Project management within volunteering organisations

Leading without classic authority

Within volunteering organizations, leading of projects is being done without the classic authority, as seen in companies. This means that all volunteers have to be motivated by other factors, such as the feeling of purpose or the process of the project. To create a motivational atmosphere it is also important to focus on communication and on involving the volunteers. The Danish scouting and guiding organization, Det Danske Spejderkorps, was drawn upon for references and case examples. The objective of this organization is to create an inspirational environment with possibilities for development of the members. All in all, this article strives to explain some of the learnings about project management that can be drawn from a volunteering organization.

Important factors within volunteering management

A study were done in 2006 on what makes a scout group attractive to be in. A scout group typically consist of 5 branches, each branch spanding between specific ages, e.g. scouts from 6-8 years old or 12-16 years old. For each branch there will be one or more leaders. There will also typically be a group leader, a treasurer and a board. Though the study were done specifically on groups, some of the findings are also true for project groups within scouting. The relevant findings are discussed below.

From the study we know that four factors are especially important for groups of volunteers, these are Team Spirit, Ambition, Simplicity and Management. The study has shown that non of these factors can be replaced by the others and that leadership is the adhesive binding the others together.

The four factors that are shared among most attractive groups within Det Danske Spejderkorps.

Team Spirit

It is important that the project group see themselves as a team and try to solve their challenges together in stead of separately. The project group has to meet on a regular basis, both in professional (here: scouting) and social context. The meetings has to be carried out in a professional and result-oriented way. It is often an advantage if the project group consists of members with different backgrounds, this being different geographical locations, different educations, different working experience and different scouting experiences.

Team spirit can backfire if the team spirit turns in to tribalism. If tribalism occurs the project group is likely to die out, since no new members are taken in when old members leave the group. Tribalism itself might also dissolve the group quicker because the projects are less likely to be innovatiove and challenging, when no new ideas are brought in to the group from the outside.

Ambition

The good project groups accomplish challenging activities with high standards. Most importantly the project group has to have ambitions and a purpose. The purpose of the project group has to be visible and specific, so the volunteers are striving towards the same goal. Therefore it is also important for the project group members to be able to formulate the purpose of the group. Both to be certain everyone knows what they are working for but also to be certain that everyone is able to question and debate the purpose of the project group. Giving the project group a common language to communicate about the purpose ensures that the purpose can be reconsidered and renewed if needed.

Remembering to commend the volunteers and celebrate the victories of the project group is also important. The volunteers need to feel like their effort makes a difference.

If the projects become too complicated, they might become more fatiguing than motivating.

Simplicity

The best project groups manage to minimize the fundamental conflict all volunteers will have between the time they need to spend on family, work and their volunteering organisation. It helps to have simple routines and standard procedures when possible. Describing the tasks may also help spread them more among the project team members. If the tasks are transparent and clearly demarcated it makes it easier for volunteers to offer their help or to ask others for help.

The danger of simplicity is when routines are chosen over potential new ways of doing the work. If no new ideas get tested anymore the project group might miss out on ways to improve the work. This could mean the group will miss out on opportunities to higher the ambitions.

Management

As seen in the figure, mangement is the adhesive, that binds the other factors together. Good management is both organisational and visionary. On the organisational side the management has to make certain that tasks are carried out and the meetings are planned and executed in a good way. The visionary part is to help the group see the bigger picture and think further ahead. Good management will make it possible to maintain the good team spirit, to carry out the big ambitions and to create the simplicity to make it easy for the volunteers to contribute.

Pitfalls of management within in volunteering project groups is lack of communication. If the volunteers feel that they do not understand the reasons for a specific decision, or that they have not had the chance to be heard in the decision process, they are not always likely to follow their leaders. Another risk is burnouts within management, when the leaders do not manage to ask for help in time. In general it is better if the leader(s) only have the management task, since it is a demanding task. The task of leading is sometimes underestimated among volunteers.

The patrol system; pros and cons

Within the scouting organisation, a main principle is the principle of the patrol system. The patrol system is used to teach the scouts to work together when solving problems. Most of the challenges the scouts will be faced with are designed so it takes most of the patrol to solve the tasks. Also the challenges will usually be rather diverse so the different members of the patrol will have the chance to excel. In scout competition it is not unusual that there, besides the 1st til 3rd prize, will be a so-called Turn out prize, which is the prize for the best collaboration. This illustrates that there is a great focus on welcoming everybody in the fellowship and utilise the diversity of the different scouts in the patrol.

Growing up with the patrol system provides a very safe learning environment where it is possible to make mistakes and learn for your self after the Learning by doing and Children leading children principles. For a lot of scouts the principles of the patrol system follow them in their adult life. They wish to make room for diversity and be able to keep learning by doing even though it will lead to a mistake once in a while. Most adult scouts are also very aware of their own flaws due to countless self evaluations and evaluations of the patrol effort. They will also be taught to evaluate others in a good way, but there is far more emphasis on recieving the evaluation for the sake of personal improvement.

A problem with the principle of having room for everyone is that the tools for moving or removing people from specific posts are underdeveloped. Tim Collins uses the metaphor of getting people on and off the bus. Here it would also be relevant to look at, if the people on the bus are in the right seats. A big problem for project groups within volunteering organisations can be the wrong people on the bus and no one knowing, how to tell them it is time to get off. It happens that other volunteers will get off the bus, sometimes even a lot, before the person that should leave will be leaving. Likewise people who are in a post or seat that does not fit them will often be unhappy and troublesome to deal with for other volunteers. And yet, it is often difficult for volunteers to touch upon the subject of moving the person to a different position.

To be truly ambitious the volunteering organisations will have to realise that there can not be room for everyone everywhere in the organisation. It will be possible to fit most volunteers somewhere, especially when the organisation is big enough, but is important to actively adress the question, if people are in the right place and if they could do even better somewhere else in the organisation.

How is this useful to companies

A company culture that focuses on the employees’ development provides value to knowledge based companies, because the employees are the most important resource of the company. Furthermore the resistance to change within the company can be minimized by focusing actively on communication and on involving their employees. This will help the company adapt more to a quickly changing market. Additionally, volunteering organizations provide insights into different motivational factors that drive its members to actively engage in projects, knowledge that can also be used in companies.