Organizations Don't Change, People Change- Day 3

Day Three

While I am super upset that NGLA is over I am excited to reflect on the second day of this conference. It is crazy to think that over a time span of two days I have learned so much. This morning started with a short line at Starbucks and a great caramel macchiato. When we sat down at the keynote speaker, Rick Barns, this morning I wasn’t really sure what to think, but I learned so much about how to handle certain risk management problems!

After the keynote I went to my first session. This session was titled Inspire Integrity. The speaker was able to explain to the group that if you don’t live your values your motto is truly just a bunch of words on a piece of paper. This stood out to me because if we don’t work to become better members of our organization than nothing will improve. If you are totally enjoying what you’re doing than your quality of life will definitely be better. A quote the speaker said was that there are no shortcuts on any path worth taking. Whether it is getting your dream job or just getting a good grade on a test there is truly no reason not to try hard, because when you think about it every ounce of effort we put into something will have a positive reflection on who we are as individuals and chapter.

The next session I went to was called Six Steps to a Chapter Enema. This session was all about how to motivate your chapter and to get rid of any problems. The six steps to a chapter enema are to build a coalition, tighten the language, review performance, enforce penalties, raise the stakes, and recruit new blood. The steps are extremely important when trying to change something in a chapter because just by forming a coalition you have the ability to change anything you may want to change. With just one person you can affect an entire chapter.

After these two sessions I was able to enjoy an affiliation lunch with my sisters of Delta Phi Epsilon from other schools. This was awesome because we had four tables and I was able to talk to other chapter presidents and leadership teams. I also got a chance to meet with my membership manager and discuss things about my chapter. This was an awesome opportunity because I was able to talk to her face to face rather than via email or phone.

After lunch I went to a couple more sessions, one being about alternative breaks for members of Greek life. Since coming back from Belize I thought it was awesome to hear about another school that also does Greek Life Alternative Break trips. I enjoyed this session a lot because it was interactive and I was able to hear all different perspectives on different school’s alternative break programs.

At the end of the day we got to back to our group sessions where we talked about how to bring back everything we learned to our chapters. We analyzed a quote that states, “Organizations Don’t Change, People Change” An important idea to take from this quote is that we have values that have been set for 96 years, while these have not changed the people behind in the organizations have. Our main focus should be to recruit people with the values that our founders have set for us. As leaders we should be setting an example for the rest of the chapter. Since people lead by example it is important for us to act as the role models for our chapter. Also an important thing to remember is DWYSYWD, which stands for Do what you said you would do. I think that often times as leaders we have a hard time saying no to a task but the next time you are asked about something you truly don’t want to do you should remember that it is okay to say no. You won’t be penalized for it and it will give another member of your chapter a chance to have a job to do. When I go back to my chapter after this weekend I know that I will try to delegate more and try not to take on as many things, because if you have too much to do you won’t be able to do anything to your fullest potential.

The last part of our day was the banquet dinner. At the dinner two members of our delegation one awards which was awesome! Congrats to Jesslyn and Phi Sigma Sigma & Gamma Phi Beta! After today I cannot wait to go back and tell my chapter about all of the amazing things I learned this weekend.

“ At the end of the day will you have said more than you’ve done or done more than you say? ”

Caroline