Energize Your Nonprofit

Leonardo DiCaprio and Doing the Impossible

by Jim Lord

When I accepted my son’s last-minute invitation to see the new summer blockbuster Inception on Sunday, I thought it would be a pleasant diversion. (Which it was, quite the brain thriller.) Little did I know it would hold something I’d want to share with you.

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How Can Perking Up Your Board Influence Your Community?

by Jim Lord

What can happen if you start in a new place — just for part of one board meeting? Could you get some new oomph into the room? And how might that new perspective ripple outward, influencing your community?

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Who Else Wants More Than Traditional “Market Research”?

by Jim Lord

Marketing can provide some powerful tools, but genuine social innovation calls for different ways of working that release the power within people. They already want to do big things, and are just waiting for you to lay the road to make it possible.

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A Bold Foundation for Your Work: Appreciative Inquiry

by Jim Lord

Everything you see on this web site is founded on the methods and perspective of appreciative inquiry (even if the term itself is pretty much missing). Get a quick overview of this powerful approach here.

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Can We Make an End Run Around “Problems”?

by Jim Lord

What will move us forward both quickly and effectively? Do we spend time dissecting and attempting to solve all the problems we can find, or do we lift our gaze to our capabilities and worth — as seen in our best moments — so we can go straight to a higher level?

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What is Appreciative Inquiry?

by Jim Lord

AI asks us to pay special attention to “the best of the past and present” — in order to “ignite the collective imagination of what might be.” It’s an exciting way to take human enterprise to its next level, and to inspire people, for the benefit of us all.

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How the “Paradoxical Theory of Change” Can Make Your Work Easier

by Jim Lord

People are more open to change than one might expect, even eager for it. What we object to is being changed. (Understandably!) What might happen if we stopped using up so much of our energy trying to change people?

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What Can Street Children Teach Us?

by Jim Lord

When circumstances seem daunting, where can you look for resources and vitality? Here’s what I learned from street children in Africa.

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From Victims to Leaders

by Jim Lord

How students from Jonesboro and Columbine showed, in an especially poignant way, what can happen when we interrupt the discourse of despair and draw attention to life and hope.

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What is Your Work Really About?

by Jim Lord

Imagine this scene: A researcher watches as a five-year-old girl draws a picture of her extended family. The girl grabs bright-colored crayons and carefully draws her smiling parents, brother, and sister in the middle of the paper. Then she reaches for dark gray to sketch her grandparents, smaller and off to the side.

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