What an outrageous, idiotic and judgemental thing to say! Maybe, but hear me out.
There was once a day when a leader became a leader because she/he was a voracious collector of books. Think Thomas Jefferson, who I discovered while touring his house a few years ago was more than just a casual collector of books; he was a uber collector. He had books not because of their value, although they later became the centerpiece of the University of Virginia and part of the Library of Congress, but because books at that point in history were the only way to advance your learning fast enough to keep pace with change. Going to school until the 7th grade wasn’t going to cut it for a leader. Jefferson read on a wide range of issues, often natural sciences, which he found interesting because they were discovering new worlds, expanding west and needed a guess-work road map of what they’d find. While leaders will always need to be readers, physical books are not the tool of change anymore, technology is.
Now leaders are faced with a future that looks dramatically different than the past, and not just because of the uncertainty of the geopolitical world and the economics of age-old businesses such as publishing, automobiles, music, newspapers being turned on their head. The future is different because the tools are changing the way people live life, and we must respond quickly to adapt our methods of communication and interaction to keep up.
Frankly, having a smart-phone is the least of your worries now. That ship has already sailed, which is why I referenced it in my title. But I could have also put in IPAD in the title, and those haven’t even come out yet! (more about that in a minute)
If you don’t have a smart-phone you have no clue how 100% of your donors, clients and staff (kids or grandkids) will interface with you just a few years from now. Mobile devices are how people socialize, read email, watch content, read books, play games, surf the web, get GPS readings, and more. Great smart-phones, like the IPHONE and some of the DROID phones, can be personalized with apps that make it totally geared to your interests and tastes. This is affecting non-profits now, but in a couple years if you aren’t developing your charities/ministries content for mobile apps you’ll be out of business.
Here’s some ways charities/non-profits must be moving regarding mobility:
Web content for mobile devices, apps for droid/iphone devices that will deliver your content, strategy for social networking, geo-locating for donor events/connecting activities, live streaming of services/emergencies to your donors and the world, donating by text (after Haiti, it’s not going backward), and more.
As I was thinking about this blog I anticipated a few of the questions/statements you might make in rebuttal:
1. I don’t have a smart-phone because I can’t afford it. If you’re not a leader of an non-profit organization, or have no desire to be in the future, please feel no shame in waiting out the smart-phone game (or KINDLE, or IPAD game) until it comes into your price range. But if you ARE a leader (you have responsibility for a group, church, business, charity) you have no excuse. Under what scenario is your non-profit going to avoid the common leadership tension of lack of resources v. need to create, innovate and build? It’s not going to happen. More than that, you’re likely loosing opportunities for resources if you’re not actively thinking of ways to incorporate mobility into your non-profit. (and if you don’t own one yourself, you’re definitely not thinking about how others might be using it)
I hasten to add that I’m not a theorist, I have resource constraints as well, yet I think this is the growth element for the next decade: The understanding of how technology is changing how we communicate. It’s not fundamentally different than when Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark west to explore the new country.
2. I’m not in the kind of non-profit business that needs one. Really? As the CEO of the Rescue Mission I can’t imagine a future where we’ll be able to avoid these trends and our ministry is as straight-forward as it gets. This trend is going to affect everyone. I’m by no means an old man, but I can remember when people argued that they weren’t going to give up their typewriter for a computer. Now my kids don’t even know what a typewriter is! They’ve never seen anyone who has one!
3. I can’t keep up. Please understand, the organization you lead or will lead in the future needs you to be willing to grow in this way. In my case, I’m passionate about solving homelessness and seeing lives transformed through God’s love. It motivates me to make sure that I’m fulfilling the responsibility I owe the organization to look down the road and see where the potential challenges and opportunities exist. Jump in and start asking some creative questions about how the new technologies might apply to you.
Briefly, let me encourage you to begin thinking about why you’re non-profit needs to consider how it might use the IPad and like technologies that will be rolling out in the next 16 months. The IPad is like a large ipod touch so many people think it will not work in the marketplace. But I think it has the potential to impact non-profits/charities and ministries in a few key ways.
1. It’s the first, but not the last, computer to be APP-centric. Charities are going to need to get creative about developing innovative apps that will either help their client or donors connect. An app on a larger screen will have different expectations than an app on a smaller screen, requiring more video elements and better graphics.
2. It’s going to make communicating multi-function. The challenge for every non-profit is how to get your donors and the community to read your material and build interest in your important cause. These type of reading devices (KINDLE is opening up to apps too) are going to challenge us to adapt our newsletters and websites to connect. You’ll likely need text, video and audio in the newsletters of the future. Better jump in and start using it to figure out and dream up ways it could help your cause.
3. Increase the importance of Visual. I love watching video on my iphone because it’s handy. But the IPad and like devices will likely make portable video viewing even more prevalent. Start thinking about how you are going to capture video, package video and present video of your ministry.
To lead is to get out front. I encourage you to use the technology out there to creatively craft the future of your organization.
What parts of this argument do you find most challenging, disagreeable or inspiring? Let me know.
Here’s an extra, a clip of my comments on this blog from USTREAM
