One picture is worth...

I was emailing with a leader of another paddling club about setting up a joint event for our organizations. That concluded, I complimented her on what a fine club she runs. She said that she was just about to say the same thing to me and wondered what I keyed on when I made the assessment of her group.

I went through the metrics you’d normally employ (events, members, growth rate, participation in board discussions, etc.) and asked the same question of her. There was a pause before she replied. “I was going to say I looked at your event photos, but that seems like a silly answer, now.”

Not really. A few years ago, I was approached by a PhD candidate working on her dissertation. She asked if I’d be willing to fill out an extensive questionnaire about our club. The gist was that she was researching photo analysis and wanted to compare results she’d draw from looking at our event shots to the answers to her questions. In exchange for my time, she would share the results.

That sounded interesting, so I asked what tools this entailed. She ran down a list that included body language, distances between people, facial expressions and a few other variables. Correctly anticipating my next question, she said it wouldn’t matter that some of the shots are posed. The analysis accounts for that and there are things we reveal anyway. She addressed another concern, saying that names were unnecessary, so there would be no violation of privacy.

I was a little dubious, but curious nonetheless. I agreed to do it and sent her a link to my photo web site, as she had requested. A few weeks later, I received her questionnaire. “Extensive” didn’t begin to describe it.

A couple months later, she sent the results. Surprisingly (to me), she had been amazingly accurate. She identified where relationships existed and their type and intensity. She zeroed in on who were the leaders, catalysts, issues people, introverts, class clowns, etc. While some of this may seem obvious, she put her finger on many things that wouldn’t be. Even where she appeared to be wrong, I found myself considering that maybe she wasn’t.

So, I told my fellow group leader her answer wasn’t silly. In fact, it was probably quite perceptive.