Hear the February 2008 Webcast on “Growing Your Group”

The Organizational Structure Chart illustrates what should happen in campus organizational development. If campus organizations understand this organizational structure, it could help sustain organizations for longer periods of time. There are four reasons why each group should draw out their organizational structure:

1. Understand the relationships
2. Identify the power brokers
3. Identify the future leaders
4. See delegation paths

Some general guidelines for the Organizational Structure Chart:

If the organization is five people wide, the organization can expect 10 to 15 people to show up at their events or 2 or 3 times the amount of members. So width can determine the current power of the group.

Depth will determine longevity of the organization, so the goal for organizations should be to have greater depth than width. Organization leaders must organize their group in the below chart, placing the strongest members to the left to help determine who the future leaders will be. Members strength should be determined by how many people they recruit for the organization and how active they are in events. So the person on the left will be the strongest, recruiting the most and attending the most events, and the person on the right will be the weakest, not recruiting others and poor attendance at events.

For the example below, Kristan the organization leader for 2008 will look to her left to find the strongest member. Once she has determined who her strongest member is (Nicole- the member who has recruited the most members), she will work past the strongest member (Nicole) and bond with Nicole’s most successful recruit (Abby). Nicole, Kristan’s strongest member will be the group leader for 2009. However, Kristan wants to work past her strongest member towards those whom Nicole has recruited to tie them to the group. This gives those members a reason to stay with the group even once the individual who has recruited them has graduated and moved on. This cycle will repeat itself when Nicole becomes the new group leader in 2009.

How to Motivate People

1.) Be not afraid, take courage. The biggest weakness we have is discouragement. Give encouragement.
2.) Questions. The person who asks the questions is in control. Get people talking and get their attention. Ask questions about the person.
3.) Compliment. First state the compliment, second justify the compliment, third ask a question based on the compliment you just gave.
4.) Impute a virtue to the person that you want to see come out of them.
5.) Use the word “Because.” It persuades other people. “The reason I say that is because…”
6.) Realize that every person that you come into contact with is guarding their ego. You must disarm their guard.
7.) The feel, felt, found method. If someone says something that is not accurate, say that you understand how they feel, you’ve felt this way before, but this is what you’ve found.
8.) Understanding someone’s language of love: Gifts of Love, Time, Words of Praise, Acts of Service.
9.) Be a good listener. Listen for key words that the person uses. Listen to people to gain relationships.