I recently read one of, if not the best blog articles I have
read in awhile by Tim Mousseau found
here. I found it
enlightening, powerful and real.
It forced me to reflect on my time in Higher Education and
made me think about how we can truly change the landscape of the Fraternity and
Sorority world. I’m not talking small change. I’m talking truly disrupt the
landscape of how things are done. I’m talking, an impact similar to how Apple,
Uber, Airbnb and other companies disrupted their respective industry.
In no particular order, here are the ideas I came up with to
start the conversation:
1. Advertise
Nationally – As a Community
It’s time for the fraternal world to step into the advertising/marketing
game as a community. Why? Let’s face it; the perception of joining a Greek
organization on a national scale is damaged.
To change that perception, there needs to be a national
movement that is advertised to the world. A message that is heartfelt. A
message that illuminates the essence of what it means to be in a fraternity or
sorority. A message that people can relate to.
There is a reason national brands such as Coke, Starbucks
and Nike spend millions of dollars a year on advertising. They do it to keep
their product top-of-mind and to help impact the public’s perception of their
brand. The fraternal world has a great
product when done right and impacting the public’s perception wouldn’t hurt. So…
Why not advertise on a national scale? What’s the downside?
More bad publicity? If you say money, you’re missing the point. It’s time to
change the perception on a national level.
2. Hack Problems, Not
Talk About Problems
I went to more conferences, institutes and workshops than I
can count when I worked in Higher Ed. What did they all have in common? Each
one talked about problems. Sure, we need to discuss the problems and challenges
in the field, but what about solving those problems?
Put bluntly, you’ve we’ve made too many excuses when
it comes to solving problems. A few days at AFA, IFI, UIFI or insert ____
Academy/Institute etc. isn’t going to cut it. Some of you might say you don’t
have time. I truly empathize with the work Higher Ed. professionals do but
we’ve got to change that mindset. You have to MAKE time. Devote an hour each
day to trying to solve improve one problem.
We need to devote
substantial time to hacking the problems we have in the fraternal world.
Brainstorm innovative ways to reduce those problems. Here’s
an exercise I invite you to try…
Go to a white board and write down your number one problem
you’re facing in your community or for my National staff friends, at the
national level. Take five minutes and write down as many ideas as you can to
alleviate the problem. Don’t let any restriction (ie. Money, volunteers, hours,
University policy) hinder your ideas. Once you have that list, erase the board.
Erase the board? Yes, erase it. What you just did was list
the things that were expected. The ideas that felt comfortable. The ideas that,
when push came to shove, were vanilla.
Now, try again. Push yourself and your team to dig deeper. At
one point during the brainstorm, you should feel frustrated. That’s when you
know you’re pushing yourself to a level of thinking you haven’t done in
awhile.
Image if AFA’s Annual Meeting was no longer sessions focused
on talking about problems, but rather, sessions devoted to solving problems.
Instead of the Case Study competition for graduate students, introduce the new
“Hackathon” competition for any two-member AFA team to compete in that gives
the same fraternal issue for each team to solve improve. Winning team
gets $5000. Yes, $5000. Image the ideas. Image the possibility.
If we can devote that type of attention to our problems in
the fraternal world, I think we’d start to see more positive change.
3. Embrace the “Zooming
In” Philosophy
I recently read about a technique Steve Job’s used called
“zooming in.”
You can read about it
here. Zooming in can be
summarized by one word, “simplify.”
If you think about all the policies that have inundated the
fraternal world, its no wonder there is a number of issues. Heck, you can ask 8
different fraternity and sorority professionals their interpretation of the
FIPG policy and I bet you’d get 8 different answers.
Simply put, we need to “zoom in” on the most important
matters. How can we make things easier for our members? An analogy I like to
relate to this idea is with an Apple iPhone. I think the fraternal world is an
iPhone 4 when the world (and our students) is the iPhone 6.
The profession needs to become faster, more efficient and better
at simplifying the process. The “process” could be University policy, National
policy, FIPG policy, dues payment methods, accreditation packets, etc.
What’s one process that you can think of off the top of your
head that makes you think, “This is just ridiculous!” Start there and zoom in
using the brainstorming method I mentioned above. Need an example, check out how one national brand's employee handbook is boiled down to
one rule. ONE RULE. It can be done.
If the fraternal profession did more zooming in,
I think we’d start to see a reduction in many of the issues faced today.
What do you think? What ideas do you have to disrupt the fraternal world?
