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Volunteer work will put your leadership skills to the test. There is no hierarchy, no chain of command, a natural leader will arise from group interactions. All actions and requests are via influence, use of force is the kiss of death for that volunteer effort.

I am hoping my experience is the exception, but the one thing that really strikes me is the snail pace at which new ideas are adopted by a non-profit volunteer organization. The volunteers could be doing other things when they choose to donate their time and energy for a cause. The irony is that their ideas are probably more valuable than their time. Yet, when the volunteers come up with innovative ideas to made a strategic difference, the volunteer organization is slow to evaluate and adopt the ideas.

Only the very persistent volunteers succeed in getting their ideas adopted. This leads to a big problem. If a volunteer organization is not investing in making it easy to incubate new ideas and suggestions from its volunteers, what is it doing? If it chooses to deliver services that do not strike at the heart of the issues it is trying to solve, volunteer fatigue will set in. Not to mention, the problem will take longer to solve, and cost more as well. After the satisfaction of having “done a good thing” passes, volunteers are looking for success stories. I don’t think it makes sense to get into the “activity trap” and “busy work” of volunteering.

Thus my conclusion that the non-profit volunteer organizations want people to donate their time, perhaps their money, but not their ideas.

Next time you volunteer, observe this for yourself. I hope your experience is different. It would be a leadership move to provide this feedback and press for faster evaluation of ideas, let the adoption take time.

Turns out, this guidance is valid in for-profit work places as well.