Innovate Rotary!

Serve, don't help

My wife recently decided to volunteer for a hospice center that is opening soon in our area.  One of the valuable lessons of her training so far is the notion of serving, not helping.

When we feel we need to help someone, it assumes that people lack something that somehow we can provide - strength, intelligence, wisdom, experience or something else.  When we help, we tend to look at ourselves as superior to the person we help.

When we truly serve, we see the other as an equal, with dignity regardless of their circumstances.  When we serve, we see each other's strengths and assets, not their failings and deficits.  We respect the other's circumstances and have empathy for their struggles and share their aspirations.  There is nothing to fix.  Sometimes, especially when people cannot communicate well, personal presence alone has a big impact.

Each of us is on a unique path.  How could serving versus helping make a difference to those we serve (and transform ourselves in the process)?

I now truly understand why the phrase, "I am here from the District and I am here to help" always seems to generate a kind of nervous laughter.

Forget title, status and position.  Show up.  Serve.  Make a difference.

Help Rotarians experience FLOW

The most committed Rotarians are not those who listen to great speakers every week or who have leveraged their Rotary network to grow their business.  That’s not to say that networking and great programs are not important.  They are critical to creating satisfied members.  The most committed Rotarians, however, have experienced something beyond that.  The most committed Rotarians have experienced FLOW at some time in their Rotary career.

 

Flow is when a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, with a feeling of energized focus as they create success in some activity.  Whether in Rotary or elsewhere, many of us have had that feeling of flow, where you get so absorbed in an activity that you lose your sense of time.  Can you remember a time like that?

 

Most of us experience flow in Rotary when we are engaged in worthwhile projects.  Great club members help fellow members create flow often.  So how do you create flow in your club?   Here are some starters:

 

1.    Set clear goals and expectations.  What are you trying to accomplish?  What are you doing to define what your club is about?  Do you have a goal and are you committed to it, or is it just a number on a page?  If you don’t have a clear vision for your club or your projects, start now.

2.    Focus.  Create opportunities for people to dive deeply into a project or club activity.  Balance “done in a day” activities with projects that require planning and time.  Think of Edina’s bike parade or the Safe Water initiatives.  People who get the most joy from these projects tend to be those who were most involved.

3.    Provide direct and immediate feedback.  When teams work well together, successes and failures are apparent, so team members can adjust as needed.  Are you creating trust in your club?  How do you learn from your successes and failures?  Are people still talking after a project is complete?

4.    Balance between ability level and challenge.  A walk around the block is not significant to you unless you have had a cast on your ankle for six weeks.  Although a slow economy can make it tougher to raise money or increase membership, many clubs find that they succeed anyway.  They succeed because they strike a balance between setting goals that are not too easy and not too difficult.  Are you stretching your members just enough?  Focus on what you want to achieve, not the challenges, reasons and excuses.

5.    Provide intrinsic rewards.  When activities have meaning, actions become effortless.  Are your projects meaningful to your current members?  What is the impact of your work?  What would happen if your club did not do that project?  That doesn’t mean that projects need to address a grave or serious issue.  Keep it fun, too.

6.    Lose status.  People who experience flow report that they found themselves working together where there seemed to be no leader, but the group was well-led.  People just rolled up their sleeves, contributed their gifts and stepped in where needed.  This explains why many people who are recognized for their great work simply respond by saying, “oh, that was nothing.”  How easy do you make it for new members to step in and contribute their talents?  Do you know what their talents are?  As a leader, are you committed enough to the impact of your project that you are willing to let someone else shine?

 

When trying to achieve goals, sometimes you need to hold course and sometimes it helps to shift the focus.  If you are attracting the kind of people you want in your club, keep it up.  If members are staying in your club, despite the economy, despite the fact that their employer no longer pays their dues, keep doing what you are doing.  If, however, your focus on inviting new members and keeping new members is NOT working, expand your focus beyond the act of recruiting and asking.   Help your members create flow.

 

This is how people who join Rotary become committed Rotarians.  How will you know one when you see one?  When you see the shine in their eyes!

Wow! Innovate Rotary! named one of the Top 100 Leadership blogs!

Best Universities sent me a wonderful message this morning advising me that Innovate Rotary! has been named one of the Top 100 Leadership Blogs! 

I am humbled to be mentioned among some of my personal favorites, such as Tom Peters, Seth Godin and many others.  Check out the list here. 

You will find top leadership blogs in 8 categories:

Leadership development

Youth and student leadership

Community leadership

Managing others

Female leadership

Religious leadership

Workplace leadership

Team leadership

If you are looking for a good source of leadership ideas, check out this list.

Thanks for the shout out!

What does your Wordle look like?

Club leaders who positively emphasize membership growth, typically grow.  Club leaders who talk about why things are tough, typically find that things are, indeed, tough.  As a club leader, what do you talk about?  What do you ask about? 

Leaders create focus by what they say and by what questions they ask.  How could you discover what members are hearing from you?

Recently, I discovered a fun tool called Wordle You can take any text or a blog feed, for example and have Wordle create a kind of "word cloud," in which the words that appear most frequently show up most prominently.  I took a few posts from this blog and loaded them into Wordle and here is the result:

  

(click on image to open a larger version)

Pretty cool, isn't it?

So what are your members hearing from your voice?  If you are a club president, for example, and we took a transcript of all the words that you spoke from the podium over the course of a year, what would you find that your members heard most often?  If we typed in the first question you asked at every board meeting, what would we discover?

Would it be about service, gratitude, membership, impact, recognition and fun?   What would you want your members thinking, exploring and wondering about?  Here is one simple thing to look and listen for.  The most successful organizations are 5:1 positive.  Their leaders spend most of their time talking about and inquiring into possibilities.  Successful firms and clubs spend very little energy talking about problems and limitations. 

Give it a try.  What does your Wordle look like?

What is your peak Rotary experience?

Yesterday, Rotarians in District 5950 launched a movement.  We want to build on the peak experiences of Rotary members.  We want to make it possible for others to join us and create their own peak experience in the spirit of Service Above Self. 

The way we will do this is to identify and celebrate what is best and positive about Rotary here in our district - and to build on that to create greater membership success and impact. As we strive to grow membership, we will do so by identifying the best that we are, what we do and what we offer.  We will not succeed by focusing on our deficits, failings and shortcomings.

Early in our fall membership seminar, we asked members to identify the qualities of their peak experiences in Rotary.  The moment in the room was nothing short of magic.  Download qualities_of_peak_rotary_experience_9122008.jpg for a summary of what they said.

What is remarkable is that these qualities have no age requirements and no age limits.  These experiences are available across professions, neighborhoods and communities for both men and women.

Any Rotarian is capable of creating an exceptional moment for themselves, for their club and most important, in service to others.  Rarely does this happen alone.  Rotary provides the values, the financial resources, the fellowship, fun and the history of tremendous success to draw upon to indeed, make dreams real.

What would happen if we planned every Rotary event, every committee meeting, every club meeting as an opportunity to create that next peak experience for someone?

Welcome to the movement!

Ten Golden Rules for Better Board Meetings

UPDATED

Want to drive more impact?  Over the next few weeks, the focus on my blog posts will be about how to help club leaders drive membership growth and impact by HOW they lead their clubs.  Let's start with how to run a better board or committee meeting.  I believe that respect for others' time is one of the most valuable gifts we can give to our fellow Rotary members. 

These ideas come from the American Management Association and were presented on a recent AMA Webcast by Hamilton College faculty member and Vital Visions Consulting principal Susan Mason, who specializes in personal, public and organizational communication.  Here are 10 Golden Rules for Leading Productive Meetings, with a few of my observations from a Rotary context.

1.  Know the results you want.

Take some time before each meeting to decide what you want to accomplish.  What decisions, what actions, what consensus do you want to achieve?   What information will be needed to reach those outcomes?  Make sure information is sent in advance to people can review it - and set the expectation that the materials must be reviewed before the meeting.

During the meeting, keep your goals in mind to keep the meeting on track.

2.  Position people to add value

Get people engaged and thinking about the meeting by sending questions instead of topics when you send out the meeting agenda.  Call specific individuals so they can be prepared to contribute their specific knowledge.  This also helps people avoid being blindsided and helps them ensure they put their best foot forward.

During the meeting, draw people into the meeting by asking them about their view on the topic.  This can be especially valuable if you have team members who like to dominate the conversation.

3.  Model the conduct you expect

If you expect people to listen, to power-off their cell phones, to be prepared, then demonstrate that by your own actions.  If others have the floor, don't check emails or scroll through text messages.  Display active listening techniques.  "Listen with your whole body."

Thought-provoking questions to begin the New Year

As the New Year begins, here is a list of thoughts running through my head that relate to our clubs, our districts and Rotary overall. I believe that to remain strong, we Rotarians must take a close look at our assumptions about what we do, how we do it and the impact of our work.  There is more competition for time and energy of qualified people.  We will succeed if we set ourselves apart, by creating new ways to engage members while serving where we can have visible impact.

Keep an eye on future posts, as I am likely to revisit these topics.

Here goes:

• Money.  In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated a challenge grant of $100 million to help eliminate polio.  How can you use challenge grants to stimulate more Rotarians to donate to The Rotary Foundation?
• Impact.  The World Bank published a report entitled, "Where is the Wealth of Nations?"  In that report, it noted that education and rule of law are the two most dominant factors in improving "intangible capital" in less developed countries.  (And, oh by the way, intangibles have a huge impact on economic development)  How do we increase primary education and reduce corruption in countries where we serve?  Are we throwing time and resources away if we direct resources to countries that rank low in education and rule of law?
• Accountability and Transparency:  Charities and non profits are coming under increasing scrutiny for how their funds are used.  What does this mean for a Rotary club?  How transparent do we need to be about the use and impact of our budgets?  If we were to rate the success of our projects by impact, how would that affect our funding decisions?  How might it improve our ability to raise funds and attract qualified members?
• Membership. There is a lot of talk about attracting the "next generation of members."  And much of the talk is that "it's difficult."  Yet, in 100 years of Rotary, we have had to make generational transitions before.  How did we do it?  How might we apply those lessons today?  Where do we need to be more consistent and where do we need to be more flexible?
• Busy.  There is plenty of evidence that there are more and more demands on our time and energy.  Technology is a big driver - especially in communications.  But how can technology be a bigger enabler for Rotary and member service?  How can we use technology to help balance our needs for collaboration, results, consistent processes and flexible innovation?  What can RI and Districts do to make it easier to serve?
• Communication is a big job for clubs, but also a big opportunity.  What are the most successful clubs doing in the area of communication?
• Tactical vs. Strategic:  Where should we focus our efforts - on strategic vision or on tactical tips and techniques.  What is the right mix?
• Finally, effectiveness.  How do you define whether a club is effective or not?  Current conventional wisdom is that effective clubs do 4 things well - from a club perspective, 2 internal and 2 external:  Internal:  sustain and grow members and implement effective projects.  External:  support the Rotary Foundation and develop leaders for service beyond the club level.  Do these four pillars really drive effectiveness?  Where do these four pillars come from?  How do you gauge your club's effectiveness?

Here is your chance to help me set priorities.  Which topic should I explore first?  What's the biggest issue your club is wrestling with?  Is there a big issue on your mind that is not on this list? Please comment or send me an email message.

Thanks for reading Innovate Rotary! during 2007 and for your comments, both posted on the blog and emailed to me privately.   And thanks for forwarding this to other members and leaders.  Let's keep building the conversation!

How you know when you have a compelling vision

Creating a club vision can either be an exhilarating, energizing experience or it can make your hands sweat, your mouth dry and your legs a bit stiff - or both!

We owe it to ourselves, our benefactors and our fellow members to use our time, energy and resources where they can have the most impact.

As you move into the second half of your Rotary year, ask yourself whether your club vision has the power to harness the energy and passions of your club members:

1. Will it motivate you to join (or remain a part of) this organization and continue to motivate you once you are there?
2. Does it provide an anchor point for the kinds of changes needed to keep your club vital and strong?
3. Does it describe a future that is more attractive than the present?
4. Does it challenge you?
5. Can you use it to develop a strategic action plan that you and fellow club members can act on?
6. Can it serve as a framework to keep decision making on track?

If your vision meets this test, how will enroll new people to help realize the vision?

If your vision needs clarification, what is your next step?

Rotary - Keep it positive

I find that Rotary club meetings are among the most positive gatherings around.  Service-minded people tend to be more up-beat and positive (see my last posting on health effects of volunteering).  The Four Way Test is front and center, whether displayed as a banner on a pole or recited at each meeting .  Most club presidents go out of their way to make each meeting an engaging and high-energy.

But alas, Rotarians are human.  And sometimes we forget our principles, let alone our manners.  We start to complain.  We hear others complain and join in.  What to do about it?

Rotarians make people uncomfortable

Dudley Riggs believes that to create change, you must make people uncomfortable. 

Riggs, an ex-Ringling Brothers circus performer, founded the Brave New Workshop Theatre in 1958.  Riggs believes that when you pick on both sides of an argument, regardless of political party, religion, nationality, sexual preference or point of view, you create a space where people can laugh and connect with an issue in ways they have not experienced before.  In that moment, when people get emotionally charged around an issue, change or movement is possible.

So it is no wonder that comedians like Dennis Miller, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have become so popular.  They create a "funny" way to look at people and issues that reveals some truth about the subject (or the target!).

It got me thinking: 

If discomfort is a catalyst for change, how does Rotary make people uncomfortable?

Here are some of the ways that I think Rotarians make people uncomfortable: