What if your mundane is my remarkable?
Nov 17th, 2009 by David Svet
When was the last time you looked around your organization as if you were new? Or better yet, brought in someone new to look around and tell you what they saw? You might be very surprised by the result. You may even find a missed opportunity to blow your own horn.
I got to participate in a Habitat for Humanity build last weekend. I volunteer with the Heartland Habitat for Humanity chapter in Kansas City with my church several times a year. I love doing this. I am a hack carpenter and self professed tool geek.
In the past my experiences have been pretty varied depending on the person from Habitat who is leading the volunteers that day. Sometimes we get someone who is amazing and sometimes we get someone who needs a whole lot of help. I kept coming back because it gave me (and my wife) an excuse for my having so many tools. Good tools were always in very short supply or non-existent and I have plenty.
But this time was different — a lot different. This time we had Amazing Dave as our leader. Amazing Dave had 25 years of experience as a residential contractor. He had the personality of a camp counselor. But more importantly, Amazing Dave had the amazing Habitat for Humanity van. It looked like an explosion of DeWalt and PorterCable tools! Battery chargers were built into racks on the van walls. There were nail guns, compressors, table saws, power shears, routers, hammer drills, you name it and the amazing van had at least 4 of them. This was NOT the Habitat for Humanity experience that I knew. This was amazing — and wildly productive. Our crew did more in that one day than I did on any 2 or 3 days in my previous experiences. And we had fun. Amazing Dave made sure of it. When I gushed to Amazing Dave about the changes, he looked at me puzzled and said, “This is how I’ve done it for the 7 months I’ve been here.”
So, what’s wrong with this picture? I’m an avid volunteer and total fan boy of Habitat. They made a whole bunch of changes for the better and the only way I found out was to show up on my own. This is a missed marketing opportunity.
Take a look around your organization. Are you doing something now that’s different from what you were doing last year? If so, did you tell anyone? If not, get busy!
Photo by Joe Mabel
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Awesome post Dave (love Habitat)!
My mini recorder and digital camera are on me at all times and I recommend the same for all the organizations I work with. When you’re on the inside and scrambling from one crisis to another, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s new and cool!
Another recommendation - switch spots for an hour or two. Answer the phones at your organization, spend some time in the trenches.
Thanks for the reminder.
That’s a great idea Pamela! Sometimes just showing someone a picture of what they see daily will jolt them into reality. Kind of like when I look in a mirror and am surprised by the old, fat, bald guy staring back!