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In January, Mark Taylor, Executive Director of BNI Houston East/Southeast Texas, began implementing what has become known as the Fast Track program in BNI. We sat down with Mark recently to learn more about what Fast Track is and why it's working.

What is Fast Track all about?

Mark: The BNI fundamentals and how to get the most out of your BNI experience.  It's about knowing the basics and how to make them work for you.

Why did you need Fast Track?

I needed a simple, effective, and quick way to get everyone in my region on the same page; I could tell members were missing the fundamentals. The more successfully we recruited members, the more difficult it became. To be effective, I needed everyone on the same page.

You have an analogy you like to use when you talk about Fast Track. Tell us about it.

I use the analogy of a baseball team needing to know the rules of the game before you play.  How can you expect to win if you have a poor understanding of the basic rules of play? And our objective is to win.

So how does Fast Track play into this?

Fast Track is like pressing "the easy button" for educating members and chapters.  Once everyone knows the rules, then they are prepared for success.  That's why we are seeing double the referrals and visitors.  And, more importantly, there's a sense of team spirit!  And the head coach training them is none other than Dr. Ivan Misner!

What's required of your members?

We ask everyone to come to the game with their own glove. For us the glove is BNI Networking Secrets. Part of equipping yourself for success in our region is to own your own glove, so to speak. When everyone has their own glove, the entire chapter is in the dugout with the head coach at the same time, learning how to play the game to win. When this happens, it all begins to make sense for the players.

How many baseball games have you seen where the players share a glove?

How is Fast Track working for your region?

Way better than we ever thought. It's tremendous.

Why?

For any program to be effective it has to have three ingredients: simplicity, affordability, and transferability. This program has all three. I have more time to run the region while my members are getting trained, on their time, by the head coach.  Right now, as we speak, someone is listening to Ivan coach them on the fundamentals, probably for the fourth or fifth time. But that's the nature of the fundamentals: repetition, repetition, repetition.

What are some of the results you've seen?

Energy - everybody is excited because they understand the rules of the game. For some of them, even those who have been in BNI for a while, they understand it like never before.

One of the most important concepts Ivan talks about is the fact it really takes a year or more to see the results from your BNI membership. This has done so much to overcome the frustration new members have - many of whom think, Well, this is working for you, but not for me. That one piece of coaching has made a huge difference.

What else?

Numbers. When the entire team knows the rules, then the game becomes fun and naturally produces more runs - more referrals. And it produces greater morale and more visitors. Everything you are looking for improves. That's what we're experiencing.

What's one thing that really surprised you that you weren't expecting?

I'm surprised that something as basic as the fundamentals has such an energizing effect on my chapters. The instruction manual for any product is usually not something we tear into. The BNI fundamentals are really our instruction manual. I think hearing the coaching from Dr. Misner and Tom Fleming is what has gotten everyone energized.  They've really put the fun in the fundamentals!

Dr. Misner said in Milwaukee that "shared values are necessary for peak performance"--and that's what this series does for chapters.



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