The main reason people cease their training, no matter what they may tell you, is the perceived indifference of their instructor. If they do not know we care and if they do not understand our values, we do not have the foundation in place to help them change their minds. Without that foundation, it is almost impossible to intervene in a positive way.

Our database continues to show potential as being a valuable tool to help us improve our retention by helping us maintain connection with our students and their parents throughout their training. It is my goal to develop a report to track our communication with each of our students (and their parents) to ensure that the lines of communication are always open and that we are being proactive, as opposed to reactive, in dealing with crisis and miscommunication. This yet to be developed communication protocol tracking and report will kick in after the student has been with us for two months. Up to that two month point, our existing 2-4-6 Contacts report is already in place to ensure those earlier contacts are executed and tracked.

The main thing holding us up in developing a career-long communication tracking system is our own failure to comply with our existing 2-4-6 contact responsibilities. There is no sense in creating another tool as an add on if the exiting tool that we hope to add on to requires further refinement.

The 2-4-6 Contacts is a tool we implemented to help foster our relationship with our students and their parents. Nothing says you care more than reaching out to a person to ensure we are meeting their needs. Much more powerful than reaching out to them after we have already let them down.

Communicating with parents has never been easy. Even when they were in the Kwoon for their kids’ classes, most of them were not paying attention and the majority of the announcements went right past them without comprehension. To make matters even more difficult, it was hard for us not to confuse their attendance with our engagement with them. Just because they were in the Kwoon does not mean we ever reached them or even engaged with them. Direct, personal contact is the best way to engage and communicate.

I hope I can convince everyone that effort is not the same as accomplishment. Obviously effort is required to achieve an accomplishment but it does not guarantee it. I know most of us are taking care of our 2-4-6 contacts by reaching out to the parents and students but reaching out is not the same as contacting. What we seem to be missing is follow through. In other words, we can’t just leave it as an attempt to contact, we need to follow up and try again and again until we are successful. Text is great because we are creating the documentation as we go. But if text and email are not working, a phone call is required. If you leave a message for them to call you back and they do not, another phone call or parking lot conversation is required. Our goal is to turn a red dominated 2-4-6 report into a green dominated 2-4-6 report.

Once we get our 2-4-6 calls sorted out, I will finish the development of an ongoing tracking system. In the meantime, let’s not waste time discussing the efficacy of the 2-4-6 Contacts until after we are 100% compliant with our responsibilities.

Jeff Brinker