Positive deviants & the importance of effective volunteer management

Three papers that have come across my desk in recent months that have all been sitting in a folder for me to blog on.  As I re-read them recently common themes cam through that chime with one of the issues I'm passionate about at the moment - the need for voluntary sector leadership to adapt from funding driven models of mission fulfilment to embracing a wider range of community resources available.


In this post I want to outline the key findings from those three papers I have recently re-read and suggest what they might be telling us about the way organisations need to respond to the new reality of more scarce financial resources.


First up, is a December 2009 report from TCC Group, published for the USA's Reimagining Service initiative and with perhaps one of the best titles I've ever come across, Positive Deviants in Volunteerism and Service. The report summarises findings from work done using TCC Group's Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) which examined the effectiveness of non-profit organisations against four core competencies.  The work sought to find links between effective volunteer management and effective organisations, in other words those that positively deviated from the average/norm.


Key findings from the report were that:

• When organisations engage and manage any number of volunteers well, they are significantly better led and managed than organisations not engaging volunteers or engaging them but not managing them well.
  
  
• Of the eight volunteer management behaviours explored, there was plenty of scope for improvement, with organisations especially needing to focus balance the involvement of skilled and unskilled volunteers, defining roles for volunteers and resourcing volunteers to do their work.
  
  
• There appeared to be a tipping point of engaging ten volunteers.  Organisations that involve more than ten volunteers, regardless of whether they have figured out all of the best practices necessary to manage those volunteers, have just as much capacity as other organisations that don't involve volunteer but at about half the cost.

Second, in February 2011, the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) published their report into The Status of Minnesota's Volunteer Programs in a Shifting Environment 2010.  This report followed a similar study the previous year and so was able to draw some conclusions as to the effects of organisations' responses to the financial crisis in regard to volunteer management.

The MAVA report concluded that:

• Organisations were increasingly reliant on volunteers who were having a real impact during tough financial times as organisations adapt to the new reality.
  
  
• Cutting staff for volunteer programmes results in fewer volunteers and less service.
  
  
• It is unrealistic to expect continued growth through volunteers without increased investment in management and support for volunteers.
  

Finally, at the end of May 2011, Skills Third Sector issued a position statement on why volunteer management requires specific skills.  The statement succinctly outlines how volunteer management differs from the management of paid staff and summarises some of the key skills effective volunteer managers must have.  The authors conclude by saying that:

"...the evidence from research is that investing in volunteer managers is the best way to raise the skills and opportunities for all volunteers in the voluntary sector. Not understanding the different skills needed to manage volunteers and how they differ from managing paid staff, can lead to poor quality services for the people who use the services [and] poor volunteering experiences for volunteers."

To summarise:

• Organisations that manage volunteers well are better led and managed overall than organisations that don't involve volunteers or don't manage them effectively.
  
  
• If an organisation involves more than ten volunteers, they seem to have as much capacity as organisations that don't involve volunteers at just shy of half the cost.
  
  
• Increased volunteer involvement can be an effective way for organisations to continue to deliver and develop effective client services in tough economic times.
  
  
• Conversely, cutting resources for volunteer programmes results in fewer volunteers and reduced service provision.
  
  
• Investing in volunteer managers is the best way to raise the skills and opportunities for all volunteers.
  
  
• Failure to understand the distinctive nature of volunteer management can lead to a poor experience for volunteers and poor quality services for clients.

So, what is all this telling us?


I suggest that it is saying we need to rethink our response to the challenging times we find ourselves in.  


Many organisations seem to be increasingly fixated on generating more income from different sources to replace the money being lost due to cuts and tightened personal finances.  They continue to invest increasing amounts of money to find ways of getting more golden eggs from a dying goose.  Sometimes this investment comes as a result of cutting resources to the volunteer programme.


This dependence on money to supply the resources to enable voluntary sector organisations to achieve their missions has to change.  If it doesn't then organisations will go one of three ways: 

1. close down;
   
   
2. chase funding and so risk mission drift;
   
   
3. compromise or limit their mission and vision because they don't have the money to do what we want.

But things can be different.  The sector needs to think differently and get wise to how they can make best use of non-cash resources, investing the money they do have to maximise the impact of and value rather than chasing an ever shrinking post of money.  


This means opening up to the potential that well led and managed volunteers can bring to the way we work.  This means being wise to the way the world is changing and the opportunities this presents for donated time if organisations are smart enough to adapt to the new realities.


I think many leaders are adrift, unsure of how to respond to the challenges they currently face because the environment has changed so dramatically from what they know.  These leaders need to become more aware of the kind of findings summarised above and be encouraged to apply the learning to their organisations.  Volunteer managers have a key role to play in this.


Now is the time to step forward, to educate and support your CEOs and their senior management colleagues to change.


Have you done this, supporting senior managers to reduce your organisation's dependency on cash and embrace non-cash resources like volunteers?  How did you do it?  What role did you play?  What advice do you have for others?


Do you think this is step beyond your role?  Why?  What support might you need to play such a change advocate role?


Please share your thoughts below.  


[See also my Third Sector blog from June 2011 which looks at this issue from a voluntary sector leadership perspective.]

Gas to Go

This time out we're featuring a guest post from colleague Martin J Cowling, CEO of People First -Total Solutions.  Martin and Rob will be training together in the UK later this year.

Walking through a local park  yesterday, I passed a group of guys engaged in football training (Aussie Rules of course!). Calling out instructions, encouragements and ribbings, they were focussed on improving their skills, coordination and success. To do this, they were giving up their spare time to stand on a cold night on an outside oval.

I think its universally agreed and understood that to be top of any sporting field, we need to practice and train. When it comes to volunteering there seems to be two sets of extremes when it comes to training volunteers for a task.

In the first scenario, the volunteers are given no training, they are just propelled into a task. Or the volunteers themselves resist any training citing “they have been doing it for years” or “'you can’t teach an old dog new tricks". 


In our research at People First - Total Solutions, we have found 43% of volunteers have received no initial training to do the job and we've seen it all.  For example: the person who turns up to their first ever Annual General Meeting of a club, scout troop or sporting group and finds they are elected, co opted, or nominated as Club treasurer. At the end of the meeting,  the existing treasurer gives them a pile of boxes and papers and says “good luck”. That new treasurer spends six months working out how to do the job and then gets berated at a committee meeting for forgetting something they knew nothing about.

In contrast, the second scenario insists every volunteer has to undergo weeks or months of training. We tend to recruit people with a whole bunch of different skills and then train them all together in the same way at the same time. A waste of time for some and life changing for others. Those who get frustrated may choose to discontinue and not recommend your programme to others. 


In my trainings I talk about one group which required volunteers to take a 12 month course to work in a tourist information centre! Other groups made retired school teachers attend weeks of training on teaching skills before they can teach English or insisted social workers volunteering to be phone counsellors do courses on basic counselling techniques. One civil defence group I know of put a doctor through their first aid course before he could volunteer for the group!

Somewhere between these two extremes is a happy medium. I have yet to find a sufficient number of volunteer groups who have found it yet.

There are three sets of skills and trainings, we want to consider for volunteers.


1 - General Skills and knowledge
These are what you want every volunteer to have before they start volunteering. These include understanding the mission and direction of the organisation, fundamental information for working there and emergency procedures. If necessary, these can be distilled down to 15 minutes. There is no excuse for not having something in place!

2 - Applied Skills
These are the skills people need to do a particular role. If they already have them in their workplace or background we don't need to train people again. If they are missing something or you change something, then give them that specific applied training.

3 - Specialised skills
Some volunteer roles indeed require very specialised skills. Rather than train in them, we need to find people who already possess those skills up front.

Breaking down your role skills into GAS: General, Applied  and Specialised will give you the fuel you need to make your volunteer programme succeed through relevant training.

Martin J Cowling, 

Tel -  020 8133 7991 

Email - martin@pfts.com.au

Why I write and why I want to encourage you to write too

One of my aims when I started Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd was to write more.  For many years I'd been working in organisations where my workload meant that I didn't have the time to do any writing about volunteerism or volunteer management or any of the other topics I felt moved to comment on publicly.  It sometimes became difficult as my views didn't always agree with organisational policy and, if expressed, could have caused problems for colleagues working to support and influence others.

Since starting the business in April 2011 I have written numerous blog posts as well as a guest Hot Topic for OzVPM, an article for ArtsProfessional Magazine online, a piece for e-Volunteerism.com and a regular blog on volunteering for Third sector magazine.  I've also started work editing a new edition of the Complete Volunteer Management Handbook (formerly Essential Volunteer Management) for the Directory of Social Change and the first UK edition of Susan Ellis' popular book, From The Top Down.

But why do I write and, more importantly, why should you?  Why should leaders of volunteer programmes put finger to keyboard and share their views, opinions, insights and thoughts on volunteerism?

Four reasons why I write

1. To contribute to and build up the field.  For most of my writing I don't get paid; I do it as a volunteer.  Why?  Because I am passionate about volunteering and the invaluable work of those who lead and manage volunteers and volunteer programmes.  When I started in the field I benefited hugely from the writings of others, leaders like Susan Ellis, Steve McCurley, Rick Lynch, Jayne Cravens, Ivan Scheier and Linda Graff (to name just some).  Now I can share the insights and experience I have developed since 1994 and contribute to the field myself.  “Pay it forward” in action.
2. From personal experience, I know how busy the day-to-day life of a volunteer manager can be.  It can be an isolating role with demands mounting up daily from volunteers, colleagues, managers, prospective volunteers and organisational leaders.  Consequently it can be hard to carve out thinking time during the day - time to muse on some of the big issues facing volunteerism.  And if we do manage to carve out the time, what are the big issues?
   
   Through this blog I hope to provide some food for thought for colleagues in the volunteering field.  I hope I am writing on issues relevant to people in their busy professional lives.  I hope that what I say might ultimately lead to some action that helps volunteers to have a more rewarding experience as they make important contributions to organisations' missions and society's needs.
   
   
3. One of the things I think we lack in the UK is people who speak out when issues come up that affect volunteering and volunteer management.  That list of names in point one is made up of people who are all outside the UK.  Our peak bodies like Volunteering England have a key role to play for sure but they sometimes have to hold back because of wider concerns and other forms of lobbying and influence that they are engaged in.  Similarly the Association of Volunteer Managers are great advocates for volunteer management but they are a small number of dedicated professionals who can't speak up on everything.  So I see myself as having a role to play, free from the constraints of political influence, funding or inter-agency politics.  That's why I write posts about stupid ministerial statements or union leader ignorance or ridiculous expectations placed on volunteer managers.
   
   Of course I hope what I say helps but, no matter what, at least someone is saying it (and I also provide a forum to allow you to say it with me!).
   
   
4. Whilst my main motivation for writing is to give back to and build up our field, I also do it because it can be great marketing for my business.  I say this honestly and unapologetically.  Having taken the risk to go out on my own makes it important to be known so that I can earn a living and keep on speaking out.  As of today, there have been over 3,500 views of my blog from people in more than ten different countries.  I hope the people who read what I write like it, feel challenged or inspired by it and so might hire me to work with them as a consultant, a trainer or a speaker at their events.  Ultimately, someone will hire me because of my publicly shared opinions, which becomes an upward spiral:  I will continue to experience the real-world issues of our field through my clients, write more, and stay on potential clients’ minds.

Four reasons why you should write

1. Writing things down forces you to think about what you want to say.  Whether it is sharing an insight you have, a response to a news story, or something you feel passionate about, the process of getting what's in your brain down into written form forces you to have an opinion.  Not enough people working in volunteer leadership and management roles have opinions about the strategic and operational the field faces.  And If they do have an opinion, they often don't share it for others to read and think about.
   
   Just to clarify – I am not urging you to go write a book – although perhaps you might.   But what about replying a blog post (like this one!) or to an article in an online magazine (as you are increasingly invited to do)?
2. Which leads me to my second reason more people in the volunteerism field (you!) should write.  Once you have an opinion and you share, it you open the possibility for others to engage in debate over your views.  Such debate forces us all to think, to sharpen our understanding, challenge our perspectives and advance the theory of volunteer leadership and management (and ultimately the practice, for there is nothing as practical as a good theory).  My own views on working with volunteers have developed significantly (and continue to do so) from reading and discussing the thoughts and insights of others. I haven't always agreed with them but I have always learnt something.
   
   What could you help others learn today?
3. Which brings me to my third reason why you should write.  I want to know what you think.  So do others.  It isn't just the 'leaders' in volunteerism from whom we can learn.  All of us have something to share.  That's why I started UKVPMs over ten years ago:  as a forum for people in the trenches of volunteer management to ask questions, share tips and ideas and advance our collective knowledge.  That's why I got involved in co-editing the free Turn Your Organisation Into A Volunteer Magnet eBook, in which forty people from across the field of volunteer management around the globe (contributions come from Australia, Britain, Canada, Italy, New Zealand and the USA) share what they have learned about making your organisation attractive to volunteers.  You have fabulous treasures of knowledge others could benefit from, so please share.
4. My final reason for encouraging you to write is that it has never been easier to share your ideas and insights.  Blogging, social media and the overall growth and development of the web have revolutionised the provision of and access to information on volunteerism.  You can even tweet your thoughts in under 140 characters,  so there is no longer as excuse for not having the time to comment.
   
   Susan Ellis has written that the web means no volunteer manager should ever feel isolated again.  This is true, but the more people write and contribute to the ever growing library of knowledge online, the richer we all become.