“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24
About a month ago, I had the privilege of listening to Lauren Koontz, CEO of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta, speak. Lauren is a fresh, new voice for the YMCA Movement. In her presentation, she focused on what she saw as the critical qualities organizations need to exhibit in order to successfully evolve from the pandemic, one of them being to think like a startup. She spoke to the need of being courageous in our thinking, with a willingness to take risks and to also fail. Lauren said failure represented an opportunity to learn, though she added a disclaimer in the urgency to fail fast. She exhorted us to use these extraordinary circumstances to our advantage; we must seize the moment. It would not be easy, but with courage and resilience, the opportunities to thrive were there. I was inspired by her message. I smiled and reflected on how our team has been working over these past 20 months, courageously embracing the challenges of working in these disruptive conditions and adapting at every turn.
Last week, I sat in on a meeting concerning the progress of the YMCA Wellness Café, a project we started even before the pandemic began. Janele Nelson has been tireless in her efforts to forge the development of this new concept, building it from the ground up. Given the dire circumstances we face, Janele has had to raise the funds necessary for development. She worked with outside partners to construct the product, gathering input along the way, and fine-tuning the concept with the new information she had gathered. The Wellness Café is a brand new concept for the Y, and to move it forward, Janele needed to think like a startup. In the meeting, the company, Grounded World, shared the results from the survey they conducted to determine the receptivity of the wellness café concept to a national audience. The results were favorable; people of all ages would likely download a mobile application to seek spiritual and emotional support. It was even more encouraging to recognize that people, particularly younger people, would utilize this tool as a stand-alone application. It would be fair to assume, then, that the application will be even stronger when integrated into our virtual platform. We will test this premise moving forward.
In last Friday’s Staying Connected call, Annie Doyle reported on our Y’s ongoing progress in the virtual platform and on YMCA360. The team of Annie, Michael Marquez, Kenny Aye, Bruce Caudill, Kim Schulz, and many of our operations team have continued to drive forward, perfecting the quality of the content we are delivering. It is truly a team effort and it has invigorated our entire organization. It will be even more exciting if, and when, the Wellness Café is integrated into our virtual platform. Being able to fully deepen our service delivery platform to include community connections will elevate the appeal of our virtual platform. This would not even be possible had it not been for the resolve Janele has exhibited. Thinking like a startup could prove to be invaluable for our Y.
Brian Flattum made an observation last week, which I thought was important. He shared that during the time our centers were closed, every staff person was utilizing a virtual tool to engage our members (at the time, it was the only way we could connect to our members). When we reopened, the virtual platform became the work of just a few and was in danger of becoming a separate operation, or being executed in silos. Are we missing an opportunity? Is the virtual delivery system something we should be integrating into everything we do? Michael has said virtual is our way of meeting people where they are at – can we utilize it as a way to connect people when they are not able to be in our programs in person? Can we use it to enhance our programs, like nutrition education or skill development? Can it be a way we integrate all of our programs, like bringing the arts or outdoor environmental education to our childcare sites? On the Staying Connected calls, Michael and Annie have emphasized the importance of making virtual a vital part of everyone’s work in one way or another.
The Wellness Café and Y360 are good examples of innovation within our organization. They represent a new way of work for us, but it is critical we continue to work and experiment with it to continuously develop its potential. It is not a finished product, nor is it a stand-alone product. Lauren Koontz is right; there are opportunities that have opened up to us as a result of the pandemic. Our Y has embraced the fact that we must find new ways to engage our members. As was verified in the survey conducted by our partner, Grounded World, people do want to find wellness and support and will use technology to discover it. They also want the in-person format that they knew before. It is incumbent upon us to continue to explore how we utilize technology to strengthen our overall delivery platform. Fortunately, we have a great IT team (Bruce, Francisco, Tiffany, Tuan, Andrew, and Melissa), who have made it possible for us to utilize technology effectively.
Yes, the virtual tool represents something new and could be very important to our Y in both the near term and the longer term. It also represents something that goes deeper for our organization. The real opportunity for our organization lies in our ability to adapt to a new way of work, not just in incorporating a tool like virtual, but in how we work together to strengthen it. For us to optimize the virtual experience, we all need to understand it, promote it, and utilize it. I have said this many times: the real strength of our Y is our staff – all of you. You continue to persevere, adapting to every challenge we face. When the story is written about our Y, it will highlight your work through this incredibly challenging period. It will be about your courage and determination that carried this Y through to a new place. Historic.
#OneY #StayStrong #StayWithUs