Captain Planet and Your Nonprofit
I realize I am showing my age by letting you know I used to watch Captain Planet. I will say, however, that I did not exactly watch Captain Planet willingly. My older brother happened to be bigger and stronger than me so he got control of the remote and what cartoons we watched Saturday Mornings. At least until our mom woke up. Then he was tortured by cartoons like My Little Pony and Care Bears. We did manage to agree on Tiny Toons and Fraggle Rock!
FYI: The original Fraggle Rock came out in 1987. I had no idea they started up a new version in 2021 until I started looking for a video with the theme song!
I am not throwing out names of your childhood cartoons just to whip up nostalgia. Although, research shows that people respond strongly and positively to feelings of nostalgia…
I am bringing up Captain Planet because our CEO brought him up to help our team realize that each team member’s individual contributions add to the overall goal of Angels for Angels. We each feel a bit foolish and let out a little laughter when we raise our fist toward the webcam and yell out our area of focus, I must admit, though, that since the CEO’s captain planet discussion I have wanted to do all I could to serve well in my area to see Angels for Angels succeed in being the best fiscal sponsor not only in Seattle but in the country as well.
So, what does this have to do with your nonprofit? May I suggest you invite Captain Planet into your nonprofit? If you remember the only way Captain planet appeared was if the people who wore the different rings of the environmental factors came together and yelled out the part of the planet, they were responsible for.
Every person at your nonprofit paid or volunteer has their part to plan in your nonprofit reaching its goals and creating more. Do the people on your teams know how their contributions fulfill your nonprofits mission. Also, and this, is key; do the people on your team know how others are moving your goals and mission forward?
One of the largest factors to the success of a business, agency or nonprofit is employee engagement. According to the Journal of Business Management organizations with high employee engagement, “excel in customer satisfaction, achieve high productivity and operational efficiency, as well as profitability. […] Engaged employees also are healthier employees with lower absenteeism and reduced turnover. You can read the article from the Journal of Business Management here, at your leisure of course!
There are four factors that help employees (and yes, this has been shown to extend to volunteers) feel engaged in any work, including work at a nonprofit. Power, information, knowledge and recognition (you can fact check me on this here). Inviting Captain Planet into your nonprofit can fulfill each of these needs of those working in your nonprofit.
Bringing a Captain Planet type of analogy into your nonprofit gives your works and volunteers a sense of power because they get to display to the rest of the team what they down and explain why it matters to the overall mission and goal. Information is shared in in abundance. Everyone on your team not only shares information but also picks up a massive amount as well. Information often leads to understanding and learning. This, in turn, can help team members form alliances to accomplish goals in unity. Information, of course leads to knowledge. See, Captain Planet is amazing!
The last fulfilled need that helps employees to feel engaged is recognition. Okay, who doesn’t like to be acknowledged for their contributions?! Let’s go with NOBODY. Even your most quiet, timid employee likes knowing their contributions matter. You just may not want to recognize the timid ones with a “hot seat” type thanks. Just like the individual rigs with their individual powers brought Captain planet to life, employees sharing about their individual “powers” can bring about recognition of their contribution to making things happen at your nonprofit.
I wonder if our CEO knew how powerful his Captain Planet analogy was when he made it? Maybe…probably come to think of it, yeah—he knew--because he is smart (albeit goofy) like that!