Subscribe to the Immersive1st newsletter for new openings and smart job search tips. Hiring? The next issue will show how your organization can reach the right candidates.
What does your camp culture look like?
|
Want a crystal-clear look at a camp’s culture? Simple. Watch closely happens when the camp’s leader unexpectedly gets called out of a staff meeting early. Day camps, sleepaway camps, Y Camps, JCCs, you name it. Pattern is the same. When the leader has to leave the room, the camp culture reveals itself immediately. Liberty LakeIt’s easy to see exactly how this runs at the best camps. For instance, Andy at Liberty Lake Day Camp in New Jersey runs his morning staff meeting at 8 a.m. Consider a scenario where minutes before it ends, something urgent pulls him away. What would happen? Someone naturally steps up. The agenda keeps moving. The group maintains energy and focus. When Andy returns, the meeting wraps smoothly, and everyone heads out ready for the day. That’s not luck. That’s culture. When people know their roles, trust each other, and carry the mission forward even when “the boss” isn’t in the room, well, that’s where this all starts. The Three Possible OutcomesWhen a leader walks out mid-meeting, three macro things can happen: Outcome 1: The meeting continues on. The best-case scenario and what should be happening everywhere. Someone takes the lead. Group stays engaged. Trust and clear expectations are the building blocks here. Outcome 2: Everyone freezes. People look around a little (or a lot), unsure what to do. The meeting fizzles. Here, there’s a bit too much dependence and not enough initiative. Outcome 3: People disengage. Group jokes or complaints rise up. Or the worst case? They make fun of the person who just left. This means things are getting toxic. Outcome 1 is the ideal scenario, obviously, and what’s happening at the best camps. But the other two are on the table when the hiring process falls down even a little bit. Culture isn’t what’s discussed in staff training. It’s what happens when camp leaders have to take a five-minute break to handle something important. Why This Matters for HiringThrough every step of the hiring process, though especially during Step 1 discovery and Step 2 candidate evaluation, we’re considering things through this lens. When we visit a camp, we’re watching for these moments. Not the prepared tour or polished presentations. The unscripted reactions. How staff handle unexpected changes. What happens when leadership isn’t directing every move? When we evaluate candidates, we’re asking: Will this person build an empowered culture? Can and do they create environments where people take initiative, or do they centralize every decision? Are they all about the behaviors they want to see repeated? Culture is hard to define, but pretty easy to see and feel. Great culture starts by treating hiring with this reality in mind. And the test is simple: what happens when someone leaves the room? The answer tells you everything. Sincerely, Senior Consultant at Immersive1st Learn more about Immersive1st's Approach |
Immersive1st
Subscribe to the Immersive1st newsletter for new openings and smart job search tips. Hiring? The next issue will show how your organization can reach the right candidates.
We dropped both of my daughters at camp last week. The 10-year-old was going for the first time. The 13-year-old was going for summer number three. If you asked last week which one would have more nerves, would have said the 10-year-old. Everything was new for her. Not quite. The returner was a bit more nervous. She was getting her last texts in with her home friends. Running through in her head whether the camp friends would still feel the same as last summer. Working the nerves out loud in...
Do you know how car insurance rates drop when you turn 25? Why that’s the moment an insurance company decides you are a fully formed adult who can drive a car safely enough to not charge you an arm and a leg? It is worth thinking about this when you are looking at your staff. That drop is not arbitrary. The actuarial nerds at the insurance company are not guessing. They have decades of crash data showing the brain piloting the car at 21 is meaningfully different from the brain piloting the...
Camp is humming along. Summer is cooking. And in the run of play, a staff member comes to you and asks for feedback on their performance. They want to know what they could be doing better. Great! This is the moment camp directors always say they want. And they believe it when they say it. Wrote a while back about the complaint that comes up most from camp staff. They never get any feedback. So when one of them walks up and asks for it directly, you, of course, oblige. Sit them down. Name what...