All In All Done

(Note - This should have posted Nov. 30)

The Installation Season is finally over - or is it?

I have completed the last of the fourteen installations that I had agreed to attend this year and each one had its own interesting theme, decorations, performance, speeches and of course refreshments.  But I noticed that there were a number of Chapters where one of the officers was either unable to attend the Installation or no one was elected in time for the Installation but will be elected and installed in December or January. 

This makes me consider a complicated topic that is important at a lot of levels, namely, what is a reasonable level of expectation and how do we (or should we?) enforce that level of expectation.

In the work world, this is a lot simpler, although not as much as people might think.  When you pay people to do things, in a perfect world, you set reasonable expectations and the people you hire meet them because they want to get paid as promised.  But even in the work world, there is always some squish room, where a person can underperform a little and still get paid and keep their job, even if they don't get as much of a raise each year or even any at all.  And now, in the present economy, many companies have given no raises to anyone for years, so getting or not getting a raise is no longer a performance indicator.  After all, if those who do not meet expectations get the same raise as those who exceed expectations - ZERO - they why bother to work harder.  There is NO traffic jam on the extra mile!!!

However, even in the work world in a good economy, when people are changing jobs, they pick the one that pays the best.  After they get there though, they stay with the job where they are treated the best.  If you treat them badly, even though you pay them well, they will leave.  Now in a bad economy, they may not be able to leave because they need the money and the job, but these people are just the volcano waiting to erupt and as soon as the economy loosens up, whoooosh, they are so gone.

But in a non-profit context, there is no monetary incentive.  So how can you set or enforce expectations?  You have to do it with other coins, usually with respect or recognition.  When you expect a lot and get it, that person should get a good reputation and be thought of with respect and admiration.  They should be recognized for their contribution and feel rewarded for their efforts.  Conversely, if they do not perform as promised, they should feel the peer pressure of their lack of performance and should feel the disappointment suffered by others.  Of course this assumes a lot of things.  First, that reasonable expectations are communicated in the first place so people can try to perform.  Second, that reward and punishment are delivered in a fair manner.  And finally, that all feed back is timely.  The results must be close enough in time to be obviously linked to the performance.

Some people feel that if others don't perform, you should lower the bar so that they feel they can reach it and that will encourage them to get over it because they can.  I feel that when you lower the bar, people who were just a bit under the old one will now be just a bit under the new one.  I like better the approach that you find out why the person didn't perform and if it can be addressed, address it and if it can't be addressed, find someone else to do the job.  If there is no one else to do the job, you have a different problem.

So why do I think of these things when I think of Installation?  Because it makes me think of officers and our expectations of their performance.  For example, there are lots of legitimate reasons why someone who has agreed to be an officer cannot make their Installation.  Stuff happens.  But unless it is an illness or emergency, that should be known in advance and planned for and even in an emergency, the courtesy of a phone call should be managed by someone.  What frosts my cake are the people who don't show up, don't call to say they are not showing up and are not dead or unconsious!  The rest of us are waiting around hoping the late person will show up and then we finally go ahead with out them.  Grrrr!  But communicating is a reasonable expectation and should happen.  And other reasonable expectations should be met too, darn it!

I know of course that 99% of the time this problem does not occur and most of the time everyone is very responsible and communicative, but this is sort of an example of Murphy's Law of Sewage.  If you take a barrel full of sewage and you add a tablespoon of wine, you've got a barrel of sewage.  If you take a barrel full of wine and add a tablespoon of sewage, you've got a barrel of sewage.  Sigh!

Next weekend, I will be in Norwalk, Yorba Linda and Escondido.