Tom KrieglsteinFounder, Global Keynote Speaker, Swift Kick Leadership · Founder and Award-Winning Keynote Speaker at Swift Kick Leadership

Speaker Success: The Lunch Lady Joined the Program

Name: Speaker Success: The Lunch Lady Joined the Program
Uploaded: 2025-06-05T22:29:16+00:00
Duration: 1 min 2 s
Channel: Tom Krieglstein
Description: In this brief YouTube monologue, Tom Krieglstein (of Swift Kick) recounts a memorable moment from a program at Queensborough Community College where a…

5 Jun 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:02

In this brief YouTube monologue, Tom Krieglstein (of Swift Kick) recounts a memorable moment from a program at Queensborough Community College where a food‑service worker, instead of merely delivering meals, stayed to fully participate in the event. The anecdote illustrates his "Dance Floor theory," specifically the saying, "change the bus driver's attitude, change the whole bus's attitude," which posits that influencing a single individual who interacts with many can shift the mood of an entire community. Krieglstein uses this story to advise program organizers to identify and engage such key community influencers—"bus drivers"—so their positive attitudes cascade throughout the group. He closes with an upbeat call to action, urging viewers to "get on that dance floor" and apply the principle in their own community work.

Chapters

It's pretty common to have food service people be in the background at my programs. And I remember at one particular program at Queensborough Community College, there's this one food service person who came in, set the food down, but instead of leaving, she actually stayed and fully participated. She loved the program, and it warmed my heart that she was so engaged in the program, because I know she sees tons of programs. But then I thought about it. In. In Dance Floor theory, we have a phrase that says, change the bus driver's attitude, change the whole bus's attitude. Meaning if you've changed the attitude of an individual who's going to impact or connect with a ton of other people throughout the day, then you not only impacted that one person, you actually impacted the entire bus of people. So when you're doing programming for your community, think about who are the bus drivers, engage them, and watch their positive attitude trickle out to the rest of the community. This is Tom from Swift Kick reminding you to get on that dance floor.