Week 2:Fostering Change

An experience involving social change that I was a part of was the formalizing of recruitment during rush week this year.  Traditionally the fraternities on Ohio State’s campus do not cooperate with one another during rush and as a result we make it harder on ourselves to recruit.  During the fall quarter IFC focused on a collaborative recruitment effort to aid us; this included having a master schedule of rush events, IFC booklets being distributed to every freshman on the first day of winter quarter, open houses on the same days, etc.  The main thing that stood out compared to the past was the fact that many of the fraternities were now working with one another instead of against one another.  At first I was very pessimistic about the idea, thinking that all this would accomplish is having everyone draw from the same pool of freshman.  Essentially this is what happened, however, the pool was much larger than in years past and had more quality PNM’s because we were working together on the issue.  This made me feel like the IFC was helping to change the Greek community’s image and helping to relieve some of the negative feelings between chapters since working cooperatively ended up benefiting everyone.  This experience taught me that by working with the other chapters we could grow the Greek community much more effectively than if each Chapter attempts to go out and do its own thing.  It can be difficult to put our differences aside, but if we suck it up we really can accomplish more.

I approach change very cautiously and normally analyze the prospective change apprehensively—not because I oppose change, but because when moving from the status quo I want to be sure that the change will take us in the right direction and will do so in the most effective way possible.  Change is most effective when: there is a sense of urgency surrounding it, there is a group that is collectively behind the change, an ultimate goal and strategy to reach it are in place, the group feels like the change they want is attainable, check-points along the way are established to monitor progress, and when these checkpoints are reached they compound on one another to create momentum.  To manage change and help others manage change I think tangible goals must be established.  Being vague in language leaves too much up in the air and as a result it becomes very easy to get sidetracked.  By illustrating the actual accomplishments that can be reached through change it becomes much easier to create buy-in for the project and shows that progress is being made.  If you cannot generate buy-in still, then seeking out the advice of resistors may help.  This will help redefine the change in their mind from being your project to our project.  They are much more likely to help you if you listen to their goals and have them invest in the project rather than having them fall in behind your ideas.