The physicists who study black holes tell us that nothing, including light, can escape the black hole’s “event horizon,” or that place where the edge of the black hole meets the rest of space. The gravitational pull of the black hole is so strong that all matter crossing the event horizon falls inward.
The “gravitational pull” of special events on advancement team members can seem similar.
For example, special events (i.e., the black holes) seem to gobble up significant amounts of available time, energy, and resources from advancement team members as they get closer to the event. And, once the special events starts, all team members seem to cross over its “special events horizon,” and fall into a single-minded focus on the event itself. Other advancement work seems to disappear as the teams’ focus is centered on the special event.
But, fear not, special events don’t have to play this destructive, all-consuming role for advancement teams (and, by the way, actual black holes won’t eventually destroy every known particle in our universe by acting like big, out of control vacuums, either).
To keep special events from absorbing the attention and efforts of most on your advancement team, it is critical to plan to lessen (or, at least contain) the size and scope of your special event. Create specific limitations on how many attendees you want, or how many advancement team members will be involved in the planning and implementation, or, how long the event will last. In other words, plan an event that will help your advancement program in specific ways but not one that overtakes your advancement program.
Another strategy to keep the special events/black holes in check for the members of your team is to plan for other activities or initiatives to occur during the same period of time. Perhaps, for instance, there is a giving day that occurs just prior to your special event, or there is a publication that gets shipped during the same period as the special event. Making the special event just one initiative that some advancement team members are working on (as opposed to the initiative that everyone is working on), forces you to pull energy, efforts, and focus away from the event.
Being pulled over the special events horizon can be a real problem for advancement teams if we allow it to be.
But, if we plan thoughtfully, the special event black holes of advancement can be far less engrossing and bewitching than we have come to believe.