THE RIPPLE EFFECT

by Impact365

Every interaction leaves a mark. A word of encouragement, a moment of attention, a small act of kindness — each one sends a ripple that travels further than we’ll ever know. Every ripple matters. Start yours.

A few years ago, I was working with a youth sports organization that was hemorrhaging volunteers. Every season, they'd recruit a fresh group of parents to help with logistics, scorekeeping, field setup — and every season, most of them would disappear by the halfway mark.

The director was frustrated. She told me, "We keep losing good people. They show up, they do great work, and then they just stop coming."

So I spent a Saturday watching. And here's what I saw: Volunteers arrived early. They hauled equipment. They managed crowds of restless eight-year-olds with patience and humor. And at the end of the day, every single one of them packed up and left without anyone saying a word to them about what they'd done.

Not a thank you. Not a "great job today." Not even eye contact from the coaches who benefited most from their work.

These weren't bad people running the organization. They were busy people who forgot the most fundamental truth about human behavior: people repeat what gets recognized.

"What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own." — Jocko Willink

This is Skill #5 in the Impact Gap framework: Reinforce Positive Behavior. And it might be the most misunderstood skill on the list — because people confuse it with praise.

It's not praise. Praise is a tool. Reinforcement is a skill.

Here's something that's easy to understand but hard to practice: behavior that gets noticed gets repeated. Behavior that gets ignored fades away. That's not a motivational poster. That's behavioral science.

Think about your own experience. When was the last time you went above and beyond at work, or at home, or in your community — and nobody noticed? How did that feel? Now think about a time someone caught you doing something right and specifically told you they saw it. Which version of you showed up the next day with more energy?

Reinforcement isn't about making people feel good — although it does that. It's about creating a pattern. When you consistently notice and name the behaviors you want to see more of, you build a culture where those behaviors sustain themselves. You stop having to manage people into doing the right thing, because the right thing has already been recognized as the standard.

First: It has to be specific. "Good job" is nice. It's also forgettable. Reinforcement that actually changes behavior sounds different: "I noticed you stayed after the event to help that family find their seats for next week's game. That's the kind of thing that keeps families coming back." You're naming the exact behavior — and you're connecting it to why it matters.

Second: It has to be timely. Reinforcement loses power the further it gets from the moment. If you wait until a quarterly review to tell someone they handled a situation well three months ago, the moment is gone. The closer your recognition is to the behavior, the stronger the connection between the two.

Third: It has to be genuine. People can feel the difference between reinforcement that comes from real observation and reinforcement that's being performed. If you're doing it because a leadership book told you to, it shows. If you're doing it because you actually saw something worth recognizing, that comes through too.

Fourth: It has to be consistent. One-time reinforcement is a compliment. Consistent reinforcement is a culture. When your team, your family, or your community knows that positive behavior will be seen and named — not occasionally, but reliably — everything shifts. People stop waiting to be told what to do. They start looking for ways to contribute, because they know contribution gets noticed.

Here's where it goes wrong. Many leaders only notice behavior when it's a problem. They walk past a hundred things going right and laser in on the one thing going wrong. And over time, the people around them learn a brutal lesson: the only way to get attention is to make a mistake.

That's not a motivation problem. That's a reinforcement problem. And the fix isn't complicated — it just requires you to retrain your attention. Instead of scanning for what's broken, start scanning for what's working. When you find it, stop. Name it. And make sure the person who did it knows you saw them.

The volunteer organization I mentioned earlier? After one season of deliberate, specific reinforcement — coaches thanking volunteers by name, naming the exact thing they did, doing it in front of the group — their retention doubled. Same volunteers. Same work. The only thing that changed was that somebody finally noticed.

Power Move: This week, catch three people doing something right — at work, at home, in your community — and tell them exactly what you saw and why it mattered. Don't wait for the big moments. Look for the small ones: the coworker who stayed late to help, the kid who cleaned up without being asked, the neighbor who checked in on someone. Name the behavior. Connect it to impact. Watch what happens next.

Go deeper with the 9 Skills.

Download the Close the Gap: 9 Skills Pocket Guide — a quick-reference tool designed for leaders, teachers, parents, and coaches who want to practice these skills with intention, every day.

Get yours at impact365.com/products/close-the-gap-9-skills-pocket-guide

Connecting Leaders Who Create Ripples

I recently had the chance to sit down with Carla Anaya — a healthcare development professional in New Mexico whose work is driven by a gap most people never think about until they're standing in the middle of it.

Carla works in hospital development, specifically in pediatric healthcare fundraising. And the gap she sees every day isn't abstract. It's a mother driving three hours to Albuquerque with a sick child, arriving with no money for food, no place to stay, and no way to get home until treatment is done. It's a family on Medicaid trying to navigate a system that covers the procedure but not the logistics of surviving while it happens.

"We have a huge healthcare gap in New Mexico," Carla told me. "Albuquerque has the most advanced facilities in the state, which means families are traveling hours to get here — and so many of them don't have the funds to cover food, lodging, or transportation while their child is in care."

That reality is what fuels her fundraising work. Her team raises significant funds specifically for patient care — not for new equipment or facility expansions, but for the human side of healthcare that often falls through the cracks. The meals. The hotel rooms. The gas money. The things that determine whether a family can actually stay long enough for their child to heal.

When I asked Carla what kind of impact she wants to make long-term, she didn't hesitate. Two priorities came to mind immediately: driving funding for mental health and behavioral health services across New Mexico, and building diversified, equitable funding streams for the niche areas of healthcare that private donors tend to overlook.

"UNM Hospital provides the most advanced mental health and behavioral health care in our state," she said. "I want to make sure those programs have what they need — not just to survive, but to grow."

That kind of clarity doesn't come from a mission statement. It comes from seeing the gap up close and deciding to close it.

What struck me most about Carla is how naturally leadership shows up in everything she does — not as a title, but as a way of operating. She captains her tennis team. She was hand-selected by her organization's CEO to serve on a special committee. And in both settings, she does the same thing: she walks into a room full of people trying to figure something out and helps them get organized.

"I've gotten a lot better at identifying how a project can get done efficiently and effectively," she told me. "That came from volunteering my time to help people organize. You learn how to see a path through the chaos."

That's a skill most people undervalue: the ability to walk into complexity and create clarity. Carla does it instinctively — and it's made her the kind of person others turn to when the plan isn't working.

In her current role, Carla is a Super Connector by definition. She works directly with grateful patients — families who've been through the healthcare system and want to give back — and her job is to bridge the gap between their gratitude and the hospital's needs. But she doesn't stop there.

She takes pride in connecting patients and families with community volunteer groups and resources that extend well beyond the hospital walls. For Carla, the work doesn't end when the treatment does. It's about making sure people have what they need for the next chapter — and knowing who to call to make that happen.

I asked Carla the question we ask every Super Connector: If you could close one gap in your community in the next year, what would it be?

Her answer surprised me — not because it was unexpected, but because of how deeply she'd thought about it.

"I would love to increase the number of young people who volunteer for civic groups or nonprofit organizations," she said. "The number of people volunteering has deteriorated over time. But volunteering is the best way to revitalize a community. Communities develop and prosper when people are giving their time — even if it's just for their neighbors, their families, or their friends."

That's not a soundbite. That's a conviction. And it connects directly to what we believe at Impact365: impact doesn't require a platform. It requires presence.

When I asked Carla what it would mean to be part of a network of people all working to create impact in their own communities, she lit up.

"I truly appreciate a network simply for the ability to soundboard ideas, share what's working, and encourage people to try things outside their comfort zone. Every community is different — and that's exactly why we need to share our successes with each other."

That's what being a Super Connector is all about. Not doing it alone. Doing it together — and trusting that the best ideas get better when they travel.

Carla Anaya is proof that you don't need a spotlight to create impact. You need a gap, the willingness to stand in it, and the connections to bring others along with you.

Leadership doesn't scale through information. It scales through connection.

This week's challenge: Think about someone in your world who is doing quiet, impactful work — a volunteer, a colleague, a neighbor — and reinforce it. Tell them what you've noticed. Be specific. Connect their effort to the ripple it's creating. Don't let the moment pass.

That's it for this week. One skill, one spotlight, one challenge. The Ripple Effect grows because people like you pass it on. If you know someone who needs to hear this — send it their way.

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— Leland