I sometimes find myself stuck.  Do you ever feel that way?  You look at your organization, you look at your role in the organization, and just feel stuck.  What do you do next?  How do you push forward?  How do you improve?  How do you lead?

Then I remember, "Oh yeah, dummy, the SYSTEM holds the answer."  It’s weird, but true.  Every time I wonder what I should do next to push the organization/group/company forward, I remember that between Social Excellence and Dynamic Recruitment , the answer is there. The system works if I choose to work the system.

See, we’re all a part of membership organizations, and membership organizations are made of… (wait for it)… MEMBERS.  Therefore the quality of your organization (and everything it does) is determined by the quality of its members.  Want to get better?  Want to advance your cause?  Want to make a difference?  Want to truly lead?  –  Start with the core ingredients of your group — people and purpose.  Bring in more of the right people, who will focus on the group’s purpose, to make a larger higher quality impact.

For me, when I get stuck, I go back to doing the Dynamic Recruitment system while living Social Excellence — it lays out my answer for me.  If I do the Dynamic Recruitment system while living Social Excellence, I’m doing my job, I’m leading, I’m doing results-producing work, I’m making a difference.

For example… something I’m really proud of is that we have built our company to be very successful by doing the Dynamic Recruitment system and trying our best to live a Socially Excellent life — that’s been our whole business plan.  Cool, right?

Here is a snapshot at some of the core principles of Dynamic Recruitment, if you’re not familiar…

People Join People. All organizational members can point to the one person who is responsible for bringing them into the organization.  Relationships, interpersonal comfort, and shared personal connections are the determining factors that can influence a person to invest their time, resources, energy, reputation, and money into the organization.  Slogans, T-shirts, banners, advertising, and events have very little impact when it comes to convincing the best of the best people to join an organization.  People join people.  Organizational recruitment is about relationships.

Quantity Drives Quality. This simple statement reflects the core of Phired Up’s recruitment philosophy.  In other words, because you can’t recruit who you don’t know, the larger an organization’s social network, the larger its potential.  The larger an organization’s network, the more people it has a chance to recruit.  The larger an organization’s network, the more people it also has a chance to select from – thus increasing the probability for higher quality members.  Everything starts with an organization having specific, practical, detailed guidance on how to grow its network of “friends of the group.”  Phired Up teaches specific, practical, proven (in some instances scripted) techniques to grow an organization’s network through authentic relationship building.

Interpersonal Skills Development. Handshakes, powerful conversations, listening skills, remembering names, first impressions, body language, approaching new people and groups, eye contact, getting contact information, powerful questions, authenticity, vulnerability, and confidence.  Phired Up’s recruitment system is about personal connections and today’s young adults (especially) need practical, experiential, detailed guidance on all of these “skills.”  Dynamic Recruitment depends on members’ abilities to adopt a sense of interpersonal excellence within their social interactions. To learn more about Phired Up’s Social Excellence message, click here .

Product Knowledge. When a prospective member wants to learn more about the organization, every member should be prepared with not only the features and benefits of membership, but also powerful personal stories and insightful questions to help potential members emotionally connect to the organization. In Dynamic Recruitment, “knowing your product” is about having the ability to help others realize how the group could dramatically change their life for the better.

Behaviors of the Best. Phired Up teaches specific behaviors of high performing networkers, salespeople, statesmen, and recruiters.  These are every day patterns of behavior that provide access to a larger pool of people to interact with than most organizational members have.  Some of the core messages of the “Behaviors of the Best” include: You have to give to get (how to get contact information and how to get access to others by providing something of value to them). Ask the rest to find the best (how to engage everyone around you to identify high caliber prospective members). Follow-up or fail and Eat a bunch of lunch (how to build relationships through small activities not big events).  Make ‘em prove it (using a Values-Based Selection Process). Give the gift (re-framing recruitment to be about sharing the gift of membership with deserving others instead of trying to “get people to join”).

Audience Understanding. Often members struggle with a lack of perspective.  No matter the organization, often members only think of a small pool of people as potential members, when the actual pool is always many times larger.  Many fraternity/sorority members in particular believe their recruitment potential is limited to the people who participate in “rush” or "formal recruitment."  Phired Up’s curriculum helps expand the context of organizational leaders to understand the actual recruitment potential for their organization.  Having a greater understanding of how big the organization’s prospective audience is, where they are, and what they’re looking for results in “ah-ha” moments for most participants.

Names List. With a new understanding of their true audience, and with a firm grounding in the principles of: You can’t recruit who you don’t know. People don’t join organizations, people join people. And Quantity Drives Quality. It then becomes obvious that for an organization to reach its full potential, it cannot depend only on the people that its members currently have a relationship with – it must build a larger network. To manage that network and to keep track of its members’ progress as they bring their acquaintances through the recruitment process, an organization that practices Dynamic Recruitment uses a Names List.  A Names List is a dynamic, living, continually updated database that measures the amount of and the quality of relationships with potential members that are being built by the chapter.  This is not just a list of people the group is wishing would join the chapter – this is a list of the chapter’s entire network because Quantity Drives Quality.

Values-Based Selection. As an organization increases its network through positive, proactive, social interactions, it has the opportunity to be more selective.  Once the opportunity for increased selectivity is achieved, the organization must then select members not based on whether they’re a “good guy,” or "a sweet girl," but on measurable, objective standards that match up to the core values of the organization.  Each organization that practices Dynamic Recruitment builds a written set of membership selection criteria to ensure only the highest quality people are invited to join.  This is a key to true values-based recruitment.

Horses vs. Mules. The old 80/20 principle holds true in nearly every organization we’ve ever worked with.  For most groups, about 80% of the results are produced by about 20% of the members.  That small handful of “workhorses” can choose to try to motivate their unmotivated members (a.k.a. “mules”) to participate in recruitment, or they could just gather the horses and get to work. After all, horses recruit horses, and mules recruit mules.  When faced with a lack of motivation or apathetic members with regard to recruitment, don’t ask “How do I motivate my members to recruit?”  Instead ask, “How do I recruit with my motivated members?”

By Jessica Gendron Williams

We’ve been investing a lot of concerted effort, focus, and time into developing better resources and curriculum for chapters to better understand and execute a Values-Based Recruitment.  In my experience, there has been a significant emphasis put on chapters, organizations, and communities to shift towards Values-Based Recruitment practices.  However, that call is met more with confusion than optimism or resistance - we simply just don’t understand how.  When I say Values-Based Recruitment to sorority women, many assume that we mean "Get rid of the frills" — If they achieve that then they’ve successfully achieved Values-Based Recruitment.  Similarly, for fraternity men, they assume we mean, "alcohol free recruitment".  While those things are definitely components to a Values-Based Recruitment, they are not all-encompassing.

We believe that a true Values-Based Recruitment includes four things:  Values-Based Criteria, Values-Based Behavior, Values-Based Conversations, and Values-Based Expectations.  Let’s dissect these four components a little more:

Values-Based Criteria:
Much of our membership decisions are based on brief interactions with complete strangers and tend to be primarily subjective and emotional in nature.  We decide on a potential member based on how we feel  about them following a brief encounter or conversation.  Often, those feelings are related to physical attributes, things in common, and an overall painless conversation. We fall in love with a potential member after having a 20 minute conversation with her about our mutual love for Harry Potter, yet we have limited-to-no knowledge of the characteristics that make her qualified for membership in our organization.  Values-Based Criteria  (Related blogs: here , here , and here ) allows us to have an actual measurement tool to determine the skills, characteristics, and attributes a potential member would have that would allow us to determine whether she is qualified for membership.  This "measurement tool" takes the values of your organization (local and national, stated and unstated) and quantifies them with things that are actually measurable.  "Cute", "Nice", and "Fun" aren’t necessarily bad qualifications for membership, but how do we measure "Cute", "Nice", and "Fun"?  How do we define "Cute", "Nice", and "Fun"?  And perhaps we want to add some others, like "Bold," "Authentic," and "Courageous." Values-Based Criteria allows us to use our values to identify qualifications for membership that are measurable and consistently used throughout our membership ranks.  It leaves little room for personal interpretation and emotions in membership decisions and creates a process that allows us to select high quality individuals using high quality criteria that requires us to collect measurable data through meaningful conversations.

Values-Based Behavior:
Values-Based behavior addresses our common interpretations of what Values-Based Recruitment is - that we must remove frills or alcohol.  Values-Based Behavior asks two very important questions.  First, "What does our current behavior say about what we value?"  As we look at the things that we are currently doing in recruitment,we need to ask ourselves what messages our behavior sends to potential members about the things that we care about as a chapter.  We often shove excessive amounts of glitz, glam, decorations, perfect outfits and hair, dances, skits, and elaborate spreads of food into formal sorority recruitment.  What do these things say about what we care about as an organization?  Parties?  Appearances?  Fun? Decorations?  I’ll let you answer that question.  Regardless of the answer, there are likely places within our recruitment process where our behavior does not align with what we say (and believe) we’re about.  We’re sending mixed messages to our "buyers."

The second question we should ask ourselves is "What do our values say about how we should behave?"  This allows us to understand the alternative to the frills of recruitment.  A lot of times, this question prompts us to think of the prissy, perfect, cookie-cutter version of us that we imagine our founders would have wanted, but that’s not what we mean at all.  It really means, how can we better demonstrate, through actions, the things we value, in addition to being able to verbally communicate the things we value as an organization.  If we were to adequately demonstrate what we as an organization actually value, how should we behave?  What should we do?  What should our focus be?  Perhaps we wouldn’t give a tour of the house, but instead sit in our rooms with our roommate and share stories with PNM’s of how their friendship has changed our lives.  Perhaps instead of boasting our rank academically as it compares to the rest of the community, we might plaster the chapter room walls with all of our "A" papers from the past semester.  We’ve got to think outside the box and ask, "How can we better demonstrate through action, what we really care about?"

Values-Based Conversation:
Most sorority recruitment conversations live on the surface… they are filled with typical questions about a PNM’s hometown, major, residence hall, and summer activities - questions that we usually already know the answer to from their recruitment application or our creepy Facebook stalking since the moment she registered for recruitment.  These conversations lack substance, they lack depth, and they don’t actually inform good membership decisions.  When we think about values-based conversations , most of us go immediately to the creepy zone where we imagine an intense, awkward conversation comprised of us listing off our values and uncomfortably trying to create a conversation from there.  That’s not a good solution either.  Values-Based Conversations is centered around using our values-based criteria to drive conversation topics, questions, and information we should gather so that a woman can understand what we are looking for, how it relates to our values, and so we can determine if she will make a great member.  If we know sisterhood is an important component of our organization using values-based criteria we might identify that  relationships would also be important to the PNM.   We then have questions to ask and a conversation topic that is values-based: We can ask about her relationships with friends from high school, college, family, etc.  Now, we can not only ask if she has brothers and sisters, we can ask what her relationship is like with her brothers and sisters.  Those responses help us better understand if she would make a good sister, but also tell the PNM - "This is so important to us, we’re asking about it."  The conversation might start with a sister saying, "You know Sally, sisterhood is something we really pride ourselves on as a chapter.  We are committed to our friendships with one-another.  Can you tell me about some of your close friends from high school?"  That might sound like an interview (we’ll get to that in another blog), but it’s the right way to have a conversation that is centered around communicating our values.

Values-Based Expectations:
What are we allowing from our members and what are we expecting from our members as well as potential members - especially during the recruitment process?  Having values-based expectations means having clearly communicated expectations of our chapter members, community members, and potential new members and holding each other accountable to those expectations.  What do we expect from our members during recruitment?  Much of the time, we expect the minimum - show up (not even on time because we build in extra time because we know they will be late), don’t be awkward, be nice, vote, don’t melt down, don’t get sick, and don’t lose your voice.  Why aren’t we expecting more from our members?  Show up on time, having amazing, meaningful, deep conversation, build relationships, help with setup, cleanup and tear-down, have a great attitude, help out - and if you don’t you don’t get to recruit and you don’t get to vote.  WHAT?!  CRAZY TALK!  I recognize this might be a stretch for some of you - kicking members out of recruitment - because we often need everybody regardless of whether we want them or not.  But think about how we can we just start communicating and expecting more from them - how can we ask them to live up to the promises they made when they joined?  Some of our members will rise to the challenge, others, well, might get stuck in the kitchen.

Additionally, Values-Based Expectations is also related to appropriately communicating the expectations of membership to potential members before they join.  Do you have members that don’t show up to anything? pay their dues? act a fool on the weekend?  think that sorority is for fun, frat dudes, and parties?  That’s not a membership problem, that’s a recruitment problem.  We’re not doing a good enough job clearly communicating what it takes to be a sorority woman.  We sugar coat things during recruitment because we’re afraid we might scare women away - that the responsibility might seem like too much.  We use phrases like "you get out what you put in." to minimize the commitment that it takes to be a member.  That is like giving people permission to suck:  That is the precise reason we get crappy members who aren’t willing to commit.  We have to do a better job of clearly, authentically, and generously sharing all of the membership commitment information with potential members before they actually commit to the organization.  We have to clearly explain to them financial commitments instead of springing it on them on bid day that they need to bring a fat check to their meeting…tomorrow.  We have to clearly explain the time commitment, behavior expectations, involvement expectations, etc. etc.  Then when a woman joins, we are certain that she understands the commitment it takes to be a sorority woman…for the right reasons.

Now, don’t freak out…
Now, at this point some of you are overwhelmed at the amount of work there is to be done.  In all honestly, yes…there is, but it doesn’t all have to happen right now.  Like much of what we teach, it’s a progression.  Pick one thing, do that, master it, try it, play around with it - then add another.  Create a plan to slowly, but surely work your way there.  Leave the plan for future leaders - make it a part of your officer transition, but don’t try to do all of it at once.  Build a system, process, or plan get yourself there aggressively, but not necessarily quickly.  We’re happy to help…just ask.

How many opportunities in life pass us by because we are too afraid to take a chance?  How many times do we see someone we want to start a conversation with but we don’t say “hi” for fear of rejection?

Here are a few times we can hesitate to act while in college for fear of rejection:

Studying Abroad:  I didn’t sign up because I didn’t want to miss anything on campus.  What if my clubs/ organizations fall apart without me?  What if they survived and thrived without me?

Leadership Elections:  I didn’t apply because I didn’t want my application to be laughed at if there were more qualified candidates.  I didn’t want to make a speech in front of a group of people if I am not guaranteed to get the position.

Even something as simple as Office Hours: I didn’t go because I didn’t want my professor to think I was stupid.  What if he/she lowered my grade?

It’s not just in college where we stall because we are too afraid:

Dream Job:  I didn’t apply for my dream job because there’s no way I am qualified.  There are so many other better people who are going to submit application materials.

Dream Girl/Guy:  He/she is way out of my league; there’s no way he/she will see me as marriage material.  I’ll just walk away before his/her friends start making fun of me.

Fear of rejection is one of the most debilitating emotions that can run, rule, and ruin our lives.  But I say, not acting on our wants and desires (because of the fear of rejection) is an even worse fate.  So here’s the challenge, rather than thinking about the beginning (i.e. I won’t even try because I’m scared of what will happen ), focus on the end (i.e. what’s the worst that can happen? ).

• What’s the worst that can happen? I don’t get this job.  Oh well, at least my resume is updated, I’ve made a new business contact and I got to practice my interview skills.
• What’s the worst that can happen?  He/she doesn’t go out with me.  Oh well, he/she wasn’t actually my soul mate and do I really want to be with a person whose friends make fun of brave souls that put themselves out there?
• What’s the worst that can happen? That person won’t be impressed by me.  That person won’t think I’m cool. Not a huge deal… there’s lots of other people. If I approach them, am curious, generous, and authentic, at least I’m giving myself a chance.
• What’s the worst that can happen?  They won’t want to join my group. I’ll ask them. I’ll share stories with them about how it changed my life and it can change theirs too.  I’ll probably ask them again.  If they don’t join, at least I gave them a chance.

So yeah, with those last two bullet points, this post is very related to recruitment.  Here’s specifically how the saying, "What’s the worst that could happen?" relates to Social Excellence and Dynamic Recruitment .

GENEROSITY:  When we are being generous in our interactions with others, we are no longer focused on our insecurities because we are focused on making a better experience for those around us.  What’s the worst that can happen?  He/ she has a bad time in this conversation.  I am going to focus on providing a positive, meaningful experience for  him/her.  When we think about others rather than ourselves we no longer fear rejection because we aren’t battling the internal struggle, we or focusing on the external interaction. Generosity is the antidote to fear of social rejection. Focus 100% of your energy on being generous and there is no mathematical room for fear to exist.

DYNAMIC RECRUITMENT:  There are many steps and benchmarks in the Dynamic Recruitment process before we extend bids.  We get to know one another, have great conversations, share about our fraternity/sorority experience, and have conversations about what it means to be a member and what’s expected of members.  What’s the worst that can happen?  He/she doesn’t accept a bid.  But, if we are following the steps in Dynamic Recruitment and pre-closing or defining the relationship (DTR), we are only extending bids to individuals who are prepared to accept – the opposite of rejection.

There’s no guarantee that it’s always going to work out… but, really, what’s the worst that could happen?

I’m heading to Iowa tomorrow to deliver a keynote address about Social Excellence to a local young professionals networking group in the Quad Cities.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to share a story with our blog readers that we also included in our book, Social Excellence: We Dare You .

STORIES OF SOCIAL EXCELLENCE: “CHANGWE KUMALINGA”
EXCERPT FROM SOCIAL EXCELLENCE: WE DARE YOU
BY MATTHEW MATTSON, JESSICA GENDRON WILLIAMS AND JOSH ORENDI

Changwe Kumalinga is a college student at Creighton University in Nebraska, originally from Zambia. A conversation with Changwe reminded us that American society has a lot to learn from the rest of the world when it comes to being social, building social connections, and understanding how valuable being social is to community and society.

Recently, Changwe saw us present an educational workshop on Social Excellence for young professionals in Omaha, Nebraska. Changwe was attending as a future young professional and immediately sought us out after the program to talk about his experience.

He introduced himself and quickly proceeded to admit that he was confused throughout the first half of the program. Why were we talking about Social Excellence?  He explained that he couldn’t understand why a room full of hundreds of professionals were so intensely listening to and taking notes about something that seemed so obvious to him. It seemed so natural to him to engage in deep, meaningful, powerful conversations with others—to listen intently to stories being told and to naturally want to connect with the people around him. Then it dawned on him.

The reason these concepts seemed so natural to him, but were somehow brand new to all of these American professionals, was because of the communal, tribal nature of his ancestry. He explained that being “social” was how he lived in Zambia. The community thrived not through connections of 140 characters or less, but through real, human-to-human interaction—a true village.

Changwe went on to explain another realization he’d had halfway through the program—he’d only been in the U.S. studying for a short time, but he felt like he was starting to adopt an American social persona. He was starting to isolate himself, wear his iPod around campus, only talk to his inner-circle of friends, communicate more online than through real-life interactions—he was becoming, in a word, antisocial.

In Changwe’s words, “In my conversation with the presenters from Phired Up Productions, I found myself unknowingly drifting away from my communal principles. Somehow, I forgot the power of a handshake and neglected the significance of an intentional conversation. Even with the networking emphasis at the Omaha Young Professionals Conference, I wasn’t focused on the people I was networking with beyond trading job titles and the usual surface small talk. I wasn’t focused until I participated in the Phired Up workshop and realized most of us at the conference had no real intentions to remember people’s names and know any of their interests beyond careers.

“I mentioned to the Phired Up team that I was extremely grateful for such a timely reminder to exude Social Excellence and be the best version of me with a communal spirit. I cannot imagine any place in the world where such a lesson or reminder would not be valuable.”

Changwe shared all of this not in a disparaging way toward American culture, but with a genuine realization of the cultural differences he was experiencing. He proclaimed that Social Excellence was a vital lesson to remind him of what made him who he is—the true connections to real people in his life.

Changwe has done a fantastic job of staying connected to us since that program and we expect that relationship to deepen. We know he is bringing a philosophy and lifestyle of Social Excellence that is deeply rooted in the communal culture of his tribe in Zambia to his everyday life at Creighton.

Are you on Twitter?  Even if you are, it can be hard to keep up with all the coolest tweets and tweeps.  We thought we’d share some particularly awesome (in our humble opinion) tweets we’ve put out over the last few months.  You’ll find tweets about #SocialExcellence and #DynamicRecruitment . You’ll also find tweets that are directed to our Phired Up Fraternal , Phired Up College , and Phired Up World audiences. Please share, stay connected to our hashtags , and make sure to follow us @PhiredUp .

Take a moment to RE-TWEET your favorites! Enjoy and we’ll tweet you later!

#betheperson who can help others find their spark. Light the Phire of the people u meet. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who wonders aloud. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who seeks everyone’s deeper story. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who asks, "What is your real passion?  How can I help with it?" #socialexcellence

#betheperson who goes to the meetings. Does extra work. Brings others to the group. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who helps others change the world. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who raises the level of discussion and focuses on making things better. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who gets that others have legitimate points of view despite the difference from yours. #socialexcellence

Honesty does not require meanness. Candor and truth are better received through love and generosity. #socialexcellence

Don’t manipulate others into working for your cause. Connect with them. Help them achieve their purpose. #socialexcellence

#betheperson who doesn’t complain, whine, or bemoan 2 others. Discuss, solve, and work with others instead #socialexcellence

Coffee and lunch are the greatest recruitment strategies in the world! #dynamicrecruitment

#betheperson who has the courage to intervene when things aren’t right #everydayhero

If you have the COURAGE to connect w/ppl, you have the POWER to change the world #socialexcellence

A movement is beginning. Handshakes can change the world. #socialexcellence #betheperson @phiredup

#socialexcellence starts with the person right next to you. #betheperson who chooses curiosity, generosity, authenticity, vulnerability.

Ppl+Purpose=Organization. Organizations change the world. Gather ppl around ur purpose. #socialexcellence @phiredup

"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world" -M. Mead #socialexcellence

Handshakes>Conversations>Relationships>Collaboration>Organization>ChangeTheWorld #socialexcellence

Choose perpetual generosity, curiosity, positivity and openness to limitless possibility #socialexcellence

Intentionally connect with others 2day. Engage in deep, meaningful conversations. #socialexcellence

Believe that everyone you meet is remarkable, heroic, and magnificent. #socialexcellence

Authentic kindness breeds trust. Groups, movements, society are held together by trust. Be kind. #socialexcellence

Participate in society. Start with any stranger. #socialexcellence #betheperson

#betheperson who makes today more fun for someone. Surprise them with joyfulness #socialexcellence

Be interested and interesting. #betheperson who asks fun questions. #socialexcellence

"The world would be better if…" movements, rebellions, and revolutions are birthed from that sentence. Speak it. #socialexcellence

All leadership is social. Lead through relationships and human connections. Caring inspires followers. #socialexcellence

What is the best version of you? #socialexcellence

Can you be more curious today? #socialexcellence #betheperson

Can you be more generous today? #socialexcellence #betheperson

Can you be more authentic today? #socialexcellence #betheperson

Can you be more vulnerable today? #socialexcellence #betheperson

Can you be more socially bold today? #socialexcellence #betheperson

"I love my computer bcuz all my friends live in it." not #socialexcellence

Awkward isn’t bad. Just own it with confidence. Authenticity will reward you. #socialexcellence #soundslikeafortunecookie

Build relationships. Inspire your relationships with passion for your purpose. Grow your organization. #dynamicrecruitment #socialexcellence

Shouting loudest won’t win members, donors or fans. Caring most will. #dynamicrecruitment #socialexcellence

I don’t care about your organization until you care about me. #dynamicrecruitment #socialexcellence

Every individual is an organization waiting to happen. #socialexcellence

Recruitment doesn’t start until you know them and can contact them. Meet more people, give ur org a bigger chance. #dynamicrecruitment

Static recruitment waits and hopes. #dynamicrecruitment pursues and inspires.

You don’t have a chance to recruit that person until you’ve shaken their hand. Start there. #socialexcellence #dynamicrecruitment

High quality people are attracted to high quality things. #dynamicrecruitment

What tweeps do you most want to shake hands with? #socialexcellence

#betheperson who inspires others with their willingness to seem a little weird in pursuit of deeper connections #socialexcellence

Don’t just seek members. Inspire participants, donors, and raving fans. #dynamicrecruitment

Choosing from 500 is better than choosing from 50. Meet more people. Quantity drives quality. #dynamicrecruitment

Quality organizations are only built by quality members. #dynamicrecruitment

Ask 10x more questions today than usual. Listen intently. #socialexcellence

Everyone has experienced the greatest joys and the lowest sorrows of life. U have too. Connect authentically. #socialexcellence

When u are 100% generous or curious there is no mathematical room left for fear. #socialexcellence focuses on others.

Our friend Alex Carrick, a consultant for Phi Delta Theta Fraternity recently wrote a four part series of blogs for fraternities about SUMMER RECRUITMENT .  He did a fantastic job (and there are lots of hints that he’s a Dynamic Recruitment fan spread throughout the blogs.  We wanted to make sure we shared these great summer recruitment tips with all our readers.  Thanks Alex for letting us share your great ideas!

Part 1
Think about it. Summer is the perfect time to get a head start before the thought of recruitment crosses other chapter’s collective minds. If you have never done summer recruitment it may feel a little bit strange. The goal of this series of blog posts is to take out the guess work and give you a path to follow.  Read more here .

Part 2
After covering the basics, the next step is to set up the structure that will propel your chapter to success in summer recruitment. Remember that the key to recruitment is making friends. Therefore the foundation for your summer recruitment plan should be to create opportunities to build relationships. Crazy right?  Read more here .

Part 3
After creating a flawless Summer Recruitment foundation there’s only one question left: where do you find people? Here’s a couple strategies: Read more here.

Part 4
Hopefully at this point you have executed a successful Summer Recruitment program and have numerous guys signed before they step on campus (assuming that it’s within the rules). The real magic happens once those men you recruited turn around and start recruiting for you. Read more here .

Have you ever heard the parable of the bricklayer?  An Australian company launched a campaign using an online children’s book and an old fable to move people toward their cause.  Before going on, read the short fable here .

That got my wheels spinning.  A series of questions came to mind:

How do we communicate with our members and prospects?  For that matter, what is the dialogue in our own minds about the daily things we’re doing on behalf of the organization?  Suffering bricklayer? Laboring volunteer?  Grateful contributor?  Perspective is a powerful thing.

The same activities (paperwork, Names List, recruitment meeting) can be defined as menial painful tasks or critical next steps toward the purpose of the organization.  What we choose to believe becomes our reality, impacts our productivity, and draws/repels people to/from our cause.

Bonus Thought: How would the story of your organization be told through a Children’s book?  If we could only communicate our recruitment message through a children’s book, what pictures and words would you choose to tell our story?  Or, here’s a blended fun zone and deep zone question:  How could the story of YOUR organizational experience to be written in a real children’s book that you would someday read to your own children?

We all want to matter, don’t we? I do. Someday when I leave this world I want to know that the life I lived meant something. I want to know that I’ve left a mark on the world.  I want to know that I’ve mattered.

I’m willing to guess that’s a pretty universal desire. But how do we matter?

I’m reading Blake Mykoskie’s book, Start Something that Matters right now, and that question is really ringing loudly in my ears at the moment.  How do we really matter?

There are a lot of ways to matter.  We matter to our loved ones.  We matter to our pets.  We matter to our workplaces.  But the more and more I think about it, one of the best ways to truly matter to the world is… 1) be about something — some cause, some purpose, 2) inspire others to also be about that thing, 3) gather those people together to act on that thing.  This is Social Excellence .

Here’s an excerpt from our new book, Social Excellence: We Dare You ; How Hand Handshakes Can Change The World .

If you want to leave your mark; if you want to establish a legacy; if you want to be remembered; if you want to look back on your life at 109 years old and know that it was all worth it, gather people together around a purpose that matters to you and go. Change the world based on your vision of how it should be.

All these statements are about changing some part of the world, but ideas alone aren’t enough. Many people have dreamy ideas and do nothing with them. True revolutionaries understand two things:

1. You have to actually DO something.
2. You’ll have more impact on the world if you don’t do it alone. In fact, the more people you have helping, the larger your impact is likely to be.

Right after that section of the book, we share the story of Blake Mykoskie and TOMS shoes as an example of Social Excellence.  See, so many people think Social Excellence is just about being nice to people — it’s about that, but about so much more too.  Connecting with people, shaking hands, having conversations, building relationships are the building blocks that make it possible to gather others together around your cause.

Want to matter to the world?  Start by shaking some hands today and see where it leads.

We love formal sorority recruitment. We the sorority experts at Phired Up Productions, we love formal recruitment!  We’ll scream it!  We LOVE it!

This phrase may be shocking to some of you who have seen our work, read I Heart Recruitment , or attended any of the number of programs we’ve done.  So, let me explain.  Formal recruitment, at its very core, is amazing.  It allows us, in a relatively short amount of time, to get interested women into our organizations.  The problem with Formal Recruitment is that we’ve made it dirty - we’ve twisted and convoluted the process over the years - we’ve forgotten why formal recruitment really matters.

Let’s start with a little bit of a different context.  At the inception of sororities and from the beginnings of sorority recruitment, our organizations hosted events because there were women who wanted to join sororities.  However, these women didn’t want to join sororities because it offered them quick access to fraternity men, social status, popularity, parties, prestige and power.  Women wanted to join our organizations because they were about something - they were making meaningful and powerful change in the world — our world.

Yep, sororities were changing the world.  We were fighting for a woman’s right to an education.  We were supporting women in an academically rigorous environment that most people believed women couldn’t be successful in.  We were supporting each other in an environment that was unsupportive.  We were giving women a place to belong in an environment where women were prohibited from belonging to most student organizations.  We were helping women grow as individuals and offered them a supportive environment to discover their true authentic self.  We were, dare I say, feminists, before the term was popular.  Women came to our organizations for all these reasons.  They came to sororities to be a part of something that mattered, not only to their lives, but the world.   As access to higher education for women grew, so did interest in sororities.  We, out of necessity, had to start hosting "recruitment events".

Somewhere along the line, however, between our early beginnings and now, the process has been distorted.  We began to care less about the reason women were interested in our organizations and more about getting bodies in the door. We began to care less about which women will help us advance our cause and more concerned with which women might increase our popularity or status.  We began to care less about the quality of women we were recruiting and more obsessed with the quantity of women we were recruiting.  In fact, I would boldly argue, that we now define our formal recruitment success by how big our pledge class is and how "cute" our new members are (or rather how cute the fraternity men think they are).  We’ve filled our formal processes with skits and chants and elaborate decorations and fancy outfits and perfect hair and perfect makeup and the glitz and the glam and the superficial conversations and meaningless criteria and emotional decision-making and crafts - oh the crafts!  If our founders could, they’d likely pop straight up out of their final resting places, march up to our front doors, and light a torch to our streamers.  We’ve forgotten the legacy they left us.

We’ve forgotten why we exist and how the formal recruitment process should reinforce our mission not undermine it.

But don’t quit reading yet!  We’re on your team!

We believe in the power of sororities to change the world.  We believe in the power of formal recruitment as a means to attract and engage high quality women in our cause.  We believe that Formal Recruitment can be a powerful, moving, and fun experience for everyone involved, but we’ve got to get back to our roots and discover how the process can positively reinforce the values and value of sorority in women’s lives.  That process focuses on building meaningful relationships through powerful conversations with Potential New Members.  It focuses on measurable criteria that PNM’s can meet that aligns with the values and goals of the organization and allows sorority women to make objective decisions instead of subjective, emotional decisions about a PNM’s qualifications for membership.  It focuses on making our behavior within the process align with our stated values.  It focuses on driving higher quality women that can meet our standards into our process, instead of lower our standards to meet the pool of women already in the process .  It focuses on being honest and upfront about the commitment it takes to be a sorority woman.  It focuses on Curiosity, Generosity, Authenticity, and Vulnerability.  We love Formal Recruitment because it has the possibility to be this…to be better…to align with the legacy our founders left to us.  WE LOVE FORMAL RECRUITMENT!

We want to help you achieve that.  We want to help transform formal recruitment for your chapter or community.  This summer, we’ll be unleashing a series of webinars focused specifically on this topic - How we can create a Formal Recruitment Process that reinforces the value and values of sorority.  These webinars are geared especially toward chapters.  We’re unveiling that series to you…right now.  Can’t make the day or time?  Don’t worry, you can watch it later as a recording.  Click here to learn more.

Here’s some basic information about the webinars…

SCHEDULE

Wednesday, 5/16, 8 p.m. ET:  Top Ten Must-Do’s to be "Recruitment Ready"
Wednesday, 5/30, 8 p.m. ET:  Bringing Recruitment Back to Its Roots:  Making Your Recruitment Values-Based.
Thursday, 6/14, 8 p.m. ET:  What’s Your Story? Using the Power of Personal Stories to Make Your Organization Memorable.
Monday, 6/25, 8 p.m. ET:  Connecting Quickly to PNM’s: Using Curiosity, Generosity, Authenticity, and Vulnerability to Make Meaningful Connections, Quickly.
Wednesday, 7/11, 8 p.m. ET:  Answering Tough Questions:  Responding to PNM Concerns about Joining.
Wednesday 7/25, 8 p.m. ET:  Sealing the Deal:  What Pref Conversations Should Really Look Like.

Prices are simple:
The Solo (Just one webinar, any one):  $50
The Two-For (Any two webinars): $90
The Six-Pack (We recognize the irony, but you get all six):  $250

How do you buy them? Go here .
Want more descriptions on the topics? See below.

Top 10 Must-Dos to be “Recruitment Ready”
Wednesday, 5/16, 8 p.m. ET
We want our chapter members to be “Recruitment Ready”, but that means more than having their outfits checked and all the logistics practiced…at least in our opinion.  You’ve got a whole summer to get the work done to be ready for recruitment.  Learn the Top 10 Must-Do’s this summer to ensure your members are “Recruitment Ready”.  We’ve got everything covered for you to put your best foot forward!

Bringing Recruitment Back to Its Roots: Making Your Recruitment More Values-Based.
Wednesday, 5/30, 8 p.m. ET
Recruitment should be more about chants and outfits - it should be about finding women who will help you advance your sorority and its cause.  The requires us to refocus on the values of our sorority during recruitment.  But how?  It’s as simple as doing four things.  We’ll teach you those four things you need to do to have a more values-based recruitment.

What’s Your Story?  Using the Power of Personal Stories to Make Your Organization Memorable.
Thursday, 6/14, 8 p.m. ET
Sisterhood, philanthropy, service, networking, support, leadership, campus involvement, social events, intramurals:  We all talk about this stuff during sorority recruitment and Potential New Members hear a pretty similar speech about these things in every chapter they visit.  To them, we all blend together.  Rather than speaking to them in our language, sharing facts and figures, we need to speak to them in a way they understand and value - through personal stories.  Research tells us that there is one thing that is impactful and memorable - and that’s a personal stories.  We’ll teach how to be a great storyteller in recruitment.

Connecting Quickly with PNM’s:  Using Curiosity, Generosity, Authenticity, and Vulnerability to Make Meaningful Connections, Quickly.
Monday, 6/25, 8 p.m. ET
We don’t have a lot of time in Formal Recruitment to have great conversations with PNM’s and a lot of our conversation ends up being very superficial and surface level.  Those conversations doin’t build relationships and don’t allow us to make meaningful membership decisions.  There’s a better, easier way to connect, quickly - by using curiosity, generosity, autheticity, and vulnerability as a philosophy in recruitment conversations.  We’ll show you how.

Answering “Tough Questions”: Responding to PNM Concerns About Joining.
Wednesday, 7/11, 8 p.m. ET
PNM’s are about to make a life-changing decision: It would be natural and normal for them to have questions or concerns.  Too often though, we are freaked out or offended when women ask these questions - or we avoid them alltogether.  We have to be prepared to offer information and respond to their questions in a meaningful and caring way.  We will show you how and why we should be preparing our members to welcome these conversations, not avoiding them, during recruitment.

Sealing the Deal: What Pref Conversations Should Really Look Like.
Wednesday, 7/25, 8 p.m. ET
Preference conversations tend to freak everyone out - sorority women, PNM’s, even fraternity men.  They’re usually awkward, uncomfortable, sometimes creepy, and occasionally a little disingenuous.  People join people, not sororities.  Our pref conversations need to focus on deep, meaningful, powerful conversations where we build a relationship PNM’s and do the three things we need to do to seal the deal.  We’ll give you the key to unlock your chapter’s success in preference round.

87% of Pinterest users are women.   Why not use Pinterest to help our women’s organizations grow.  Here’s the plan for a Pinterest-style activity to drive names onto your Names List:

Materials:

• 6-8 large Poster Boards and designate them as Themed Boards
• Scissors
• Tape
• Markets of assorted colors
• LOTS of old Magazines
• Table

STEPS:

1. Set up shop at a fairly congested area of campus (student union, library, quad, gymnasium, etc)
2. Have a table and all your materials for the Pinterest boards
3. Don’t stand behind the table with a random sign announcing what you’re doing
4. Stand in front of the table
5. SAY HI TO STRANGERS AS THEY WALK BY
6. OFFER A HANDSHAKE OR A HIGH FIVE
7. INVITE THEM TO “PIN” SOMETHING TO THE BOARDS
8. While they are decorating, engage in conversation, get to know them, and have reason to get contact information and follow up-encourage people to look through the magazines, color, draw, or write words/phrases/quotes/etc
9. REASON FOR CONTACT INFORMATION EXCHANGE/FOLLOW UP:  “Thanks so much for participating in our real life Pinterest Board. Once all the boards are decorated we are going to frame them and hang them out.  I’d love to send you a picture of the finished project or even have you over to look at it.  Why don’t we exchange emails so I can keep you posted?”
10. Follow through and finish boards.  Frame them and hang them. (And post pictures of them on Pinterest).
11. Send follow up email/text/call to your new friend and invite them to come see the finished product.
12. Continue to build a relationship.
13. Share about your organization.
14. Potentially recruit.
15. Rinse and repeat.