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Options for a YES

Writer's picture: Carmen PerezCarmen Perez

Live from San Diego, a modern recipe for making the case.


I’m writing from sunny San Diego! As a first-timer visiting this city, each step outside is a breath of sun, temperature, and breeze in beautiful balance. It’s lovely. This trip began with a major might-miss-your-flight kerfuffle, but more on that later. I’m here because I’m facilitating a session called Starting with Yes: Making the Case. I’m excited because this is an undercover topic I’ve touched on for years. It was never my headline, but now it emerges!


Making the Case… for what?

Making the Case in my professional life is usually about corporate social impact continuing to exist, changing course, or growing. Philanthropy inside large corporations has decades of history. Depending on the leadership, industry, and current social trends some teams still face executives who question their work’s value. On the flip side, many teams are very solidly built into corporate strategy, so they are more likely making the case to tackle a new cause area, expand their programs to reach new groups of employees, or leave an issue behind to make space for something new and more pressing.


New Spin

Over the years, making the case has been all about the proof and evidence. Research, measurement, and data are my areas, so that part is usually a slam dunk for me. Unfortunately, I’ve seen lots of cases fall flat -- rock-solid cases proving value that still don’t move forward. It’s not that evidence isn’t essential, but corporate changemakers need to add more to the recipe to make progress. I now recommend building a case that combines four components: Big picture, Evidence, Two Options, and a Specific Ask. Place your BETS! Yes, it has a working acronym but to avoid adding the straw that breaks the acronym camel’s back, I’m not emphasizing that. Missed opportunity? You tell me.


I call the session “starting with yes” primarily because of the Two Options piece. Too often changemakers go into a case-making meeting expecting a yes or a no, agreement or disagreement. Talking through two possibilities assumes we’re going forward, and let’s figure out if we’re opening Door A or Door B. If a debate ensues, we’re directing the conversation to which course of action to take – not whether to take action at all. Non-corporate example: instead of asking your neighbor if they would go vegetarian to save the earth, ask if they’d be more open to cutting the amount of meat in their diet or reducing food waste in their home. Now we’re talking about which works and less from a place of feeling judged or put on the spot. Instead of asking people if they’d like to donate to our cause, ask if they’ve ever done regular monthly donations in the past or if they are more of an ad hoc/once a year donor. You’re learning about them and they will come around to a donation when they are moved to do so.


When You Think You Might Not Make It

Back to my travel morning. My husband and I left to drive to JFK at 5:30am for an 8:30 flight, adding in more than needed for the typical 30-minute drive. As we approached JFK, too many not-moving brake lights gave us our first stomach churn of something’s not normal here. Following a sign pointing us to terminal 4, we found ourselves in stand-still traffic after making one curve -- creeping and crawling ahead while the GPS arrival time got later and later. Our two options were: 1) sit and wait, changing course could lead to another dead end or 2) leave the line and try to find a faster way in. The big picture was that missing the flight was not possible! We left the line and went an alternate way, only to find another construction blockade. S*&%!. The car was filled with a fog of tension and we’re forced-calm-voice asking each other “what do you think we should we do, honey?” while our insides are bouncing off the walls.


We’d taken option 2 but not found the expected result. My husband asks if I’d be ok walking from terminal 5 to terminal 4. Walking is not advised at JFK. Google maps won’t even show you a route. Forgetting the stress of the moment, I remember I actually do love a walk before a flight and all other options seemingly will bring us into terminal 4 standstill lines. So, he dropped me off at the wrong terminal. On purpose. First time for everything! “Which way is terminal 4?” I shouted to the traffic cop guy whistling at cars to get moving. He gestured and away I went, trekking under dark overpasses suitcase rumbling behind me. Passing a woman who I think worked there gave me hope that at least I was on a path to somewhere. I rounded another cement barricade thingy, and there was terminal 4. Success! I was only hoping to start the day with a jolt of airport coffee caffeine, not this type of panic jolt, but making it to the gate on time had never been more satisfying.


The Goal is Getting There

This story reinforced that anchoring on one way of doing something- such as making the case- isn’t ideal. The goal is to get there. There is where, exactly? It can be different for each and every changemaker’s life’s work. The goal is not to complete the exact steps of a perfectly constructed plan. Changemakers are resilient individuals. I imagine most of my compatriots in changemaking would have gone for the same option I did – even if we have to walk an unknown path, arriving overtakes the human instinct pulling us towards what’s familiar and safe. Daily moments provide all kinds of inspiration for driving changes we strive for at a systemic level, and that early morning mayhem was definitely one of them.  

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