So often we get wrapped up reacting that we don’t notice what’s happening right now. As a helpdesk, we are constantly on the lookout for the next thing that will disrupt the normal flow. What did the faculty say about x? How will our alumni react? How will our students react? What should we say? And on and on.
But what about what’s going on right now? Who are we talking to? What sparkle can we bring to their day? How can we make it a bit easier or more pleasant?
Yesterday I was on the number one bus from Cambridge, MA to Boston. When I got on, the driver seemed a bit grumpy, so I questioned whether a good morning would be met with any response since he wasn’t talking to anyone else. I went for it. “Good morning”, I said. His face lit up! Below are some of the phrases that he used in our brief conversation on that warm rainy October day.
“I love liquid sunshine,” he said. “A hot day in October, nothing like it.”
“Another day driving the bus is a day I’m not in the ground.”
“God gave me this day, I’m going to do good things with it”
“No sense in getting all fired up about the traffic, nothing I can do about it except enjoy the ride.”
And on and on it went. After a few minutes, he quieted down and more people got on the bus. And that’s when I noticed that no one said “hi” when they entered or “thank you” when they left.
It’s like what we do. We go along, answer the phones, respond to emails, great people when they visit. We move from one email to the next without thinking much about the alum behind it.
The challenge is to find their sparkle, to find what makes them tick, makes them smile, what makes them share their perspective. The same way a simple “good morning” woke the person behind the wheel. As the first responders to our alumni, it’s up to us to see the email as the person, not just another to do.
