The story of campus care began with a range of mop/brooms/dusters. Most of us at O-campus were excited with different types of tools to clean – the excitement lasted for few days and when the reality struck, the work of faculty started.
Many times a task is started with lot of excitement and it fizzles out, the energies are down and the task is stopped/change goal and so on. This pattern led me to read more on goals/commitment/ and motivation. I stumbled upon the book “Fish! Sticks, by Stephen, John and Harry paul”.
In blue is excerpts from the book, while in black says my experience at Aarohi to keep vision/goal alive –
- External energy is necessary at the beginning of any large scale change initiative. To implement a new vision you may first have everyone’s attention. Like exciting range of cleaning tools.
- But external energy is only effective for the short term. Eventually, external energy must be replaced by natural energy in order for the change to stick. In the beginning , novelty can be an adequate source of energy. Over time a deeper and more sustainable source must be found. Like we brought the concept of “living together, working together, finding fun in what we do”.
- One of the way to do is to talk about vision – real and fierce. Real because one can experience it, Fierce to make these talks vital. Like we started with thought club to talk about our roles, our thoughts, our needs.
- Coaching is gift we give to each other and vision to keep it strong. Whether its about work or the way we work – the feedback needs to flow in all directions. Like we created systems to give and take feedback in dirt cleaning, feedback on work, feedback on how the work was done. We coach newcomers – why we do this and how we do this. .
- Once guiding principles are clear – Its time for action. Like we created systems to do the work, contribute. Understand why something is mandatory and why it is not?
- The secret of keeping our vision alive is for each one to commit to find our own personal piece of vision, in living it, and coaching it. Many times commitment remains an abstraction until we take action. Like we all DO the work and that all!!!
If you visit campus, you will see all us part of campus care. Some do with enthusiasm, some are in process to understand the above. The work of faculty continues …