Tobi's Volunteer Management Blog

How This Book Changed My Life: And Not in the Way You Think

Nancy Schwartz, of the Getting Attention Blog, is hosting a Nonprofit Blog Carnival this month.  The theme is “What book has changed your professional life?”  Here are my thoughts on a book that pretty much sums up my career and my journey to know myself.

About a decade ago, after a futile struggle to get a nonprofit consulting business off the ground, I decided it was best for my pocketbook and my sanity to get back into the 9-5 grind.  So, I dutifully scanned the want ads, talked to friends, and ultimately took a job at a smaller state agency.  Decent salary, good benefits, great for my mortgage.  Since I was still able to sustain some level of independence by working from home, and, I was content with my new situation.  Life had clearly taken a turn for the better.

You see the year before, I had left a leadership position in a large regional nonprofit.  I had left under duress, to say the least.  After successfully launching a large-scale youth program from the ground up, I was still struggling to find a common ground with my boss, who simply couldn’t find a way to support my ideas.  For one, I was pushing to diversify funding beyond our federal seed money that in my mind had a short shelf life.  I was simply pushing the envelope too far.  And I was getting squeezed from above and below.  By the end of it all I was sick, tired, beat up, and very, very grumpy.

Enter round two, a sparkly new job at a new, fresh agency.  Through the interview process with my future boss and colleagues, I saw a bright light at the end of my tunnel.  It seemed to be an innovation-friendly environment.  I could grow, test new ideas, and make a big difference.  All good.  A few weeks into my job, my boss handed me a tiny little tome, Orbiting the Giant Hairball.  “Read it, you’ll need it,” she said mysteriously.  I took a closer look, the subtitle read: “A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace.”   Hmmmm, I thought.  Where’s the hairball?

It as a quick read, and fun.  The author, Gordon Mackenzie, had started out in the corporate behemoth that is Hallmark Cards as a graphic artist and had risen over the years to become an in-house leadership guru of sorts.  All this, while maintaining his sense of fun and creativity.  The book was anything but corporate, filled with quirky little doodles and lots of self-effacing reflection.

 He compared Hallmark, and other Corporations, to a giant hairball.  The hairball, was a giant tangled, hot mess of learned behavior.  The way we do things around here.  It is bureaucracy personified; and by its very nature, doesn't allow much space for creativity and original thinking.  If you let it, its gravitational pull will suck you in, just like the death star,  Our job, of we chose to accept it, would be to learn to work around it and with it.

But how?  In Mackenzie’s view, it is all about balance, finding just the right orbit to benefit and draw strength from the organization’s resources to keep your momentum going.  You must learn to fly, just as the earth travels around the sun, being pulled toward the inferno and then taking advantage of its force as you swing out toward the universe to continue on your circular trajectory.  Without the hairball, you would be lost in space; without you, the hairball would be a giant black star, sucking everything into it’s mass without anything to show for it.  

Mackenize urged readers to connect with their own true selves, and to find their creative genius.  Then to work with established norms, but not be bound by them.  It was an inspiration, and I felt validated to be sure.  In an earlier life, I had attended and graduated from a prestigious art school.  I knew plenty about creativity, and had no problem with right-brain thinking.  

But as life wore on, things got harder.  I was promoted twice, left my happy home for the the suit-filled office, and ultimately replaced my boss, the one who had so prophetically handed me that survival manual way back when.  Having spent over a decade at the agency, she knew what I was up against.  She could see how the pull of the hairball would challenge and frustrate me, and she wanted to see me master that orbit with grace and ease.  And I’ll always be grateful for that.

In the end, however, this little book didn’t save me from crashing and burning.  As much as we all enjoy a tidy ending, I didn’t master the art of the orbit thus changing my life for the better.  After six years, I threw in the towel amidst a storm cloud of employee discontent and agency indifference.  The bureaucracy had steadily resisted the kinds of monumental changes I wanted to bring about.  The status quo of silos, interdepartmental rivalries, and the stone cold loneliness of unsupported leadership had beaten me to a pulp.  I left dejected and felt like an utter failure.

But things have a way of working out.  From the book, I learned something even more valuable than how to negotiate a bureaucracy.  I learned to fully inhabit my true and authentic self.  To live exactly they way I was intended to, with joy.  For me, a rebel since childhood, this meant finding an environment where I could make an impact and change the world in a concrete way.  At the same time, I needed to have the freedom to learn, grow, create, push the envelope, and slay those sacred cows without punishment or retaliation.  It meant I needed to stop trying to force the round peg into the square hole and find my niche elsewhere.  

And I found it.  Two and a half years ago, I gave my consulting business another try and have never looked back.  I’ve found an inspired fellowship with clients, many of whom struggle to orbit giant hairballs of their own.  I share my experiences, give advice, and we grow.  I find ways to help, and together we change the world.  

 

Today’s Volunteers: Are You Really Ready for Them?

Lately, I’ve heard plenty of volunteer managers complain that there simply aren’t enough people out there volunteering or that the extensive training and commitment required by their program “scares people away.”  It seems they’ve given up all hope that volunteerism is still a viable way to deliver service.  

That’s a real shame, because it’s a major misconception.  There’s plenty of research that shows that community engagement is still alive and kicking.   A change in the way we do business, however, is what will be needed to tap into the vitality of today's volunteers.   Not just lip service -- a few new volunteer job descriptions, revamped volunteer training, or a new recognition program -- but real, authentic change.

The Litmus Test

If you are someone who's having second thoughts about volunteerism (or are just plain discouraged about it all) ask yourself: Am I ready to make the changes necessary to welcome today’s volunteers, or do I want to continue with business as usual?  If you stick with the status quo you risk losing even more momentum, and your corps of volunteers is likely to keep shrinking.  If you change your paradigm, you may very well build a stronger, more passionate volunteer team that gets the job done in ways you never thought possible.  So in this case, the risk of change isn’t really that risky, is it?  Wonderful, you say.  But how do I make the switch?

Jill Fixler, of The JFFixler Group has some ideas.  Her advice focuses primarily on Boomer Volunteers, but given the milieu we all find ourselves in, I think her strategies apply to volunteers of any generation.  She recommends we make subtle shifts (I call them pivots) in the most basic of your volunteer management processes. 

Seven Ways to Upgrade Your Volunteer Program

Pivot from Management to Engagement -- Instead of a command and control model, of supervisions and tasks, think about how to motivate community members to work toward your cause.

Pivot from Recruitment to Cultivation -- Start thinking about the cultivation of your volunteers, as you would develop potential donors, versus a cattle call for all hands on deck.

Pivot from Placement to Negotiation and Agreement -- Consider how to best use your volunteer’s skills and talents versus trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

Pivot from Supervision to Support -- Allow for a certain amount if flexibility and independence and build that into your volunteer roles; this doesn’t mean you don’t have expectations, it just means there are any number of ways to get the job done.

Pivot from Review to Measurement -- Instead of conducting annual performance reviews, which everyone hates, focus on the impact the volunteer makes -- Fixxler calls this “valuation” (as opposed to evaluation).

Pivot from Recognition to Acknowledgement -- Volunteers aren’t really looking for another plaque, coffee cup, or paperweight; they want to know that their work has made a difference.  Let them know that you understand who they are and the specific value they have brought to the organization and their community.

Finally, pivot from Retention to Sustainability -- In the past, we were able to rely on volunteers to commit to consistent, unending years of service; this just isn’t true anymore.  Maintaining sustainability over the long term means that we must rethink how we use volunteer talents, how we reconfigure their work, how we collaborate within our team, and how we share leadership at all levels to ensure the most effective use of the people power we have in the here and now.  

It's Up to You

There’s a real disconnect between what many organizations are offering prospective volunteers and what tasks and environment today’s volunteers are looking for.  The onus is on the organization, not the volunteer, to make the shift necessary to reconnect.  If you don’t do it, someone else will. 

Want to Learn More?

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the webinars offered by VolunteerMatch.com, they really are good.  You can register for them here.  The Boomer Volunteer Engagement series is particularly helpful and an eye opener for anyone who wants to tap into what today's volunteers have to offer.