The bright spot is the one positive occurrence or element in an otherwise negative or unpleasant situation. For example, his granddaughter visiting him in the nursing home was a bright spot in an otherwise difficult time for Jim.

The Initiative’s national call for nominations of bright spots in Hispanic education focuses on assets-based, solution-oriented innovations that are helping to support the educational attainment of Hispanics from cradle to career. These include programs, models, organizations and initiatives that are demonstrating promising or replicable solutions that focus on key education priorities, such as early learning, college access and success, STEM education, Latino teacher recruitment, and/or closing the achievement gap for Hispanics.

This bright spot approach is based on best-selling authors Chip and Dan Heath’s concept of “spotting your strengths” and using those to tackle challenges. It is the premise of their book, Switch: How to Change Things When You Can’t Change Them. By identifying chapter bright spots, we can learn from these examples and replicate their successes to overcome common challenges.

Identifying and leveraging your chapter’s bright spots will not only improve your membership numbers, but also attract new members to your organization and build a more inclusive culture within your company. Bright spot chapters are a great resource for finding out what practices or behaviors work best when it comes to recruiting and retaining young professionals, addressing workplace diversity and flexibility, and so much more.

One of the most important aspects of the bright spot is to recognize that the practices or behavior don’t require extraordinary money or resources. In the Vietnamese village where aid worker Jerry was working, the bright spot families were eating four small meals a day and supplementing their diet with foraged greens and proteins, like tiny shrimp and crabs. They weren’t getting special food or money from elsewhere, and they certainly didn’t have more experience or a bigger budget than other families in the village.

If you want to find your chapter’s bright spot, begin by asking the following questions: