{ outreach in action } & Outreach Director
Picking Your Seat P
icking your seat may be one of life’s most underrated skills. Just think about how often you enter some as- sembly of people and are faced with the delicate decision of selecting where you will nest for the next period of time.
Movie theaters are a prime example. Do you want a middle seat for balanced viewing? Do you want an aisle seat for extra leg room and an easy exit? Is your choice driven by a desire to avoid being near the drink slurper or the loud talker who thinks they’re whispering? Is there any more anxious feeling than walking down the airplane aisle holding a random middle seat ticket for a three hour flight? Perhaps you’ve been burned by spending big money for a vacation tour only to wind up with a seat on the opposite side of the boat from the lone whale sighting. When you at- tend a frequented event like church, are you put off when someone (perhaps a new visitor, egad!) has taken your carefully crafted spot? What about banquets or wedding receptions where there’s a seating chart? Do you flinch when you see the names of your table mates? Are you flattered or insulted by your distance from the podium? And let’s not forget dental meetings and CE lectures! Do you drift to- ward the back row or look for a familiar, safe face to share the time with?
One might argue that the quality of your experience in any of these settings is directly related to where you sit. Why is this such a universal feeling? Is it because it starts way back in grade school when finding some- one to sit with at lunch was paramount to survival? What lingering insecurities do we carry over into adulthood? Why are we still choosing our seats so carefully and why are we quick to see someone different or difficult and exclaim, “This seat is taken!”?
It may feel overused but the phrase “having a seat at the table” is so powerful because it strikes at the basic human need for inclusion.
26 focus | JAN/FEB 2020 | ISSUE 1
You can’t have the good experience unless you are at the table, and you can’t improve a lackluster experience unless you have seat to discuss and persuade.
You might say MDA membership is one big exercise in seat selection. We want you at the table and we want you to enjoy and improve the experience. For any voluntary member- ship organization, that starts with making an attractive offering that benefits you and your profession. Once you have a member’s seat, you then have access to select seats in a wide range of settings—from local leader- ship roles, to special issues like fluoridation, to new developments like teledentistry. We invite you to sit at legislative opportu- nities that impact your future. There are board room seats and House of Delegates seats and even poolside seats at events like Connect4Success! I encourage you to explore and look for new seats in 2020.
Just like airplanes and banquets and movie theaters, there’s a risk in choosing seats at MDA functions. No matter the years or the number of degrees, we all are human and fear rejection. We still can be intimidated in new surroundings. Encountering something
foreign to us like a different practice model or a different cultural or generational experi- ence might make us blurt out, “This seat is taken!” Perhaps you’ve had a less-than-stellar experience after finding the courage to pick a seat? It’s hard to get back in the saddle and test yourself by stretching beyond your known comforts to understand the positions of others.
As MDA Outreach Director, I’m acutely aware of these dynamics. No one ever uses language like “I picked the right seat,” but I can readily spot unity and energy at events. Members are enjoying each other as much as the purpose of the gathering. Likewise it’s easy to detect divisions based on age, gender, race or practice model. These are rarely intentional; they just reflect our human tendency toward comfort and familiarity. I find myself challenged to relate when I speak to dental students who are nearly a third my age or walk into a component meeting where I only know a handful of members. However, a simple smile or handshake goes a long way in overcoming the awkwardness of finding a seat. This is why almost every positive mem- ber testimonial starts with “so and so invited
