How many of us are part of at least one network that prides itself on a C word – community, connection, collaboration? The C’s go on. Is there some kind of magic in the letter C?
Recently, I was listening to a presentation, and another C word stood out. One that doesn’t get as much attention, but it lit up like a beacon. That word was convenience.
The speaker talked about how newcomers in an industry often outpace the established players – not because they have more resources or better ideas, but because they’ve built their models around customer convenience.
That stuck with me. It made me think: how might we look at our work, our products, our services, even how we communicate, through a convenience lens?
What kind of convenience are we offering our clients when it comes to grant writing? How can we make that process smoother, more supportive? What do our strategic planning clients really want in terms of a support process that works for them?
Beyond my immediate work, I’ve also been helping other businesses think about convenience. Because let’s be honest — we’ve all had that moment where we try to ask a simple question online, and end up stuck in a loop of bots, keypad options, and zero actual help. It’s frustrating. And often, what got us to reach out in the first place was something emotional — a problem, a stress point. Being met with impersonal logic trees just makes things worse.
Convenience isn’t just a systems issue. It’s about empathy, too.
And it ties back to those original C words: community, connection, collaboration. None of those happens well in isolation. It’s convenient to connect with others, to bounce around ideas, to share the load. That’s how new thinking happens. That’s how services evolve.
So maybe next time we’re talking about the usual C words, we should also be asking: where’s the convenience?
