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Powering Nonprofit Success Through Participatory Processes:

Did you know that organizations prioritizing participatory processes and deliberately decreasing barriers see a significant increase in program effectiveness? This Fall, I’m excited to delve into how this framework powers real-world success through our three-part webinar series, Insights for Impact!

On September 18th, Dr. Inderjit Vicky Basra, President and CEO of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, and Jessica Raymond, former Chief of Staff of the YWCA, joined Sharity Global Expert Anne Miskey to offer real-world examples of ways participatory processes elevated their organizations’ mission and impact. Dr. Basra emphasized the importance of including direct and indirect experts in decision-making conversations. She noted, “…layered communication makes the change.” When those in the community who experience the challenges your organization strives to address work alongside those with academic or professional experience in key areas, your organization can begin to affect systemic change. Jessica added, “When we talk about advocating for people and engaging their voices…here is the mic! You sit at this table, you tell me what you need from us, you make the decision…”

Key takeaways from the conversation included:

  • Write equity into your policies and procedures.
  • Avoid “tokenizing” the community you serve. Ensure that if you ask something of your community members, such as asking them to share their stories, you are developing and strengthening a mutually beneficial relationship with them.
  • Identify ways your organization may connect direct experts, those with lived experience, with donors, elected officials, and other community leaders and influencers.
  • Engaging all voices allows you to review and evaluate the impact of your programming with an open mind and heart.
  • Give credit to all the experts helping you execute your mission. Whenever possible, compensate and recognize direct experts, those with lived experiences, for their work on behalf of your organization, just as you would an indirect expert with academic or professional experience. 

Dr. Basra summed up the importance of engaging all voices when she described the success her organization has had with connecting survivor mentors with the recently rescued. “[Survivor’s] concepts around hope look very different because they’re sitting across from somebody, that at some point, was in the same space that they are in…Their survivor-mentor becomes a beacon of hope!” Anne added, “The little ways you can connect your donors in real ways to people” will bring about transformation.

Okay, good afternoon everyone. and thank you very much for joining for this presentation on how do we create loyalty amongst our donors, our staff and our volunteers.

And my name is terry ivanovich and i’ve been working in this industry of giving a exceptional experiences to our customers and employees for over 30 years. and so i’d like to share some of the tips and tools and techniques, um, that i’ve learned that may be able to help you and your organization.

Um, but i’d like to start out by first asking you have you personally ever experienced for service? of course you have. everybody has experienced.

But the key is to recognize is how did it make you feel when you received that poor service? because poor service leaves a emotional connection that can last for a long, long time.

And it’s hard to turn it around. and we remember great service and we remember poor service. so if we’re going to have people remembering our organization, we obviously want them to remember the great experience that they had with us and not the negative.

And actually business leaders and leaders of all kinds of organizations, small, large, uh, for profit, not for profit have all recognized that the customer experience is really the next battleground that in terms of competition and you’ve got even competition amongst, uh, nonprofit organizations because they do have choices, they have choices of where they will go receive their services. you have choices among volunteers with their discretionary time, uh, who do they want to share that time with as well as attracting those employees that have choices. so the customer experience is really, uh, the differentiator amongst the products and services that are being delivered in today’s world because it’s what separates you from the rest.

And as we look at the opportunity here, it’s really, so many organizations are focusing on different things. but here you have a huge opportunity for something that’s not going to require a lot of monetary uh, investment.

Um, and to me, I call it in culture rating service excellence. if you truly do want to create a place where the delivery of excellent service is important to every single one of your staff, it’s got to become ingrained.

Um, and i, I learned this at a very young age and by the way, in culture rating is not a real word. so don’t go looking it up in the dictionary. i, I made it up, but when I first got my first job, I was in college and going to school, living in orlando and started working a well disney world.

And I remember on that very first day as our manager was taking us around through the orientation to uh, show us where the different rides were the different restrooms and water fountains. so we would be able to answer those types of guests questions.

He made a real point that every time he saw a piece of trash, he would stoop down and pick it up. well, I was only 17 years old at that time and um, I don’t know how many of you have teenagers, um or maybe yourself when you sit there and you think about what does your room look like at that age.

But mine was not very clean. and so um, when he made the comment that one of the top three reasons why guests come back to disney is because it is clean, uh that that was of critical importance and everyone, everyone had to pick up trash.

And that’s why he was stooping down and putting the trash into his nice suit pocket or walk into the nearest crash can. so the expectation was very clear that that’s what one must do in order to be successful in their career at disney. and so I started picking up trash and picking up trash and picking up trash. until today my family gets rather embarrassed when we go to the shopping mall because there’s mom still stripping down and picking up the trash.

But it’s just become ingrained. it’s become a habit. and that’s really what you want. service excellence to become is habitual that it becomes a way of life within your organization so that it brands you, that this is just who we are.

And that means that every person has to recognize. they have a role that every person can either build up your name, image and reputation or they can tear it down that many of your donors are many of your recipients of your services and many of your donors to, they don’t recognize who many times a staff of paid staff is or who volunteer is.

And so every person who is representing your organization must feel the weight upon their shoulders that they are there to uphold your image and your branding and your reputation.

And so it starts with identifying and understanding the concept that we are all customers to each other, that every single person who’s working within your organization has a customer and that customer may not be, uh, the external one, but that it could be the person that I passed my work onto or the person and the other department that needs my help when their computer breaks down.

Or that they need this information in order for them to be able to provide the value, uh, to the recipient of that service or product. and so it starts internally. so everything I talk about today is applicable to, um though even those of your employees, your staff and volunteers who don’t deal directly with the outside customer.

And it starts with identifying uh, their higher purpose, reminding people of why are they really here? um what is it that is motivating to them? that wakes them up in the morning that says I want to be here and at disney, i’ll never forget that.

I was told, yes, you know, I have a certain job task, but that my real purpose was to create happiness, that that was my higher purpose.

And think about the mindset, that that changes um when you’re doing your job, you know, it’s either well, in the case here of the uh, custodial worker that um she’s there, yes, she’s sweeping, she’s mopping, she’s making sure everything is in order. but really in her mind, why is she there?

What is her ultimate meaning to her job? and as uh, every single cast member disney knows they know that by delivering happiness and every interaction that they possibly can, that their guess at the end of the day, uh, they’re gonna be hot, they’re gonna be tired, they’re gonna be broke.

Um, but um, they will hopefully be happy. and that’s that emotional connection that you want to identify for all your staff and volunteers.

So they know that with every job task, that’s really the, the purpose, uh, to, to their role. and you, once you’ve identified that higher purpose, um, put it into a very simple statement, a very short, simple statement.

And this will become your service philosophy. uh, it’s not a mission statement that tells what is the strategic direction you want your organization to go in. uh, it’s not a value statement.

It’s simply a statement that identifies, what do we want our donors or what do we want our recipients? what do we want our staff and our volunteers to feel with every interaction?

Uh, every every day that they participate with us. and so, uh, service philosophy provides a clear image of the organization. so everyone has a vision, um, by identifying that emotional connection, whether it’s delight, happiness, hope, peace of mind, trust, confidence.

Um, but people remember that feeling, remember I said with poor, great service, they remember the feeling. so identify that emotional connection and then what it also does, it gives the foundation for decision making.

So that should a hard decision come along or even a simple decision by simply saying, will it result in this feeling? um, and if so, then, um, move forward with it the next piece then and in cultural thing, service excellence is to identify service standards.

And these are behaviors, behaviors that identify to everyone. um what is important? so it gives criteria for making service decisions.

Um, it gives a tool for managers to measure rather than making customer service subjective. it makes it objective and then it creates a consistency across the organization so that every um, staff member, every volunteer is held accountable um, to delivering these behaviors.

And so it’s not like a recipient will say, um, well, when i, you know, dealt with this one department, they were wonderful. but boy, you know, you deal with that other department and um, it’s just chaos and they’re very rude. um, this creates a consistency across um, every department and it creates a binding opportunity for everyone to deliver on your promise.

And so what does that experience look like then? so as you’re looking to, um, engage with donors so that they will feel confident to continue, uh, to donate to your organization, um, as you engage your staff and went over the hearts and minds of, uh, your, your volunteers as well.

Everyone, um, create goes through an experience and that experience can actually be broken down into these four components, uh, in the middle.

We have the customer. remember either that internal or external customer? uh, we have a service environment. that’s your physical environment.

What does it look like? smell like feel like tastes like, um, your service delivery. this is that people part when I get on the phone or I come face to face the smile, the interaction, the voice tone.

Um, and then you have your processes. do you make it easy to do business with you? or do you make it difficult to do business with you? so we’re going to take a look very briefly at each one of these as when you create a culture, uh, there’s a language that binds people together.

If we were to go to germany, they speak german to france. they speak french. so let me share with you a language for service excellence.

And that first term i’d like you to begin to use within your organization is who’s lens, whose lens do we look through? uh do we look through the lens of the organization?

Or do we look through the lens of the customer? are we putting ourselves into the shoes of our customers? or are we looking to identify and see what makes it quicker, faster, easier, better for us?

Uh and that’s really critical because, um, by recognizing that the customer is the heart and the reason for what you’re doing, we definitely want to be looking through their lens and to identify, um, with their emotions.

Um, what do they, you know, feel? are they angry? are they frustrated? are they happy?

Are they excited? um, and then once we identify with the emotions, we can identify with the needs. um, by just identifying with their needs first, it feels more transactional and it’s more like we’re just processing them through. whereas when you stop and read your customer as to what is their emotional level and then let them know, I can see that you’re frustrated, I can hear that you’re anxious, but let me see what I can do to help you it by starting that out. that simple technique, it creates that feeling of caring and that’s really what we want is because if we want to create that loyalty amongst our entities, we want to be more animated versus automated and you all know how that feels when you make a phone call to your insurance company or, uh, you’ve got to deal with some other, uh, mundane routine activity in your life.

And you get into a call center and someone responds to you very automatically. and that, you know, they’re just going through the motions or the procedures of the process of which they’ve got printed out in front of them versus truly looking to listen to you actively listen to you, uh, to identify what they can do to help you.

And so here’s a tool that i’d like to share with you. it’s called a service map and a service map kind of forces you to look along with your staff and volunteers at what would just be mediocre service at each touch point, maybe that automated kind of a feeling or what could we do to make it excellent.

And so it’s not a process map looking through the lens of the employee, um, as to what steps do I take, but it’s looking through the lens of the customer.

So whoever is the customer of your process. looking at each one of the touch points through their eyes and then identifying. is that just average mediocre service? or could we ramp it up just a little bit with excellent service?

So here’s an example, um, just to share with you. and this is of a new volunteer. let’s say it’s a new volunteer. they’ve never come to work with you before. and so, um, looking at the touch points, i’ve identified eight of them.

Some service maps have 14, 15, 20. some have two or three. um, so first step, the volunteer new volunteer. they call for their schedule and information. where do I go?

You know, maybe directions? uh second is when they enter the designated location, does anybody greet them?

Um lets them know, hey, you’re in the right spot. the third is the weight where they wait for someone to come get them to take them to where they’re supposed to go. fourth is when they get to that area, are they greeted by another employee? another staffer to feel welcome.

Um then they receive instructions on what they’re supposed to do. then they are taken to their work area, introduced to others in the group, they do their work and then they’re thanked at the end of the shift.

So at each one of these touchpoints, there’s an opportunity to say, okay, how do we currently do this? and then how could we do it? just a little bit better?

And the key is, if you get all your staff involved in this is to be able to look at what is mediocre and then what is excellent? and once everybody identifies the excellent, it’s then taking the time to get the commitment from the group to say, okay, so from now on, how about we all agree that we’re going to do this in the excellent way, which then raises the bar uh and raises the culture in that particular process.

I don’t recommend you become service map technicians doing this on every process. but pick out those for maybe you have inconsistency among staff or maybe you have had complaints from others before.

And you know that process could be improved. um the language for the service environment is that everything speaks, everything is sending a message.

Everything you see, hear, smell and touch. are you sending the message you want to send. you know, people make uh you make an impression when they come into your office, you may say I know where everything is, don’t you worry? I got it taken care of but they see this. and does it really convey that feeling of trust or confidence versus someone who looks a little more organized? I might have more confidence uh that this person is being careful with the information that i’m sharing or the knowledge or the reports that i’ve given to them. you can convey messages by your physical work area. what’s important to you.

Um people they look around your office to see to get messages includes, everything is sending a message. are you sending the messages you want to send? you know, i’ve been in uh several offices, you know, um and this actually was in a potential new doctor’s office where I was going to become a potentially a new patient.

But I must say I got a little worried when I was sitting in the waiting area and saw the stains on the tile and the wilted plants. um, i’m sure the physician was a wonderful physician, but I already began getting some negative feelings.

Um, just by these little clues that were in the waiting area. you know, is it confusing when your staff is or your volunteers and uh, people are looking recipients for your location?

Is it easy to find? you, you do it every day? they don’t. um, your website sends a message in terms of speaking to folks and many times in today’s world, it’s the first impression that you have. go back, take a look. did the links works?

Is the spelling correct? um, is it communicating what you still wanted to communicate as well as your emails and text messaging that as you send out individually, each one of those is speaking your brochures, your collateral material, spelling your donors names correctly, um, spelling those recipients of your services correctly.

Um, making sure that all of it is, uh, communicating definitely in terms of this is who we are. and this is the message. we want you to take a way as to how we want to help you.

And then it’s ensuring that your staff and your volunteers know that from the moment that they step into your workplace area. uh, and if they’re wearing any kind of a uniform, anything outside that they are on stage and they’re being watched.

And therefore it’s important for them to remember that they must always be conveying the image that is representative of your organization, everything speaks.

So here’s a another tool, um, in which I would recommend you work with your staff and volunteers on what are those detractors, whether they are physical detractors or behavioral detractors that take away from the experience that you want to deliver. and then what will be their commitment in the future in regards?

Um, I know one of my biggest detractors that I hear just cringe when um, I hear someone say is that’s not my job, recognizing that anyone who is working with your organization that it is expected that that’s their job.

And so while it may not be their actual job task, it’s up to them to identify who will be able to help them to find out and make that connection, but to never say that’s not my job.

So the commitment in that case is that we will never say that’s not my job. we will always make the effort to help and find out who will be able to deliver or help in that regards.

And then we go to the service delivery. and the key here in the language is to create a while and this doesn’t have to be a great big, huge, wow, simply a little while, simply a while where someone says, wow, I didn’t expect you do that for me or thank you, I really appreciate that you took that extra time to share with me that information, you saved me a step here, cumulative wows add up and and they become part of that experience.

That creates even a bigger experience. uh wow if it’s consistently done so that people can begin to trust you. and so bill, mary jr once said, you’ve got to start with good people, you’ve got to train and motivate them and you give them an opportunity to advance. and then the organization succeeds.

So creating a while starts with the people that you hire, that as you prepare them. uh to exceed expectations. take a look at these three areas so that they get the mindset that when I join your organization, this is the way of life there. and this is the expectation.

I’m not expected to just come in and give the status quo or to satisfy um, those people around me, but that i’m going to be looking to take it just one notch ahead.

And so in the hiring an orientation, the first bullet point there is to truly look at your hiring process and to think about those people. will they fit into your culture?

That in your interview process do you model the culture so that they know and can get a picture of what your culture looks like. there should be no secrets in the hiring process.

It is much better for someone to say you know what the culture is not for me. that organization is not for me um versus you bring them on, you train them, you spend all that time with them and then they say you know what, this is not what I expected and then they leave and you’ve got to go through that entire process again.

So taking a look at how do we do the hiring uh communicating all the information that we can and looking at the right fit person in terms of where their personalities will best be applicable in your organization as well as communicating that higher purpose.

So that from day one you’re starting to motivate and inspire them that this is truly what we do here in our organization. um the second piece is to uh make sure that they are trained and uh, an old chinese proverb by following the good. you learn to be good.

We don’t want to put these new employees, these new staff, these volunteers, um, with our spare people. we want to put them with their best so that they can learn from the best.

And um, so key elements for successful training is make sure that the staff, the volunteers no one understand the requirements of the job and that they have a place where they can go to ask questions if they don’t, that they truly understand that higher purpose, that emotional connection and that they feel proud to be a part of your organization.

And that feeling proud to be a part of the organization is comes from them having that knowledge. so the information sharing that you do is key.

And sam walton new this, he said, communicate everything, you know, because the more they know, the more they care and when they care, there’s no stopping them.

Um, so recognizing that the staff and volunteers that you hire, that they are adults, uh, in most cases, you know, at least 17, 18 years old and that, um, they have worked, you know, with budgets and schedules and so as you share information with them, share it in a language that can be understood in their day to day so that they do to start to feel that that care, um, and communicate in all forms of communication, whether it’s bulletin boards, whether it’s little trinkets, memo paths, meetings, all forms of communication so that you can talk amongst the staff.

Daily huddles is my favorite where staff and volunteers can come together and here, okay, here’s what the day looks like. it’s gonna be may not go that way, but here’s what it looks like we’ve got on our plate, uh, today this week, but that ongoing regular communication.

So key elements for successful communicate. uh, make sure that you connect people to the big picture that um, here’s where I fit into the link into the big picture.

Um, give significance to those mundane and repetitive tasks, remind them of their higher purpose and reinforce that kind of feeling you want others to have about your organization.

So as you prepare your employees, um, and volunteers to exceed expectations, they now can use that information to create a while. and it’s remembering.

Uh, basically a couple of little tips here to treat customers as individuals that there are days. I don’t think my name is terry anymore. I think its next, i’m next in line. next here, next at the bank, next to the post office.

Um, I have a subway here pictured because several times now I have been into a subway and they have made it a real point to make sure that I feel like an individual. and so the sandwich artists. I even asked one last week when it happened and he made, uh, just a little comment that made me recognize that he was paying attention um, to uh, that I i looked tired that day. I knew it.

Uh, and he’s made a comment about smiling and he smiled and said, I want to make your day a great day. uh, that’s treatable customers of v. i. p. a very individual person and that’s what you want.

Um, it’s the details. people remember the little things, the little tiff. you give them the little piece of advice that they might not have known if you hadn’t have spoken with them.

And it’s the consistency that builds the trust. if every one of your staff and volunteers start to look at opportunities to do this over time, it builds the trust.

It doesn’t have to be a lot. it’s the little things that people remember, uh, when at disney, when we would interact with small children, we were taught to get down and squat down and talk to children at an eye to eye level. little thing.

Sure meant a lot to them as they went through their day feeling trying to feel special, every more role makes an impact. and it’s reminding people that every opportunity is that opportunity to help the organization be a great organization and deliver that service excellence on a consistent basis.

And by doing these things in our processes, we also have an opportunity to make our staff and volunteers feel like heroes, um, by looking through the lens of the customer designing those processes, how can we make it easier for them to do business with us versus have most organizations design their processes? how can we make it quicker, faster and easier internally.

We want to be flexible that most processes should be designed for the many but flexible for the few so that when there is an instance where we’ve got the few there that that staff that volunteer knows that they can deviate slightly, uh, in a way, and they become the hero of the process versus the victim of the process.

And that’s when we start to win their hearts and minds. and so, ladies and gentlemen, the experience is the differentiator and looking at these four components and starting to use the language and culture rating service so that it becomes habitual, um, as we create that vision of our service philosophy and service standards.

Uh we become role models as leaders as people are watching us. did they, did my manager stoop down and pick up the trash or did they walk right by it and then the giving of recognition to show appreciation because if we don’t have a vision were just dreaming, but if we have vision and action we can change the world.

Uh phil crosby some of you in the nonprofit world maybe remember him. he was a true role model of practicing what you preached um in every interaction in how he treated people, whether you were an administrative assistant or you were vice president or you were ceo. um he was a true role model as to how a leader should act, how they should behave and walk the talk. zig ziglar knew the value of appreciation and recognition, knowing that it only takes a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on the life that recognizing as a leader, your people are dependent upon you in many cases to show them that appreciation.

If yes people can be motivated from within, but it certainly never hurts to have a leader pat them on the back or say a few kind words to let them know how much they are valued and appreciated for exhibiting the behaviors of service excellence.

And so with that, over time, it becomes a habit that this is just how we do things here. and i’ll leave you with my favorite quote, wise old man by the name of aristotle.

We are what we do repeatedly. therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit. it’s just who we are and it’s how we do things.

So with that, I will stop and um, see if there are any questions that I might be able to help um, answer in regards to building up this loyalty and trust among our donor staff and volunteers.

Wonderful terry. thank you so much. we have a handful of questions. i’ll go ahead and read to you here. uh, first off says a thank you so much for this reminder and how important this all is. do you have any suggestions slash tips for motivating volunteers to follow through with their commitments?

They see so excited when they volunteer, but often they don’t show up or fail to meet their commitment, I have found, um, and being a volunteer myself at a couple nonprofits that it really does help to have a individual within the organization kind of take you on as a personal mentor.

Um, so that you do feel like you’re missed if you don’t show up or if you know, if they haven’t seen you around in a while. um it’s a little daunting unless you’re real extra vert to go um and put yourself out there to be a volunteer.

So being very welcoming. um and that’s why that service map. um would I did it on that one is a new volunteer coming into work because really taking a look at, how do you make that volunteer feel uh on that first time that they come in and do you pair them up with someone that will show them the ropes and give them confidence that they can do it.

And um and also that they become not necessarily a friend but that they do become a mentor who’s going to care about them. and um the retention seems to be much higher when you do pair them up individually with an individual in the organization, wonderful pair them up with an individual.

Rather. our next question here, terry says, uh, I know that we can’t satisfy every single customer. so what advice can you give me when I have such an encounter?

Um I remember the disney philosophy was, you know that um in terms that the guests may not always be right, but we will always treat the guests with respect and dignity.

And I think that’s a very valuable philosophy because um you know, you’re not gonna be able to satisfy all customers. um you want to clarify expectations as much as possible up front so that the expectations are as clear as they can be. but if you know, if you have to tell the customer that, you know, i’m sorry, but that’s not what, you know, we’re going to be able to help you with. but give them, here’s what I can do and make it something very simple but just simple, something that doesn’t say, hey they let me out to dry or they don’t do what they say but do something just a little bit of what you can do for them. uh you know, let me give you the phone number of someone that I know you know, probably be able to help you.

Um and that helps in doing it. but the key is to treat them with respect and dignity even with respect and dignity. wonderful. our next question here is actually from muff. it says I love what you said about communication.

How would you suggest approaching a leader who keeps things close to their chest instead of sharing information or potential happenings with the team? I guess that depends upon muppets role uh you know, but I i think that there are some introverted leaders. i’ve met some introverted leaders that have to be reminded that they do need to be communicating.

And so um you know my um my advice is that someone who can be, you know it can be communicating with this leader needs to remind them, it might be something that that that the leader has to put into their schedule that says okay you know every day you need to walk around or wander around and just talk to people as you encounter them throughout the day.

Um I know i’ve organized among my clients um some leaders who they you know that was not their comfort level. so I would have a ask linda uh kind of a box and it was anonymous and they could ask the ceo um questions that they wanted. and um then there was uh where we would have a friday lunch, a luncheon with the leader.

So that if you had questions, it was, you know, pizza or whatever and you just kind of came and walked through and the leader was in the room.

Um, so you, yeah, you, you or someone needs to communicate to the leader that this is a huge area of opportunity for them that they’re missing.

Wonderful. we have a comment here. someone says that they love the ask linda, the ceo box idea there. that’d be great to implement.

We have just a couple more questions here. so if anybody else has some, please drop them in the chat. if you’re on facebook, please leave them there as well.

So, our next question mentions, uh, you mentioned matching volunteers with your best people so that they get trained by the best people are very busy these days. so how do you suggest we make time to allow our best to help train up these new volunteers?

That, um, that that’s a choice. um, um, but i’ve seen too many times where they’ve been paired with those who are not that good and then they become not that good themselves. so, so that’s the consequence. that’s the cost you have. yes. there’s a cost of pairing them with your best, but there’s also a cost of pairing them with others who are not.

Um, so it’s a choice. and um, sometimes you can, uh, if you can, uh, create some type of a honor. um, I know it’s some organizations, little pens that showed, you know, i’m a trainer and that they were given recognition for being a trainer and that was perceived as an honored position because all the leaders treated it as an honored position so that it wasn’t like, oh my god, I got to train somebody else. they’re always asking me to do. there’s one more um it’s making, you know it to be and then showing appreciation and giving recognition, uh, any time of staff meetings to these individuals, um helping the individuals once you know your best, what your best are doing, trying to put that into some type of a procedural manual or some type of a training module so that you can take what the best is doing.

And maybe it’s not that they always have to be paired with them face to face, but that they are able to follow the process is that the best is doing and taking that and giving recognition to the best that you know, we think you’re the best and therefore, you know, we want to use you as an exemplary role models so that they feel good that they’ve been recognized for that role.

Wonderful. thank you for that next question from our audience over on facebook, it’s a slight slightly different topic but says, as we start transitioning back to working in the office, i’m finding it difficult to maintain a healthy culture in my organization among staff. how do you suggest we make this transition easier?

Oh yeah, it is tough. i’ve been in a with a couple of clients and that’s exactly the situation. some people don’t want to come back. uh some people are finding it hard. yeah. when they actually get back in uh, and readjusting because they got used to working in, their pajamas are really setting their own schedules and so forth.

Um, so um, what what i’m finding is you just want to try to make it fun. um you know, um we, we spend a lot of time at work and now that um people, some people are really happy to be back, but just have a staff meeting with people and say what can we do to make it fun? we know that you know, your your your back and we want you to want to be back.

So how can we make this more fun for everyone? um so one uh place last week they had snacks, all different kinds of snacks, uh not expensive snacks, but just a place where they could go in and you know, find a fun snack.

Um it’s uh they had a board where they could put up, you know, what are some of the fun things that you did that you might have done not done otherwise during the, you know, covid time that you were out.

So it’s getting people to knowing people not as just someone who sits at the other desk, but as a relationship and um getting to know people more personally in that regard so that we can tailor the fun and find things that everyone will enjoy participating in one way or another.

Make it fun. I like that a lot. uh so we had a couple more coming here. next question. he says, what’s the best place to start? do we need to do surveys or should we just dive into process?

Well, the first place i’d start is writing your service philosophy statement that short simple statement and started out with we and remember it’s an emotional connection. so like disney as we create happiness.

Um I know, you know, other organizations, we inspire trust or we build confidence or we deliver peace of mind.

So first of all, identify that short simple statement, your service philosophy statement and then identify and do this as leaders, do this as a leadership group.

Um, and then what would be the four or five behaviors? I probably stick before that if everybody every employee every stop every volunteer. did these four behaviors like courtesy or responsive or accuracy or availability or um, helpful.

Um, but what would be those four behaviors that if everybody did these in every interaction that we’d be able to achieve that service philosophy connection? that’s where I would start.

Because now you’ve got a vision and then from there I go back and look at your processes and say, okay, which one of our processes don’t deliver peace of mind.

Which one of our processes don’t create happiness, you know, and start from there. and um, but otherwise you’re just kind of uh, you know, shotgunning it in terms of, you know, hit or miss as to which processes you really are going to get the most value in working on.

Wonderful. and our last question here for today terry unless another one that happens to pop up here a second, is it simply, do you have any advice on keeping bored?

You’re bored, engaged and excited? okay. uh, yes, i’m on a not for profit board. and the way that this group keeps me excited and engaged is they make me feel important, um, that they value my opinion, that they’ll call and ask for, you know, advice individually so that I feel like i’m contributing, uh, in that regards, um, that when we, uh, we weren’t able to meet, um, for the past year, year and a half, so we did the zoom meetings and, and that was tougher.

Um, but they tried to make them fun, um, in terms of going around and letting everybody say something, you know, interesting about their last month that they, you know, wanted to share with the group or were willing to share with the group as they were getting through the year.

Um but um but now as we’re getting back together as a group, it’s um once again reminding us of our higher purpose at every meeting starting out, you know, this is really what we’re all about and that everybody has uh an opportunity to contribute in a way that uh they have the knowledge and the expertise that they want to share.

And then um basically it’s the appreciation uh making us just feel really good that we’re a part of it and we’re changing our the little world of which were volunteering, you know, our time for.

All right, wonderful terry. thank you so much for your time. of course, the question from my side, you have a lot of examples and even some things that people could work through in your presentation.

Is that something that if they emailed you here at your email on the screen that you’d be willing to share? sure. absolutely. absolutely.

Wonderful. well that’s everything from my side. so i’ll let you take us out once again. thank you very much. it’s uh an honor to have the opportunity to share with you.

Um some of my experience and um I do have a book called unleashing excellence, the complete guide to ultimate customer service that you can get through amazon. and it outlines, it’s a guideline for leaders.

But i’m also very willing. I love to talk and with you or email with you and share. um if there’s some something that you saw in here that you’d like to talk about some more.

Thank you. wonderful. thank you so much terry. we’ll see you guys again soon. thank you.