On August 22nd, my wife, Mary, and I welcomed a healthy baby girl, Ava Grace, into our family.
Welcoming a child into the world provides some amazing perspective and introspection on the little things in life that matter, especially in a year like 2020. As I sat in the hospital holding Ava through our first sleepless night (because the nursery was closed due to COVID), I couldn’t help but stare at the whiteboard in our room that was the hospital’s way of communicating with us. This whiteboard was the “playbook” for my wife and me. It had my wife’s name, the date, the nurse’s name, the PSA’s name, the doctor’s name, your baby’s doctor’s name, the meds you have been prescribed, and your goals for the day. At the bottom of this board was a statement that I couldn’t stop staring at for my entire stay. “Our goal is to provide very good care and timely discharge.”
Maybe it was my sleep deprivation, but I wondered why not use the word excellent or exceptional instead of just “very good.” Very good to me feels like they are just trying to do the bare minimum. When you pair that phrase with a timely discharge, then it really feels like they want to get you out as soon as possible by doing the least amount possible. Fortunately, the care we received was excellent and it made me realize that the nurses didn’t write this, but instead the executives that have no interaction with the patients or their employees in the trenches. When I asked the nurses and doctors about it, they laughed. They said, “Wow, we’ve never paid attention to that and it has probably been on the wall for 10-15 years!”
I mention this whiteboard in the hospital because little things do matter, and words matter. It makes me proud that our leadership team, Board of Directors, and staff at Columbus REALTORS® will never settle to be very good. We want to be exceptional. We want to hear from those of you that are in the trenches every day and we want to set policies and standards that we all sign off on.
As Columbus REALTORS® faces the reality that most of our services and meetings are going to be online for the remainder of this year, we must adapt to try to serve our members. Fortunately, we are in the middle of a strategic planning update year, led by our President-Elect Michael Jones, and the input we have received from members via a survey is indicative that our membership wants to be heard. We had over 20 percent of our members respond to the strategic plan survey! Normally we get 6-7 percent participation.
Additionally, we have convened a Governance Task Force that is currently working on over 25+ items to update and provide recommendations to our Board of Directors to improve our governance process, including having our by-laws reviewed and updated.
2020 may be one of the most unpredictable years ever, but with the birth of a new child, I’m reminded of the saying in What About Bob? “Baby Steps.” As Dr. Leo Martin (Richard Dreyfuss) tells Bob (Bill Murray), “It means setting small, reasonable goals for yourself. One day at a time, one tiny step at a time – doable, accomplishable goals.”
We at Columbus REALTORS® will continue to adapt, change, and improve – one step at a time. However, we can only be as good as the volunteers that choose to serve and our members that choose to share their ideas to help us improve. With “Baby steps” we are and will be Better Together.
