Sunday, July 4, 2021
By:
This week involved analyzing a lot of different people in a lot of different ways. Now I know that sounds a bit snobby or judgemental but hear me out. For the work I am doing on combating scientific misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, it was my job this week to analyze all the responses we got on our interest survey. I analyzed which of our members responded, their levels of interest, their motivations for interest, their perspectives, their concerns, and their potential for future involvement. While to many of the physics students who might be reading this blog entry (and by many I mean like, the 5) this type of work may not sound very exciting or interesting, this is something I love doing. I have stated previously that I have a passion for serving others. It is through understanding others that you are able to determine how best to serve them. That is why I find this work particularly rewarding. I am able to take the time and effort to complete the tedious task of profiling each individual respondent in order to better understand how we can serve our members through this initiative, which is something that is often overlooked in large organizations due to limited resources. However, it is an incredibly important step. For example, in analyzing these responses I was able to develop suggestions on how to move forward with this initiative in a more member-oriented way, addressing concerns of uncertainty and lack of training, and in a way that will better prepare us and our members for future endeavors.
I have also been continuing work on analyzing our social media platforms and online communities to try and better understand how we can engage and serve our members there. I have been doing a deep dive into how followers interact with us and with each other, where they come from, and what they are looking to gain as a result of engaging on these platforms. Once again, I have been reminded of the importance of truly understanding your audience (or stakeholders) before trying to serve them. There is nothing worse than a product that nobody asked for and nobody wants that you put a couple hundred hours and several thousand dollars into producing.
Finally, I have also been in a position to analyze the “members” of my own life and to reflect on how to best serve the relationships that surround me. It has been a tough time for my family and balancing work responsibilities, and I have been learning how to take what I know about the perspectives and experiences of different people in my life to best communicate with them the type of support I need as well as the type of support I can provide them. By understanding how others communicate and receive information and feedback, I have found these difficult conversations to be going much more smoothly. Finding the most straightforward path to effective communication for each person I talk to has enabled me to be there for my family, lean on the friends who have my back, and sort through the stresses of work. So I guess my takeaway from this week is to listen and reflect. Do not take for granted casual communication and think about how you can improve your skills and lessen your stressors by considering the perspectives and priorities of people in your life - with friends, family, and colleagues.
And, as always
Stay curious, everyone
Hannah Wistrand