Dear Sigma Alpha Lambda Members:
We are pleased to announce the opening of the application period for the University of Maryland Baltimore County Chapter officer positions for the 2013-2014 academic year.
Serving as an officer provides a number of benefits including:
Personal growth and development of leadership skills including organization, communication, and management as you assist in planning and participating in various chapter activities.
Enhanced networking as you meet and work alongside other campus and community organization leaders.
Strong friendships with other SAL officers that extend beyond just the university setting.
Specialized career and personal references for those who have developed individual relationships with SAL National Office staff members.
Exclusive leadership lapel pin and press release.
Exclusive Chapter Officer Scholarship & Award Opportunities ranging up to $500.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL CURRENT OFFICERS MUST RE-APPLY IF THEY WISH TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO REMAIN IN THEIR CURRENT POSITION.
Each chapter operates through a combination of officers and committees and, as a result, specific responsibilities of each officer and committee can be unique from chapter to chapter as each Chapter Leadership Team adjusts to the mix of experience and skills available within the team.
You can see a general description of the officer roles at the following link:
http://salhonors.org/membership/officer-positions/
As you can see from the officer descriptions, some positions are elected and some are appointed. In the case of multiple candidates for an elected position, elections will be held. In the case of multiple positions for an appointed position, the appointed candidate is determined through a phone and email interview process. Chapter representatives from the National Office will work with the officers from each chapter to facilitate the appointment/election process once all applications have been received and the application period is closed.
If you are interested in applying for a leadership position, the deadline for applications for the University of Maryland Baltimore County Chapter is February 20, 2013. To apply for a position, please click on the following link:
http://salhonors.org/prospectiveleadership/
If you have any questions, please contact me at cwofford@salhonors.org. I will be happy to discuss this with you further.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing your application.
Catherine Wofford
cwofford@salhonors.org
Sigma Alpha Lambda
A national leadership and honors organization dedicated to developing the individual and serving our campus and our community.
Transitioning vision into reality for a new business, a new model, or simply an internal process may require pushing well beyond the status quo.
Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman (who also co-founded Hipmunk and is a 2011 Inc. 30 Under 30 honoree) is teaching a Udacity online course on Web application engineering. In one of the instructional videos, Huffman reveals that many of Reddit's "users" in the early months were actually fake accounts, created by the founders.
Huffman goes on to say that these fake users were critical to building Reddit:
Within a few months, the site had gained enough momentum and a strong enough sense of community that the authors no longer needed to post articles under fake accounts.
Smoke and MirrorsIn the video, Huffman talks of willing Reddit into existence. An entrepreneur must have a vision of a better world he or she can create, but vision alone is not enough. He or she must also make his or her vision real and powerful to potential customers and investors. Otherwise, he or she will never gain the resources and momentum he or she requires to be successful.
In this context, a "smoke and mirrors" approach can sometimes be critical to willing a business model into existence. The forces of skepticism and inertia can be strong among investors and potential customers. To combat those forces, we need to create a compelling vision of the future and make it seem more real and inevitable than the status quo:
Important Note: By "Smoke and Mirrors," we are not suggesting entrepreneurs do anything unethical or illegal. As you will see in the example below, we are talking about ethical actions to gain traction in building a new business model. In the Reddit example above, our view is that the founders' actions were not misleading to their early customers, nor unethical.
Willing a New Model Into ExistenceIn one recent engagement, we convinced a client that it needed to guarantee its customers 24-hour turnaround on purchase requests. This was vital to addressing a major reason for customer dissatisfaction and moving to a higher spot on customers' approved vendor list.
However, we also needed to convince the client that 24-hour turnaround was achievable, when the status quo for most requests was 72 hours. To do so, we launched a pilot program to address key bottlenecks and resource gaps. For a select set of customers, we simplified the entire process, from the level of information needed to fulfill the request to the level of judgment and process needed to approve or deny the request. The pilot results were very positive; customers were happier with a quick denial than with a drawn-out, back-and-forth approval.
Not bad for a model that we created out of thin air.
We then made 24-hour turnarounds inevitable, through the simple technique of "burning our boats behind us." We moved employees from their current teams to new "SWAT" teams and built into those individuals' performance goals and incentives a significant bias toward quick decisions. We gave them no choice but to make decisions quickly.
We also placed the SWAT teams in charge of the entire purchase request process and helped them revamp it so that they could make good decisions quickly. We allowed them to have an above-average "reject rate," because we did not want them to make bad approvals (whereas we were fine with an overly restrictive approval process and high reject rates).
Along the way, we encountered all manner of doubt and inertia. We boiled our vision down to its essence and communicated it at every opportunity. When told "it can't be done," we responded (politely, of course!), "It must be done, and here's why. Either get on board or get out of our way." Where necessary, we borrowed or appropriated folks, taking them away from their day jobs (or simply redefining what their "day job" actually was) and asking for forgiveness instead of permission.
With the successful pilot in hand, we are adding more SWAT teams across the rest of the organization.
Note that at any point in time, senior executives could step in and stop or delay this whole operation. If they did so, they would see behind the curtain, see the "spit and baling wire" with which we were holding the whole operation together. Major processes and team structures are in flux, and we're learning as we go. However, the executives remain very supportive because we have made a compelling case (and continue to make the case) that the status quo is untenable.
In this way, we are faking it until we make it.
Have you willed your business into existence? Share your thoughts with us at karlandbill@avondalestrategicpartners.com.