I Am the Barrier to Buy In

I hear people say "buy in" a lot. As in "we need to get buy in from the departments if this project is going to be successful".

What does this really mean? And how do you create it?

Having worked in an organization that was proactive in providing tools to leadership on how to deal with conflict, communicate and understand the diversity of strengths within the organization I learned the biggest barrier to "buy in" was myself.

"Buy in" is getting people to see the vision you have and actively take on the work to get there. I understand many people get most excited about the the ideas and projects they create. They have an innate connection to their projects because a piece of them is at the foundation.

As a Volunteer Manager I have often been in the position of creating a space of collaboration between people in the community and paid staff. This space forms out of providing a means for a community member to see themselves as being able to impact the organziation's mission and the opportunity to act on it, combined with paid staff seeing the value of working with these community members as volunteers.

This means not being over zealous and demand paid staff work with volunteers. Instead provide a space for them to see what possibility they can create by working with volunteers. This is not just a "working with volunteers" issues. Every time we need the support and help from coworkers we must  truly listen in order to navigate around fear and anxiety and focus on whether the work we are planning is in the best interest of our community. And if it is, how do we get it done.

My excitement for a project has sometimes prevented me from truly enrolling coworkers in the vision and impact of a project. When people don't "buy in" to the idea it is easy to feel abandoned and not supported.  The take away of "not feeling supported" is something that is easy to bring into every interaction and planning meeting afterwards. This feeling gets in the way of getting work done. This cycle will only be disrupted if I understand my way of being is at the root of the issue. How I approach others to get them on board, how I  dismiss their concerns, how I don't take into account their current workload all might be factors in not getting the "buy in" I want.

All the tools, books and workshops an organization provides to its staff will fall short if we as individuals do not go to work on ourselves first. "Buy in" is not something separate from ourselves, it does not exist as its own entity. "Buy in" is a result of who we are and how we act.   

Volunteers make a difference. Do we let them?

Some organizations struggle to work with volunteers outside of the traditional task oriented opportunity. They nestle volunteers safely into compartmentalized positions, restricting responsibility to a specific piece of an overall project. In some ways, this type of volunteer management is very effective. And, it makes sense in the linear evolution of industrialization. Nonprofits, just like factories have embraced the ideals of the assembly line.

It does not have to be this way... or only this way. We all do work, at times, that makes us feel like cogs in the organizational gear. Grinding away to meet our mission. Take a look at your job and ask yourself, "what about it makes me smile". Now, think for a moment, has your boss asked you, or recognized the thing that made you smile? If so, awesome! You have a good boss. If not, find time to tell them.

Either way, volunteers working in your organization have the same sentiments. There are parts of their work they get really fired up over. Often, volunteers don't feel they are in a position where they can communicate what really drives them, or how they would really like to serve the community. If there are not adequate times for evaluation and reflection there is the potential to miss out on an abundance of skill, passion and knowledge from your existing volunteers.

Your volunteers will contiue to do good work and accomplish the task set out, but the ability for your organization to build capacity  to meet its mission will be limited.


How to work outside of the traditional task oriented model:

I think discussing this in regards to third party fundraisers is the easiest way to explain it. If your development department has a goal of raising $100,000 they have created a work plan to reach this goal.  It is not likely the Development Manager would hand over raising $20,000 of their goal to a person in the community, let alone $1,000. Their goal, is their goal. And if they don't reach it they will be held accountable.

In the task oriented form of volunteer management certain tasks are delegated to the volunteer at different points within the project. Reaching the goal is dependent on both the Development Manager and the volunteer being succesful at completing their work.

Reasons to move away from this:

1) Paid staff often think it is risky to delegate "important" work to a volunteer

2) Therefore, volunteers don't get delegated "important" work that capitalizes on their knowledge, skills and passion

3) Miss opportunities for skilled volunteers to be creative collaborators and leaders in the organization to better serve the community.

4) Limited abiltiy to build capacity to serve the community, raise money, create awareness provide direct services.

An alternate form:

If someone in the community approaches the Development Manager and wants to organize a softball tournament fundraiser to raise $5,000, with the proceeds benefiting the organization, I bet the Development Manager would say "go for it". In this scenario the Development Manager and the community member share the same goal, raising money for the organization. Their success, however, is not dependant on one another. The Development Manager is still going to work at raising $100,000. And the community member's work builds capacity to raise more funds beyond the $100,000.

Reasons to move towards this:

1) Capitalizes on the skills, knowledge and passion of people in the communtiy to meet the organization's mission.

2) Limits risk of collaborating with community members. If they are successful it adds to the goal set. If they are unsuccessful it does not affect the minimum standard for reaching the goal.

3) Creates champions of your mission that you can highlight to tell the story of your work and empower other people to join. Let's face it, the community doesn't want to hear about a fundraiser a paid staff person put on. A more compelling story would be a family who organized a benefit in honor of a loved one.

4) Builds capacity to meet your mission in new ways.

This same principal of collaborating with community members to build capacity within the context of any goal allows for highly skilled, creative and passionate people to fully participate in the cause of your organization.

Have you collaborated with community members in this way? If so, what did they do and what was the result?

Just another tool

I have the opportunity to work with professionals across the state and help them build better programs for delivering service and engaging their community. I can guarantee you there is always a part of the discussion that comes down to social media. And, I can also guarantee you there is one person in the group who says "I don't get what the big deal is!?" or "So you 'like' something and all of a sudden that makes a difference?!"

Working with the group to develop an understanding  of social media being a tool, just like anything else we use in our organizations, can be difficult. In these types of conversations it is very obvious to me there is a divide separating people who use social media and those who don't. This is not a judgement of right or wrong, it just simply is. What I have seen happen in conversations similar to this one, is for that divide to get wider. This increasing technology gap does not help anyone. The professional feels more out of touch, maybe behind the times and the community they are serving is at a potential loss because they are not able to access supports, services and information through new portals.

I can empathize with the professional who does not see the point. We have a frantic culture, leaping onto the next big craze. New media platforms, apps and ideas on how to use these tools are developing rapidly. My suggestions are as follows:

1. Slow down. Don't worry if you are not on every social media platform that exists.
2. Start with one. Take a look at a social media tool and do some research on it. Join Facebook and explore how other organizations use their page as a tool. (And by the way there are about a billion blog posts on this subject so take a look around)
3. Don't use social media just because you feel you have too. This sentiment doesn't help anyone.
4. Make a plan and a strategy.
5. And execute that plan.

Five steps to get you started. As you develop your social media tool you will find that many organizations are in a similar position to you when it comes to measuring the impact, creating meaningful content and expanding the use of it. Because of this there are wonderful conferences, workshops and bloggers who dedicate a bunch of their time to helping people just like you use social media to the best of its ability.