6 weeks ago, The Kairos Project made a declaration - that we would initiate 100 conversations between social enterprises/charities and leadership coaches worldwide on May 15th.
Due to numbers, we made one amendment to this - 100 conversations over a week, between 15th and 22nd May. Be careful what you declare. We have people registered from all four corners of the world - including Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Mexico, China, Lebanon and Thailand.
One conversation with an NGO in Tasmania didn't start well. Enthusiastically, I began "I am thrilled to be speaking with you as I have never spoken with someone from Tanzania before?" Not a good one.
The reason why declarations are so powerful is because language is generative. This means that what you say changes you, your relationship with the world and what happens around you.
Consider the power of Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon in this decade" speech or consider one of the greatest declaration we make - "I love you". In that moment, in those three words, you generated new futures unimaginable a few seconds before.
The other areas of language that create your world are called the five speech acts - promises, offers, assessment, declaration and requests.
Some people are effective in some and utterly hopeless in others. All of us are capable of improvement - making offers that are more attractive, promises that don't over-promise, declarations that stick.
I will now demonstrate an effective request. This is a real one. So please accept.
We are looking for leaders and CEO of small-medium social enterprises and charities anywhere in the world to register for our Connect 100 event. We coach in Spanish, French, German, Italian and English. Can you please have a think about who might be interested in this event and send them this link to register http://www.thekairosproject.com/connect-100/. The website explains everything in detail.
Time is of the essence. Could I kindly ask you to share this by 1200 Tuesday 12th May as we need time to match coach and participant. If you would like to follow up with me before you open up your enormous database of contacts, please email me at peter@becauseitsthere.net or call me directly on +447712531010.
I will reserve judgement as to how effective my request is until 1200 on Tuesday next week. However, no matter how you are able to help, I will make another declaration.
Thank you.
