This Collaborative Web is the archive of our collaboration for our Selling the Dream Project during Spring 2002

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scotts feeble attempt

Here it is...I'm not really happy with it and may re-work it!

Part 2 Becoming an Evangelist

Chapter 4 - Finding Your Cause

An evangelist needs a cause. Kawasaki provides examples of determining your cause.

Anticipate a need
When building your future scenarios you may have identified a cause. It could be making changes in your workplace, community or even in yourself. It is the ability to foresee what people need before they see it themselves.

Fill an existing need
Many of us found voids in our areas of employment that we tried to affect change with our ARP process. It means solving a problem that is already apparent to other people. Find something you are passionate about and create your cause.

Piggyback on other causes
People join specific causes because they believe in the dream the cause promotes.

Kawasaki believes in the concept of Kairos - that the right time will come along, and you will dedicate yourself to a cause.

Chapter 5 - Planning your Evangelism

You found you cause and now it is time to create a plan to evangelize it. A good plan for evangelism contains three parts: The Mission, Objectives, and Strategies.

The mission
It appears that Dr. Sparks had this in mind when he assigned us to create personal and professional mission statements. The mission is the driving force of you cause - it explains the "why" of the cause and resembles the metaphor used throughout this course: The mission is your Lighthouse! A mission statement is short, flexible, and distinctive.

Objectives: are the stepping stones used to achieve the mission of your cause. There are two types of objectives: qualitative and quantitative. Both types of objectives have four main parts:

Challenging: You need to work hard and believe solidly that your hard work will pay off

Few in number: Kawasaki suggests your mission statement contain no more than five objectives. Any more could cause confusion and detract from other objectives.

Inspiring: Objectives should motivate and reach people in a personal way.

Stable: Objectives should stay the same for a minimum of two years. Stable objectives keep personnel focused on completing the objective.

Strategies: Are the ways and means of reaching each objective. The four qualities your strategy should include are:

Connected: They are connected to the objective and provide clear guidance how to reach the objective.

Active: They lead to action and provide methods to get things accomplished

Pragmatic: The are practical and attainable by your team

Flexible: Strategies will change as your organization progresses. Strategies might change but the driving objective remains the same.

Chapter 6 - Implementing your Evangelism

You have found your cause, created the mission statement, and now it is time to put it into action.

Forming groups and departments is necessary in order to manage people, accomplish the tasks of evangelism, and spread the cause. These groups need to realize five goals:

Foster fellowship: Make everything fun. Get people who enjoy each other and complement the skills they have to offer.

Start pure: Start with zealots to establish momentum.

Create good karma: Focus on the positive and avoid negativism.

Maintain openness: Stay open to people with diverse backgrounds.

Formalize: Select your management team and begin writing bylaws and procedures.

Raising funds
Zealots may contribute their time and energy for free but you still need dollars. If you are a non-profit organization a priority is exploring tax-exempt status. The priority in a corporate setting is designing a prototype of your product or service. Kawasaki borrows from the National Audubon Society’s handbook for seven principles of fund raising:

Think big: Your cause is important, ask for what you need. It is often easier to get more than less.

Ask for it: The money won’t come by itself!

Ask for specific amounts: Set specific target amounts so people know how much to give.

Target specific programs: Let the people know exactly what their money is spent on.

Give before you ask others: Set an example for others to follow.

Ask in person: It is harder for people to say no in person.

Say Thank you: A sincere thank you paves the way for future contributions.

Finding a Lawyer
Find a lawyer to assist with your cause. If you are a non-profit organization there are legalities to follow. Find one that supports your cause and will work pro bono – for free!

Hiring staff
Find competent people to work with you. They need to do the work right on a day-to-day basis. The ideal member is competent and committed to your cause.

Creating Printed Material
You need something to communicate and explanation of your cause and vision. Pamphlets, brochures, and a Web site are good sources. Other methods of getting your name in the public eye are producing conferences or giving out trinkets with your logo on them.

Chapter 7 - Presenting Your Cause

In this chapter, Kawasaki provides guidance in presenting you cause to the public. He states you shouldn’t be afraid of speaking in public, in a sense you aren’t, you are sharing and selling your dream. For preparation you need to know the following: your audience, your cause, the layout of the facility you are speaking at, and, especially, focus on your cause. Practice is vital to a good presentation. You should script it, rehearse it, present it to your cohorts, and revise it if any changes are necessary.

The presentation has three distinct areas: take off, in flight, and the landing.

Take off is the beginning of the presentation. It sets the stage of the presentation and gets the attention of the audience. Kawasaki says that many people lose their audience in the first 30 seconds of the presentation. He suggests starting with quotations, letters, definitions, or an oxymoron.

Flight is the body of the presentation. Incorporate effective pictures into your presentation by using metaphors, analogies, similes, or stories. These provide your audience an effective way to remember your material.

The landing is the final stage of your presentation. Your landing should be appropriate, clear, flexible and expedient.

Part Three – The Stages of Evangelism

Chapter 8 - Sowing

“Sowing is covering as much fertile ground as you can with as many seeds as you can so that you get as many flowers as you can” (pg 111).

Evangelize the right people by finding people who have something to gain by supporting your cause. The person to evangelize is the one who is open to helping or furthering the cause. In an organizational setting, this may well be the staff workers instead of upper management personnel.

Chapter 9 – Cultivating

You’ve sown your seeds and now you need to cultivate them by nurturing them as they grow. But not all of the seedlings will mature into productive members. You should cut your losses by “weeding” out the people who just “don’t get it”. Don’t berate yourself; not all things are meant to be.

Measure the performance of growth against the objectives you established. This shows if you are progressing in the direction of your mission. Follow through with what you are doing. There will be times that you are completely overwhelmed. You can avoid this by working smart, being happy, and by driving on by using sheer determination.

Be a cheerleader of your victories, no matter how small. This helps provide a sense of forward growth, provides feedback and gives your followers a feeling of accomplishment.

Chapter 10 – Harvesting

Harvesting is where you finally see the results of your work. In this stage your cause has gone through the entire life cycle and is where you move your cause forward to achieve long lasting success.

You need to avoid superficiality. This can occur when joining your cause becomes “the cool thing to do”. People who join this way often are not true believers in the cause and may recruit others that believe even less in the cause. Remember that your goal is to raise a few good flowers; quality is more important than quantity.

Lose yourself in the cause. Fill the needs of your members and remember that you receive empowerment from them. Don’t forget the people who believe in your cause. They are your foundation and without them you have nothing to support the cause.

Finally, keep your cause fun! Hire people who are fun, empower others to make decisions, and find interesting, ambitious, and challenging projects.

Last maintained 01/17/2012