RoadMap network consultant Elizabeth Seja Min will release her book, “Gut Heart Head in Action: Creative Moves to Grow Your Base of Support” later this month. Be sure to register for the launch event, “The ‘secret sauce’ of unforgettable messaging” in collaboration with The Bloom on Wednesday, May 27, 11am ET. Meanwhile, here’s an advanced Q&A with Elizabeth.
1. Why was your gut and heart telling you to write this book and open source it to the movement?
I decided to write the book because, for over ten years, I’ve worked with civil society organizations across the world, coaching teams from small, community-based organizations to large multi-country institutions and everything in between, via the Spring Strategies FIRE program (Financial Innovation & Resilience). My part has been to focus on communications for resource mobilization as a foundational practice for financial resilience.
Of the several hundred organizations I’ve worked with, most are in Global Majority countries, not the U.S. All focus on advancing rights and justice which, as we know, is intersectional work that takes multiple strategies over an arc of time to move forward. It’s complex and can be difficult to explain to supporters and potential supporters, yet it is critical to grow that base of support to stay the course.
I’ve been steeped in resource mobilization issues for years, steadily exploring how humans absorb information and are moved to action. But the work with Spring gave me the opportunity to evolve the Gut-Heart-Head formula. Teams would send me communications pieces they were creating – fundraising appeals, website pages, proposals, reports, presentations, message briefs, campaign plans, video scripts, press releases, branding ideas, infographics, and social media.
In clinics, I then made recommendations for how pieces could talk more to Gut and Heart in ways that can authentically grow people’s support (versus talking mostly to Head). For so many, these were paradigm-shifting ideas and ignited a new passion for how they could present their work to supporters and potentials. Rave reviews were consistent.
After a time, I had workshopped a couple hundred pieces and what developed is a core set of Gut-Heart-Head practices and tools that teams can immediately put to use. Theory is great, of course, but it’s all about the application. So, when I realized I had all these work samples from mostly Global Majority countries, and from organizations of all sizes, I decided to write the book in partnership with Spring, and we decided to make it a free resource for those working around the world for rights and justice.
The case studies in the book are from 18 countries, showing exactly how I put the Gut-Heart-Head formula in action. There are practical, tested, and creative tools, plus exercises to get the juices flowing. Knowing how much this work has impacted the organizations I’ve worked with via Spring, I want nothing more than for leaders and teams to have this resource in their toolbox.
2. You write, “While the world is in a constant state of change, the way people absorb information is stable. It doesn’t change. This creates tremendous opportunities for us to craft compelling communications for any scenario, even in the face of uncertainty.” Can you share more about this perspective? It feels especially critical given these highly unstable times.
I believe the best thing we can do to deliver on our missions for rights and justice is to speak to the humanity of every person who comes in contact with us. Organizations that successfully move people and raise funds, over an arc of time, do more than just communicate information. They intuitively connect to deeper human needs and instincts.
In our communications for resource mobilization, we can tap into the ways that the body absorbs information and reacts to stimuli. The Gut-Heart-Head formula helps make the complex simple by using natural human abilities to process information in a way that connects to our Gut (need for recognition and belonging), Heart (sense of emotion, meaning and imagination), and Head (drive for analysis and action). It’s just how we humans are wired.
The formula: When GUT gets it, and HEART is moved, then HEAD is primed to act. This applies to every channel and type of communication: proposals, presentations, campaigns, speeches, appeals, websites, social media, blogs, infographics, scripts, reports, conversations with donors, and more. The book’s tools and case studies show the formula in action.
3. Many organizations lead with information (HEAD). Why do you think it’s so difficult in practice to start with GUT and HEART — and what shifts when teams actually do?
Although rights and justice work is fundamentally about people, people’s rights and people’s justice, in my view philanthropy and others that grant institutional credibility and resources have entrained our movement organizations to argue their case. The result is that in most all our communications, we offer an abundance of information and detail about the organization (a lot of “We” for Head) but not that much addressing people who are supporters or potential supporters (“You”). It might seem counter-intuitive initially, but engaging Gut and Heart first is critical to drawing people into the work, and this includes those in philanthropic, government, and other institutions. After all, isn’t the purpose of communications and resource mobilization to draw people in?
In my experience, the Gut-Heart-Head formula is incredibly useful in making the shift from “Less We” to “More You.” And in fact, this shift is, without a doubt, the number one “Aha!” teams I’ve worked with around the world have expressed. It pretty much reorients how they view and create their communications.
It takes some time to put this shift into practice across all communications, but many choose one of the book’s tools to apply to one piece of their communications, like a fundraising appeal, and go from there. The case studies in the book illustrate the “before” and “after” results in applying the various tools. Anyone on your team can do this, once there is an understanding of the formula, and thus, it is a developmental practice for a team. Or if you outsource your communications, the formula can help communicate specifically what you want from your consultants or service providers.