[Note: At the end of this blog we announce an important upcoming webinar series for sororities!]
[Another Note: We've written a highly-read blog on this topic before here. Read it and share these with your sisters.]
by KJ McNamara
Panhellenic Councils across North America are all trying to answer the question: How do we teach sororities to do values-based sorority recruitment?
This has been our goal for years as sorority women; creating a recruitment system that helps our chapters find women who value the same things as our members, and helping our Potential New Members select chapters based on their character.
At Phired Up we have always said the key to values-based sorority recruitment lies in 4 necessary ingredients. Those 4 things are: the Criteria we use to select our new members, the Behaviors we demonstrate during recruitment, the Conversations we initiate during the recruitment process and finally, the Expectations we communicate to PNMs during recruitment. Lets break these down a little bit…
Criteria: How do we currently select our members? How are we helping our PNM’s make their selection? Are these based on values? How can we create a selection criteria that is not an emotional reaction for each individual but rather something that is a little more systematic?
Behavior: What does our current behavior communicate about what we value? What do our values communicate about how we should behave? Our behaviors should speak so loudly about what we value that we should never have to tell a PNM what we value or put it on our name tags or t-shirts. Every PNM should walk out of our recruitment events and be able to tell you what we value.
Conversation: Each of our sororities is a lifelong commitment… which means that we need to have a serious conversation with each of our Potential New Members about how important our sorority is, how it has shaped us, and why our sorority matters. But so often in recruitment I hear women say, “that was the best conversation ever, we did not talk about the sorority once, we talked about our guilty pleasure fast food restaurants.” Are we preparing our members to have serious meaningful conversations with PNM’s during recruitment? Are we preparing our PNM’s to ask meaningful conversations during recruitment?
Expectations: Are we accurately portraying our membership expectations during recruitment? Are we holding PNM’s up to the expectations we have as Panhellenic Councils? The information we communicate during our first interaction with PNM’s will be what they remember and understand to be true about our organizations. Sororities are the most prestigious women’s organizations on any given campus… are we communicating that during recruitment?
As a Panhellenic, these 4 things are a place to start. If you want to help your chapters incorporate values into their formal recruitment preparation… this is the common ground to start from. Remember to take small steps. You cannot transform into a values-based recruitment chapter/community over night, but maybe consider a 3-year plan with changes you hope to make each year. If you want help thinking about what to incorporate values-based recruitment each year give me a call!
If you want more information about Values-Based Sorority Recruitment we are hosting a series of three webinars for Panhellenics everywhere starting in April! Here are the questions we will answer and the information we will cover (CLICK HERE TO REGISTER):
Week 1: What is Values Based Sorority Recruitment? Why did it start? What does it mean? How do we achieve it?
Week 2: Criteria & Conversations. How do we create a selection Criteria as a sorority Chapter? How do we help our PNM’s create a valuable criteria for picking a chapter? What types of conversation workshops could we host? What types questions can PNM’s ask to conjure up meaningful conversations?
Week 3: Behaviors & Expectations. What changes do we need to make to our behaviors? How can we better communicate through our behaviors? How can we attract quality members while communicating our high expectations? How can we hold all women in the recruitment process up to our expectations?
by Matt Mattson
I sometimes find myself stuck. Do you ever feel that way? You look at your organization, you look at your role in the organization, and just feel stuck. What do you do next? How do you push forward? How do you improve? How do you lead?
Then I remember, "Oh yeah, dummy, the SYSTEM holds the answer." It’s weird, but true. Every time I wonder what I should do next to push the organization/group/company forward, I remember that between Social Excellence and Dynamic Recruitment , the answer is there. The system works if I choose to work the system.
See, we’re all a part of membership organizations, and membership organizations are made of… (wait for it)… MEMBERS. Therefore the quality of your organization (and everything it does) is determined by the quality of its members. Want to get better? Want to advance your cause? Want to make a difference? Want to truly lead? – Start with the core ingredients of your group — people and purpose. Bring in more of the right people, who will focus on the group’s purpose, to make a larger higher quality impact.
For me, when I get stuck, I go back to doing the Dynamic Recruitment system while living Social Excellence — it lays out my answer for me. If I do the Dynamic Recruitment system while living Social Excellence, I’m doing my job, I’m leading, I’m doing results-producing work, I’m making a difference.
For example… something I’m really proud of is that we have built our company to be very successful by doing the Dynamic Recruitment system and trying our best to live a Socially Excellent life — that’s been our whole business plan. Cool, right?
Here is a snapshot at some of the core principles of Dynamic Recruitment, if you’re not familiar…
People Join People. All organizational members can point to the one person who is responsible for bringing them into the organization. Relationships, interpersonal comfort, and shared personal connections are the determining factors that can influence a person to invest their time, resources, energy, reputation, and money into the organization. Slogans, T-shirts, banners, advertising, and events have very little impact when it comes to convincing the best of the best people to join an organization. People join people. Organizational recruitment is about relationships.
Quantity Drives Quality. This simple statement reflects the core of Phired Up’s recruitment philosophy. In other words, because you can’t recruit who you don’t know, the larger an organization’s social network, the larger its potential. The larger an organization’s network, the more people it has a chance to recruit. The larger an organization’s network, the more people it also has a chance to select from – thus increasing the probability for higher quality members. Everything starts with an organization having specific, practical, detailed guidance on how to grow its network of “friends of the group.” Phired Up teaches specific, practical, proven (in some instances scripted) techniques to grow an organization’s network through authentic relationship building.
Interpersonal Skills Development. Handshakes, powerful conversations, listening skills, remembering names, first impressions, body language, approaching new people and groups, eye contact, getting contact information, powerful questions, authenticity, vulnerability, and confidence. Phired Up’s recruitment system is about personal connections and today’s young adults (especially) need practical, experiential, detailed guidance on all of these “skills.” Dynamic Recruitment depends on members’ abilities to adopt a sense of interpersonal excellence within their social interactions. To learn more about Phired Up’s Social Excellence message, click here .
Product Knowledge. When a prospective member wants to learn more about the organization, every member should be prepared with not only the features and benefits of membership, but also powerful personal stories and insightful questions to help potential members emotionally connect to the organization. In Dynamic Recruitment, “knowing your product” is about having the ability to help others realize how the group could dramatically change their life for the better.
Behaviors of the Best. Phired Up teaches specific behaviors of high performing networkers, salespeople, statesmen, and recruiters. These are every day patterns of behavior that provide access to a larger pool of people to interact with than most organizational members have. Some of the core messages of the “Behaviors of the Best” include: You have to give to get (how to get contact information and how to get access to others by providing something of value to them). Ask the rest to find the best (how to engage everyone around you to identify high caliber prospective members). Follow-up or fail and Eat a bunch of lunch (how to build relationships through small activities not big events). Make ‘em prove it (using a Values-Based Selection Process). Give the gift (re-framing recruitment to be about sharing the gift of membership with deserving others instead of trying to “get people to join”).
Audience Understanding. Often members struggle with a lack of perspective. No matter the organization, often members only think of a small pool of people as potential members, when the actual pool is always many times larger. Many fraternity/sorority members in particular believe their recruitment potential is limited to the people who participate in “rush” or "formal recruitment." Phired Up’s curriculum helps expand the context of organizational leaders to understand the actual recruitment potential for their organization. Having a greater understanding of how big the organization’s prospective audience is, where they are, and what they’re looking for results in “ah-ha” moments for most participants.
Names List. With a new understanding of their true audience, and with a firm grounding in the principles of: You can’t recruit who you don’t know. People don’t join organizations, people join people. And Quantity Drives Quality. It then becomes obvious that for an organization to reach its full potential, it cannot depend only on the people that its members currently have a relationship with – it must build a larger network. To manage that network and to keep track of its members’ progress as they bring their acquaintances through the recruitment process, an organization that practices Dynamic Recruitment uses a Names List. A Names List is a dynamic, living, continually updated database that measures the amount of and the quality of relationships with potential members that are being built by the chapter. This is not just a list of people the group is wishing would join the chapter – this is a list of the chapter’s entire network because Quantity Drives Quality.
Values-Based Selection. As an organization increases its network through positive, proactive, social interactions, it has the opportunity to be more selective. Once the opportunity for increased selectivity is achieved, the organization must then select members not based on whether they’re a “good guy,” or "a sweet girl," but on measurable, objective standards that match up to the core values of the organization. Each organization that practices Dynamic Recruitment builds a written set of membership selection criteria to ensure only the highest quality people are invited to join. This is a key to true values-based recruitment.
Horses vs. Mules. The old 80/20 principle holds true in nearly every organization we’ve ever worked with. For most groups, about 80% of the results are produced by about 20% of the members. That small handful of “workhorses” can choose to try to motivate their unmotivated members (a.k.a. “mules”) to participate in recruitment, or they could just gather the horses and get to work. After all, horses recruit horses, and mules recruit mules. When faced with a lack of motivation or apathetic members with regard to recruitment, don’t ask “How do I motivate my members to recruit?” Instead ask, “How do I recruit with my motivated members?”
by Matt Mattson
For decades the leaders of the fraternity/sorority community have implored chapters to engage in something called “Values-Based Recruitment.” But what is it? How do you know if your chapter is doing it?
Good questions. Let’s first say this. Dynamic Recruitment (Phired Up’s philosophy) IS Values-Based Recruitment. You can’t do Dynamic Recruitment without Values-Based Recruitment. However, Dynamic Recruitment is more than just Values-Based Recruitment. So there, that’s clear (If you want to learn about Dynamic Recruitment, check out our website, services, products and free resources at www.PhiredUp.com).
*One other note: Some fraternal organizations have actually named their internal training and educational programs “Values-Based Recruitment” (see Sigma Nu. Also, Sigma Kappa has a good resource similarly named). This blog is more general, however — for all fraternities & sororities.
Now, how do you know if your chapter is doing Values-Based Recruitment. We would suggest that your chapter must do all of the following in order to be a Values-Based Recruiting chapter. If you have more ideas, share them with us via Facebook or Twitter.
1. Use a Values-Based Selection Criteria. This might be the most important requirement. If you’re not using objective, values-based criteria for membership selection, then you’re choosing members for your chapter based on something other than values. Plain and simple. Start here. Here’s a sample for fraternities and sororities.
2. Choose recruitment activities and behaviors that reflect the core values of your organization. If your ritual asks you to raise your right hand and promise to be honorable, charitable, truthful, noble, friendly, pure, scholarly, etc. — recruit in ways that directly reflect those characteristics. If your recruitment strategy can’t be described by any of the words in your organization’s ritual or mission, then you’re not doing Values-Based Recruitment.
3. Engage in conversations with potential members that include topics related to your core values. If, in order for someone to meet the standards of your Values-Based Selection Criteria, you need to know if they’re honorable — engage in conversation topics that unearth that information. If your conversations are surface-level, shallow, boring, or without intention, there is a good chance you’re not doing Values-Based Recruitment.
4. Prior to bid acceptance, ask potential members for full commitment to the chapter’s values, mission, code of conduct, and requirements. Something like “The Two Handshakes” might do the trick. Or perhaps a written “contract” of sorts so that there is no confusion. Something we’ve learned while interviewing former members of fraternities and sororities is that they often quit because the actual experience of membership is different than what they thought it would be while they were being recruited.
Of course, all of this requires a) you to know your organization’s core values, b) your chapter members to know your organization’s core values, c) your chapter to consistently behave in accordance with your organization’s core values, and d) you to know how to TALK ABOUT your organization’s core values.
In Good Guys and I Heart Recruitment, we wrote about “ACE”ing your values — this is very closely related to “Values-Based Recruitment,” so you might want to check that out too. Values-Based Recruitment starts with you choosing to personally achieve, communicate and expect your organization’s values to be exemplified by yourself and your members at all times. That’s a great place for you to get started.
by Matt Mattson
Want to know the top secret tactic to get people to join your group? Want to know how to really trick someone into agreeing to membership in your organization? Want to know the evil technique we teach the best recruiters?
Here it is…
Care.
Actually care about people when you talk to them.
Really be interested in them. Learn from them. Be concerned about them. Be really, genuinely kind to them.
Care about people because it is the kind, values-based, human thing to do (not so you can recruit them).
Care.
That’ll trick ‘em for sure.
People join people. There are no magic word-packages, no perfectly manipulating interview questions, no cheerful door chants, no excellent house tours, no skits, no t-shirts, no put-the-pretty-girls-in-front tactics, no awesome events, no catchy slogans, no professional branding campaigns, no cons, and no ruses that work. People join people. And they’re much more likely to join people that actually care about them than otherwise.
So try it out this semester. Let us know if it works.
by Matt Mattson
If you raised your standards for membership this fall — significantly — what would happen?
What if you only allowed students with a 3.75 GPA or better to be considered for membership? Would there be fewer people interested? Or more? Would there be more smart people interested?
If you had a detailed,Values-Based Selection Process, that made your organization significantly more selective, how would that impact your fall new member class?
Like attracts like. High quality people are attracted to high quality organizations. If you only have to be mediocre to get into your group, then it is likely that mostly mediocre people will want to join. If you have be be excellent, then excellent people will suddenly start to show interest.
by Matt Mattson
About this time of year a lot of fraternity/sorority members are getting concerned about not only getting a high quantity of members, but more importantly… high QUALITY members. Of course we at Phired Up believe that you don’t have to choose one or the other. There are a LOT of students on your campus that are both very high quality and that would be interested in your organization if your recruited them in the right way. But let’s focus on quality for a moment.
There are three factors in recruitment that directly impact the quality of your new member class.
1. Quantity Drives Quality. Fraternities and sororities are membership organizations. Membership organizations are made of… MEMBERS. Therefore the quality of your organization is directly correlated to the quality of its members. The best way to determine the quality of an organization is to look at how selective they are. Harvard rejects over 93% of its applicants. The community college down the road accepts 100% of its applicants. Both are valuable institutions, but it isn’t hard to argue that Harvard, the more selective of the two, provides a higher QUALITY educational experience.
The first factor impacting the QUALITY of your members has to do with how selective you can be. If you choose 20 new members out of 40 relationships, not bad. If you choose 20 new members out of 400 relationships, you’re measurably 10 times higher quality. The more people you have to choose from, the more selective you can be. Quantity Drives Quality.
2. To attract high quality people, do high quality things. This seems obvious, but is often ignored. This time of year sees many Greek organizations hosting events… many of those events look just like the events every other group on campus is hosting. And hardly any of those events are surprising, impressive, outstanding, remarkable, or even slightly interesting. Josh Orendi always says that if all you do for recruitment is barbecues and poker nights, you’ll only recruit fat gamblers. He’s got it right… If you want to attract high quality people, do high quality things. Need some ideas? Try a diverse mix of small activities (fraternity ideas – sorority ideas) to recruit a diverse mix of high performers. Consider leaving the big top at home all together.
3. Values Based Selection Process. The third way to impact the quality of your membership this semester is to be certain to choose your members based on more than a gut feeling. Selecting members based on measurable, objective, pre-determined criteria is the most powerful way to ensure that you’re choosing only the best of the best for your group. Here is a blog about a Values-Based Selection Process. Here is another blog about the concept. Here is another blog, this one is about a research project we’re conducting in an attempt to refine membership selection processes even further.
So, be bold… choose only the highest quality members. These three focus areas will help guide you to ensuring only high quality people get invited to be your brothers or sisters this semester. Look for more than just “Good Guys” and “Nice Girls.” Push your chapter to only accept the highest caliber men and women to wear your letters.
by Matt Mattson
When is recruitment on your campus?
…wait …wait …wait for it… [DRAMATIC PAUSE]
O.K., how did you answer that question?
Did you give a list of dates? Did you say “the fall” or “the spring”? Did you start explaining your deferred/delayed recruitment process? Did you say it starts with when “online sign-up” opens? Did you explain the difference between formal recruitment and C.O.B./C.O.R.? Did you start searching for your calendar? Did you say, “Uh, I don’t know”? Did you start explaining the rules set up by “the university” or your Greek Council? Did you feel like you had to ask your chapter president or recruitment chair?
Did you say “Recruitment is 24/7/365″?
Did you say “Now”?
Did you realize that the question is sort of ridiculous to begin with?
If you agree with us that recruitment is NOT about convincing enough people to join your organization, but instead recruitment IS about giving the life-changing gift of your organizazition away to people who deserve it… then you probably think that the question, “WHEN IS RECRUITMENT?” is pretty ridiculuous.
If recruitment is about changing someone’s life for the better by giving them the gift of your organization, then recruitment should happen whenever that opportunity arises. Whenever you and your organization know someone well enough to know that a) they measurably, objectively, and demonstrably represent your organization’s values, and b) if you offer them membership, their life and your group will forever be changed for the better — whenever that happens, GIVE THE GIFT.
Don’t wait for the 1 week out of the year when you think it is allowed. Do it. Make it happen. Now.
The highest performing groups we work with are open to…
What is the “simple beauty of recruitment”?
It is simple: a person wants to join a values-based, cause-oriented group it believes in + a group wants a person to join them because they believe in him/her, and they believe that that person can help them make the world a better place through the power of the group.
It is beautiful: a person’s life is changed forever + a group receives the gifts that a unique new member has to offer.
Should anything stand in the way of that? Ever?
So, when is recruitment on your campus?
by Matt Mattson
I had a realization today that we’ve never shared this over the blog. Maybe we were trying to keep it a secret, but oh well… here it is (the pic in the blog is a general diagram, to see fraternity and sorority specific diagrams, see the links at bottom).
I also was thinking that many fraternity/sorority professionals may have only seen the first part of our message that we deliver from the main stage of our programs — this blog gives you a peek at the meat of our recruitment system which, when implemented, drives serious results.
Dynamic Recruitment for Fraternities and Sororities, as taught by Phired Up is about continual social excellence, networking, real relationship building, letting quantity drive quality, gathering horses and getting to work, bold purpose, lots of handshakes, providing value and living values, building a system that consistently drives a higher quantity of higher quality members into the organization, values-based membership selection, and deep respect for the people being recruited. The system looks like this (this is simplified for the sake of the blog)…
1. Build as many relationships with non-Greek students (your prospect pool) as possible using the 6 Cylinders (“5 Ways” for sororities), and put their information on a Names List.
2. Build meaningful relationships with those new friends that are now on your Names List by engaging them in Small Activities.
3. Once the chapter knows the potential members well enough, they choose which persons to give a bid to using an objective, measurable, values-based selection criteria.
4. A chapter never offers a bid before they “Pre-Close” the potential member to ensure all concerns are covered and the chapter gets 100% bid acceptance.
5. The potential members always say yes when asked in a way that respects their intelligence and respects the organization.
O.K., that’s about the quickest way I’ve ever described this revolutionary operating model for fraternities and sororities. A lot more goes into it, but that at least provides an overview for those curious about what our year-round, values-based, results-driving, Dynamic Recruitment System looks like. This is the system that is sweeping North America. This is the system that is revolutionizing fraternities, sororities, and other purpose-driving membership organizations. This is the system built by experienced recruiters. This is the system that gets results.
Attendees at our workshops’ advanced sessions receive a workbook with a template for building an action plan for long-term limitless recruitment possibility. To see what those look like, check these out.
Special Guest Post By Rula Andriessen, Extension Consultant, Alpha Gamma Delta
[Phired Up worked with Alpha Gamma Delta on a highly successful extension project at Arizona State University this semester. We asked Rula to share her thoughts on the experience. She chose to inspire others to "Be Brave Enough to Start the Spark." Thank you Rula!]
Somewhere, maybe acknowledged, and maybe not, there is a question in the hearts of fraternity/sorority undergraduates. It could be a question of personal value – their worth to their organization. It could be a question of their organization’s value and worth on campus. Maybe it’s uncertainty about a new member program. Maybe it’s doubt about proclamations of genuine friendship and the possibility for innovative thought.
Maybe their questions will go unspoken and unanswered. What would inspire them to reevaluate themselves and their organizations? What would start the spark?
I began this semester fresh off the road from a tiny private college, where I talked and read “I Heart Recruitment” constantly. I told the women I worked with to question their surroundings, and I believed in the power of a great question. I used the programs in the great pink book to make the powerful point that people join people, and that women should make a friend to gain a member.
I moved to the Valley of the Sun, Arizona State University, where an amazing friend wrenched the pink book out of my grasp with one hand, and with another swift movement, pushed me toward a group of strangers. “Go. Make friends,” was my instruction.
My initial experiences were, in a word, awful. I felt uncomfortable and horribly incompetent. How could I, a professional relationship builder, be socially unintelligent? I attended school out of state and made all new friends…I traveled abroad by myself…I lived out of my suitcase in a different stranger’s house every week for a year! Perhaps most uncomfortable was the idea that I had been running around the country shouting “Phired Up Recruitment” from the rooftops, only to find that my own capacity for it seemed pitiful.
What could I do to make this better? I could only continue talking and inquiring and smiling – I could only continue stepping out of my apartment every day with the words of a great consultant “phiring” around in my head – “How many lives will you affect today?”
The key word in this question is “you”. I began to regain my self confidence. I have something to offer. The Greek community needs the change I offer with my organization. Our organization needs the change we can make as a group at this university. What I’m offering will be a great opportunity for amazing women on this campus. What I’m offering may change their lives forever and will definitely bring them to friends they might never have met.
Maybe someone’s unspoken question will be answered. Maybe this Greek community will get a real idea of their unity. Maybe the extent of their true supportive fraternal spirit will be tested and revealed by this colonization. Our group may redefine the meaning of positive traditions and innovative changes. Maybe our group will help redefine fraternity and sorority organizations at the New American University, ASU.
Social interactions occur because people inherently need each other. Maybe we can’t know how wide open our world can be, or how beautifully needy we really are, until we’re brave enough to stand up, step out, speak up, and bring someone into our lives.
Real bravery can be as simple a pleasant one-liner: “Could I ask you a question?” And can lead something more amazing than you can imagine.
So, are you brave enough to start the spark?
Delta Xi Colony at Arizona State University used Values-Based Membership Recruitment to gather a group of thoughtful, interesting, innovative women as colony members of Alpha Gamma Delta. Intelligent question-asking and genuine human interest became the basis of the Leadership Consultant-led recruitment. The group looks forward to a May 1 installation and a dynamic future at the New American University, ASU.