Tendenci is Always Changing!
The software technology industry is on constantly changing. Our application developers and programmers for the Tendenci CMS platform are always seeking innovative and more advanced ways to make your websites better for you to use.
Change, in our business, is necessary to stay competitive and provide a valuable product that people want to pay for. We realize that when we make changes with Tendenci, we are making changes in your website.
Change is Hard
This week, I had the opportunity to attend an Inc. Magazine Business Building Breakfast featuring keynote speaker Dan Heath, co-author of Switch. Switch is a book about how to make Change easier for yourself and your organization.
Dan describes the two different systems that control what a person does, like a rider on an elephant:
The “Rider” is Rational, Conscious, Deliberative
The “Elephant” is Emotional, Unconscious, Automatic
Using an analogy from The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt, Switch explains that each of us has these two different systems fighting each other inside – and it isn’t a fair fight. The Elephant in us often is more powerful and much bigger than the Rider.
Whereas your Rider-side may tell you that you need to pay attention in your meeting at work, for example, the elephant-side will be telling you to “keep playing angry birds”.
Dan also points out our Elephant-side also has enormous strengths – our passion, curiosity, and that voice inside our heads that sometimes wonders “wouldn’t it be cool if…?”
Dan wrote the book with his brother, Chip Heath, and they share the 3 surprises about change we need to know before we can lead others to embrace Change joyfully. I am looking forward to reading the book and want to just leap ahead a moment and tell you the 3 surprises of Change that Dan told us in his presentation:
1) Direct the Rider
This is where you determine what it is you want to accomplish and break it down into single, actionable items that you can do as part of a series. Instead of telling your team to go out and raise $100,000 in donations, give them one task that they can do to move towards your fundraising goals like call 10 people from the donor list everyday this week and ask them to donate.
2) Motivate the Elephant
The Elephant in us can be strong-willed and you need to motivate your Elephant towards adopting the change as well. A classic mistake I know I make all the time is thinking that giving people more information will motivate them to change. Dan explained this is not the case and that what motivates people to change, truly, is to See something that makes you Feel something and only then are you motivated to Change. People make changes based on emotions, not reason.
3) Shape the Path
The third part is where you look for ways to make it easier to Change. Give more specific directions, consider the environment and ask yourself and your staff what you can do better to make the path to Change easier. It’s also important to accept that people will fail when they first try something new and we should think more like parents when our child is learning to walk and encourage them to pick themselves up after each stumble.
How Can We Make Change Easier for You?
As I mentioned at the beginning, Tendenci is software and we are always updating it, making changes to the code and your user interface. We want to find out your ideas and suggestions on how we can make managing your website easier for you and your organization’s staff, volunteers, and members.
Our ultimate goal is to make innovative website software that’s really fun to use. Tell us how you’d like to see us change Tendenci.
Change is Fun
We are Updating Tendenci’s Brand Image
The Tendenci blog has been updated with our new colors. If you’ve been by Tendenci.org then you’ll have seen the new logo and we have been sprinkling other content with the new look as we’ve been moving forward – for example Tendenci Admin Navigation menu bars turned blue a couple of weeks ago.
That’s Not All We’re Changing…
We are in the process of redesigning all of our marketing collateral over the next few months, including Tendenci.com, our email newsletter templates, and our social media networks.
Most of these are cosmetic changes to our own website and marketing material and really won’t affect your Tendenci websites and day-to-day workflows.
Some of the changes, like when we changed the Admin Nav menu from maroon to blue, will affect your website. We hope you like the changes and for the most part, we make them based on our clients’ feedback and requests.
You Can Help Make Changes
We are planning on redesigning Tendenci’s Dashboard to provide more useful functionality and access to help files and reporting tools. This is something we’ve planned since early in the development of Tendenci version 5.0.
We are looking for your feedback on how we can make your Tendenci dashboard more useful. Tell us what you’d like to see in your site Dashboard and help us make some changes!
Some Recent Changes to Tendenci
Here are just a few of the changes we’ve made to all Tendenci websites in the past month. You can view all of our weekly updates in Tendenci’s Software Updates articles.
- Tendenci weekly software updates will now go out on Tuesdays, instead of Thursdays.
- Anonymous site visitors can now apply for corporate memberships without requiring account registration first.
- Individual Membership Exports now include Financials on Membership Dues Paid, Balance Owed, and the Invoice ID number.
- We’ve made several updates to the memberships module based on your feedback.
- Site-wide searches now display active content on your website before expired content.
Really Big Changes We’ve Got Planned This Year
We have big ideas and we’re making big changes to make your experience setting up and using your website better. Here are a few really exciting changes you can expect to see coming to your Tendenci website throughout the year:
- We’re going to change how Tendenci manages permissions settings at a People/User- level to make it easier for Site Admins to control and set-up access to site content and settings for your staff, members, and site users.
- We’ll be adding new theme options for Tendenci websites to give you additional options to change the design and colors of your website.
- We’ll be releasing more plugins that you’ll be able to opt to install on your site like we just did with the Videos plugin.
- We’ll be adding additional documentation for Developers, Designers, and Interactive Agencies to support and grow our brand new open source community.
Tell us what you think! Share your comments below or contact us with your questions.
