Key thoughts
- IMEI stands for Inspire, Motivate, Engage, and Invest.
- Agreeing that something matters isn’t the same as committing to it.
- Caring is, at some level, always a mix of giving and taking.
- The one component most people and organisations forget is invest: being explicit about what you’re willing to put in (and not just what you’re asking for).
Often while we mean well, we don’t take the time to really understand other people’s needs and priorities.
Let’s use the example of a Not for Profit organisation supporting an important cause. On paper, what they’re doing is meaningful, it matters, and everyone should care. And yet organisations still struggle to get people to commit.
That gap, between people recognising that something matters and people actually committing to it, is what the IMEI framework helps to bridge.
Why IMEI exists | Understanding the transaction
This framework comes primarily from Renee’s work in the For Purpose sector.
Organisations in that space would request a communication or presentation skills program, but the real issue was usually a gap they couldn’t quite name: Understanding why it matters to people? What do they get out of it?
In many situations, humans are appropriately transactional – especially in interactions with a “stranger”. For most relationships to form, there has to be some give and take.
It’s tempting to push back on that. “It shouldn’t be about give and take”, people say, “it’s about caring”. But caring requires giving and taking too.
Think about a parental or an intimate relationship: there are demands and desires, needs and responsibilities. The ability to give and take effectively in these situations is exactly what makes them sustainable. And most of us know that feeling when the offer or the request are ignored, and how that can significantly damage a relationship.
One of the challenges when creating this framework was finding words that didn’t make people feel bad for asking “what do you get out of it?” or feel like they were giving a sales pitch. Inspire, Motivate, Engage, and Invest were the words Renee landed on.
How IMEI works | The four ingredients
As you prepare for the conversation, each word in IMEI reminds you to ask yourself a question.
Inspire. How to make the person see the whole picture?
It’s bigger than us!
Give the person something to believe in beyond the job at hand, an outcome to work towards (not a simple task to tick off the to-do list).
Motivate. How to make it personal to the person?
It’s definitely about you!
A cause can be inspiring in theory, but people commit when there’s something in it for them too.
Engage. How to give the person something to do?
We need you!
It may feel counterintuitive in a world where we try to make things as easy as possible, but active involvement is what turns someone from a bystander into someone who feels like they belong.
Invest. How to show the person we are on this journey with them?
We are in this too!
This is the one people tend to forget and skip. It’s easy to ask someone to invest in your cause or your relationship, but it’s much harder to be explicit about what you’re investing back.
In simple terms:
- If all four ingredients are present, the relationship can last.
- If one is missing, especially invest, you’re probably looking at a short-term transaction – a one-off donation, a single volunteer shift … That’s not a bad thing. It’s just not the same level of commitment.
What IMEI applies to | Turning interest into commitment
IMEI applies anywhere people want a relationship to evolve from an acknowledgement to something ongoing.
For example:
- An NFP contacting a one-off donor to ask him to subscribe and support monthly
- An organisation turning a prospect who raised interest into a client who engages with the business
- A manager who wants his team to be involved in achieving their mission
Who IMEI is for | Individuals, teams, and organisations
Individually, it’s for anyone trying to build a genuine relationship with someone who doesn’t fully understand the problem to be solved. It’s for someone asking for support or buy-in from what starts as a “stranger” relationship.
For teams, it’s a shared set of questions that recognise different needs, and allows different answers to arise from the same questions. A way to check whether a group is building commitment or just collecting agreement.
For organisations, especially in For Purpose situations or culture change, it’s most useful for moving donors or members from interest to real, ongoing commitment. The same four questions apply just as well in NFP and corporate environments.
Note: For-purpose organisations often need it more than most:
- A corporate relationship can lean on money – paying someone is a form of leverage.
- A personal relationship can lean on history – there’s already something built between two people.
- A for-purpose organisation usually has neither. It’s asking someone who doesn’t know it yet to engage in a cause, in a world where plenty of other NFPs are asking for the same thing.
Continue the conversation
If this blog resonates with you, we invite you to listen to the podcast episode where Renee talks about the eNayble frameworks in greater depth.
🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYej7IVMVoPjxBzv4gl6i91kImHjE_ukt
And if you’d like help applying this to a specific relationship you’re trying to build, book a consultation with Renee.
💬 Contact Renee here: https://enayble.co/contact/
FAQs
IMEI is one of the frameworks that form eNayble’s complex communication model. It stands for Inspire, Motivate, Engage, and Invest, and it characterises four different perspectives to explore to help us recognise what is valuable for our stakeholders.
No. It was first developed and tested there, but it applies just as well to for-purpose or corporate work.
No, it’s honest. All human relationships involve some giving and taking, even the ones built on genuine care. Pretending otherwise can make a relationship feel more dishonest than anything else.
