I didn’t know anyone at the school, so I patiently waited in the lobby for the student life advisor to show up. When at first, I thought I was alone, the janitor turned the corner and saw me. He smiled and said, “Hi.” I smiled back. Then a group of two students walked past me and smiled in my direction. Finally, a professor walked by in a rush to her class and said, “Hello.”
Without inflatables, comedians or a climbing wall, The Apprentice School made me welcomed and connected to their campus culture in less than five minutes. No one from student life was involved and no additional money was spent, but yet they achieved a level of engagement that other campuses try to achieve with $1000s of dollars and physical resources. What’s the difference?
Creating a Culture of Engagement
Instead of focusing on each individual event as an isolated activity, think about how each activity collectively works together to create a culture of engagement. More work, you say? Maybe. It will involve additional planning and coordinating between all the clubs on campus, but the net result will be more effective to the overall goal.
Also, when we move away from a focus on just creating engaging events to creating an engaging culture, it creates a bigger purpose as to why we do what we do. All your actions as a campus leader create the culture of the campus.
Everyone is a Campus Leader
Too often, the goal of creating the campus culture is dependent on those in student life and student leaders. At The Apprentice School, it’s clear that everyone plays a role. Once we can shift the responsible away from the limited few in Student Life and enroll the whole campus, we can unlock an army of campus leaders.
Micro-Actions
In a prior post, Sabina said, “You don’t have to put together an elaborate event to get someone to feel like they are part of your community.” Sometimes we overthink what it means to create an engaging culture. Micro-Actions can be a powerful, simple and cheap way to support the campus culture. Some examples of micro-actions include:
– Holding the door for someone.
– Saying “Hello.” to Tom when he’s sitting alone.
– Helping someone who seems lost.
Next time you work with your team to build out your programming calendar, also spend some time to talk about what it means to create a culture of engagement, enrolling the whole campus as leaders, and micro-actions.
