How do we communicate our struggles?
I do some of my best thinking after a conversation with a smart nonprofit colleague and friend. I’ve had several conversations recently about our own struggles as people and the struggles of nonprofits and other important entities in our communities.
It’s true that change is inevitable. But some of the changes in my South Minneapolis community feel acutely troubling right now. Closures and departures and endings. I’m wondering how we can identify and communicate our struggles differently. I don’t know what the answers are. I don’t know that any of us do. I was reminded that we have to try.
In past blogs I’ve shared tips. These aren’t tips. I don’t think I have any tips to give. Instead I’m sharing some ideas. I’d love to hear yours.
Start with our own struggles. Take a careful look at how we identify and communicate about our own struggles in our personal life, family, and with friends. What process do you use for identifying your own struggles? How do you communicate about them? Consider how we can do better for ourselves and the people we care about when it comes to identifying and communicating our own struggles.
Get clear on what the barriers are. Are we avoiding acknowledging and sharing struggles because we’re afraid to fail? Are we not very practiced at taking responsibility and accountability? Are we lacking in some of the basic communication skills needed to talk about our struggles?
Build our understanding of how we might be applying our personal experiences and style in our work. Find ways to address this. Offer the best of our interpersonal selves in our work lives and manage our interpersonal challenges outside of work. (Like, go to therapy or do your daily yoga or whatever works for you.)
Begin to transfer this learning and understanding to your work. (Whew, this might be hard.) Talk with your people at work. How do you understand the struggles of your communities, participants, supporters? How do you identify and communicate struggles and develop a shared understanding with staff? How does your board identify and communicate struggles?
Take this newly developed shared understanding and begin to develop strategies and actions for addressing your struggles. Get help as needed. (Hey, there are consultants for that.)
Wait for it…yep, now communicate this to your people. Share your organization’s struggles in the ways that work best with your board and staff first. Then communicate clearly with your volunteers, supporters, your clients and/or program participants, your partners, and your donors.
Reflect on this work to identify and communicate your organization’s struggles. What worked and what didn’t? How did it feel to share your organization’s struggles? What were the results and how is it impacting your organization? How might you do this differently next time? Take a little bit of time to document this.