Conversations to Listen To …
A familiar refrain in the song about embracing social media goes like this “it’s about listening.” David Alston of Radian6 gives us another verse in his presentation on "I Love Stories" captured over at the Conversation Agent blog. It’s 45 slides but skip to #30 to learn the ten conversations you need to listen for in social media. The one to focus in on is #1: The point of need. How can we as associations remain relevant if we don’t know the changing needs of our customer base? And, how can we grow if we don’t anticipate future needs?
David is obviously talking about social media conversations. I would suggest that these conversations are happening in many places around our associations in addition to the social media sphere. Take your components (you know chapters, communities of practice, councils, sections, SIGs) for example. These are natural places for your customers to gather and they do talk about their needs and about you. Are you listening?
Here are a few suggestions for being a more active listener …
- Have a town hall meeting featuring your chief staff and elected leadership at volunteer leadership conferences but make sure the leaders are doing the talking.
- Take your leadership conference on a road trip. IFMA alternates a national conference with regional conferences every other year.
- Read your chapter’s newsletters with an eye to what’s changing in their world. Read for the nuances like in PRSA Maryland’s latest newsletter we announced the merging of two signature events … what might a national office read from that?
- Invite staff who don’t work with components to attend a group's meeting. Ask them to share what they heard – it’ll be through fresh eyes and ears.
- Get out and visit your chapters. The caveat is that this road trip isn’t to pitch the association and your latest “opportunity” for them to help you, but to do a listening tour.
- Pay attention to how long it takes your volunteers to respond to a personal email from you and how they respond. Look for trends in response time, length and content.
- Ask an outside, objective third party to conduct a series of confidential phone interviews with component leaders. Ask for a summary of topics, key words, and attitudes.
- Have members evaluate their components for you – send a simple annual survey.
Always in search of ideas.
I don't think a national or international organization can truly serve its members without doing all of the things you're suggesting. In many organizations, the chapters are where strong bonds are happening--where people are getting invested and pulled into the circle. Where people have similar needs and similar challenges. For the national org to serve its purpose of bridging its many smaller communities together, you need to understand those smaller communities--deeply.
There is no magic formula for listening. I'd argue that it should be everyone's responsibility, because everyone listens differently. I heard a really interesting idea from Carie Lewis at the Humane Society -- their communications team has a daily briefing at Noon (9 minutes long, if I remember correctly) where they talk about what they've been hearing and the issues they need to address. I think that could be a great model for associations who are actively listening at all levels.
Great points Peggy. I certainly remember my mother telling me that "being a good listener" would take you further in life. So true it is in business as well. I also love Stephen Covey's habits, in particular the one that goes like "seek first to understand, then to be understood." We can learn so much about what we need to do to help people just by listening to (and understanding) what their needs are. Sounds pretty simple but it's amazing how we all tend to slip away from this.
I'll be listening for the discussion that comes out of your post :)
Cheers.
@davidalston
Radian6
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