Grand Junction Design, LLC

"There are two sides to every story," my mom used to say to me when I was growing up. It was hard for me to understand as a kid. How could it be possible that other people might see things differently from the way I did?

Of course now I realize she was right. More and more, I see this in every area of life. It's a central principle of communication. You and I have different viewpoints, so even with a simple statement, what I say (ergo what I think I am communicating to you) may be different from what you hear (ergo what you think I am communicating to you).

Add to this body language, tone of voice, context...
Plus the fact that you didn't necessarily hear my words correctly (remember the "telephone game"?)...
It's a pretty complicated picture.

If I understand you and your viewpoint, then I'm more able to articulate my message in a way that you can understand and retain.

How do I understand your viewpoint? LISTEN.

The same thing applies to nonprofits as we're trying to change the world. For example, I care about climate change, but right now I'm focused on my kids. If you want to motivate me to act on climate change, there's a good chance you'll reach me if you talk about how my action can make the world a better place for my kids.

How can nonprofits listen when there's so much noise out there? Amy Sample Ward gives great and simple instructions in her post How To: Create a Listening Dashboard for your Organization. A listening dashboard is a central place you can easily aggregate all of the conversation you want to follow -- using Google Alerts, Twitter, blog searches, etc.

Personally, I was getting overwhelmed with some things coming to my email by RSS/FeedBlitz/Google Alerts, reading other things through Google Reader, and seeing tweets pop up on my computer screen every 2 minutes. How can anybody get their work done in that environment?! Now I can take a break a few times a day to check my listening dashboard and participate in the relevant conversations. This has helped me stay in the loop AND retain the ability to focus on my work when I need to.

Thanks, Amy, for this great idea and tutorial!