follow the impact

Blab:(verb)to talk idly or thoughtlessly.

Are we communicating to our students & children? Or do WE THINK we are communicating to our students & children? It is so important for us as leaders to make sure that when we are communicating to our students and children...that we are doing just that: COMMUNICATING. I found this following excerpt from Seth Godin's book, "TRIBES-we need you to lead us" very interesting...

"My friend Jacqueline tells the story of how Unicef spent a fortune creating posters to promote the idea of child vaccination to the mothers of Rwanda. 'The posters were gorgeous-photographs with women and children with simple messages written in Kinyarwandan (the local language), about the importance of vaccinating every child. They were perfect, except for the fact with a female illiteracy rate exceeding 70 percent, words written in perfect Kinyarwandan made little difference.'

Jacqueline noticed that the way messages spread in Rwanda was by song. One group of women would sing a song for other women, both as a way of spreading ideas and as a gift. No song, no message.

Your tribe communicates. They probably don't do it the way you would; they don't do it as efficiently as you might like, but they communicate. The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes."



Communicating and NOT 'blabbing' requires some effort on our part. At times it requires some bravery. Take a poll of 5 students/children after a service and ask them a few questions:

Am I communicating in a way that you understand?

What can I do to make the message relate to your age group?

Did the illustrations make sense?

Am I talking about issues that you can relate to?