A buddy of mine is working with Habitat For Humanity. We met to discuss how to offer a team building program in conjunction with a basic corporate volunteer day. Traditionally, team building just happens. This would be an effort to be intentional about it.

We also talked about social media and a number of other things his affiliate could do to deliver higher value to the volunteers. We really did. If I told you Habitat is the 8th biggest home builder in the US today and the 3rd most recognized non-profit with a “value” in the billions you might ask why the conversation to increase value if they are already doing so well.

Habitat recognizes the changing landscape of American demographics (we are all very busy), social media (there are new ways to stay in touch with your fans), and corporate giving (companies and foundations want to see ROI and excellence in execution so they know their money is going to good use). It means they must innovate on an already proven and validated mode to retain their respected and impactful position in the market.

If Habitat is working to figure it out, what about you? Most of you are not working for one of the top three most respected firms in your industry. Even if you were you are still in a highly competitive market for new business and to retain employees. All too often we are content with the status quo and don’t want to change things. People rationalize that doing OK is good enough. And it is, for a while, but it eventually isn’t good enough anymore and then it becomes bad and the rest is history.

It may not be fun but we must be working regularly to innovate and increase the value we bring to our clients. In the past year I can list a number of things we have done at FireStarter to improve the business. Some had an immediate impact some are taking a bit longer but we are in the fight. 20% of my speaking competitors went out of business last year. Some would say that makes my job easier. I think it just puts me closer to being the next one out unless I maintain the effort.

My meeting with Habitat yesterday was a powerful reminder and I wanted to share it with you.

Click here to learn more about Habitat For Humanity

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.