Advisor to Superheroes

My home town (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) is the top city in United States for volunteering in 2009 according to an article in yesterday’s Star Tribune. Over 900,000 area residents volunteered an average of 44 hours for schools, churches, and nonprofit organizations. Astounding!

Volunteers are no longer an after thought or a minor tactic for organizations. The nonprofits I am working with all are looking to transform and advance their volunteer programs. But there is definitely some trepidation about the value of this resource, if volunteers can be depended upon, if they can do more than very basic tasks e.g. “lick envelopes”, and if they can leverage more staff capacity rather than use it up.

I think we have to break with past stereotypes and rethink how we can leverage this incredible resource. Here are three “what Ifs” to help do that:

What if… we think of our volunteers as collaborators rather than free labor.
We ask them to join us to develop solutions to chronic issues in how we deliver our services. We invite them to strategy sessions, rather than provide directives. We delegate authority to them to take action.

What if… we raise the bar for who gets to volunteer and what is expected of them. I know, I know, this isn’t very Minnesota nice of me, but how about demanding results and becoming known as the place where only the best volunteers get to give of their time. We set the expectation that they get to apply their highest level of skill to the biggest challenges the organization faces.

What if… we merge our human resource, volunteer coordination, and resource development functions. Or at least, build strong cross-functional collaboration among these areas in order to imagine how to get the most from our volunteers. We help staff learn how to maximize the efforts of their volunteers. We measure volunteer activity in real dollars setting benchmarks for how much volunteer time (i.e. volunteer dollars) that needs to be raised each year.

These are just a few thoughts. Please comment and share your “What Ifs” for rethinking volunteers.

Unlocking innovation needs to be the first priority of board development: the ability for volunteers to share their creative ideas with one another in order to elevate strategy and propel the organization’s mission forward.

Imagine that seated at your board meeting is a product marketer who is an expert on how to manage global brands. She is sitting next to a lawyer who is a specialist in intellectual property. Next to him is a community activist who is an outstanding civic organizer. Great people brought together to do great things. What happens if their individual talents outstrip the actual performance of this board of directors?

Board members need to believe that their talents will create something meaningful and impactful. As a group, they need to see how their abilities come together into a useful whole that guides the organization forward. Otherwise, their talents are wasted and the desire to participate suffers.

The typical board meeting is set up to convey, receive, and process large amounts of information in short periods. Rarely are meetings set up to cultivate deep discourse and creative thinking. It is impossible to strengthen an organization’s capacity if it is without a board of directors that has time to think, talk, and act together. The challenge is knowing how to promote creative ideas that lead to innovative approaches within the constraints of available time and focus. Overcoming this challenge requires a change in how nonprofit boards operate.

Many nonprofit boards are successful at unlocking innovation by creating a big picture that they can easily reference in order to see how major actions across the organization relate to one another.

For example, boards need to see how their efforts to develop people (new members and staff leadership) will influence how they raise funds and how raising funds and developing people affects (and is affected) by how they oversee resources. More importantly, the board needs to see how these activities connect to organizational priorities defined by its mission and strategic goals.
Through this “big picture,” individual members have a reference point in which to gauge performance, track results, and trace issues; the board as a whole has a common framework that fuels discussion and collaboration. Without it, boards are stuck in a cycle of constantly needing to be reoriented to the issues of the moment, offering general and unfocused advice, thus finding their ability to take action on important issues in a timely manner severely limited.

Here are four ways a board can develop its ability to see the “big picture” and unlock innovation:

Engage the Cause – Even though they may never be cause experts, board members need to build a working understanding of how the organization delivers value. This is about creating opportunities for program and service experiences that give members direct contact with staff and participants. Here they can see how dollars work, why staff are so important, and where investment must occur.

Make Plans that Foster Orientation – Creating continuity from board meeting to board meeting is essential. Strategic plans that align goals, actions, and outcomes to specific indicators and benchmarks help board members identify where the organization is at and how they can contribute to forwarding the organization’s overall strategy.

CONNECT Instead of Meet – To make the most of board members’ time, meeting agendas need to focus less on reporting and more on facilitating discussion that helps board members address system-wide issues, coordinate action across functions, and adjust the overall strategy based on changes in the external environment as well as the organization’s performance.

Motivate Action through Compelling Outcomes and Goals – Along with seeing the big picture as a board, committees and taskforces need to know what success look like within their specific efforts and that the goals they are striving to achieve are meaningful. Clear and compelling outcomes and goals motivate action; they deepen engagement and get members past the demands of the work itself. Muhammad Ali once said “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Boards need to remain focused on the “mountains ahead.”

Every volunteer board member has an innate desire to apply his or her creative self to making a difference. Board development that focuses on unlocking innovation applies board members skills, expertise, and life experiences to challenges that grow their individual gifts and deepen their ability to govern as a group. By rethinking how a board operates, the right balance can be struck between the efficient use of time and the desire to affect an organization’s future.

An edited version of this article appeared in the spring edition of the newsletter for the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits.