A People Lens
At Vantage Point, we work with voluntary sector organizations to increase the numbers of talented people they engage; and also to improve the quality of that engagement – for both the individual and the not-for-profit. This practice of engaging as many brilliant people as possible in your mission can revolutionize your organization and the way you deliver service. Our goal is for every community member to become every community organization’s potential workforce.
In 2009, Vantage Point created a book of stories about this kind of people engagement. The book is called A People Lens: 101 Ways to Move Your Organization Forward. To write this book, we “hired” unpaid people as project manager, writers, graphic artists, photographers, and editors. These brilliant minds made this book happen from start to finish. Examples of stories of different, non-traditional ways to involve people in your organization are told in these pages – and each of our member organizations receives a complimentary e-copy as one of their benefits.
We wrote this book because we see that the current structures and practices in not-for-profit organizations are not working. As a sector, we need new models. We cannot continue to engage unpaid people in traditional ways—doing repetitive, and often deemed unimportant work, when we truly require visionaries, strategic thinkers, planners and dreamers.
A People Lens is about turning some of our traditional thinking on its side. It’s about viewing our organizations through a people lens first, before a financial or budgetary lens. The approach recognizes the changing face of the available talent, and enables not-for-profit leaders to create and grow values-based, effective, sustainable and dynamic organizations.
Interested in a copy of this book? Have a story to tell? Contact us at info@thevantagepoint.ca.