Out of the Blue

I'm sure it's happened to you. You come to work, seat yourself, fire up your computer, become momentarily stunned by the screen full of unread messages, steel yourself for the long slog, then wham! Out of the blue, you get a phone call.

If you have taken FiSH training with Triangle Leadership Academy, you know what to do. The person on the other end of that phone line becomes your total focus as the rest of the world recedes.  That person is a customer. You are already excited about someone whose day you are about to make. You are ready to catch the potential and release the energy. You smile first then pick up the receiver.

If I had nothing of significance to report this evening before I answered that telephone call this morning, I certainly found then exactly what I needed to share now. My out-of-the-blue moment came when a voice on the other end of the line said,

"Hello, Dr. Bingham. This is Mary May from Stanford Middle School in Orange County. You probably don't remember me but I took Facilitative Leadership with you a little over a year ago. I remembered that you were once a band director and I have a problem that relates both to that and an upcoming meeting that I need some help with."

"Mary, of course I remember you. How have you been?" I said. I honestly did remember Mary and when she started to relate how she had been using the FL tools in her role as President of the North Carolina Bandmasters Association, I realized that my impression of her as an extraordinarily intelligent professional had not been in error.  After some small talk, she drilled down on her problem.

It seems that since my trading the band room for the principal's office nearly 25 years ago, some things have not changed. Apparently, the instrument used by band contest adjudicators remains imperfect and of minimal value in helping new and struggling band teachers convey to their students what really matters in quality performance. Yet some directors have been rewarded by the imperfect system through high ratings at the annual contest. Guess who is opposed to change?

"How can I get all the directors to understand that we need to adopt an adjudication instrument that serves both directors and students well? Mary asked.

Can you see yourself in Mary's shoes? If you substitute "directors" for your employees or stakeholders and "adjudication instrument" for the thing standing between you and success, you will relate instantly. How indeed do you get people to change? At that moment, I was wishing Mary had also engaged in one or more of our VitalSmarts offerings, for example, Influencer training.

Without going into further detail, I assured Mary that she had tools sufficient for the task, asked her a series of questions to surface what she already knew, and offered to review an agenda she was planning for her next meeting. I think she felt better. I know I did.

This experience affirmed in a single setting the value of our work, you and me, in this thing called Triangle Leadership Academy. I have heard from many "Marys" in the last six years, and I am grateful to have been in a position to help them all.

What downstream impact on teachers not in training and families and students of those teachers remains uncertain. What we do know is that since becoming a regional leadership development consultancy, we have enjoyed 15-20 thousand customer touches. Donna is still crunching the numbers. Some days, it's good enough just to know that, out of the blue, Mary called.