Pandemic and Economic Recovery: Hope and Opportunity

Institute for Organization Management faculty member Bob Harris, CAE led a webinar based on the title of this blog and started with flexibility - your leadership and your staff.

It was a very positive message, it’s our time to share!  It’s our opportunity to show the value of your chamber to your members, non-members and the public in your community.

 

And part of that positive message is talking about an economic recovery not just Covid-19.  He went on to lay out some best practices for your chamber.

 

Communications:

  • Have a single spokesperson for your chamber throughout this process to have a consistent message;
  • Now is the time for that elevator speech (and it should be tight); and
  • Track and share good deeds.

Bob stressed you need to continue to recruit new memberships on the work you are doing.  Do you have an ROI Dues Value Calculator?  If so, now is the time to publicize it.  Do not stop sending those invoices.  If you’re out of business, you won’t be useful to anyone.  And a thought I’ll throw out there, have you thought about a GoFundMe site?

 

Board Governance

  • Extend terms if needed;
  • Now is the time to empower your executive committee in these times of possibly having trouble in getting a quorum at a full board meeting; and
  • Reduce meeting agendas and make sure you are using the consent calendar to your advantage.

He went on to talk about pausing your long-term plan and pivot to creating a recovery plan for the next three to six months.  Make it specific on how you’re going to help your members get back in the game.

 

You might want to set-up some short-term task forces to deal with specific issues and not worry about your standing committees at this time.  And remember, these task forces go away in the near future!

 

And he ended with:

  • Now is the time for advocacy to champion the interests of your members;
  • Repurpose your events - in-person to online programming; and
  • Work with your sponsors to find value for them and keep them involved in your organization.  Always keep your lines of communication open.

 Good luck!

Communicating and Collaborating in the Remote Work World

This blog post is based on a recent webinar I attended with Carol Vernon and Carol Hamilton from Communications Matter.

Building Trust - your members want to hear from you, we are the conveners to collaborate - show value to your members.

And don't forget to use one-on-one communications to ask your members how they are doing (i.e. phone calls).

Communication is the foundation for effective collaboration - who are your key stakeholders that you need to keep these lines of communication open?  Obviously, you need to keep in touch with all your members.

Don't oversell but do show up consistently for your members!

Think strategically when communicating with your external stakeholders - they identified 3 key best practices.  And don't be afraid to ask them how they want to communicate with your chamber.

1. Create a remote communications document based on:

  • What do they already know, and what resources do they already have?
  • What do they want from your chamber?
  • What do you want them to know, what do you need them to know?

2. Communicate with empathy, support and resiliency:

  • And listen to your members, ask how you can help, and deliver on that ask if you can.

3. Fine-tune your voice for remote communications:

  • How people interpret what you say in person - body language 55%, vocal 38%, words 7%.
  • What is the key for remote communications?  Listening is the key!

They went on to remind us of some best practices when conducting online meetings.

Effective Online Meeting Tips

  • Your virtual meetings should have a facilitator, chat monitor and tech support.  Match your tech tools with the speaker and participant skill sets.

During your online meeting:

  • Start by a soft opening to let people get comfortable, (i.e. ask a quick question, tell folks to mute their audio, etc.).
  • Create a visual focal point; and
  • Signal your turns - you want people to stay with you, especially online.

For resources on virtual meeting platforms go HERE.

They ended with a recommendation for a great read - Can You Hear Me, by Nick Morgan.