And the Survey Says..

When I was young  I thought it would be fun for my family to go onto the Family Feud. I often would sit around at my Nana’s when a group was gathered and strategically plan who should actually go (you could only pick five family members) and where each family member should stand. It was rare, but not out of the question, for a six year old girl to be on a family’s team. The rarity of this didn’t discourage me. I knew my combination of wits, sass and cuteness would win over any skeptical viewers at home.  I mean, my goodness, it’s not like it was Jeopardy or something. Even at the age of six I knew enough to be able to take a good guess at what the 100 people in the studio audience would answer for questions. For instance “We’ve polled 100 people in our studio audience and asked them what is the first thing they do in the morning.” “Eat breakfast.” Hmm, “Eat breakfast. Survey Says?...Eat breakfast, that’s our number one answer. My word! And you’re only six years old? How did you come up with that?”

Of course there were some drawbacks to going on the Family Feud in the late 1970s. First of all, there was Richard Dawson. While I think my Nana and my Auntie Arlene would do some fake swooning over him, I couldn’t really deal with the possibility that he would make me kiss him. Sure, he was a former member of Hogan’s Heroes. And sure, I enjoyed his wit on The Match Game(yes at six years old I did enjoy the Match Game, what’s it to ya?). And sure millions of other ladies kissed him, but yuck. I wasn’t quite up for it. Also, Family Feud was filmed in Burbank California, I lived in Malden, Massachusetts. Even for a great people organizer like young Aimee Decker, getting the whole crew out to Burbank seemed a bit much for a six year old to orchestrate. And for what? Auntie Sue all but admitted that she would ditch Richard Dawson for Bob Barker any day. I couldn’t get all the way to Cali only to find Auntie bidding $1.00 on an orange plaid couch on the Price is Right.

But, how I loved those Family Feud surveys….

Which three hundred words later brings me to the point of this blog. Surveys! About ten years ago Mike and I were convinced by a rather talented salesman that we needed a new freezer. I had immediate buyer’s remorse, but Mike never did. The freezer sat in our tiny Connecticut house taking up about 500 of the 550 square feet of living space. My friend Renate had come for a visit and pointed out the bright side. “You have this giant white magnetic freezer in your house. It’s like a blank palette.” (we were in an artistic phase, Renate and I). That was just the right thing to say to me. What does this have to do with surveys you might wonder?

We’ve had some changes at school and in a lot of ways it’s like the freezer. The changes seemed big and overwhelming at times, but as a staff we decided we could look at it like an empty palette. (Well we never put that into those exact words, because I never shared my freezer analogy. Who has time for pep talks and analogies?! We’ve got a palette to fill).  It was really important that everyone’s voice was heard and so enters our friend Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is a free tool that allows you to create surveys and email them to the people you need to question.  Here’s a sampling of some of the surveys I have created,   “Shoes or slippers”, “Yea Another Survey”, “HMS Holidaze Fun Party,” etc. And yes, those are clever titles, thanks for noticing.

Over the past five months the survey situation has become a bit of a joke around the water cooler. Well, we don’t have a water cooler as we took a survey about it and agreed that 1. We can’t afford one and 2. We think it’s not the most environmentally conscious thing to do. We drink from the tap. However, we find other areas around school to mock our own survey use. We may be a little excessive with our surveys, but without them we’d have to start making fun of each other and that's not very Montessori of us.

Seriously though, the surveys are as one teacher put it “our little experiment with democracy.”  We want everyone to have a voice and speak their mind, but some people aren’t comfortable just saying what they feel. They are worried it will offend others, or be held against them, or that what they have to say isn’t important. And though we all are very supportive of each other, it’s a process. The surveys seem like a good step in a process with the eventual goal that people will be comfortable speaking their minds.

Right now we have three surveys going, two are about our upcoming holiday party and one is about a calendar date change. As the designer of each survey I try to balance professionalism with having some fun. For instance, the gift exchange question has several options including white elephant, yankee swap, secret santa and no gift exchange. I know that people who don’t like gift exchanges REALLY feel strongly about that, so I went ahead and made that choice say “Please! No gift exchange-ugh!” But when I go back and analyze the survey results I get offended. Like “Wow! They did not have to be that adamant about it. Geez.”

 Similarly, I gave another option in our party survey that I really don’t like and it is the one that will most likely win. I’m all hot and bothered by it, too. Then I remember I put that option there in the first place. I also remember that this party is about us, not about me. Furthermore, I can take the survey from several different devices in my home and get the results I want! Ha! Just kidding. I am only kidding. Now someone will probably put out a survey as to whether or not they believe that I was just kidding here.

Our business manager asked me today if we would be using Elfster if the Secret Santa option wins. (Elfster another website that brings me great joy, is designed especially for the Secret Santa players of the world. It’s so great, it draws names for you, stores wishlists and lets you leave hints.) Anyway she asked if we would draw names via Elfster or if we would just do them manually, like pull them out of a hat. She then, of course, joked that we should take a survey as to whether or not we should use Elfster. Har Har Har.

There’s so much talk about communication nowadays and people’s struggles with face to face conversations, discussions and relationships. I have some really strong feelings about this and am sometimes concerned that I am perpetuating this unhealthy barrier system by not saving things for discussion at a staff meeting. Logistically, however, tools like online surveys are great ways to make sure everyone gets input and the results are all gathered in one place. They are also great when decisions need to be made in a timely matter. I guess like most things (with the exclusion of cookies, Brady Bunch episodes, and Matt Damon), surveys should be used in moderation.  What do you think? Click on the link below and let me know!

Take the survey at ww.iamtotallykiddingdontclickhere.comm