In real estate, one of the most important considerations is location. While not real estate agents, our FBE team also learned a lot about location in the last two weeks. Two weeks ago we held Friday service time in the WH1 lounge which is one of the more out-of-the-way lounges in West Hall. We had about 12 or 15 people show up to knit and watch a movie and (in comparison to most of the previous Friday service times) it was a pretty good showing. Then, last week, we held Friday service time in the lounge on the third floor of West Hall so that we would be out of the way of the Candidate's Weekend tours that go through WH1 and we ended up with 25 or 30 people watching the movie for Amnesty International that we were showing and either making posters for the Like This FBE team or knitting.
We usually hold Friday service time in WH1 partially because it's a little out of the way and it's usually empty during Friday afternoons meaning we're not taking anyone's works space. However, no one walks through that lounge unless they live in 1 North. On the other hand, everyone who lives on the third or forth floor has to go through the WH3 lounge and people from the first and second floors often go to the third floor to see what's happening. We don't always want to hold Friday service time in WH3 because people often use that space for other things on Friday afternoon and we don't want to kick them out of their space, but looking at the different turn-outs of the last two weeks is a good reminder of how important location can be.
It makes sense that we should hold Friday service activities in high-traffic areas because of social proof. The more people are doing something, the more others will want to copy them. This also goes along with the Heath brothers' saying of "rally the herd." By holding activities in the third floor lounge instead of the first floor lounge we were rallying people to participate by letting them see that others were already participating.
In a way, we were also directing the rider because many people wander aimlessly around WH on Friday after classes are done because they don't want to work and telling them that they should stick around to watch a movie or knit directs the rider and gives them something to do. So using social proof or rallying the herd and directing the rider are definitely good approaches to getting more people to come to Friday service activities.
Because social proof and directing the rider are good ways of getting more people to participate in Friday service, we got much higher participation levels in WH3 than in WH1. It is unrealistic to assume that we can always use the third floor lounge for Friday service because it is a public area that is used for a variety of activities, but we should always consider location when deciding where to hold Friday service because when it comes to getting people to do community service, along with finding a good spot for a restaurant, it all comes down to location.
Showing posts with label social proof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social proof. Show all posts
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
SERVice Stars!
[picture coming soon!]
We all say that feedback is the key to success; clearly, our group has tried to maximize feedback since our [awesome] study break. Even more beneficial is the combination of others’ ideas. For a little while, Steve had asked us to make something to put on display, to try and exploit social proof on a larger scale, such as hanging a poster in the dining hall showing those who participate in community service and when. At first, our team was a bit skeptical; ultimately, peer feedback we received last class made all the difference.
Last class, Steve had one representative from each team stand by their board area, in which we wrote about our bright spots and frustrations. I chose to stay, and had at least 6 people flock to me immediately. One suggestion shone above the rest: service stars. Our group chose to combine this idea with Steve’s idea of having a display in the dining hall, creating a goal-driven concept that we hope to make permanent.
To become a service star, you simply create a goal for yourself, and write it on a dinosaur. This dinosaur was then stuck on the “SERVice Star” poster [which is five feet long-as tall as me!] Each time you come to a service activity, you get a sticker next to their dinosaur, marking a step closer to your goal! We’re pushing this idea to be goal driven, rather than reward/competition driven.
We hope that by having a bunch of dinosaurs, we can encourage more people to join in, implementing social proof. I’m sure many people have walked by, and wondered what the poster of dinosaurs near the SERV table is about. This curiosity is what leads to progress in such a display. Another key concept is consistency-we believe people will want to earn those stickers to join their dinosaurs on the poster in order to meet their goals.
Wednesday the 2nd was our first day of pitching this idea-in the course of an hour, over 30 people had created their own service dinosaur! I had never seen such excitement at the SERV table before, over the entirety of this year. This new poster, along with the poster with information about upcoming Friday service activities, have given more life to the SERV table, helping us spread our love of service to others.
We all say that feedback is the key to success; clearly, our group has tried to maximize feedback since our [awesome] study break. Even more beneficial is the combination of others’ ideas. For a little while, Steve had asked us to make something to put on display, to try and exploit social proof on a larger scale, such as hanging a poster in the dining hall showing those who participate in community service and when. At first, our team was a bit skeptical; ultimately, peer feedback we received last class made all the difference.
Last class, Steve had one representative from each team stand by their board area, in which we wrote about our bright spots and frustrations. I chose to stay, and had at least 6 people flock to me immediately. One suggestion shone above the rest: service stars. Our group chose to combine this idea with Steve’s idea of having a display in the dining hall, creating a goal-driven concept that we hope to make permanent.
To become a service star, you simply create a goal for yourself, and write it on a dinosaur. This dinosaur was then stuck on the “SERVice Star” poster [which is five feet long-as tall as me!] Each time you come to a service activity, you get a sticker next to their dinosaur, marking a step closer to your goal! We’re pushing this idea to be goal driven, rather than reward/competition driven.
We hope that by having a bunch of dinosaurs, we can encourage more people to join in, implementing social proof. I’m sure many people have walked by, and wondered what the poster of dinosaurs near the SERV table is about. This curiosity is what leads to progress in such a display. Another key concept is consistency-we believe people will want to earn those stickers to join their dinosaurs on the poster in order to meet their goals.
Wednesday the 2nd was our first day of pitching this idea-in the course of an hour, over 30 people had created their own service dinosaur! I had never seen such excitement at the SERV table before, over the entirety of this year. This new poster, along with the poster with information about upcoming Friday service activities, have given more life to the SERV table, helping us spread our love of service to others.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)