I just came across a moving blog entry about using “outside voices” verses “inside voices” at the Capitol. What I love about this entry is that it made me feel better about my recent use of my outside voice — something I had been regretting.
Last week, during a conference call about nonprofits/public policy/the Legislative Session, I found myself using my outside voice, which is extremely rare for me, especially in the type of meeting I was participating in. There I was, listening to a group of nonprofit public policy experts, meeting in St. Paul, sitting around a conference table while I was at my home office, staring at a small, blue, flip phone. While the group was discussing this and that and how and what could be done, I kept thinking:
“we don’t have time!”
“we need to do something NOW!”
“we have to do something big!”
“do something that will get their attention!”
“and make it easy for nonprofits and more personal!”
“we need to do more than just refer people to a website!”
Some of this I verbalized, and when I did, I was met with a long, awkward silence. While I was by no means upset, I was passionately using my outside voice. Had I been a kid on the playground and done that, all the activity would have stopped and I would have blushed and/or turned around and left. Instead, I signed off and spent the rest of the day ruminating over whether or not I should have spoken up. A week later, with a bit more perspective, I’m glad I did. And I hope that more people with stories to tell about how nonprofits impact their lives will join me and others in using their outside voices. This Legislative session IS going to impact nonprofits across the state and I implore you to please, use your voice — inside or outside — but find it and use it.
