Public relations

It has been a while since I did an update on My Breakout Year but forgive me.  In any case, I had planned to write about generating financial projections for your new venture/business (and doing some real interesting boring stuff with numbers) but I was so inspired this weekend by a special group of women (and one man) and I wanted to dedicate this post to them, Team Purposeterous Awesomesauce.

So lets set the stage, I am one of the founders of KUPE Arts Society, a Toronto-based non-profit that teaches kids ages 7-13 to play instruments using comtemporary songs written and performed by Canadian artists.  This past week we were selected to participate in Edelman’s Little Give, Edelman summarizes it as “10 teams. 10 charitable partners. 48 hours. Hundreds of lives impacted.”

“On June 3-5, 2010, Edelman Canada’s three offices in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto will devote time, energy and their public relations skills to a great cause. The Little Give is a local charitable initiative first launched by Edelman’s Vancouver office in 2008 which saw the office partner with four charities in the Vancouver area to help make a real difference in the lives of children and youth. The initiative was a success and so the decision was made to take it national. This year, staff in Edelman’s Toronto office will be divided into 10 teams, each partnered with a non-profit partner, which will receive two full days of our time and seed money donated by Edelman Canada. Each team will be tasked with leveraging both the corporate donation and the skills the team members each bring to the table, to the benefit of their partner organization. Teams will be evaluated on criteria including success in leveraging Edelman’s corporate contribution, bringing attention to the non-profit’s mission, and making a difference in the everyday lives of the children and youth served by the organization.”

Source: http://toronto.thelittlegive.ca/

Get the picture? Got it? Good.  So the end result was that after the 48 hours our team at Edelman – Team Purposeterous Awesomesauce – won their Edelman Little Game Challenge.  You can read about the series of events here on the KUPE Arts Society blog.

Great pic of the ladies celebrating the win, where’s Yomi?

Their Challenges

This analysis is from the outside looking in (as a client) but their effort as a team was special for a few reasons:

1. Team Purposeterous Awesomesauce had never worked together before as a unit.
2. They did not know the organizations they were going to be helping (there were 10 to choose from).
3. They did not know what the ask was. (we were in essence asking them to help us find a home for the program, in 48 hours, nothing major )
4. They only had 48 hours to produce measurable results.

Why They Were Successful As A Team And The Lessons We Can Learn From Them

Despite those challenges their win was a testament to true teamwork.  They did a number of things really well; so if you are building and or leading teams for your venture you can learn a lot from their approach:

1. They are professional collaborators so they inherently understand how to work in teams - so make sure to select people who have worked or know how to work in teams
2. They really listened and took the time to understand the what and the why of our ask, and every team member bought into it - be certain, as certain as you can, that everyone on the team understands the goals and that they buy into them
3. Each team member seemed to be comfortable playing their respective positions within the team (no ego) – this is tricky and it is hard to judge but do your homework and see how your team members have operated / performed in team settings in the past
4. They understood each team member’s individual strengths (and weaknesses) – people pay a lot of lip service to this one but leaders and teams rarely take the time to understand this within each team member, but this is crucial to a team’s success
5. They delegated effectively - you will need to do #4 to do this one properly
6. They trusted each other to execute – trust is a big motivator for some folks, make sure that the team members you choose thrive on trust
7. They communicated often and effectively – can’t say enough about this one.

I am sure there was much more going on behind the scenes that we actually did not see but as the “client” we were truly impressed with how they worked together and with KUPE to effect the outcome we wanted.

Now they did not hand us a set of keys at the end of the 48 hours – and they were sure to manage our expectations at the beginning of the process – but they did do a great job of getting us closer to our goal of finding a permanent home for the program.  In the space of 48 hours, they generated tremendous awareness and support, met with and solicited the support of our key stakeholders, added to KUPE culture with their approach and delivered some measurable and actionable  results.

If you are building a team for your new venture (or old venture) take notes because Team Awesomesauce put on a virtual clinic on how to build, run and manage a winning team. Go Purposeterous Awesomesauce!

Tagged as: Business, Canada, Edelman Canada, KUPE Arts Society, Montreal, Non-profit organization, Public relations, Toronto, Vancouver

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