Tipping Points

While I have to admit to being new to assessment and evaluation, I do believe it to be a piece of the puzzle that we can get excited about. It is an integral component that helps build a brand or a program to its tipping point.

In my work with the book From the Barrio to the Board Room for example, we’ve worked strategically to build a brand that inspires and motivates at-risk youth and those who work with them. Recently we have built a curriculum (a perfect extension of our core values) that we are piloting at Chicago Public Schools. Because we’ve been invited to present our findings at a US Department of Education conference in DC this summer, we have been aggressively collecting data.

As I mentioned, this area is not my expertise, so we have someone else overseeing this collection and the evaluation will be done by people who understand the proper way to do such things.

What’s exciting for me is that we have built the brand so successfully that people are inspired to help us with the survey and ensure its implementation, not because a superior told them they have to do it, but because they are genuinely motivated to be part of the journey of this book.

It is that emotional buy-in that core values and strategic branding can create. Consider your brand a big game of chess. Every move of a piece on the board is motivated through your core values and actualized through marketing materials, programs, videos, etc. The small “checks” on the king are those emotional buy-ins from people around you. When there is enough emotional buy-in, a tipping point, or check-mate, is inevitable and that’s when a brand suddenly explodes and your team goes from chasing others to being chased.

Related posts:

1. Core Values: a workshop for kids
2. Telling Your Story
3. Are pen names a bad idea?
4. Building TRUST: how to thrive in a down economy
5. From Mission to Marketing, How to Show Integrity in Everything You Do—and Why You Should