Taking Holiday Collection Drives to the Next Level

Posted on December 28, 2011 by VM Tech

by Laura Rog

The holiday season often kicks off significant service experiences for the year. As I posted last month, this is a time of year with great opportunities for personal and societal reflection. It is also an opportunity to take a closer look at some of our service practices. In this post I’d like to look more deeply at a common practice around the holidays and how we might expand a youth’s experience around service typically happening November through January: the collection drive.

Holiday collections are often a part of a school’s, youth center’s, or religious organization’s year end campaign. From clothing to coins to cans, the winter months are a great time of need for many people and a perfect opportunity for youth to help provide much needed support in their communities. But how can we bring depth to the service and make it a meaningful experience and source of growth for those donating items to the drive? There are three easy things you can do.

Meet a Genuine Community Need

The first place to begin is identifying what is a genuine need, as opposed to a need the service-providers have determined. This can be an incredibly simple process – just ask. Have the youth you are working with contact the place to which you are planning to donate materials and ask what they need. They can also ask the recipients if they are in contact with them directly. Oftentimes we assume we know what people need, and an organization ends up with a surplus of children’s mittens and no hats, or a plethora of canned goods rather than cash donations to purchase needed supplies.

Make a Connection to Learning

Even if you aren’t in a school setting, service should be a learning experience for all youth involved. Think specifically about what you want youth to gain from the experience. Is it skills associated with the collection such as tallying by 5’s; or perhaps elements of character like respect for all? Find ways to explicitly include these lessons as a part of the service experience. This can seem like a daunting task but there are a lot of great resources available, such as lesson plans available here at Learning to Give, generationOn’s curriculum division, or here at Youth Service America’s Go To Service Learning. Both sites offer ideas for how to make your service a meaningful experience and have ideas to integrate service and learning for youth ages 3-18.

Document Personal Growth

As I discussed in my December post, no service experience is complete without reflection. Reflection allows youth the time to process their experiences and gain critical awareness of the complex feelings surrounding civic engagement. It is especially important in collection drives as many of the youth bringing in items may not be able to directly connect with the places their items are going. Personal and group contemplation should be done before, during, and after the collection to keep youth connected to their actions and to foster a sense of empathy. Gathering these reflections throughout the service project is a great way for youth to document the important contributions they are making and see how their project has progressed. A great guide to collecting and documenting service can be found here.

Collection drives are often a fantastic way to get a large number of students involved in service within their communities during the winter months. They play a very important part in getting needed materials to organizations during times of high requests and low supply. They provide an opportunity for youth to assess their community’s needs, learn valuable skills, and document the personal changes they have been through. All three are extremely important components to take your collection drive that next step and make a lasting impression on the youth involved.

Laura Rog is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance with generationOn and a featured blogger.

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AmeriCorps as a Community Building Tool

Posted on December 23, 2011 by VM Tech

by Krysta Lilly-Brown

AmeriCorps is not only a useful tool for building capacity in Maine’s volunteer sector, but also a valuable asset that can be used to keep young Mainers in the state and reverse the “brain drain” effect. A recent study conducted by the Maine Commission for Community Service (MCCS) shows that 80% of residents who serve their AmeriCorps terms in Maine are between the ages of 19-30. The study also shows that 72% of residents serving their AmeriCorps terms in Maine held some form of a degree at the time of their service. The study goes on to show that 66% of Mainers who served their AmeriCorps terms in Maine remained here after their term to continue their education, live, work, and raise their families.

So, why do so many members stay in Maine long after their service has finished? According to the Civic Life in America Report that is put out annually by the Corporation for National and Community Service, people who volunteer with an organization, such as AmeriCorps, are much more likely to participate in other forms of civic engagement such as keeping up on current events, staying socially connected, and being politically active.

The more civically involved that a citizen becomes, the deeper their roots into a community become. The MCCS study revealed that 59% of the AmeriCorps members that were residents also volunteered outside of their host site and within their communities in addition to their assigned tasks.

Residents are not the only group that gains ties to the communities in which they serve. 32% of non-residents who served their AmeriCorps terms in Maine decided to stay in Maine after their service was over. According to one member, “I have never felt more like a member of a community than I have while serving in AmeriCorps; and I’m not even from Maine.”

The value of AmeriCorps extends far beyond that of its direct services and savings. It is also valuable for the health and vitality that it provides to Maine’s communities. It provides an opportunities for Maine youth to stay here and to continue their education in addition to bringing a significant number of young, educated, and civically minded individuals to Maine who go on to live here and develop a personal stake in the future of Maine’s programs, state, and environment.

Whether service is through AmeriCorps, with your local church or grange hall, for a school project, or on your own, the concept of volunteering is one that is a core value for many people here in Maine. In fact, Maine regularly outpaces the national average for volunteer commitment and hours spent volunteering. It is a great way for us to get involved in our communities and make life-long friendships.

Krysta Lilly-Brown is the Planning and Research Associate with the Maine Commission for Community Service and a guest blogger.

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The Changing Face of Nonprofit Communications

Posted on December 21, 2011 by VM Tech

by Daniel Martinage, CAE, CEG

When I landed my first job at a nonprofit in the early 80s I learned that communicating with our key stakeholders was a lot like selling retail—give customers what they need/want and they’ll continue to support the organization. I took a marketing course at New York University to help me understand the process and language of marketing and public relations.

The NYU model focused on creating carefully prepared outgoing messages designed to get people to do what you wanted them to do such as pledge money to support your cause, or become a dues-paying member. This style of marketing is called “outbound marketing” where the sender controls the message and directs who receives it. Typical outbound marketing includes telemarketing, direct mail, print ads, and TV/radio spots. The acceleration of internet access and the proliferation of mobile technology, however, have turned the outbound marketing model on its head.

Social Media—a term generally used to describe the use of web-based and mobile technologies turning communication into an interactive dialogue—has exploded over the last few years. In 2009 for example, Social Media overtook email as the preferred way to communicate via the internet.

Although most of us have been exposed to popular social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, nonprofit organizations have been slow to jump on the interactive bandwagon. There are many reasons for their reluctance, not the least of which is that many non profits fear losing “control” of their information.

The truth is that ignoring Social Media does not make it go away, and the only way to “control” your message is to embrace scrutiny and transparency. The 2011 Nonprofit Marketing Guide www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/2011trends reports that almost 50% of nonprofits surveyed reported not having a written marketing and communication plan. This, unfortunately, does not surprise me.

For the last four years I’ve served on the Selection Committee for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. Although the numbers are slowly improving, it’s interesting how many community-based organizations perceive a communication/marketing plan as a “best practice” rather than a sound management practice. I know that the difference may appear subtle but it really is much more than that.

Wikipedia defines best practice as “a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark.” The key to this definition is “superior”, not “average” and certainly not “adequate”. A good exercise is critically reviewing all your communication sources and rating them either “standard” or “superior”. Where they are less than superior, create a short list of what needs to be done to raise it to a superior level. For nonprofits to really excel they must become innovative and engaging and communication must be compelling, interesting and multi-faceted.

Another important point is that although Social Media is the new kid on the block, it hasn’t completely usurped all of the traditional mainstays like face-to-face networking meetings, printed press releases and direct mail campaigns. The key is having a diversified communication plan that uses the appropriate vehicle for the “right” message.

No one knows exactly how Social Media will transform our communication and marketing networks, but based on what we’ve seen so far, we can assume it will be dramatic. So what do you do to position yourself best in this new digital world? In two words—build a communication plan.

Daniel Martinage, CAE is an executive coach and consultant specializing in nonprofits and associations. The former executive director of the International Coach Federation Dan also serves on the Selection Committee for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. His website is www.associationcoach.com.

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How Your Organization Can Have Compelling Communications

Posted on December 14, 2011 by VM Tech

by Anne Schink

In previous posts I have referred to the book, The Charismatic Organization, written by Deb Jospin and Shirley Sagawa. Much of its richness stems from the principles that build social capital. A charismatic organization has a strong organizational core and a strong external network. The principles of building a strong external network include: compelling communications, active outreach, and meaningful involvement.

First among those principles is the requirement to develop compelling communications. As a manager of volunteers, communicating the values, successes, and stories of your volunteer program is a big piece of your responsibility. If you have a good system for collecting those great stories, then you also need a vehicle for sharing them.

Celebrate accomplishments and benchmarks.
Share with board members and other stakeholders information about the volunteer program. Make it a point to demonstrate the value that volunteers provide to your organization and your customers and clients. Data you collect from projects, programs, and departments can be collected into charts, graphs and documented ‘return on investment’ calculations. But individual stories capture the imagination of those you want to connect to the volunteer program.

Be creative about ways to recognize contributions made by volunteers. Gather pictures of people and activities. Have volunteers reached landmark anniversary dates? Five years? Ten years? Or more? Note that younger volunteers aren’t necessarily impressed with longevity data, but they will notice when you give them credit for a new idea or bringing along their friends as volunteers to your organization. Fun items with your logo on them are always appreciated.

Share the information widely. Make it a point to share your information with the leadership team and the Board of your organization. They may take for granted to work you do, or new members may not know the extent of the volunteer program. Take advantage of any bulletin board in common areas or in staff spaces to share the work of volunteers.

Create a volunteer newsletter. This can be a volunteer task! A volunteer with a knack for writing may welcome the opportunity to practice this skill. It can be an article in your regular newsletter for the organization or it could be an email communication with your team of volunteers. Use it as a way to make volunteers feel important and connected to the organization and one another.

Create a volunteer email/Google/Facebook group. Many organizations are now using social media as a way to create visibility for their organization and its programs. The volunteer program can do the same thing. These free tools are a quick and easy way to convey information, to create events, or to share outcomes. All of these tools assume that people have easy access to computers or other electronic communication devices such as iPhones, iPods or iPads. This may be second nature to younger volunteers, but can be stumbling blocks to older ones. Don’t rule out any tools because of these issues, but take them into consideration when developing a communications plan. Compelling communications attract attention and keep volunteers engaged.

Anne B. Schink is a volunteer management consultant and the author of the Nonprofit Readiness Toolkit.

Posted in Leadership, Managing Organizations, Strategies | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Youth Service Experiences During the Holiday Season

Posted on December 7, 2011 by VM Tech

by Laura Rog

The holiday season is a great time for reflection about the world, the service that we do, and our role as agents of change in the community. It is a time when many of us are reminded of what we are thankful for and can use the spirit of giving to inspire us in the New Year ahead.

As we move forward with an infusion of goodwill over the next couple months, it’s important to stop and think about how we encourage youth to understand and interpret their service experiences in the holiday season (and all year long!). Service, while often an amazing and transformative experience, can also be a place where stereotypes and assumptions are reinforced if volunteer opportunities are not handled with compassion and empathy. As adults passing on a culture of service to our students, youth, and children, it is crucial that we think about how we communicate societal values through service experiences.

A central focus in any quality volunteer experience for youth should be the idea that they are serving WITH others, not FOR others. This idea incorporates the concept of Neighboring, or the idea that communities – especially those in underserved and under resourced areas – should be engaged in their own change and not have solutions scripted for them by outsiders. As we engage our children and students this holiday season, it’s important to think deeply about this model. When you are out purchasing food, clothing, toys, or other goods to donate to holiday collections, or participating in service with organizations to create change, what can you do to extend the connection with the populations on the receiving end?

There are a number of things you can do to create substance in your holiday service experiences, but three key places to start are:

1. Our Words – Pay attention to the words you use to describe those with whom you are serving. Negative descriptors should be avoided at all costs – for example, talking about the “needy kids” or “poor families” you’ll be helping. Using words like these to describe others labels them and creates an image of a permanent condition. It’s a way that we as a society create an image of poverty, and other conditions, as self-created rather than the result of a complex set of factors. Resist the urge to give a simplistic explanation to the youth you are working with and have longer and multiple conversations to cover the societal conditions surrounding your service projects.

2. Our Actions – Remember that action counts, but the results aren’t the only factor to consider. Too often, and especially around the holidays, collections are turned into a competition. We’ve all seen this – the class with the most cans wins a pizza party, the club with the most change in their bucket gets a field trip. How does being rewarded foster empathy? It doesn’t. Instead of creating a competition, find ways to celebrate ALL students’ efforts. For example, hold a school-wide assembly to publicly donate their collection to the service organization that it’s benefitting, or find ways for the students to visit the organization and volunteer to wrap the items or stack the shelves with their food items.

3. Our Time – Every moment is an opportunity for learning, however true learning doesn’t happen in a moment. As adults, we need to remind ourselves that for learning with depth, youth need amounts of quality time to spend around an issue. It’s easy to do a quick lesson or family project at the holidays, but when you make it meaningful, youth become active citizens rather than passive helpers. Volunteering as a family on a regular basis or extending short service projects into service-learning experiences allows youth time that they need to process and look in depth at an issue in the community. Additionally, taking quality time for reflection as a family or classroom helps youth to understand their reactions and process the larger societal issues that they are seeing.

The holidays are a perfect time to renew your service spirit and reaffirm your civic engagement. Have a fantastic holiday season and enjoy the opportunities that it brings to share a commitment to service with the youth in your life!

For further information on Neighboring, download the HandsOn Network’s Neighboring Toolkit at:
http://www.handsonnetwork.org/neighboring-toolkit

Laura Rog is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance with generationOn and a featured blogger.

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Planning for Successful Projects

Posted on December 5, 2011 by VM Tech

by Matt Robinson

Kudos to the folks at the Maine Youth Action Program (better known as MYAN) for the powerful and fun conference they held November 10-11 at the Augusta Civic Center. I was thrilled to again be at one of their events. They do a great job of bringing together youth and adults to build leadership capacity and strong teams that have a positive impact on their communities.

On the first day of the conference, workshops were designed to educate and motivate youth and adult participants on how to take action and create positive change around teen health topics in their communities. Service learning is a terrific fit and I was happy to lead a workshop.

The best part of getting youth from all over the state together is giving them a chance to build off one another’s experience and hopes for the future. My goal for the workshop was to give examples of how youth have used service-learning to take positive action on teen health issues and to have them frame a plan that they can take back to their communities—to their teachers, program leaders and friends—to get the process started.

I will share with you the questions I asked the groups as they started their plans. The questions are based on the KIDS Consortium principles of service learning that were developed after working with a lot of people who started a lot of service learning projects.

I have discussed the principles of KIDS service learning (http://www.kidsconsortium.org/learningservice.php ) before in this blog, so I will not repeat it, but remember that the three principles are:
Academic Integrity—Each project has clearly defined learning objectives that relate to learning standards and local curricula.

Student Ownership – Students share in decision-making with adults, and adults share in learning with student – acting as partners and coaches rather than experts.

Apprentice Citizenship – Students learn about civic engagement through partnerships with active community members working on local needs.

When beginning the planning of a service learning project is it important to have plans that address each of the principles.

At the workshop, on several chart papers (two each for the broad issue areas of physical heath, emotional health and environmental health) hanging on the wall were the following questions:

• What specific issue do we want to impact? What are the problem(s) or need(s)?
• Who is the target audience? Who will benefit from the project?
• How will we learn more about the problem/needs? What experts can help us with the project?
• What are we going to learn?
• Generating Interest & Ownership? How will we get others to help us?

The group at the conference took to the planning. Students and adults stood shoulder to shoulder, listening and talking, planning and sharing. Responses to the questions filled the charts. Solid plans for communities and youth were developed.

Remember, service learning is about both community impacts and youth impacts…the plans that started at the conference, because they are starting on firm foundations, with plans to link the efforts to the curriculum, include and build youth voice and maximize community partnerships while meeting authentic needs, will succeed for the communities and the youth involved.

What are youth planning to do to make your community healthier while they are demonstrating the learning outcomes that you, their teachers and youth leaders have for them? Please use the comment box to share…

Matt Robinson is a Featured Blogger and an education consultant with KIDS Consortium (www.kidsconsortium.org).

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Seven Steps for Strengthening Your Personal Foundation

Posted on November 30, 2011 by VM Tech

by Daniel Martinage

As an executive coach, one of the most common areas my clients seek support and guidance on is improving their leadership abilities. How we interact with and lead people is unquestionably one our most critical attributes. The good news is although some people are born leaders, leadership can be learned and improved at any point in our lives. This brief article covers what I refer to as the Seven Steps for Strengthening Your Personal Foundation.

What’s a personal foundation?
The simplest way to describe a foundation is to think of a building’s foundation—the foundation is used to support the structure. If a building’s foundation is faulty or compromised, the building is not safe and will not function as it’s designed to.
A personal foundation is much the same. Your personal foundation is a combination of your core values and those attributes that keep you strong, focused and effective.

So, how do we keep our personal foundation strong?

The seven steps to strengthening your personal foundation

1. Recognize and eliminate “tolerations” in your life—tolerations are things we put up with even though we know that they are holding us back. A messy office, unbalanced checkbook, outdated computer equipment, are examples. Action: List those things that you’re tolerating and create a plan to zap them.

2. Strengthen your integrity— integrity is used to describe when a building is working the way it was designed to operate. When a building’s integrity is compromised, artificial supports and braces are necessary to hold it together. Similarly, a person is in integrity when physical and mental conditions are working well and are in alignment. Integrity is compromised when negative forces attack our bodies and minds. Lack of sleep, stress, and poor nutrition are examples of negative forces. Think of what happens to a car that is out of alignment. The car pulls to the side and it makes getting to your destination difficult and longer.
Action: Spend time defining what being in integrity looks like for you. Do a self analysis that identifies honestly those things where you’re out of alignment. What do you need to do to get you operating at your best?

3. Recognize conscious and unconscious needs—most people have heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which states that a person’s “basic” needs must be met before their “higher” needs are met. This means that if a person is hungry or thirsty, they’re not going to be very successful at achieving physical or mental exercises. Action: What basic needs of yours are not being met—are you getting enough sleep, eating well and exercising? How are you balancing your personal and professional life?

4. Establishing and maintain boundaries—Robert Frost said it best when he said “Good fences make good neighbors.” Our personal boundaries mean that we have clear guidelines for what’s acceptable to us and what’s not. For example, a boundary can be not allowing anyone to raise their voice when speaking with you. Or, not allowing people to get “in your face”. Or not allowing others to share gossip with you. Action: Where do you need to establish or reinforce your boundaries? Do you allow yourself to be “victimized”?

5. Raising Your Personal Standards—the difference between raising your personal standards versus maintaining boundaries is that boundaries are those things that you and others will not allow, whereas personal standards are those things that you will do. Personal standards are the values, behaviors and actions that you hold yourself to. Examples are remaining positive and upbeat, holding people ahead of “results”, and saying no to things that don’t feel right to you. Action: Where can you raise your personal standards? What specific actions can you take to raise your standards?

6. Building and maintaining a strong personal and professional network—unfortunately, many of us allow our friends and family networks to falter only to find out that we really miss having them when they’re needed.
Having a close circle of friends to support and be supported by is very important to humans because we are innately social. Professional networks should be maintained so they’ll be there when we need them, such as during job searches or transitions of any sort. Action: where do your networks need to be strengthened and what will you do to keep them current.

7. Creating emotional and physical reserves—this involves maintaining sufficient resources and reserves in all aspects of our lives including time, space, money, love and friendship. In many ways having reserves is creating safety nets that allow us to deal with life’s uncertainties. Action: Assess where your reserves are depleted—where are you “burning the candle at both ends”? What specific things will you do to create the space and flexibility that you need?

Additional Resources
There are a lot of resources out there to help strengthen your personal foundation. A few of my favorites—including some “oldies” include:

Seven Habits Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey
Getting Things Done, by David Allen
Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman.

If you’re interested in elevating your leadership skills, take advantage of a complimentary 45-minute coaching session with me over the phone. Contact me at dmartinage@associationcoach.com to learn more.

Daniel Martinage, CAE is an executive coach and consultant specializing in nonprofits and associations. The former executive director of the International Coach Federation Dan also serves on the Selection Committee for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. His website is www.associationcoach.com.

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Making Group Decisions – Six Options

Posted on November 28, 2011 by VM Tech

by Jane Haskell

As you know, one of the primary functions of groups is to make decisions. We have a problem → we need to change something → we need a decision. This is easier said than done, at times.

Some groups get locked into the idea that all decisions need to be made ‘by consensus’. Not so! All groups have six basic and distinct decision-making options available.

Each of these options, of course, has its pros and cons; each represents a different approach. The decision option should always be chosen carefully to be sure it’s the most appropriate method for the decision that’s before the group. The six options are:

Spontaneous Agreement
This happens occasionally when there’s a solution that is favored by everyone and 100 percent agreement seems to happen automatically. These types of decisions are usually made quickly and automatically. They are fairly rare and often occur in connection with the more trivial or simple issues.

PROS: it’s fast, easy, everyone is happy; it unites the group.
CONS: may be too fast; perhaps the issue actually needed discussion.
USES: when lack of discussion isn’t vital (i.e. issues are trivial); or when issues are not complex, requiring no in-depth discussion.

One Person Decides
This is a decision that the group decides to refer to one person to make on behalf of the group. A common misconception among teams is that every decision needs to be made by the whole group. In fact, a one-person decision is often a faster and more efficient way to get resolution. The quality of any one person’s decision can be raised considerably if the person making the decision gets advice and input from other group members before deciding.

PROS: it’s fast and accountability is clear. Can result in commitment and buy-in if people feel their ideas are represented.
CONS: it can divide the group if the person deciding doesn’t consult or makes a decision that others can’t live with. A one-person decision typically lacks in both the buy-in and synergy that come from a group decision-making process.
USES: when the issue is unimportant or small; or when there’s a clear expert in the group; or when only one person has the information needed to make the decision and can’t share it; or when one person is solely accountable for the outcome.

Compromise
A negotiated approach is applicable when there are two or more distinct options and members are strongly polarized (neither side is willing to accept the solution/position put forth by the other side). A middle position is then created that incorporates ideas from both sides. Throughout the process of negotiation, everyone wins a few favorite points, but also loses a few items he or she liked. The outcome is, therefore, something that no one is totally satisfied with. In compromises, no one feels he or she got what he or she originally wanted, so the emotional reaction is often, “It’s not really what I wanted, but I’m going to have to live with it.”

PROS: it generates lots of discussion and does create a solution.
CONS: negotiating when people are pushing a favored point of view tends to be adversarial; hence this approach divides the group. In the end everyone wins, but everyone also loses.
USES: when two opposing solutions are proposed, neither of which are acceptable to everyone; or when the group is strongly polarized and compromise is the only alternative.

Multi-voting
This is a priority-setting tool that is useful for making decisions when the group has a lengthy set of options and rank ordering the options, based on a set of criteria, will clarify the best course of action.

PROS: it’s systematic, objective, democratic, non-competitive and participative. Everyone wins somewhat and feelings of loss are minimal. It’s a fast way of sorting out a complex set of options. Often feels consensual.
CONS: it’s often associated with limited discussion, hence, limited understanding of the options. This may force choices on people that may not be satisfactory to them, because the real priorities do not rise to the surface or people are swayed by each other if the voting is done out in the open, rather than electronically or by ballot.
USES: when there’s a long list of alternatives or items from which to choose or when choosing a set of criteria to identify the best course of action.

Majority Voting
This involves asking people to choose the option they favor once clear choices have been identified. Usual methods are a show of hands or secret ballot. The quality of voting is always enhanced if there’s good discussion to share ideas before the vote is taken.

PROS: it’s fast and decisions can be of higher quality if the vote is preceded by a thorough analysis.
CONS: it can be too fast and low in quality if people vote based on their personal feelings without the benefit of hearing each other’s thoughts or facts. It creates winners and losers, hence dividing the group. The show of hands method may put pressure on people to conform.
USES: when there are two distinct options and one or the other must be chosen; when decisions must be made quickly and a division in the group is acceptable; when consensus has been attempted and can’t be reached.

Consensus Building
This involves everyone clearly understanding the situation or problem to be decided, analyzing all of the relevant facts together, and then jointly developing solutions that represent the whole group’s best thinking about the optimal decision. It’s characterized by a lot of listening, healthy debate and testing of options. Consensus generates a decision about which everyone says, “I can live with it.”

PROS: it’s a collaborative effort that unites the group. It demands high involvement. It’s systematic, objective and fact-driven. It builds buy-in and high commitment to the outcome.
CONS: it’s time-consuming and produces low-quality decisions if done without proper data collection or if members have poor interpersonal skills.
USES: when decisions will impact the entire group; when buy-in and ideas from all members are essential; when the importance of the decision being made is worth the time it will take to complete the consensus process properly.
Remember that each option has its place, so choose the most appropriate method before each decision-making session.

Next month, I will write more about understanding consensus. This Decisions Options Chart is a handy reference that I have seen many group leaders use when they are trying to help a group decide which decision-making option to use. We also use this chart in STRENGTHENING YOUR FACILITATION SKILLS, LEVEL 1.

Things to Watch for in Decision-making
Decision-making is rarely easy. The following are some extra tips to help you manage decision-making sessions:
• Be clear on the process to be used right up-front. Explain any tools or techniques that will be used.
• Ask people what assumptions they’re operating under, either about the issue or the organizational constraints. Note these and test them with the rest of the group.
• Conflict is a natural part of many decision-making discussions. Always confront differences assertively and collaboratively. Don’t strive to avoid conflict or accommodate by asking people to be nice and get along.
• Urge people not to fold or just give in if they feel they have important ideas. When everyone agrees just to make things run smoothly, the result is “group think.” This creates poor decisions made just to get it over with and is an attempt to ensure that everyone stays friends.
• If the group has chosen to go for consensus because the issue is important, stick with it even if the going gets tough. Beware of the tendency to start voting, coin tossing, and bargaining to make things easier.
• Be very particular about achieving closure on any items that get decided. Test for consensus and make sure things are final before letting the group move on to other topics.

Material adapted from: Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, Level 1. Jane Haskell, Louise Franck Cyr and Gabe McPhail. Orono, ME: UMaine Extension, 2007.

• Stop the action if things start “spinning” or behaviors get ineffective. Ask: “What are we doing well? What aren’t we doing so well?” and “What do we need to do about it?” Then act on the suggestions for improvement.

Effective Decision-making Behaviors
To make any decision process work, group members need to behave themselves in specific ways. These behaviors can be suggested to the group or generated as norms in advance of any decision-making session.

Behaviors that Help
• Listening to other’s ideas politely, even when you don’t agree.
• Paraphrasing the main points made by another person, especially if you’re about to contradict the person’s ideas.
• Praising others’ ideas
• Building on others’ ideas
•Asking others to critique your ideas, and accepting the feedback
•Being open to accepting alternative courses of action
•Dealing with facts
•Staying calm and friendly toward colleagues

Behaviors that Hinder
•Interrupting people in mid-sentence
•Not acknowledging the ideas that others have put on the table
•Criticizing others’ ideas, as opposed to giving them useful feedback
•Pushing your own ideas while ignoring others’ input
•Getting defensive when your ideas are analyzed
•Sticking only to your ideas and blocking suggestions for alternatives
•Basing arguments on feelings
•Getting overly emotional; showing hostility in the face of any disagreement

Jane Haskell is an Extension Professor with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and a Featured Blogger.

Posted in Leadership, People, Professional Development | Tagged | 1 Comment

Difficult Volunteer Behaviors- What’s Behind It and How Do You Deal With It?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by VM Tech

by Jen Lobely

As we near Thanksgiving, one of the things I am thankful for is the fact that I don’t have to deal with difficult volunteers on a daily or even weekly basis. Thankfully it is rare that I have to deal with this, but I certainly would be lying if I said I never had to…it’s par for the course when you work with volunteers. After listening to an on-line presentation given by Steve McCurley and reading Handling Problem Volunteers- Real Solutions written by Steve McCurley and Sue Vineyard, I was reminded of some common root causes of such behavior and thought I would share some points that I took away from my learning. Here are four main reasons a volunteer may exhibit challenging behavior:

1. Lack of understanding- it is important for volunteers to know what to do, how to do it and why they need to behave in a certain way. These can be address by orientation, training, and position or role descriptions.

2. Volunteer may have a different view regarding what needs to be done or possibly how it should be done. Their views may conflict with that of the volunteer manager or goals of the volunteer program. This usually is an issue with very experienced volunteers.

3. Many volunteers fear change- they don’t see what could possibly be gained and they clearly have determined there is potential for loss. This is common when a program tries to implement procedural change- a change is what the volunteer is asked to do or a change in the process of how to accomplish a task. If the volunteers are not involved in developing the change, they will not feel connected to the new system- no buy in.

4. Finally, there are obstacles that are beyond our control. It may not be that the volunteer doesn’t have the ability, but that things such as time, resources, personal limitations or something in the environment is getting in the way.

So what’s a volunteer manager to do? A good volunteer manager does not run away from or avoid difficult volunteers. If you don’t stop the behavior, you could be putting your program at risk. I have found the following steps helpful when needing to redirect difficult behavior:

1. Discuss the issue privately with the volunteer. Give them the opportunity to share their viewpoint about what is happening. Be sure to listen for external factors- personal life, work environment, misinformation, bad experience with client, or burnout.

2. Engage in mutual problem solving. Get them to agree a problem exists and then ask the volunteer for ideas on how to solve the problem. Start by asking, “What might OTHERS do to make this situation easier?” Then follow up with the following question: “What can YOU do to improve the situation?” Determine together, based on the conversation what steps will be taken to improve or correct the situation.

3.Agree on a timeline for corrective action on the individual’s part. Let the volunteer know you will look at these points and address how well, from YOUR perception, they are changing in ways that are beneficial to the program.

4. Follow up and recognize achievement if the volunteer has been successful in rectifying their behavior or the problem.

Jen Lobley is a featured blogger and the Extension Educator for Volunteer Development at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

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