You're standing over the stove, adding some more garlic and basil to your marinara sauce.  You dip in a spoon and pass it over for a taste to your spouse, partner, puppy, roommate, best friend, or stranger off the street upon whom you try out new recipes.

And you ask the most critical of all survey questions: So?

And based on their feedback you tweak the sauce until it is ready to serve.

It used to be difficult to share prototypes of products or drafts of documents with others, but that's no longer the case.  Yet too often we still work like the Wizard of Oz, toiling away behind the curtain and only revealing the final product to our loyal subjects.

That should change.

We ask people to test drive a new web site design, so why don't we ask them to test drive the proposed schedule for the upcoming leadership conference?  As part of a volunteer task I accepted, each month ASAE's Associations Now magazine staff sends me a 5-minute survey assessing the appeal of various article titles and descriptions.  It's a fun creative break for me, it hopefully provides useful input to the editorial and design teams, and it makes me rethink some of the language I use in my own writing efforts.

Technology makes it easy to share works in progress and to rapidly get feedback from a broad range of people who ultimately with vote with their feet and their wallets on the value of our creation.  Web sites abound that no nothing more than offer consumer reviews about products.

The old adage is that people support what they help create. Being asked to provide input is a small invitation to be a part of the creative process.  As author Patrick Lencioni has said, "Weighing in is often the prerequisite for buying in."

So let's draw on others' unique perspectives, invite their perceptions and feedback, and refine our efforts accordingly.  We're asking for their voice, not their vote, so the ultimate choices you make about a program or service aren't necessarily tied to the feedback you receive.  What input you get, however, is likely to positively inform the final choices you make and how you introduce any changes or new initiatives to your stakeholders.

Jeffrey Cufaude has given me more good ideas with his Wednesday What If feature than I can remember. I've got an opportunity this year to serve as a technology advisor to the District Governor in my Toastmasters district. Here's a great reminder before I even get started of an effective way to make change, at least to get started.

Announcing worldwide-meet-the-tribe-of-Linchpins day on June 14, 2010. In as many as 500 cities worldwide, here's your chance to find some folks just like you.

One of the first linchpins I ever knew was my 3rd grade teacher. His daughter was born on flag day, and for some reason, I've never forgotten that. So in her honor, it's Linchpin day on June 14.

Here's a simple, fast and free way to find other Seth fans in your community. Meet other people who talk about this blog, read the books and want to make an impact on the universe. Find people who ship.

This one-time worldwide meetup lets you either volunteer to run your local in-person, non-virtual, face-to-face group meeting (in a bookstore, cafe or greenhouse) or merely join one. The page is simple. Find a city or add one. If the city needs an organizer, volunteer if you like. It's very lightweight, free and it might just work.

Chemistry happens when people interact...

Have fun!

... Are you interested in organizing and/or participating in a linchpin gathering within D27? I know we have fans of Seth Godin within Toastmasters. These are people who fight the typical lizzard-brain responces of merely paying dues and simply showing up at their clubs' meetings. Linchpins matter. Linchpins get things done.

... Who are the folks within our district that keep it going (present company excluded for I know how much you've contributed to extending Dr. Ralph Smedley's dream).

received a Member Get a Member pitch in the mail yesterday, exhorting me to get people to join one of my professional associations.  Doing so I was told would register me to win prizes and have my named added to the Wall of Recruiters.  Not a single line of text used any appeal other than the competitive aspect of participating in the campaign and the possibility of extrinsic rewards.

It didn't speak to me at all.

That's not to say that the chance of winning prizes or being honored as one of the top recruiters wouldn't attract others.  But too often we appeal only to the competitive motivator and forget an equally powerful enticement for many others: making a contribution.

I'm not exciting about chalking up new members for fame and prizes, but I do believe in sharing with others the value I've received from belonging to this particular association and in growing the community of professionals it serves.  By not attempting to tap into that intrinsic motivation, this association lost out in two ways: (1) it did not get me to engage in any new member recruitment, and (2) it failed to remind me of why I am still a member myself.

Instead its marketing efforts left me feeling as if I was being solicited to turn into a late-night pitchman on QVC, hawking that extra special value deal, but only if you respond in the next two hours.  I doubt ... at least I hope ... that's not what was intended.

Toastmasters take notice. I like the QVC allusion; my usual comparison is to feeling like a PBS pitchman.

There is an inextricable link between leadership and communication. Leaders are the ones who can clearly communicate their vision. And the ones who can clearly communicate their vision are the ones who can lead.

You do not have to be the smartest guy in the room to be the leader. In fact, it is widely accepted by many historians that two of the smartest men to hold the presidency in recent history, the guys with the highest IQ, were Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon. Yet, Ronald Reagan, regardless if you agreed with his politics or not, went down in history for having been one of the most popular presidents of all time. He inspired a nation, presided over the booming ‘80s and was responsible for winning the Cold War. He was not known as one of our smartest presidents -- he was known, instead, as “The Great Communicator.”

Follow the link for more analysis and examples.

Chris Brogan says convincingly that the purpose and promise of social media is to "help everyone around you" and he gives some pretty good examples. I've been disappointed to see Toastmasters letting social media tools go pretty much unused as they get more introverted. The organization and members alike seem to be taking a narrower focus and remain pretty much apart from community issues. How about you? How do you think Toastmasters could get more active in their communities? What do you think the benefits would be?