So, How Did You Do?

On many days, I think getting Jack Bauer to give up what he knows would be easier than getting my 6-year old to share about his day at school.  No matter how I ask the question, the answer is usually the same:

How was school today?  Good.

What happened at school today?  Good.

What did you have for lunch today?  Good.

I wonder, though, if fraternity and sorority members get a case of the “goods” when they think about the year that has passed.

How is the fraternity/sorority doing?  Good.

How would you describe the year overall?  Pretty good.

As the academic year winds down, I ask that you put a little more thought into evaluating the year that has come and gone.  It was a year in your life, and a year if your chapter’s history.  It deserves more than just “good.”

Before you launch forward on the development of a robust vision for the next year, spend some time thinking about, learning from, and evaluating this year.  By the way, it's about more than checking off a list of chapter goals.  While that should matter, you should be willing to play with deeper questions.  Winning the all-sports trophy, for example, means little to whether or not your organization is truly advancing.

In order to avoid the “goods” and “pretty goods” I’ve thought up some analogies that might help you with your evaluation. 

The Ice Analogy

Every organization and business sits upon a perpetual sheet of ice.  No matter how strong the organization may be, there is always a chance it will crash through to the water below.  The difference between one organization and another is how thick their sheet of ice is.  That will determine if it can withstand a few cracks, or if one more step means it's over.

So think about this past year.  Did your sheet of ice thicken, or did it get thinner?  How sturdy is your sheet of ice?  Are you able to take big confident steps, and perhaps even drive your truck out there for a little ice fishing (sorry, I have a tendency to take analogies too far). 

Or, are you walking gingerly?

A few things can directly impact the thickness of your ice:

• Finances:  How did you finish the year financially?  Were all the bills paid?  Is your budget healthy?
• Incidents:  Did anything happen this year that put a target on your back?  Are you on the university’s short list?
• Leadership:  How is your executive board doing?  Is there a lot of trust in them?  How deep is your bench for this fall’s election?

This analogy can help you think through the overall health and wellness of your organization.  None of us should feel comfortable walking on a thin sheet of ice.

The Ronald Reagan Technique

Ronald Reagan famously led his run for president in 1980 with the question: “are you better off than you were four years ago?”  He was referring to the years governed by the incumbent, Jimmy Carter.  This question and phrase now pops up in every presidential election.  It’s an effective way for the challenger to force voters to evaluate the work of the incumbent.

This technique, for our purposes, is all about evaluating the year through the members’ eyes.  You should ask yourself  “are the members better off than they were a year ago?”  Can you say with confidence that the chapter’s efforts this year led to members growing stronger in three primary areas:

1. their pride and devotion to the fraternity/sorority,
2. their feeling of camaraderie with their peers, and 
3. their personal and academic success. 

You could even take it a step further and ask how your members’ experience is better now than it was for members ten years ago.  Is your chapter progressing in the development of it greatest resource: its people?

The Han Solo Approach

In the original Star Wars saga (the only one that counts), Han Solo had a common phrase that he would say at some point in each of the movies: “I have a bad feeling about this.”  Other characters in the saga also said it as well, and it became one of the most memorable lines from those movies.  So, the Han Solo approach is about intuition.  It’s about listening to your inner voice, just like he did. 

How do you truly feel about the state of your chapter right now?  Are you excited?  At ease?  Worried?  Ready to pull the plug?  Our intuition should not be ignored.  If you have an uneasy feeling about your fraternity/sorority, likely that feeling is warranted. 

We should always be striving for improvement, and our own worst critics.  However, there is a big difference between living in a sea of general calm versus a sea of panic.  The good sports coach knows when there's reason for alarm regarding his/her team, versus being cautiously optimistic.  Most often, the voice you should listen to is within your own head (or gut).

And, if you ever catch yourself saying, “I have a bad feeling about this,” either your fraternity is facing a big problem, or you unknowingly landed your spaceship in the belly of a space monster.

Here are some other questions to help you evaluate this past year:

• What was your biggest success this year?  Would that success be viewed as a big deal by your older alumni members?  In other words, how does it measure up?
• The same is true for reflecting on your biggest failure.  When put into context, how big was it truly?
• Who are the individuals that are blowing wind in your chapter’s sails?  Who are the individuals that are sucking the life out of the organization?  (A good summer activity for chapter presidents is to send a handwritten letter of encouragement to each of these segments) 
• If you were given the chance to talk about this past year with the founders of your organization, what would they say was significant?
• If a story were to be written about this previous year, what would be the plot?  Who are the heroes?  Is it worth reading?
• Name at least three turning points in this past year, when a different choice could have been made.  What is the result of the choice that was made, and what would be different if another direction were chosen?
• If your chapter’s strength over its existence were drawn as a line graph, how would this past year appear? 
• Why would this year matter to members 25 years from now?

You’ll find a lot of evaluation tools out there if you search for them.  Hopefully, this spurred some thinking.  If most of the answers to the questions above left you feeling just blah, think about how you can get to better answers next year.

Did you achieve your goals?  Hopefully so.  Did you move your fraternity forward in a substantial way?  That may be an entirely different question.