Don’t short-change the power of a CLEAR, CONCISE and COMPELLING MESSAGE.
Think of this 6-WORD MESSAGE as the 6 Sigma of the For Impact World!
Special Note: ‘6 WORDS’ can break down into 6 BIG WORDS …
Or 2 GROUPS OF 3 WORDS …
Or 3 GROUPS OF 2 WORDS!
Here is some ‘YEAST’ for your ORGANIZATION’S 6-WORD MESSAGE:
One of the best MESSAGES ever:
This is the American Cancer Society’s WHY.
Here’s their 6-Word WHAT and HOW:
HOPE. PROGRESS. ANSWERS.RESEARCH. EDUCATION. SERVICE.
*It doesn’t get any better than this. You can have a conversation/dialogue for hours around the 6-Word WHY and 3-Word WHAT plus the 3-Word HOW.
Ohio Wesleyan University
6-WORD PURPOSE:
6-WORD PRIORITIES:
Colorado College
What follows is 9 words but, still, 3 groups of 3 Words to capture an entire mapping process and agenda for a $300 Million Fundraising Initiative is pretty concise.
RIGOROUS INTELLECTUAL EXPERIENCE.DIVERSE RESPECTFUL COMMUNITY.
NEXT GENERATION CAMPUS.
The Funding Priorities are then built around:
A Senior Community Center
Here are some 6-WORD MESSAGES within FOR IMPACT/THE SUDDES GROUP:
*Even our FOR IMPACT Point OF VIEW can be summarized in 6 Words:
BONUS: Here’s our ENTREPRENEURIAL MANTRA in 6 WORDS:
*This works for every For Impact Organization, Social Entrepreneur and For Impact Leader.
OG’s Note: HAIKU.As I was writing out these examples, I was thinking about the similarity of these 6 Words to practicing the Japanese art of Haiku. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of 3 lines, made up 5, 7 and 5 syllables each.
I remember back in 2007, Nick and I were in the Grand Canyon rafting the Colorado River… and practicing our Haiku. Here is one of mine that captured the entire day’s activities for 14 straight days.
EAT. RI•VER. HIKE. RI•VER. CAMP.
WRITE. PUSH•UPS. EAT. SLEEP.
Two great blogs also explore the realm of simple poetry. Katya’s Non-profit Marketing Blog (no longer active) held a competition to see who had the best nonprofit marketing haiku. Nonprofit Quarterly wrote this article on the topic.
