innovation

Does the end always justify the means?  Does innovation always lead to an improvement?  Today’s blog is an open question around a service I’m sure many of you have come across this year – as I have recently.  Here’s the story...

I followed the Institute of Fundraising National Convention’s twitter stream with interest last week and was, like many of my friends and colleagues in the sector, amazed at just how many times certain words, phrases or ideas came to the fore.

Lucy Gowar’s latest blog sums it up nicely around the use of the word innovation every other sentence!

I was inspired to think about this blog by receiving an email from the Harvard Business Review collating several key works on the topics of leadership and management.  They note in weighty tomes that there is a difference between the two which is something most of us already understand, I suspect.

Backed up by no academic research whatsoever but fed by experience, anecdote and the thoughts of several, very experienced, close colleagues and friends, here are my common sense thoughts on leadership and management in the not for profit world:

I didn’t make this term up, honest.  It was shared with me by my cousin as he was describing what it felt like when senior managers just spew forth ideas that those a bit closer to the coal face suspect haven’t really been thought through... Here’s the Wikipedia definition.

This week’s blog is dedicated to a small group of charities who are trying different things to raise awareness and money.  We’ve talked a lot on these pages about the lack of a ‘success guarantee’ when trying something new but I find myself appreciating these three initiatives for the same reasons:

In the words of Ant watching Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent;

You didn't expect that did you, no?

I'm loving the St John's Ambulance First Aid campaign for exactly that reason.  Using shock tactics for the sake of it or being controversial just to get a reaction aren't the most successful ways to endear audiences to our cause but confounding expectations is something different altogether.

Fundraising is tough. ‘More for less’ has practically become a daily mantra for both donors and charities.

Maggie’s Centres are for anyone affected by cancer.