-Top 10 Letterman, but here our TOP 10 IDEAS… for the next 10 WEEKS!!! (Three remaining weeks in October. Four weeks in November. Three weeks in December… and then the holiday!)

10 IDEAS… IN 10 WEEKS… BEFORE THE END OF 2010!

1. Create your own 10-Week ACTION PLAN for the rest of 2010.

What are your priorities? Where can you concentrate your efforts for the highest return? What are the 10 things you really, really want to get done in 2010 that will make this one of the best years ever? (Regardless of what you’ve done to date.)

2. Focus on your TOP 10!!! Make a commitment, in writing, to your peers, in blood… to VISIT with your Top 10 Prospects in the next 10 weeks!!! (C’mon. It’s one visit a week!) Your org will literally be TRANSFORMED if you have a conversation/dialogue with you best 10 CHAMPIONS (Prospective Investors) in the next 10 weeks.

3. Commit to change your CULTURE by end of 2010!!! Now is actually the perfect time (perfect storm?) to make the CHANGES that you know are necessary for a Quantum Leap in 2011. No kaizen. No tweaks. MASSIVE ACTION. MASSIVE CHANGE. MASSIVE RESULTS.

*To help you on this culture change journey, email me and I’ll send you a draft copy of Change (the) Rules: A For Impact Guide to Change in the 3rd Sector.

4. Use a ’10 and 10′ RALLY CRY (Battle Cry) to motivate you for the next 10 weeks! ‘10 and 10’ could be 10 visits in 10 weeks; 10 new relationships; 10 campaign commitments; 10 whatever.

*Nick and I have committed to having 10 For Impact Coaches signed on by the end of the ’10. If interested… email us.

5. Prepare for 2011! Use the rest of ’10 to prepare to launch an aggressive transformational Funding Initiative in January of 2011!

SIMPLICITY + SPEED = SUCCESS.

No time for feasibility studies, case statements, campaign committees, brochures, etc. Clarify your Message. Get consensus around your Priorities. Decide on who can help.

Be ready to LAUNCH January 3rd, 2011. Whatever It Takes!

***One really big TO DO: Build your ENGAGEMENT TOOL ASAP! Test it in 2010. Use it as the FRAMEWORK for your PRESENTATIONS in 2011.

6. Use the For Impact Master Checklist (our own 10 big things for our For Impact Coaches) to help you assess where you are and where you want to BE in 2011.

*Again, JUST ASK! Email us and ask for the For Impact Master Checklist.

7. Get your Board ENGAGED in 2010!!! Do something in the next 10 weeks to get your Board ON BOARD and in alignment. Plan and execute on one truly Memorable Experience (Not a ‘Board Meeting’!) for your Board in the next 10 weeks!

*Listen in on Thursday to our teleseminar on Board Engagement!

8. Do whatever it takes to find and enlist 10 CHAMPIONS and PASSIONATE ADVOCATES by the end of 2010! They will help you CHANGE THE WORLD. Some of these people will be major Contributors (Commensurate Commitments!) Others will be Committed Connectors. Both are important!

9. Make your ‘BUS’ decisions, now! Board and Staff. (While you’re at it, this also applies to your prospects.) Have ‘the’ conversation with the people that are on your bus before the end of 2010. Are they the right people? Are they on the right bus? Are they in the right seats?

*Not suggesting that you do what Notre Dame did to Coach Terry Brennan when they fired him on Christmas day! However, everybody in your operation knows who shouldn’t be on the bus, including those people who shouldn’t be on the bus. It’s way better to have that conversation now… then to let it fester.

10. CELEBRATE!!! Take the time to CELEBRATE your achievements, all the GOOD STUFF you’ve accomplished in 2010… or in the last 10 years (this millennium)… or, for some of you, in the last 100 years!!!

Throw a year-end, decade-end CELEBRATION for your stakeholder family! Don’t spend a lot of money. Have it where you deliver your IMPACT! Invite ALL of your STAKEHOLDERS. Those you impact. Those who lead. Those who deliver. Those who invest. Those who partner.

10 IDEAS in 10 WEEKS by the end of 2010.