Blackbaud Convening of Thought Leaders
Imagine your partner, sitting down facing you, knees to knees, holding hands, asking, “Can you help me understand?”
That is what Blackbaud asked Turnkey to make happen. The company wanted a deep inside view to the travails of its social good clients. Beyond “how can we make the user interface better?” Blackbaud wanted to know what its clients were struggling with each and every day. In the same way a car designer needs to know a lot about the family its cars transport, Blackbaud needed to know about the everyday life of its social good clients.
Jay Odell, at that time the President of Nonprofit Solutions at Blackbaud, said, “It was an opportunity to spend quality time with nonprofit leaders and hear what their real challenges are. Also, it let us get to know them in a safe environment. That was invaluable; a couple I still maintain contact with years later. It was a safe way to get them to interact with us in a non-sales situation.”
That perfect situation came in the form of a Convening, bringing together high-level Blackbaud executives with social good executives willing to tell their stories. Blackbaud needed the introductions to the social good professionals and the insight they provided, but the company wanted someone experienced at peer experience sharing facilitation to make it happen.
Turnkey brought in the social good executives through personalized invitation, managed the physical site and amenities, and facilitated all interactions using a particular method known to provide satisfying experiences, deep understanding, and strong bonds between participants – The Gestalt Language Protocol.
The Gestalt Language Protocol ensures that people can tell their stories, fully and without interruption or judgement. Participants share stories relevant to other people’s problems, delivering information with perfect context and high reliability. In short, everyone gets help from each other and no one feels like the least smart person in the room.
The Blackbaud folks left with perspective they could not get another way, and relationships that went beyond business. The social good attendees left with a new set of people they could lean on, including Blackbaud high level executives.
