Rod Arnold of Leading Good and I held a panel discussion at the Classy Collaborative conference distilling down the six elements it takes to build a movement which was captured on their Podcast [TUNE IN]
Here are the six key elements of building a movement we discussed:
1. Build a great brand: Movember strives to be the brand that people associate with men’s health. How can every touchpoint of your organization, your people, and your messaging express your brand personality?
2. Deeper meaning and vision: Mustaches may go on and off trend, but Adam says, “What hasn’t gone off trend is the issues that we’re trying to solve. So as an organization, through our messaging...putting that deeper meaning and purpose front and center is...the way we believe we’ll sustain it.”
3. Personal Ownership: By encouraging their donors to be advocates and promoters of their cause, Movember’s followers feel personal ownership for the mission. Rod says at Movember “there’s this idea of giving away the cause, letting people take ownership and make it their own so they can feel the responsibility for making it successful.”
4. Building Community: Movember builds community twofold: they encourage people to participate in teams AND they use social media and technology platforms to connect people globally. How can you show your participants or donors that they’re truly a part of something great, a part of this greater community doing good?
5. Great Storytelling: Movember provides valuable content to their followers, working to inspire them to share their story and cause with their own circles of influence. Adams says, “You've got to inspire your community to be telling your story.”
6. Infrastructure: This includes operations, governance, platforms, and tech infrastructure. In the interview, Rod says that infrastructure is the element that is “often overlooked but can really cause the demise of organizations especially when they start growing fast.”