Innovative Concepts

Engagement

Running an effective volunteering program has been a theme for a few nonprofits I am in touch with.  Many find they are challenged to get volunteers to engage consistently.  One summarized it beautifully, saying there is a difference between volunteering and voluntold.  It is easy to say we have a need and ask the next person that comes along to fill the gap.  It is bit like filling open seats on an airplane, just take the next available seat.  The difference is that volunteering does not come with a contract or ticket.  It is an expression of a gift, sharing time and talent to assist an organization. 

 Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.  ~Sherry Anderson

The great volunteering coordinators act like a concierge.  They get to know their clients, understand their passions and motivations.  Then they call on them when the perfect opportunity appears.  There are always a few people who say yes to everything but a majority readily decline opportunities that appear too generic thinking somebody else will step-up.  If you can engage potential volunteers with the right project you have taken an important step to deepening your cause’s relationship with an advocate.  It is a lot of work up front but nothing is more powerful than a highly functioning system for recruiting and engaging volunteers.  Daniel Pink identified autonomy, mastery, and purpose as the three keys for motivation in his book, Drive.  Interestly, volunteering removes one of the greatest hurdles to motivation (compensation rewards).  Take a moment to watch.
 
 

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Liking (in return for a chance to win a prize)

I recently posted about the trend of organizations channeling contest participants into ‘liking’ their fan page in exchange for a chance to win a prize.  Here is my take.  You may as well go back to the beach when you were in First grade and agree to share your shovel and pail with a friend if they agree to do exactly what you say.  I recall that many of those experiences ended in tears.  Somebody breaks the verbal agreement by suggesting another way to construct the sand castle and the loaned item is repossessed and the offender banished from the project.  The idea that we can control other people’s behavior is one that has proven daunting over thousands of years.  However, when we loaned our extra shovel to a friend and explained the outcome we were trying to achieve, “building the super fortress of the most powerful king of planet Zum,” but allowed for autonomy, the experience is wholly different.  Rarely did your friends invite their friends when management was prescriptive.  However, when the building project was collaborative then other people wanted to be involved and invitations were extended.

Why not offer bystanders the chance to sign-up for your contest without being forced into ‘liking’ the enterprise?  Even better yet, why not have a contest that actually benefits somebody that has a need?  During our interactions surrounding the contest one can decide to ‘like’ your organization or continue on their journey.  Lastly, remember that the tide will eventually come in and wash your creation back into the ocean, just like the prize for the contest eventually needs to be awarded.  Those that were present just for the sand castle or the prize will depart if they have not already.  Those that were inspired will already be planning to build a bigger castle tomorrow.  

Who are you trying to attract?  How are they arriving and once they do, how do they engage?

I am

Give this exercise a go.  

Sit in front of a wall and answer the question, ” I am ________.”  Try to write down ten answers.

Now, click on this YouTube link and watch a minute or so of the video.  With the video continuing to run answer the same question, “I am ___________.”  Try to write down ten answers.  


How do the answers between the two lists compare?  Are they similar or is there a difference?

Researches found that when they performed this experiment with two groups, one seated in a hallway staring at a wall and a second group sitting in front of a life-size Tyrannosaurus rex model in a museum, the group with the dinosaur provided answers that were far more expansive than the group looking at the wall who tended to be more limiting in their answers.  Experiencing a sense of awe was a catalyst to seeing a larger frontier and being less confined in one’s perception.


Consider all the opportunities that you have to bring awe into your life and that of your cause.  Do you share awe with your fans?  Where does your staff and board meet when they are thinking strategically, in front of a wall or next to T-rex?  Does your community see you as one of many pictures hanging on an art gallery wall or as a sculpture in the middle of a the room?  How do you collect feedback from those who interact with your enterprise?  Are you able to track awe?  Can you manifest it and does it come from your organization’s purpose?


“The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of bigger ideas, never returns to its original size.” Oliver Wendell Hollmes

Seating By Southwest

I served an arts organization that scheduled concerts each summer.  One season we landed Willie Nelson.  Tickets were a hot commodity since Willie resonated with the 60+ age group that was the art center’s core audience and also other parts of our community.  The center sold tickets at three levels, including a premium level which guaranteed a low-back lawn chair directly in front of the stage (premium patrons got to keep the chair).  A second lawn chair group was ticketed just behind the premium level and the rest of the venue was general seating.  Tickets for past summers concerts had always been sold as general seating on the lawn.  Four thousand tickets sold in a matter of two hours and then the center spent days fielding requests from some of its greatest supporters who had not been able to purchase tickets.  

The day of the concert I arrived a half-hour before the gates opened to find a line snaking away from the venue and out along a bike path further than I could see.  The ticket holders filled the lawn and then some.  Willie took the stage and the evening went into high energy.  Eventually a group of general admission fans started dancing.  They moved right on top of the premium level patrons, causing the highest paying ticket holders to abandon their lawn chairs in front of stage.  It was chaos as the center tried to salvage an area where the premium guests could sit but the crowd of dancers expanded to a thousand and was soon beyond our control.

Two lessons learned.  Always keep a handful of tickets in reserve to take care of your greatest supporters who happen to miss out on a sold out event.  Second, sell tickets that allow for early access to the concert grounds but in the spirit of Southwest Airlines allow the patrons to select their seats.  If they sit right in front of the stage then they get the benefits and potential hazards of proximity.  These two lessons have been instrumental in creating a better experience for the audience and keeping the concerts manageable.

Common Denominators

The Gallup Organization developed The Measuring Stick, an assessment instrument to uncover what made some workplaces excel and others fall flat.  Two of the core questions the Gallup Organization asks in its evaluation, “Do I have the material and equipment I need to do my work right?” And, “At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?”  So often a company decides that everyone will work from the same tool box and follow a predetermined script regardless of their talents.  

To make this real, look at some trends inside schools.  Teachers are working in classrooms with SMART Boards and some do not have the training or desire to use them while other teachers ask for access to the technology daily.  Some educators are restricted from using an increasing array of online courses to supplement their classroom curriculum because approval of each website is needed in advance.  Imagine a math teacher not being able to use the Khan Academy to supplement their student’s learning of mathematics, history or science.  Some teachers are masters of designing and maintaining online newsletters, blogs, or webinars but not everyone needs to use the same tools to reach a shared purpose.  


Does your enterprise provide clarity about the outcome but allow team members to innovate to reach the goal?

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Me or Us

When speaking on television about education Bill Cosby said, “it is there for you but it is not going to come to you.”  I believe that a perception exists that everything we need should come to us.  That we deserve services and programs to work around our schedules.  The beauty of a remarkable interaction is that it involves two people making an investment of their talents in each other.  We have to be willing to go and discover that which we seek.  Some enterprises train their advocates that the organization will always come to them when there is a question or a requirement for funding.  Why not create an environment where you meet in the middle?  In making an effort from both sides you have collaborated to form a partnership.  

I adminsiter a funding program that awards scholarships to youth recipients who wished to attend extra-curricular events, perhaps a dance program or summer camp.  Our biggest challenge has been ensuring full scholarship recipients attended the entire program.  Once we removed the option of a full scholarship and required the youth organization and the applicant or their parents to contribute towards the registration fees the foundation encountered no absenteeism.  Meeting somewhere in the middle was a powerful lever for everyone involved.


I am reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall that speaks to the ideology of a shared experience.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.  

Robert Frost, Mending Wall