Increase Member Retention Through Personal Connections

In this video, I'm going to introduce you to a teacher out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who did a super unique thing to individually bond with every student in his classroom with results that are drastically going to improve the community within his classroom. But those same results can be achieved within the community that you run to engage your people or the organization that you're a part of with it. Let's get into it. Barry White Jr. Is a middle school teacher out of Charlotte, North Carolina. I don't know if you know Barry White. Not the singer Barry White, but the teacher Barry White. And Barry White did this unique thing with every student. He learned to create a secret handshake with every student that came into his classroom. His video was recorded, went viral all over the Internet. Take a look at a little bit of it here. Barry White's action of creating a secret handshake with every student in his class has mind blowing results to achieve the type of community and the culture that he wants within his classroom. In dance floor theory, we talk about some outcomes that help us to create a culture of connection to increase productivity, retention and engagement within our teams and organizations. And Barry White's handshake strategy has three major outcomes to help increase the community within his classroom. The very first one, it shows that as leaders, it is so important for us to know as many of our people as possible on a personal level. Have some kind of personal bond with them. Show them that you care enough about them that you're willing to do a secret handshake. Now, Robin Dunbar is a famous anthropologist who came up with a thing called the Dunbar number. The Dunbar number was based on how many social connections can one person hold in their prefrontal before it's too many? The number is somewhere between 140 to 270, which is a wide range. But the key lesson for here as us as leaders is that we have to understand at some point when our community's small, we should absolutely know every single member in that community and they should know us. In dance floor theory. Lesson number one of Dance Floor theory says the more friends you have on a dance, the more fun that dance is going to be and the longer it's going to last. That social connection that Barry White Jr. Made with his students has long lasting value within the culture of his classroom. The second major outcome of his secret handshake is he became the door greeter for his community. In dance floor theory, we talk about as soon as someone comes onto your dance floor that no one knows or you don't know, there should Be someone there that helps connect them to the community, that helps bridge the gap between I don't know anyone, to building some social connections. And lastly, the third, it sets the tone for the culture in the classroom. I guarantee that those students walk into that classroom feeling a little bit more alive, knowing that that teacher on the outside cares them, did that secret handshake, got it right, and then now they go into the classroom for the learning lesson. Now take this concept, though, and move it off of a classroom, move it off of a dance floor, and go to your team, go to your community. The results of building these social connections, having a door greeter that helps build more social connections, and setting the tone for your community have massive results. Gallup research says that when there's social connections within a team or organization, the productivity goes up. Harvard Business Review says that when there's social connections, the retention rate goes up. And MIT Labs found that when there's social connections and people feel connected into the culture, into the team, that the team collaboration is higher. Massive results for your team, your organization, and your community. And all of this comes together at the end to build what we call here at swiftkick, building a culture of connection where everyone feels welcome, everyone feels connected, and everyone feels engaged. So go out there, channel your inner Barry White Jr. And create your own secret handshake with every member of your team. And watch results be exponentially beneficial for your team, your organization, your community. My name's Tom. I'm here to help you, to engage your people. See you in the next video.