Many of us are familiar with Marie Kondo, best-selling author of the book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” The KonMari method, Kondo’s system of simplifying and organizing, has started a wildly popular trend by teaching us to ask a simple question about each item we own, “Does it spark joy?” If not, she suggests we get rid of it.
If you work for an association that delivers ongoing live and on-demand programming, can you apply the KonMari method to your content? Absolutely, permitted you follow these tips to successfully simplify and organize your content.
1. Tidy all at once
Instead of tidying up only one program, course, or module a day, devote as much time as is needed to “spring clean” all the content you have. If you take this process in bits and pieces over an extended period, you may miss how key elements work together and find yourself trying to recover lost information or needing to re-create content in a matter of a few weeks or months.
You’ll also want to review your content library by category (and not simply by where it is in a particular course or module) to better identify gaps and redundancies in your content. If there are any disconnects, you’ll be able to figure out what content needs to be developed next, or if there are any programs with requisites that need to be refreshed and bundled.
2. Visualize the destination
You want to provide your members with the best content possible. Before you change, archive, or discontinue courses, consider what your ideal member would benefit from and visualize the desired outcome. For inspiration, revisit your organization’s mission and vision. Are you living up to it by means of the content you’re putting out?
By thinking in deliberate terms and developing concrete goals for how you’re using what you have, you can more accurately visualize the type of content that will serve your members best. You may benefit from refreshing your content so it better aligns with your target audience and the way they learn best. It’s well worth the effort to keep your members loyal, engaged, and informed.
3. Determine if it “sparks joy”
Now that you’re aligned with what your organization cares about and what your members love, keep that momentum! Do this by checking performance to see which pieces of content your members view the most, have invested the most time learning with, or have the highest reviews – those are the items that “spark joy” for your members, and thus, they should do the same for you!
If you have older content or you are new to your organization, get a feel for it and view things with a critical eye at this stage. Use reporting and metrics, system evaluations, and system feedback to determine how ‘joyful’ or valuable each piece of content is.
Then, clean house.
Keeping content that only brings joy and value to your members (and removing what doesn’t) will require you to confront each of your programs earnestly and force you to make a judgment on what your organization is known for. Don’t make your members sort through invaluable content, just for the sake of having a vast library. When you discard the content that doesn’t “spark joy” you can make room for content that does.