Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I work with volunteer groups and have done so since I was a teenager. Volunteers are precious resources, but are often difficult colleagues who quarrel. Why? These people are dedicated to a common cause. What is the problem?

I believe half of one reason is the role of preferences.

Preferences come in many forms. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one measure of preference. The StrengthsFinder is a similar one. Other types of preferences are an Engineer’s Dilemma, “I would rather solve a problem, any problem, than try to discover what the real problem is,” and an Analyst’s Dilemma, “I would rather discover what the problem is and then move onto something else.”

The other half of one reason is the nature of volunteering.

When I volunteer, I have decided to apply my free time to something. I have already spent eight or more hours of the day at my paying job doing what other people want me to do. I am ready to rest, and part of rest is doing what I want to do – what I prefer to do.

When I put these two half reasons together, I conclude that:

Personal preferences show themselves more in volunteer organizations than in paying organizations.

Volunteers show their preferences often and with vigor. My preferences butt against those of the volunteer standing next to me. Calls for, “Please, bear with us here and quiet your (introversion, extroversion, solution, analysis, fill-in-the-blank)” bounce off me. “I am here on my own time and I will be what I prefer to be. If you don’t like it, I will go home.”

I accept volunteers preferring their preferences.

I hope that organizers of volunteer organizations understand this. Please, take extra heed of the different preferences of different persons. Mix preferences when forming volunteer teams as homogeneous teams rarely accomplish anything. Tell the teams why you composed the groups with a mixture. Butting heads will happen, so don’t be surprised, and don’t hammer yourself when it happens.