New Year/New Ideas
Happy New Year, everyone! My hope is that your holidays were filled with laughter and smiles.
During our December AMC meeting, I spoke to the board about trust. Not only trust in ourselves, but trust in our volunteers, staff, members, and officers. We are a team. Our activities and duties are so integrated with each other, it is important that we trust each other to do our jobs to make things work better.
Communication is key in this, not only talking but listening. When you are working with someone on a project, it is good to organize and rehearse your thoughts, think about what you are going to say and HOW you are going to say it. This becomes more difficult as we are so involved online. Remember the 55/38/7 Rules from UCLA (Albert Mehrabian): 55% of the message is visual/body language, 38% is vocal/tone of voice, and only 7% is verbal/use of words. Thinking about how someone will receive the message is more important than focusing on what you want to say. My favorite line is “Remembering to shut up long enough to hear their response is harder than it sounds. Are you really listening?” Make sure you ask what they think.
Training is important on every side. Never stop training, you can always learn and teach new things. Make sure your training is specific and measurable, so you get and give the most from the time spent.
You’ve heard the old adage, trust but verify, this is part of tracking the results of any activity. One thing we all need to learn is that, for the most part, it is the results and not the methods that are important. There are many paths to the same destination, and we must be open to the diversity of ideas on how to achieve a common goal. We’ve heard so many times from upcoming leaders and volunteers that they are tired of hearing “We’ve always done it this way” and I understand that. Allow your volunteers to be creative and come up with their own ways of achieving a goal. It allows for their ownership of the job and they will be much more successful and so will your groups. Sure, mistakes will be made, but that often leads to other ideas that will be better. Allow for that and move forward.
Always thank your volunteers, staff, liaisons, and officers. Make sure you look them in the eye when you do so, if you have the opportunity. Make it a positive affirmation and do it often. Make sure it is meaningful and not offhanded or you will lose the value of the effort.
The last thing to think about is what and how you say things. Don’t act hastily, as even having one bad day and sniping at a volunteer or staff liaison can ruin your relationship. Trust is hard to build but easy to ruin. Something we should all consider as we respond, especially in an online venue.
Chip Taulbee, our Bulletin Editor, and I have been discussing running a series on invigorating your Local group. We are looking for groups that have had success in this area and would like you to submit an article about how you brought changes to your Local group. This way we can share some of the success stories and help others make their Mensa experience better.
Cheers to a bright and exciting New Year and as always, I’m listening.