illuminim insights

Nonprofit Podcast: Building Your Volunteer Program

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:19:51 GMT

Diane Speaks with GC Nonprofit News about Strategic Planning

In the latest episode (season 2, episode 8) of "Nonprofits - Let's Cut to the Chase," Diane Isler discusses part of her strategic planning work with Save the Animals Foundation: building a successful volunteer program after COVID. To hear this 18 minute discussion, click your preferred podcast spot below:

Challenging Times

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 14:52:59 GMT

When making decisions in difficult times, our values are challenged. Today, we're thinking of one young woman's brave upholding of her values in response to Taliban gunmen.

Experience Comes from Bad Decisions

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:07:21 GMT

There are two ways to learn things: the easy way and the hard way. Experience is the hard way. Listening and learning from others is the easy way. Learning from a diverse population gives you the best foundation for your decisions.

In a moment of decision, the worst thing is nothing.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 19 May 2021 13:09:59 GMT

Illuminim can empower teams to make the right decisions, faster.

Every decision you make, makes you.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 12 May 2021 14:21:59 GMT

Today is the day. Decide who you want to be. Align a decision to that vision. Try it again tomorrow.

Nothing happens until you decide.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 15:55:49 GMT

Sometimes it takes courage to make a decision. But if you feel stuck, or you are languishing right now, a simple decision can help you move. And the right decision will move you forward toward your vision.

Criteria for Decision Making

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:41:18 GMT

The first step of decision making is prioritizing the relevant values involved. Doing so can help you avoid defaulting to the safe option. Unless, of course, safety is one of your priority values.

Take time to think

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 13:46:06 GMT

Before finalizing a decision, take a moment to determine how your options align to your values and drive you toward your goals. This simple practice can move your brain from "system 1" to "system 2" thinking, leading to better decision making.

Yogi Berra on Decisions

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:16:04 GMT

Baseball season begins tomorrow on April Fool's Day. We couldn't think of anyone more appropriate to draw inspiration from than Yogi Berra.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone made a courageous decision.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:11:31 GMT

Do you know your company's origin story?

The vision and values behind the courageous start to a business are often the backbone of good decision making practice today. Illuminim can help you craft inspiring vision, mission, and values that drive employee engagement in better decisions for your business.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 14:51:30 GMT

If life is about creating yourself, who are you creating this week?

Are you spending your time in ways that create the person you want to be?

Erin go bragh!

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:41:34 GMT

Having a clear end point in mind is the first step to getting there.

Do you know where you're headed?

Have you gotten lost along the way or are you still on track?

The path isn't always a straight line, especially with all the detours life requires. With spring and COVID vaccine on the horizon, it seems a good time to take stock of the path we're on to make sure it's taking us where we want to go.

Conscious choice making is a critical step in making your dreams a reality.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 20:48:56 GMT

Illuminim's ADEPT model can drive better decisions for individuals, teams, and organizations.

It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 15:07:19 GMT

Knowing what you're all about is critical to good decision making. Whether you call it values, principles, standards or "the way we do things," illuminim is skilled at helping organizations identify and communicate values that strengthen culture.

Relationships that Work

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 16:44:14 GMT

Why Interdependence is Critical to Teamwork and How to Create It

Recently, an executive who transitioned to a new role lamented to me, “I cannot get my new team members to work together. Teamwork is one of our stated values, but the organization is so siloed. How can I get my employees to work with each other?” After our discussion, she insisted I share my perspective on relationships more broadly …. so here we are!

What is the underlying issue?

Relationships in business organizations develop like human relationships. Humans develop from complete dependence on others to independence as they mature, with interdependence as the most productive state.

The theory of interdependence posits that relationships have costs and benefits. People in any relationship try to minimize costs and maximize benefits, as you would expect.

In siloed organizations, the organization structure, training, culture, and rewards systems are focused on individuals and individual contribution, keeping the entire organization stuck in an independent state. So, the real issue in a siloed group is the organization is designed in a way that the cost of interdependence is higher than the reward for working together – for the individuals or teams making the day-to-day decisions on how they will operate.

What is the solution?

Organizations need to be designed with interdependence in mind, if you want the component parts to work well together. If you are part of an existing structure without a magic wand to design from scratch, you can still reduce possible costs and add benefits to move toward interdependence. A few examples:

Reducing Costs of Interdependence

In an office environment, if people’s workflow is disrupted when they could benefit from a “walk around” to collaborate with others, the cost to individual productivity could be prohibitive. This cost is reduced when desks are organized by business need rather than functional reporting relationships.

For remote employees, an inter-office “chat” application reduces the cost of consulting with teammates.

Collaboration software can also greatly reduce the cost of working together on a project.

Adding Benefits for Interdependence

Try including team-oriented goals in individual’s annual objectives. You might observe team members actively seeking opportunities to help each other.

Include group problem-solving in team meetings. As the leader, step back from knowing the answer and encourage the team to contribute. Compliment good ideas. You may be surprised how trust and respect grow with this approach.

Structure teams to encourage interdependence. If you have multiple roles with the same responsibilities requiring similar skills, explore giving each person a designation as the team “expert” in one of the skills, knowledge sources, or technologies that the team utilizes. The expert’s responsibilities may include covering that topic in team meetings, providing training for the team, onboarding new teammates in their area of expertise, as well as representing the team with vendors or at conferences. If each member has a different expertise, the entire team begins to depend on each other, and the entire team’s depth of knowledge will build more quickly over time.

Team Building Activities

I’ve experienced quite a bit of “team building activities” in my career. The best I’ve seen follow a format where there is an exchange of ideas related to the work of the team that results in real improvement. Here’s the agenda that I’ve developed with repeated success in building interdependence:

1) Prework that includes an assessment (of individuals or the team)

2) Team Building:

Review the results of the assessment
Review of what’s working well and what’s not working
Break
Explore how the learnings from assessment can be used to improve team functioning
Develop SMART objectives or detailed plans
Optional: Fun activity to celebrate

3) Follow up with ongoing coaching to ensure team makes progress that was planned

As a leader setting the example, are there opportunities for you to increase your interdependence within the organization?

Additional Benefits of Interdependence

Employees who feel an integral part of a team (rather than an individual contributor) are more engaged, experience greater job satisfaction, and are less likely to leave their company. For the boomer generation, this greater purpose or team-orientation was considered “nice to have,” but for millennial and centennial employees, this is considered an absolute requirement for their preferred job.

You have a tremendous opportunity to help your organization develop past independence to interdependence, creating team results that are significantly greater than the sum of the individual efforts.

What's in a Name?

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 03:41:13 GMT

Our Brand's Origin Story

Coming up with a new brand’s name and imagery is hard work. Even though I’ve been dreaming of starting my own firm for years, and had a grasp of the benefits I could offer clients, I didn't have a good name for the idea. Here are the steps I took to craft my brand’s name and logo:

1) Research what “good” look like

I read books and articles on branding. I chose a dozen brands I admire whose names and logos resonated with me and then cataloged the reasons why. For me, these elements were most important:

Principled companies
Name and logo elicited joy
Products I love
Simple graphics (my preference)
Name flexible enough to allow for growth (an umbrella big enough for sub-brands in the same or different category)

2) Decide which principles should be incorporated

For illuminim, we follow 3 core principles (detailed in About Us ):

We are customer-centric.
We are future focused.
We believe in people.

3) Explore words that describe or indicate mission and vision

I had pages of ideas filled with dozens of post-it notes. The one word that rose to the top was insight . I couldn’t describe my vision without it. I like alliteration and admire it when used well, so I was leaning heavily toward using a group of words beginning with i.

Lower case i is my favorite letter for very good reasons:

It is the vowel which ensures things are finished and completed correctly, i.e. “when i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.”
It allows you to express yourself, as most 5th grade girls will attest when they choose whether they are the dot-, circle-, smiley-, or heart -above-the-i type.
Finally, lower case i reminds me of the Fisher Price Little People of my youth. Some of you know exactly what I mean, others will need to Google “Vintage Fisher Price Little People,” because the new ones have arms.

4) Get input to narrow down options

After a few rounds of input from family and friends, I had narrowed down options. Next, I hired a branding design expert. We focused in on a few powerful words: illuminate (which helps people see clearly), insight (which helps people see differently), and implement (doing what needs to be done). However, my expert did not think any of the options I was considering were quite right as the three words together were too long and complex for a name. I slept on their advice.

When I woke, I had an idea to combine the first syllables of my words to create a single, unique name, like this:

We had a name both of us agreed upon – unique and available on the internet. I especially like to say it. Illuminim rolls of my tongue.

5) Develop a logo to visually convey name and values

My design expert crafted a few logos. Every one was better than the sketch I’d started with. Feedback from family, friends, and colleagues proved invaluable, again. I chose the most popular design that best captured my company’s principles.

The final product makes me smile every time I see it. I hope it does the same for you.

Questions: How We Learn about the World

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:50:13 GMT

RIP Larry King

Asking the right questions is a difficult skill to master. One of the very best at being curious has passed.

#RIPLarryKing

#Curiosity

This MLK Day I'm working...

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 15:04:07 GMT

While I cannot know the experience of those whose skin color differs from my own,

I work to see you with my eyes open so I may understand.

While I may never agree with those whose conclusions about life differ from my own,

I work to hear you with my mind open so I may understand.

While I cannot feel the pain of those who are persecuted because they are different from me,

I work to be available with empathy so I may understand and aid.

3 Lessons Learned in the Pandemic that was 2020

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:56:39 GMT

2020 was a wild ride. What wisdom are you bringing into 2021?

1) Have a contingency plan.

Most of us do some type of planning. This time of year, along with resolutions, you might embark upon reviewing budgets, setting annual business, career, or personal objectives, or even long-term planning. Many of our plans for 2020 were derailed by COVID19. However, I’ve been studying the futurists who warned about the high probability of a pandemic.

While we probably can’t anticipate and plan for every possible circumstance, taking some time for alternative scenario planning is something to consider adding to your planning process. As part of long-term planning, it can be beneficial to incorporate what-if ideation, especially with a trend extrapolation framework. (This kind of imagining a worst case can actually help folks avoid panic, i.e. buying 10 year supplies of toilet paper during the next crisis).

In 2021, I plan to examine my expectations about the future and consider alternatives: Do we have a sufficient rainy day fund and emergency plan?

2) Diversify your… everything.

I was caught off-guard when some items were missing from store shelves in 2020. While I understood panic-buying had stripped retailers of certain items (again, I’m talking toilet paper), reading the analysis of supply chains opened my eyes to one more way diversity improves systems. Diverse supply chains are more robust. This year, I also heard about the benefit of diversification in: investment portfolios, the Oscars, your diet, work forces and leadership. And then, I considered the widening political divide we face.

When it comes to experiencing that political divide, if I find myself thinking, “OMG, how can someone believe THAT,” I know I have a relative or neighbor I could ask, “tell me more about why that is important to you.” I try - and I know this is the hard part - not to argue, but to understand. I also try to avail myself of news and viewpoints different than my own, at least occasionally.

In 2021, I hope to continue to examine areas in my personal and business life that are very uniform or stagnant: What needs a little shake-up with a diverse perspective?

3) Wash your hands (and remember all the other great lessons mom taught you).

During the pandemic, I heard myself telling my kids to wash their hands, and I was reminded of my mother. I hope I’ve passed along her wisdom to my kids:

The purpose of good table manners is to make others comfortable eating with you.
Dressing properly is not to show off anything, but to show respect for the place, occasion, or people you’re visiting.
Regardless of the cut of beef you start with, the meal can be wonderful - higher priced cuts take less prep, lower priced cuts require more ingenuity.
When cooking or baking, read the recipe and set a timer, but learn to trust your senses.
If you’re ever in a bind, you can trust your mom to help.

In 2021, I want to make sure that friends and colleagues also know that I’m here to help when needed.

Please don't hesitate to reach out!

Coaching or Consulting?

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:44:32 GMT

Coaching or Consulting?

When people ask, what is the difference between a business coach and a business consultant, I answer with a simple analogy. Let’s say your business needs fish. A consultant will get you fish. A coach will help you learn to fish.

Taking this analogy further, a good coach or consultant will take some time to understand what kind of fish you need. Do you need to choose a dish for an upcoming business dinner with a pescatarian? Are you installing a new aquarium in the lobby? Or is your fish cannery in need of a more consistent supply? Asking the right questions is critically important to getting the right fish.

A consultant can get you the fish faster, but a coach can make sure that you can meet your own needs in the future.

At illuminim, we go even further than determining your basic needs. We employ exceptional coach consultants focused on your goals, to devise a tailored solution that will succeed in context of your company’s unique culture and structure. Combining the capabilities of focused consulting with business coaching can help with immediate and long-term issues and result in transformational change – propelling you toward your vision.

If you are fishing for a coach or a consultant or a combination, we’d love to be on the hook!

Gratitude for New Beginnings

183:853359471 (Diane Isler) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 18:31:43 GMT

Call it a “mid-career crisis” or, according to The 100 Year Life, “building one’s transition resources,” but I’ve taken a few months off to evaluate where I’ve been and where I’d like to go. Where I ended is the decision to start my own company, illuminim, which you’ll hear a lot about over the coming weeks and months, as I’m very, very excited about pursuing a passion of mine more completely.

I have learned so much in the process of reflection and mission creation. I am grateful for the journey of my career and the people I’ve met along the way. Every step – and misstep – has yielded tremendous learning:

· Companies that showed me the importance of purposeful mission, strong principles, culture, and strategy deployment

· Managers who taught me the value of servant leadership, team building, career planning, and coaching

· Colleagues who inspired me with their whole selves, diverse thinking, a broad range of character strengths, brilliant skills, and most importantly – friendship

Thank you all! I look forward to continuing our journey!

illuminim insights

Nonprofit Podcast: Building Your Volunteer Program

Diane Speaks with GC Nonprofit News about Strategic Planning

Challenging Times

Experience Comes from Bad Decisions

In a moment of decision, the worst thing is nothing.

Every decision you make, makes you.

Nothing happens until you decide.

Criteria for Decision Making

Take time to think

Yogi Berra on Decisions

Whenever you see a successful business, someone made a courageous decision.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading

Conscious choice making is a critical step in making your dreams a reality.

It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.

Relationships that Work

Why Interdependence is Critical to Teamwork and How to Create It

What is the underlying issue?

What is the solution?

Additional Benefits of Interdependence ﻿

What's in a Name?

Our Brand's Origin Story

Questions: How We Learn about the World

RIP Larry King

This MLK Day I'm working...

3 Lessons Learned in the Pandemic that was 2020

2020 was a wild ride. What wisdom are you bringing into 2021?

Coaching or Consulting?

Coaching or Consulting?

Gratitude for New Beginnings

Additional Benefits of Interdependence