There is a big difference between a fad and a trend. Knowing that difference can be a key to whether you succeed or fail in your goal to serve others in the non-profit world.
A fad is a something very temporary, and a trend is a general direction, or prevailing tendency.
The problem is so few non-profit leaders are asked to separate the two, so they wildly follow fads, and often miss the greater trends. This is especially true in these times of increasing speed of change. Fearful that we’ll be left behind, we grab onto fads, hoping they’ll be trends.
Here’s a few tips on trends:
Social media: Trend
Facebook/Twitter/etc: likely fads
Iphones/ipads/kindles: potential fads
Increasing need to use all available technology to spread the word: TREND
See how that works? Some things are temporary, even if they’re great (iphones) but they are markers for a larger, more important trend.
The key to future success is getting acclimated to the trends, but avoiding wasting important resources and time on fads.
David Curry
