Tag Archives: volunteers

Influence without Control

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One of the core skills as a program manager is “influence without control.” I am stellar at this, primarily because of my work in network organizations and working with volunteers. While we had a small team at Geeks Without Bounds, nearly everyone we interacted with was volunteering their time. Same goes for Digital Humanitarian Network. Priceless experimented with hiring and paying two roles this year (I developed the hiring and accountability structures), but otherwise it’s 40 opinionated, badass volunteer planners running the core event with another 150 event volunteers helping in the days of and surrounding the event. And there is zero control over volunteers, there is only influence. So here’s how I do it, as a coordinator, program manager, and manager.

This is less about communicating effectively (maybe I’ll write about that another time), and more about attitude towards people you’re working with.

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Spontaneous Unaffiliated Volunteers

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Anytime there’s a crisis, there’s a flood of people showing up to help. They’re called “spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers” (SUVs) in crisis response circles, and they’re generally considered a chaos amplifier. They’re mostly seen as getting in the way, of being untrained and untasked, and often as not being willing to be trained or tasked.

And at the same time, the amount of work to be done is huge, and there are never enough hands. These folks have dropped everything in their lives because their hearts have been broken open, and they are here to help.

So how to manage this?

When people show up, they are either there to help, or there to “help.” They are either there to serve others, even if it means digging the latrine pit; or they are there to feel better about themselves. Discerning this early on in your intake flow is vital. One way I’ve seen to do this so far is to give someone a task that is not very important (but still engaging) and see what they do with it. If they deliver on it and ask for more, they’re good to go and you can give them more visible things. If they dawdle, take lots of selfies, and ask for other work; redirect them to things that keep them out of the way like sorting and keeping things tidy. They’ll usually phase themselves out.

What are other ways to discern between these groups?