It Starts Right Here

by Matt Mattson

I know everything out there seems really messy, really ugly, and really complicated. Sometimes its hard to know what to do about all of it.

But the answer is and always has been right in front of you. No, I don't mean posting your opinion on social media. No I don't mean Googling an article that will reinforce your worldview. 

I mean right in front of you. The space right in front of your nose. That space between you and anybody else you encounter. The way we fill the space between us and every other person is what creates our world. 

Take a moment to reflect. Think about the last 3, 5, 10 encounters you've had with other human beings. Think about your moments with friends, your interactions with co-workers, your moments with your kids or your partner or your lover, your interactions with strangers, your little moments with baristas, servers, or store clerks. Think about those momentary interactions. Don't think about what the other person did, think about how you filled the space between you and that other person - another person who is magnificent, another person who is filled with stories and potential and lessons and pain and joy. How did you fill that space?

Did you fill it with glee? Did you fill it with curiosity? Did you fill it with indifference? Did you fill it with wonder? Did you fill it with generosity? Did you fill it with suspicion? Did you fill it with gratitude? Did you fill it with love and attention and care? Did you fill it with a forgettable rush or with an eye-widening moment of surprising connection?

If you're like me, you are desperately trying to figure out how to make the world better, safer, kinder, and less lonely. You're considering legislation to support, demonstrations to join, politicians to champion, or donations to offer. None of that is wrong. But none of it matters if you don't start very close to home.

That space. That space right in front of your nose. That space that just barely separates your soul from countless others. That space between you and every other person you encounter - no matter how fleeting the encounter - is the stuff that makes up our world. How we choose to fill that space determines the world in which we live.

Be intentional with that space. You have control over it. You can fill that space with all the things that you value most. The choices you make in filling that space will determine how you're remembered, how you impact others, how influential you are, and how much you grow into your own human potential every day. 

I choose to fill that space with Social Excellence. I try anyway. I hope you will fill it with what you believe the world should be made of. 

The Sound of Human Connection

by Matt Mattson

Are you old enough to remember the sound of a dial-up internet connection? If not, please enjoy the pain and ultimately the payoff of this 30-second video clip.

That 30-second clip is like the perfect metaphor for the experience of trying to connect with a new person (and even sometimes someone we know well). Maybe you met someone at a party. Maybe you are getting together with some extended family members over a holiday that you haven't seen in years. Maybe you are meeting with a new client. Maybe you are attempting to befriend a new neighbor or a new co-worker. 

You start with the best intention. "This should be easy, let's just click!" But quickly realize that you're going to need some patience before the connection is fully made. There is a risk, of course, that the connection won't happen. But, most of the time, if you wait long enough, you'll connect. And when you hear that sound of connection -- a laugh, a softer tone of voice, a heightened level of curiosity, a moment of awareness and emotion -- it's all worth it.

Meeting people, or even reconnecting with people that you haven't spent time with in a while, is like that. You try small talk. You try the weather. You try current events. And sometimes, you don't connect. But to consistently get authentic connection requires a few key elements: good questions, caring attention, and a hint of vulnerability.

And when you hear that sound of connection -- it's all worth it. 

Certainly Uncertain

by Matt Mattson

Everyone's so certain that they're right. But if that's the case, how can everyone else who are also so certainly certain be wrong?

Have you noticed that everyone is trying really hard (now more than ever) to be right? And if they're not sure they're right, they try to be the loudest, the snarkiest, the most cutting, or the most "liked". 

Everyone wants to be right, but... you know... that's impossible.

So, let's start here. You're wrong. Yes, you. About a lot of things. That's almost certainly true.

But so am I. I'm wrong. About a lot of things. Yes, even me.

And the sooner you and I admit the fact that we might just not know the right answer, the sooner we can start to learn from each other, work together for a common good, and stop all the fighting.

American politics is the easy example of this. There used to be a time when there was less RIGHT vs. LEFT. It used to be (and I know this is a rosy shade of history) that politicians worked for the good of the country, not for the good of their team. Now it seems that there is this extreme fight to be right (or at least to show that the other team is wrong). The more certain our politicians are about their points of view, the less certain our future as a nation seems to be.

But it isn't just politics of course. It is everyday conversation. It is the way we engage in online communication. We have created these social media echo chambers, which in many cases are reinforced by segregated and isolated socio-economic neighborhoods and communities. We see loud entertaining messages that boost our loosely held opinions, and those loosely held opinions become self-evident facts to our ever melting minds. We seek certainty and we find it within our echo chambers.

So, let's go back to that thing from earlier. You're wrong. So am I. Let's stand in that wrongness and let it wash over us until we're cleansed of our desire for certainty. Let's revel in that new feeling of uncertainty -- though we've spent much of our lives trying to avoid it. Let's be certainly uncertain about a lot of things. Let's have a point of view built from our own truths and evidence, but be open to alternative points of view based on others' own truths and lived experience.

Am I arguing for an ignoring of facts? Am I suggesting that we disregard scientific evidence? Quite the contrary. Engage in discussion, discovery, and dialogue. Value the exploration for truth at least as much as you value the perception of its discovery. Because as long as science has been around, better scientists have been developing better ideas and better methods and better questions and better truths. 

Are you sure you're right about that opinion you just posted in the comments section? Perhaps a conversation with someone you know (or better yet, someone different from you) might be a better choice. Your certainty might be an obstacle to a yet discovered truth that's even better than the one you are currently so certain about. 

Asking more and better questions might prove more valuable to you (and all of us) in the long run than having more and louder opinions. 

You're wrong. So am I. I'm certain of it. 

Re-ORGANIZE America

by Matt Mattson 

I spend too much time on social media. I'm guessing you might be like me in that regard. When the world is full of so much that needs fixing, and so much opportunity, the time I spend on social media feels so incredibly unproductive. I'm guessing you might share that feeling. But here we are.

Marshall McLuhan once wrote, "The medium is the message." He taught us that the way we consume information is often more influential than the information itself. As we continue to consume the world through the individual, lonely, self-consumed medium of social media, we can't help but become more individual, lonely, and self-consumed.

We have to fight this. Not by quitting social media (though I consider it daily). But by balancing it with social connection in the real world. 

America needs each of us to choose to get together offline. Seriously. This is a problem. Plenty of scholars and authors are bemoaning the negative effects on our very society being caused by our precipitous drop in organizations. See here, here, and here as just a few powerful examples.   

Let's re-ORGANIZE America. We've become too separated, too distant, too individual. Our basic societal organizational structure is crumbling. And I think it's, at least in part, due to the way we consume the world -- alone, from computer screens, with minimal discourse with others.

This is a call for re-organization. For re-grouping. For gathering together in real life. Go to a local meeting of something that matters to you. Go to a local religious service. Organize a group in your neighborhood about... anything. Get together for fun. Get together for work. Get together for dinner. Get together for politics. Get together for sports. Get together for justice. Just get together. 

We can't create the world we want alone. We have to work together. In person. When we gather, we matter. But the way we gather matters too. There is a vast chasm between gathering in a comments section and gathering in someone's living room.  

Feeling Powerless. Finding Hope.

I often feel powerless against the evil in the world.
I often feel powerless against the powers that be.
I often feel powerless against the historical weight of injustice.
I often feel powerless against the fact that I am but one person.

Then I remember. I can gather together with others and exponentially increase my power.

I know it doesn't help to post online.
I know it doesn't help to shout my rage.
I know it doesn't help to quietly sulk.
I know it doesn't help to simply dream of what could be.

Then I remember. There are others like me out there. In the real world. Doing something about it.

I feel powerless. 
I feel helpless.
I feel like giving up.
I feel like giving in.

Then I remember. I can join a group. In real life. Groups are what have always made the world go round. Groups are what give power to the powerless. Groups are where change is made. 

Productive Relationships

by Matt Mattson

What do I do?

When you are passionate about spreading human connection by sharing Social Excellence, it's a little hard to explain to your neighbors or airplane seatmates.

What do I do?

Sometimes I say I'm a speaker. Sometimes I say I'm a business owner. Sometimes I say I'm a teacher (this one feels closest to true, but it just confuses people). Sometimes I actually try to explain it in detail despite the glazed over eyes of the questioner. Sometimes I'm lazy and say I teach people how to be nice to each other. 

But I think I've found a better way to talk about it.

Here's what we do. We help people be able to create more PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS in their lives so that they can achieve what's important to them through the power of those relationships.

Productive relationships. That simple word combination has been resonating so clearly with me. Relationships that produce something. Like learning, or growth, or impact, or collaboration, or organizational success, or business results, or progress along humanity's unending march forward... Relationships for the sake of relationships are wonderful (because humans need relationships as much as they need food and water), but we focus on something different than that. We focus on relationships that produce. Productive relationships.

Could your life be better if it had more PRODUCTIVE relationships in it? Could your business run smoother? Could your organization be more effective? Could your congregation grow more organically? Could your friendships and romantic partnerships be more fulfilling? Not just relationships, but relationships that produce. I think almost everything in life would be better if we as humans had more productive relationships. That's what I teach. That's what I do.

We're All Getting So Mean

by Matt Mattson

Let me start this way. You are loved. You are appreciated. I can tell that you're trying your hardest. I know we may not agree on everything, and on some things we strongly disagree, but that's what makes life wonderful. Also, if you need to hear this... you're forgiven. It's o.k.

I feel like most of us haven't heard those messages that start this post for a while. Because... we're all getting so mean.

Social media is certainly only one iteration of our social selves, but it's the most amplified iteration and therefore one might conclude that it is becoming the most accurate iteration. And we're all getting so mean on social media.

I know this isn't exactly breaking news. We've been mean for a while. But it's just getting unbearable. If your life goal is snark, I feel like you might be doing life wrong. Don't get me wrong. I'm no saint. I like a good laugh -- occassionally at the expense of some buffoonery from celebrities or politicians -- but that's become the national zeitgeist driving a shift in our cultural values. And that's dangerous.

Listen, I know it's a weird time. It's a dangerous time for many. It's a scary time for entire segments of the population on both sides of the aisle. But we're in a downward spiral right now. Our anger is fueling our rage and our rage is altering our communication and the way we communicate in large part determines who we are as a nation. And who we are as a nation is not real pretty right now. We've all gotten so mean.

I can certainly join in on the blame game. Talk radio, commercialized news, gerrymandering, institutional isms, and you know... Russia. Those are important problems to discuss, but the heart of who we are as a people begins with whether or not we choose to communicate from our heart. 

Let's just all take a deep breath and tell people they're loved, they matter, they're forgiven, and we appreciate them trying. 

Start on social media. Don't share that article with the negative headline about the person or group that makes you and your group angry. Seriously. Don't. Post a picture of you having fun. Post a recipe. Talk about something you love, not something you hate. Celebrate someone in your community -- a teacher, a public servant, a person who has influenced you. 

Let's soften the edges a bit.

Can Introverts Be Socially Excellent?

by Matt Mattson

I am an introvert . I don’t thrive off of large groups. Spending time alone gives me fuel. Quiet solitude is where I find some of life’s greatest joys. My natural tendency is to separate from the crowd… or at least seek a very small group of people to spend time with. I am an introvert.

Also, I am a professional speaker, trainer and coach. I work with large groups of people nearly every day for a living. I teach people social skills, I urge social engagement, and I co-authored a book on SOCIAL EXCELLENCE.  My work requires extraordinary amounts of social interaction, and I love my work.

It seems like those two preceding paragraphs couldn’t both be true about the same person.  I promise they are though. 100%. That’s me.

A while ago, I read a book about introverts titled, “Quiet ” by Susan Cain (see her TED Talk here, and read a recent NY Times editorial that she wrote here).  I’ll reserve my review of this book for another time, but I will share that it really got me thinking that there are probably a lot of “introverts” who hear our message of Social Excellence and assume it’s not for them. “I’m just not a people person,” they might think. “I do my best work alone,” they might even say.

I would offer, however, that the way we interact socially with the people around us is a) a choice, and b) the determining factor in our level of influence on the world around us.  While I might do my best work when I’m alone, I can’t share that work, those thoughts, those insights, with the outside world while I’m in my introverted bubble.  No matter the life path, I must eventually engage socially for my work to mean anything.  Are there exceptions to this? Probably. But most of us, if we want to change people’s minds, sell our wares, recruit new donors or members, influence others, or BE A LEADER, we must do so through other human beings .  We are social animals living in a SOCIETY. Our interactions with each other are the conduit through which that society flows.

I might be an introvert, but I make a choice to be Socially Excellent.  Do I take breaks, go quiet, disappear into the safety and warmth of alone time occasionally?  Yep. And I’m proud of it. In fact, I would recommend that to everyone who values a little quiet space. But I also deeply understand that the more hands I choose to shake, conversations I choose to have, and relationships I choose to build, the greater my potential to learn from others, be exposed to new ideas and experiences, have more people to support me when I need them, and influence others.

I might be an introvert, but I also want to matter to the world when it’s all said and done.  I know that the best way for me to do that, the best way for me to make a big impact, the best way for me to create the change I wish to see in the world is through my relationships with others.

Plus, once I started to choose Social Excellence as a lifestyle, I had better stories, more fun, and more success.

Yes, introverts can be Socially Excellent.

P.S. Yes, I read the thing about "extroverted introverts." If labels like that help you find success and fulfillment, then awesome! I personally choose to focus on momentary choices that lead to the levels of success that I dream of.

Social Lies

by Josh Orendi

“When we socialize we see the world through social eyes that are sometimes clouded by social lies.”

It sucks admitting this, but I have sometimes felt (and still sometimes feel) this way…

Like an optical illusion the lens I see the world through can be clouded or distorted by the lies I have been told and the ones that I tell myself.  Feelings of anxiety, fear, and insecurity begin to swell in new social settings — the first day in class, calling strangers on the phone, working an information table.  The bubbling intensifies when the voice inside my head reinforces the fear with messages of worst case scenarios and thoughts of rejection.  Doubt and excuses not only creep in, they take over.  Like a caterpillar I form a cocoon of isolation around me with my words and actions — I sit alone, barely smile, drop my eyes and shoulders, pull out my cell phone, try to look busy, lose myself in the lonely silence despite the noise of the room.  Those thoughts in my mind manifest into an extremely real, frightening, and often painful reality.  Gut wrenching emotional paralysis, drowning in the poison that is filling that moment, my only rational thoughts focus on one idea: escape, retreat, run, avoidance.  There is no beautiful butterfly about to emerge.  I am just trying to survive each painful second while maintaining a half smile so nobody asks me if I’m okay.  I recognize that I am socially disabled, but I can’t do anything about it.  This is just who I am.  I deal with it.

That’s my best shot at vulnerably sharing how I felt (and still sometimes feel) in social situations.  Gradually, I discovered inspiration, techniques, and new habits that have helped me realize a new social identity.  I no longer have to “deal with it.”  Perhaps my most profound discovery has been this:

My social eyes are a social lens looking outward at the world.  When I allow myself to focus my social eyes externally on others, I feel liberated.  It’s fun to be curious and generous.  It’s fulfilling to help others.  When the phone call is about the other guy, the new room is full of people I can make smile, and the information table is my excuse to share an opportunity that might change someone’s life — when it becomes about them and not me — the social lies go away.  I’m not the most important person in the room anymore.  It’s not about me!  I honestly feel empowered to know that I’m a catalyst to something great when I invest in conversation with others.  When I socialize, it’s about the other person.  For me, that was the lesson that freed me from my social cocoon (so to speak).

For the linear thinkers who read this, consider this:  It’s mathematically impossible to feel the inner emotion of fear at the same time that I am being 100% generous — focused entirely on others.

Now, when I get that old familiar rumbling of fear in my belly, it’s a healthy reminder that I’m focused on the wrong person.  “My social eyes, no longer listen to social lies, so I’ve come to love the opportunity to socialize.”

The Disassociation Association

by Matt Mattson

People aren’t inspired by tote bags.

People don’t have deep affinity because of direct mail.

People won’t give their all for a paycheck.

People can’t fall in LOVE with strategic plans.

Associations are becoming increasingly disassociations. Too many have forgotten that it is people that we’re associating together. Too many are associations are trying to get data points to love other data points.Too many associations are so focused on the outcomes and the purpose and the strategic priorities, that they’ve forgotten the most basic and important element of the work — people. Relationships. Human connection.

Organizations like those represented by the many attendees at #ideas18 will thrive when humanity is placed at the center of their every day operations.

Whether you want higher membership levels, deeper employee engagement, better member retention, higher conference attendance (or feedback scores), bigger donations, or higher morale… there is often one solution. That solution is not some gimmick. That solution is not some new piece of software. That solution is not a fancier meeting location. That solution is not a new compensation model. That solution is not some other transactional interaction where you give x to receive y. That solution is a CHOICE to put real human relationships back at the center of your association and the groups that it represents.

Re-associate. Deepen the level of conversation and relationship. Require emotional exchange throughout your work. Above all, your association is HUMAN BEINGS looking for a group that can help them thrive and feel like they matter. They are human beings. They are not advanced analytical metrics. They are not dollars and cents in a ledger. They are human beings. They want to be loved and they want to matter.

Watch this video for more: ON FACEBOOK (with captions) or ON YOUTUBE.

#REHUMANIFY

by Matt Mattson

I’ve always been mystified by machines like dehumidifiers. They seem magic. They suck moisture out of the air without you ever noticing what’s really going on or how it’s really happening. Flick a switch, listen as the machine makes a dull whirr, and after a while there you are just enjoying a delightfully less humid local atmosphere — living in a new sense of dehumidified comfort.

It seems as if a similarly subtle process is occurring in society. It seems as if someone turned on a dehumanifier that is quietly, invisibly, and unnoticeably sucking all the humanity out of our air. Someone flicked a switch a couple decades ago, we haven’t noticed the dull whirr, and here we are living in a less human sense of discomfort.

The evidence of this is all around us.

Some of it is too close to home for me. I live in Littleton, Colorado. Home of Columbine High School, about 30 miles from a certain movie theater in Aurora, and just down the street from some less infamous but equally as frightening public shooting arenas (Deer Creek Middle School and Arapahoe High School). This is where I send my two daughters to school everyday, and this is where they went to watch Finding Dory this week.

When Columbine happened in 1999, a mass shooting like that seemed utterly unimaginable. Today, it’s the norm. Dallas, Newtown, Pulse, Virginia Tech, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, and the horrible list goes on.

There’s another list of inhuman acts, of course. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and this horrible list goes on.

People are being shot down as though they aren’t even human.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this dehumanification. There have been signs of it for years.

We fight wars with drones. Years ago we redefined the word “friend” to be a digital classification instead of an emotional connection. Two of our most popular TV shows (Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead) feature weekly killings — sometimes by the dozens — of both human and subhuman characters. Politics has placed us on “red” and “blue” teams with no room for the nuance of the human condition. We talk about “aliens” invading our borders. We’re literally in a national argument on social media at the moment about #WhoseLivesMatter!?!?

The world is begging to be rehumanified. Our society is suffering through an arid period in which all the humanity seems to have been dried up.

We could point blame of course. It would be easy to point at technology, Hollywood, the media, the republicans, the democrats, the politicians, big banks, or religious zealots, and lay the blame at their feet to make ourselves feel better. Most people will do that. And they’ll do it through social media memes that reinforce their own point of view — like a machine regurgitating the simple data it’s been fed. Or we could realize that rehumanification begins with the acts of everyday humans.

We get to choose whether we will rehumanify our schools, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our world. Rehumanification begins with the acts of everyday humans, and those humans are us. They are you. They are me. Rehumanification begins by reminding ourselves and the people around us that we are all human. That can’t be done unless we connect. We must spread human connection like a healing ointment over the wounds of the past several decades. Our scars are deep. 9/11, the housing crash, mass shootings, brash racism, constant war, continual fear. But the medicine we need is right in our hands. Human connection has to be the remedy. It is healer. It is the rehumanifier.

Handshakes, conversations, authentic curiosity, vulnerable discourse, compassionate listening, a search for understanding, compromise, collaboration, organization, generosity. We know the choices that have to be made in every day life. With strangers, with family, with colleagues, with students, with neighbors, with children, with police, with leaders, with followers. We must find the gumption and the discipline to make those choices more often.

We have a name for those choices. “Social Excellence.” Perhaps this concept can serve as instructions for your role in the rehumanification of our world. If you can just make these choices, create these habits, and live this lifestyle — even just a little more — our world can start to heal.

We’ve been defining Social Excellence like this: A state of perpetual generosity, curiosity, positivity, and openness to limitless possibility. A desire to intentionally connect with others. The ability to engage in deep, meaningful conversation. Acting in a responsible and respectable manner with high expectations of others. Being authentic and living everyday with integrity as the best version of oneself. Being confident and vulnerable. Being fun and compassionate. Being open, kind, and bold. The highest level of societal participation and contribution.

You might define it differently. But this — the spreading of human connection — is what we believe will rehumanify our society. This is the switch we need to flick in all of us to reverse the drying up of our human spirit and our recognition of humanity all around us. It’s not a new concept. Some variation of it has been taught for millenia by the great spiritual teachers and by the legends and myths of history. And now our world is begging you to help heal these wounds with these age old cultural lessons of human connection.

Why does this matter to you?

I’m choosing to #REHUMANIFY the small slice of society I occupy for the sake of my daughters. I want them to grow up seeking out the people who are alone. I want them to grow up lifting up the people who are down. I want them to grow up knowing that people can talk in respectful voices and with listening ears to the people who have different ideas. I want them to see and cherish the humanity in every person. I want them to not be afraid of being shot down.

#BeThePerson

Every moment is a choice...

Be the person who makes the invitation.

Be the person in a drive-thru who buys lunch for the car behind you.

Be the person who is first on the dance floor.

Be the person who doesn’t assume everything is okay and stops to ask if there’s any way you can help.

Be the person who forgoes their daily latte to sponsor a family’s presents during the holidays.

Be the person who offers to help stack the chairs after the event.

Be the person who gives the other half of your sandwich to the guy at the intersection that is asking for food.

Be the person who lets someone with only one item go in front of you in the grocery line.

Be the person who makes eye contact and smiles at strangers – and not because you want to go on a date with them.

Be the person who sets up the meeting so you can move from talk to action.

Be the person who offers assistance to a colleague or classmate that’s struggling.

Be the person who over-tips on a bill when your server is having a bad day.

Be the person who picks up the phone to call when a friend’s texts make it clear they aren’t really “doing fine.”

Be the person who sends a thank you email/note the next day to your designated driver.

Be the person who stops a person whose skirt is tucked in their pantyhose (or toilet paper is stuck to their shoe), before they leave the bathroom.

Be the person who stops to help someone after they’ve just dropped the content of their purse/wallet on the ground.

Be the person who hosts the dinner.

Be the person who doesn’t assume your culture and lived experience is the “normal” one.

Be the person who brings the energy and the fun when the space needs it.

Be the person who doesn’t avoid the tough topics.

Be the person who is perpetually curious and stubbornly uncertain because of a deep desire to learn and grow.

Be the person who stops to tell someone they’ve dropped something.

Be the person who takes away the keys from a friend that shouldn’t drive.

Be the person who walks up and thanks a person in uniform for everything they’ve sacrificed for you.

Be the person who always has great news to share.

Be the person who says hi to people on elevators.

Be the person who always has room for others.

Be the person who anonymously pays the restaurant bill for another table.

Be the person who appreciates the little things and shares that joy with others.

Be the person who asks a homeless person to join you for lunch.

Be the person who breaks the ice.

Be the person who brings a few extra coupons to the store for the friends you’ll make in line at the checkout.

Be the person who buys two so you can give one to a friend (or a stranger).

Be the person who cares about important stuff.

Be the person who carries a great book.

Be the person who challenges the status quo in favor of wild dreams.

Be the person who commands attention, not demands attention.

Be the person who craves wisdom.

Be the person who does what others talk about.

Be the person who drinks slowly, eats slowly, and enjoys every taste.

Be the person who encourages others to the dance floor.

Be the person who exudes exuberance.

Be the person who families tell stories of gratitude about around their dinner tables at night.

Be the person who freely exchanges contact information.

Be the person who sends the follow up text.

Be the person who reads the emotions of others and tries hard to respond.

Be the person who never scoffs at people with different interests.

Be the person who gathers people together.

Be the person who gets children to giggle on an airplane.

Be the person who knows how to say “hello” and “thank you” in 10 different languages.

Be the person who gets that you probably don’t know their whole story.

Be the person who steps in when things don’t seem right.

Be the person who surprises people with little moments of joy.

Be the person who always carries a pen and a tissue to offer to others who need it.

Be the person who pauses to offer a sincere and memorable “thank you.”

Be the person who connects and gathers more than almost anyone else.

Handshakes... Change The World

WATCH THIS VIDEO.

Down with “the man!”

Tear down this wall!

We will not be oppressed!

Our revolution will not be denied!

When we were building the concept of Social Excellence, it felt like we were starting an uprising, a revolution, a movement. We often use language like that in our training and talks. It feels like that more and more each day. Our world needs HUMAN CONNECTION now more than ever. Our world is far too crowded with strangers. Our world needs you to gather people together now more than ever.

But what are we revolting against? Who is our enemy? What is the shared problem that we’re trying to solve?

For us, our core cause has always been to HELP GROUPS GROW — because groups of committed people change the world. But here’s the problem… Groups are dying. Our society is trending toward social isolation. Online media is part of that problem, but it goes deeper. Community organizations, service groups, religious groups — too many are shrinking and dying. This trend has shown up over the last couple of decades especially, and we need to stop it.

Our world has been shaped by “small groups of thoughtful committed citizens” (thanks Margaret Mead). Everything we’ve created as a species has come from groups of people who have gathered together. When we bring people together around the causes that matter to us, we have the power to change things.

This video, which we didn’t create — we just added to — tells part of that story.

So, join us in a revolution against SOCIAL ISOLATION. Help us bring people together. More people gathered together around important causes can change the world. This is what Social Excellence is all about. This is why we shake hands, have conversations, build relationships, and collaborate — so that we can organize, change the world, and matter.

Let the revolution continue.