Take-Aways from Fireside Chat #2
Hello, fellow nonprofiteers. Does it seem like the sky is getting a little bluer, and the winds a little warmer, and the sun a little brighter? Is that spring, or is it the promise of something better coming through vaccination? Either way, I’ll take the lightening of the spirit that I’m feeling right now.
So, a few weeks ago we had our second Fireside Chat. In our ongoing theme of Nonprofit (Something) in Times of Change, this one focused on Communication. We had about 9 people in the room chatting with us, ranging from an executive director to a consultant to a communications director for a government agency and more. As we talked about questions that have come up about how we communicate with each other in this time of hyper-isolation, here are the themes I heard from the group.
The first thing we did was a once-around, asking what people had seen as a major change in communication. As I am sure you expect, the conversation was around the use of tools like Zoom that now dominate our methods of communication. Some good things and some bad things.
On the good side, there is a sense of being more connected to a broader base of people and that we have used this time to get comfortable with new ways of communicating. For example, people enjoyed not having to travel as much from one meeting to another and are engaging with more people than ever before. That was really the biggest benefit: networks are expanding through the use of online networking, which some people said they are finally getting to like. I said that I have started liking to teach online, something I used to try to avoid.
On the negative side, people felt a loss of non-business related communication. One person talked about the fact that they had so many business conversations by zoom that they had no more patience for it by the end of the day. The result is that communication with friends and family has dropped off. Others bemoaned the loss of informal conversation with people, like the chats you had at the coffee pot with co-workers, or the chitchat with other people who came early to the meeting.
It is probably no surprise that both the good and bad came from processes associated with virtual communication. The good news is that we are reaching more and different people than ever because we do not have to be in the same room, the same building, even in the same city to be able to see each other as we talk. One person in the chat called out the fact that they were seeing more young people engaged in their work, and that was really exciting.
But the bad news is that this has also caused a drop in just general communicating that is not about some specific topic. As the conversation went on, this came up a couple of other times and other ways. One was around how to create and hold the space to build and maintain your team. Some organizations I have spoken with outside the context of the Fireside Chat have talked about how silos have really hardened within their organization. People are off working in the own spaces, at their own time, and on their own. Even though they may be doing really good work, and are bridging the gap in service delivery caused by isolation, they are still on their own.
A similar thought was brought up in the Chat by one person who talked about how difficult it is to create a collective, shared experience using online tools. This person runs a program that is about youth, and the first portion of the day-long session is just that kind of collective experience that builds a sense of community among the participants. That, this person said, has proven to be impossible.
One person talked about their Exec who has tried to break this down by holding social events for the team. Of course, they are still online, but there is no agenda, and people are welcome to have an adult beverage if they want to. It is just a time for chatting and building camaraderie among the staff.
So, there we were, in our little boxes on the computer screen, nodding in commiseration with each other about how isolated we feel, and how much we understand what the other was saying about all the changes this pandemic and the reliance on virtual communication has wrought. Alack and Alas.
And then Penny spoke.
Penny said that she could understand what we were saying but could not quite buy into it. Penny said that really, this is only just a new form of communication and that it really isn’t that much different than anything else. Penny said that if you clearly define who you are and what you are after, it doesn’t really matter what method of communication you use. Penny said that we have to remember to be true to our core. Penny said to just keep it real.
So, by the end, as we did a last once around asking people what they had learned from our Fireside Chat, Penny’s words had sunk in and we had a new formula: Authenticity + Transparency = Resiliency.
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