Route Recommendations

When we all became accustomed to the 140 character limit of Twitter, we began to push ourselves to communicate in concise ways that we never had before. As a presenter, I am now often asked to not only provide a full session description but also to craft a 140 character description for social media use. It’s an interesting challenge and if you haven’t ever pushed yourself to pare something down to the core essential message, the Twitter-method is one way to accomplish this. In the beginning of February, I participated in The Covenant Foundation Project Directors’ Meeting (held in NJ). The opening session was facilitated by the very talented Larry Smith who created and launched Smith Magazine.

The core work is to capture Six Word Memoirs – what seems like a basic frivolous idea has boomed into niche concepts for business people, teens, Jewish community and more. There are table games and contests. There are books and customizable t-shirts (I just bought one!). The entire concept is to boil your story down to six words. The stories our organizations have to tell are critical to our brand, our PR and our messaging, but all too often we either don’t tell our story enough, or we wordsmith them to death. Try distilling your organization’s story down to six words. I’m still working on one for JewishGPS. Here’s one example: Pushing organization boundaries. Changing Jewish Education.

I find myself often having conversations with both professionals and lay leaders/volunteers on the challenges of a) recruiting volunteers and b) tapping out the same volunteers repeatedly. While I can provide hours of consulting in helping organizations develop a highly efficient volunteer program, I wanted to share some pithy advice here.

First, treat your volunteer structure as you do your entire organization structure – with organization charts, job descriptions and clearly defined expectations/guidelines.

Second, invest time and money in volunteer training. Providing volunteers with the confidence to fulfill a volunteer role is half the battle. Many times they don’t feel they have adequate skill or knowledge to take leadership positions within your organization. Third, break down tasks into tiny, tiny pieces (did I mention “tiny?”) – spreading the responsibility (and therefore the ownership) and decreasing the overload factor. 

Handwritten notes – are they an artifact from the past? Email and twitter are accepted modes of professional communication (and even Facebook depending on the transaction). But when is the last time you hand wrote a note and slapped a stamp on the envelope to communicate professionally? The time you take to go that step will not go unnoticed. Consider having two kinds of note cards printed for this use: a more formal one with your logo and contact information on it and a more casual one with your favorite piece of text quoted on it. Different occasions might warrant a different tone. Did a colleague or a lay person who you know personally do something to help you? Drop them a Thank You on your casual note cards. Because they have a text quote on them, it still keeps the note framed in your work. If a professional business contact reached out, follow up with a more professional card – but with your personal touch in the note.

I saw this on Twitter and think that it’s great advice: @joelleab: My new mantra RT @jonathanlev: If you find yourself in a situation where u are neither contributing nor learning-move somewhere else #jnets. It was posted as part of the twitter feed coming out of the Schusterman conference NetWORKS: Exploring the Power & Possibilities of Networks in the Jewish Community. This sentiment is really about self-awareness and self-reflection.

Earlier, a participant posted this article http://bit.ly/JewishGPS_assetmap where the core sentiment is “The only thing you really need to do to be great at networking is to be as helpful as possible to as many people as you can.” Both of these concepts emphasize taking responsibility for your role in your professional learning and professional networks and the ultimate intersection of the two. Establishing and actively participating in a Professional Learning Network (PLN) can be the most powerful tool in moving your career forward.

When was the last time you attended a Jewish professional conference that is outside of your area of expertise? outside of your network? We tend to return again and again to the same annual conferences that are specifically related to our movement’s education network, or our niche area’s national conference. While it is important to connect with our networks face-to-face on an on-going basis, it is also important to cross-pollinate, step into a field that might be foreign to you, and expand your knowledge and networks simultaneously. This might take the form of attending a secular conference or it might take the form of Camp Directors attending a Family Education Conference and a Family Educator attending a Teen Philanthropy conference or a Teen Educator attending an Adult Education training. What you learn in this “alternate” environment could have a drastic impact on your work and your career.

In a renewed age of collaboration, we often find ourselves in partnerships with organizations that are a part of a different movement than the ones we work within or with organizations that come from a communal position. Pluralism is difficult (and isn’t the same as post-denominationalism). People strive to create pluralistic environments where they claim to want to make “everyone” comfortable. Pluralism (and I wish I knew who to quote on this) is about everyone being uncomfortable. How uncomfortable are you willing to be in order to create a space where someone else feels comfortable and included?

Are you solving the right problem? or just the problem that is presenting itself? Sometimes we jump quickly to solve what immediately presents itself as a trouble spot but more often than not the REAL problem is buried underneath the surface. If you only solve the presenting problem, you will keep running into the REAL problem – just in different manifestations. Think of an iceberg … are you melting what is above the surface or are you taking out the “titanic sinker” below the surface?

In the work that you are doing, what are the “uncommon connections” you can make with other organizations or professionals either in collaboration, or in advice-seeking? What are some “unintended influences” that you could uncover? Consider making a mind-map of your work. Take out a giant sheet of butcher paper and give the work (program, initiative, idea) a name. Draw a circle around it. Make spokes around that and consider who could be involved, how others can get involved, what aspects of the program could be collaborated on, when is the work ideally done, where are some locations the work can be done. Be creative. Once you have the outer bubbles, begin to make spokes of bubbles off of each one of those. Are there places where two bubbles could intersect? Is there anything that surprised you that came out of this exercise? Are there any assumptions you made that could be challenged? Are there barriers you put on yourself that could be taken down? Consider asking others to add to your mind map (or do their own and then compare/contrast the versions). See where your mind takes you! (The term Uncommon Connections I attribute to Harlene Appleman.)

In a recent training session with Adam Shames (www.kreativity.net), he reminded me of the importance of “yes, and” in the creativity and innovation process. Just like in improv theater work, it is imperative to not shut down your colleagues’ thoughts during the ideation process. Say, “yes, and” instead of “yeah, but.” This will spur more creativity and not stall your group’s thinking. A critical piece of the innovation process is uncommon connections and outside voices/perspectives. Bring in unlikely people. Additionally, remember that creativity, innovation and growth take time. Invest in patience. 

Michael Fullan, is a leading scholar on education change management. In his book, Six Secrets of Change, he emphasizes the importance of organization leaders working to “connect peers with purpose,” (Fullan, 2008, p. 41). Reflect on how well you know your fellow staff members and how well you think they know each other. Be deliberate about creating meaningful connections amongst your staff members. One way to do this is to create an environment of play. Physically, is there room for play in the workplace? Do you build it into staff meetings? Do you take days out of the office to play together (i.e. bowling, putt-putt golf, whirlyball, a visit to the zoo, etc)? These shared experiences create a strong foundation for connecting peers to each other.

When having meetings, use the time wisely. Circulate “reports” ahead of time via email, GoogleDocs, or wikis. Save the meeting time for problem-solving, collaborating, and decision making. If you feel the need for your team to check-in often, try a stand-up hallway meeting each day at a set time. By having a check-in standing up, people will speak quickly and succinctly – so they don’t end up standing a long time. By the time your team gets to a sit-down meeting, everyone will already be caught up on the reports, and you have time for the teamwork!

True innovation and change requires a safe environment for risk, asking hard questions, critical self-reflection. Before embarking on a “change project” take stock of you (and your organization’s) commitment to these tasks. If you/your organization aren’t willing to be bold in your experimentation and internal honesty, you probably aren’t ready for true innovation and change. Think about this quote from Kevin Smith “Failure is success training.”