Was My PCP Mixer an Actual In-Person Training?

by | Sep 22, 2022 | Learning and Development, PCP Mixer | 0 comments

My September thought I’ve been obsessing over is whether my PCP Mixer last month actually was a training. Was it too relaxed of an environment? Did the training really change behavior and improve performance?

My 3 objectives:

  1. PCPs know what house district they are in and bond with their fellow house district PCPs
  2. PCPs sign up for a committee
  3. PCPs can ask questions about being a PCP

For the first objective I asked all the PCPs what their house districts are. The majority didn’t know their house districts. But is KNOWING the house district number a good measurement of behavior change or is it just education? One of the trade school coaches advised me to edit my objectives to the SMART criteria.

My objectives aren’t SMART. Let’s change the first one.

  1. PCPs know what house district they are in and bond with their fellow house district PCPs

The first objective is 2 objectives in one. I also don’t really know how to measure bonding. I think I may be able to measure bonding by how many PCPs sign up for a committee because when a person feels like a relationship has been established s/he doesn’t want to let his/her team down. Therefore, s/he would do what’s asked and sign up for a committee right? This information is in “Groudbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America” by Elizabeth McKenna and Hahrie Han.

The first objective should be PCPs know what house district they are in. Why is this important? Well, it’s important because that HD number let’s them know who their house captain is and which PCPs are in their area.

  • Specific: 95% of PCPs know their house district when asked
  • Measurable: Record their responses when asked “What is your house district?” at each PCP Mixer for the next year
  • Attainable: Improve upon Aug 2022 performance with 78% increase through repetitive asking and online Orientation Training
    • How I came up with 78%
      • Aug 2022: there were 44 PCPs that knew their HD, total of 260* PCPs in our county at the time. 44/260= 16.9% rounded up to 17%
      • 95%-17%=78%
      • 95% of 260 PCPs is 247 PCPs**
      • *Only 58 of the 260 showed up to the Mixer so I’m assuming the people that didn’t show up, don’t know their house districts.
      • **Now there are 265 PCPs in our county (9/22/2022) but to simplify measurement when creating this goal, I chose 260.
  • Relevant: House District number is how a PCP knows who her/his House Captain is, who her/his state legislators are, which voters to contact, and which PCPs are in his/her area to volunteer with.
  • Time-based: Set specific percentage targets for each quarter in 2023

SMART Objective #1: We will increase PCPs knowledge of their house district number by 78% in 2023, exceeding our 2022 performance by advertising the online Orientation Training and repetitive asking at PCP Mixers. This increase will improve a PCPs’ knowledge of who her/his House Captain is, who her/his state legislators are, which voters to contact, and which PCPs are in his/her area to volunteer with. We will complete this objective by setting specific percentage targets for each quarter in 2023.

That’s a whole heck of a lot longer and more thorough than my first objective attempt! That objective also seems more daunting as 78% is a huge increase. However, I’m ok with setting my expectations high.

I don’t think I need to include bonding in the first objective. I can use that for objective #2’s (PCPs sign up for a committee) relevance: Committing to a volunteer committee means the PCP feels like a relationship has been established so her/his GOP county participation will increase because s/he won’t want to let his/her team down.

About the Author
<h5>Lauren Kristensen</h5>
Lauren Kristensen

Lauren Kristensen is the owner of Kristensen Designs Inc. She started out as a news producer in 2018. She quickly learned it didn't matter how important the news was, all that mattered was how entertaining it was. For example, high speed car chases, car wrecks, building fires, etc. deserved more attention than state legislative bills or local special elections. Lauren decided she didn't agree with this hierarchy and wanted to focus more on education. She believes helping the individual reach his/her full potential through learning and development is the way to go.

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