Today I received a survey from an organization I belong to. I love the organization but it has a lot of room for improvement. I found the survey as boneheaded as a lot of their communications but with a small glimmer of hope. At least they are asking for feedback. Each area of questions left a comment box which I filled up with ideas. This is a high-level summary which could apply to any organization.
Make it easy
Most members would love to do more for the organization but don’t know how. The organization isn’t organized so it isn’t obvious how to help. If you want more from the people you work with, make it easy. If you want to give information but don’t need a response, put it in one place and leave it there. A website is good for this. Don’t hand it out in a paper form and don’t leave a phone call. If you need a response, don’t ask for a written response or a phone call. Provide a central location (such as a website) to gather the information. Why should I write a response just so your secretary can call me to ask what my response was? If the information needs to be private, there are plenty of private network websites set up for just that. Once the organization gets organized, serving the members will be easier. Getting the members to serve will also be easier. If you think you are too small, too large, too layperson, too poor, too rich, too Midwestern to provide an easy method of communication, you are also too WRONG!
Make the goals clear
If you want to communicate effectively, you must be clear what the goal of the communication is. Your expectations are a part of that goal. If you want each member to find ten new members within a month – say that. If you want your employees to use twitter, facebook, and other social media less or not at all, say that. If you don’t state the expectations and goal in clear terms, your audience will run off in directions you couldn’t have imagined.
Make it specific
If you need $10.000 in sales today in order to fix the test machine, say that. Someone might have an idea for the test machine, but not the slightest idea about how to come up with $10K in sales today. You wouldn’t know if you just required a $10K bump in sales. If you need new computers for your classroom, specify the machine requirements. Most classroom requirements are years behind corporate requirements. You could find the machines are gathering dust in members’ closets.
Give the Gift of Time
Most people know far in advance of a date when something has to happen but leave the notifications till shortly before the event in order not to burden anyone with too much information. This assumes that your members, staff, friends have nothing else happening in their lives. If you have the same schedule of activities every week, month, or year – put that on the website and let new and current members know. If I need to prepare for a cookie sale in the spring at school and the same cookie sale happens every spring, tell me the first day of fall classes. I have plenty of spring dates that could use cookies (Easter, Mother’s day, birthdays), I could plan ahead.
Listen
This is the most important suggestion but probably the last one you will adopt. If you have people who want to help, and you need help, you will have to listen. This requires time and patience. Your time and your patience. If you consistently ignore those that are trying to help you, they will eventually stop. If you push them away or berate them, they will leave. There are greener pastures with friendly cows.
