Hello friends! I took me a little while to think of some compelling purpose driven reflection questions as it pertains to fraternity/sorority life but I think these questions will at least get your head thinking a little bit. In this blog, I ask a series of questions and I hope you will respond with some thoughts and answers to these questions…
1. Applied Futurist
I recently listened to Steve Farber’s (upcoming AFA keynote speaker) free email podcasts series and found them very interesting. Specifically, his simplistic view of business and ability to articulate his viewpoints were very easy to translate to the fraternal world. One podcast that stood out to me was discussing this notion of the “applied futurist.” Farber went on to describe applied futurist as follows:
a. Applied futurists looks at trends, make observations, and makes predictions about what will happen in the future. Applied futurists start acting today, creates things today that will anticipate what that future state of the company (in our case fraternity/sorority life) is.
As Farber went on to explain, he quoted a fellow business man who stated, “companies fail not because they fail to predict it, but because they fail to imagine it.” Farber went on to explain that being an applied futurist is imagining the future and actively engaging in creating that imagination and bringing that imagination into the world of reality.
So my question is who are the applied futurists’ in the fraternity/sorority world? What makes them an applied futurist? Are we, as a profession, encouraging and promoting applied futurists’ thoughts?
To learn more about Steve Farber go here (http://www.stevefarber.com/)
My second question deals with risk management…
2. Risk Management & Suduko: One in the Same?
For those that have never played Suduko, Wikipedia describes Suduko as, “logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid.”
Is risk management, our fraternal version of Suduko? We know the problems, but yet we can’t seem to figure out the proper “arrangement” for these constant problems to go away? What do you think? I mean, we know alcohol, hazing, eating disorders, underage drinking, binge drinking, etc are the problems, but why can’t we seem to figure out the Suduko puzzle?
3. Neglected Students?
The next question is a pretty basic question that I think is often times neglected…just like I think our sophomore leaders are! Read and respond…
As it pertains to our undergraduate members, have we become so focused on our new members joining, that our sophomore members are being neglected? How are we creating “emerging” leaders and setting up our sophomores and juniors for success?
4. Are you a Seagull advisor?
The final question for today’s blog deals with management. In the February edition of Fast Company magazine, I came across an article that struck me pertaining to management. You can find the article here (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/133/made-to-stick-time-to-aim-lower.html). My question is…
Have you ever taken a step back and ask yourself if you are a “seagull manager/advisor?” In what the Fast Company article describes as, “Managers who fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and then fly out.”
If you’re not, is your direct supervisor or boss? If they are, have you talked to him/her about it?
I look forward to hearing some responses to one of the questions I asked. In the following days, i will be asking particular questions to some of our umbrella organizations (i.e. NPC, NPHC, NIC) so be on the lookout. They may be questions you've been wanting to ask but never have!
