December 26, 2007	Volume 7, Issue 52
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Tactics for Asking for Volunteers:
Part II

by Rick Brenner

When we seek volunteers for specific, time-limited tasks, a common approach is just to ask the entire team at a meeting or teleconference. It's simple, but it carries risks. There are alternatives.

hen leaders or managers ask teams or groups for volunteers for a specific task of limited duration, things usually work out fine. But sometimes we get too many volunteers, too few volunteers, or a basket of trouble. Here's Part II of a collection of tactics to help you through the sticky situations that sometimes arise when you ask for volunteers. See "Tactics for Asking for Volunteers: Part I," Point Lookout for December 19, 2007, for more.

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., bids farewell to Gen. Bernard Montgomery at the Palermo airport in Sicily on July 28, 1943. By then their rivalry, which was to become one of Gen. Eisenhower's most serious leadership challenges, was nearing its zenith. Rivalry between team members can provide motivation for volunteering, but it comes at a high price paid in terms of team cohesion. It's tempting for team leaders to exploit or even stimulate rivalries, but the effect of such tactics is usually expensive and might even threaten the team's mission. Gen. Eisenhower dealt with the rivalry between the two generals by separating them as best he could, but political constraints on Eisenhower's authority probably prevented him from choosing more effective tactics. Photo from "Images from World War II: The Early Years," compiled by Capt. John F. Curley, courtesy U.S. Army Center of Military History.

When the wrong people volunteer

Some volunteers are already overloaded, but they volunteer because they want the assignment, or they believe that the task is politically valuable. Some care little about the task itself, and some lack necessary technical or interpersonal skills.

If some people aren't ready or right for the task, in some cases, you can convert the situation into a developmental opportunity. Explain privately that you'd like to offer them a future assignment, if they address the issues you've noticed. Ask for their views, and together work towards a development plan that leads to a workable outcome for all concerned.

If you take a developmental approach, don't promise the "next" opportunity — it commits you to making the offer, independent of the volunteer's progress. Keep future assignments contingent on progress against the development plan.

If you believe that some people will never be right for the task in question, and if tasks of that kind are a significant fraction of your team's work, consider whether these people are better placed elsewhere. You might want to keep them on for their ability to contribute in other ways, but recognize that if you do, and if they continue to harbor other ambitions, you're at risk of accepting a chronic irritant that could escalate.

When designating one leader might offend the others Designating a lead after
you've selected the volunteers
can be trouble, especially
if more than one of
them wants the position

For a multi-person task group, it's usually best to designate a lead. This can be difficult or awkward, but failing to do so just shifts the burden of that difficulty to the task group. It leaves them with an ongoing problem whenever they must decide anything.

Designating a lead after you've selected the volunteers can be trouble, especially if more than one of them wants the position, or if those not selected might feel slighted. In effect, you've created a mini-mess — and some of these messes aren't so mini.

To avoid these problems, ask for volunteers for the lead before you ask for volunteers for the task — or select a lead in advance, privately. Once the task lead is named, everyone who volunteers knows the structure of the task group, and that clarity removes much of the risk of interpersonal difficulty.

Although we ask for volunteers to find people who actually want the assignments, the process often uncovers problems within the team. Addressing those problems might seem difficult, but it's preferable to avoiding asking for volunteers.  Top    Next Issue

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Become a Tugboat Captain

If your job responsibilities sometimes require that you tell powerful people that they must do something differently, you could find yourself in danger from time to time. You can learn a lot from tugboat captains.

Mastering Meeting Madness

If you lead an organization, and people are mired in meeting madness, you can end it. Here are a few tips that can free everyone to finally get some work done.

Make Space for Serendipity

Serendipity in project management is rare, in part, because we're under too much pressure to see it. If we can reduce the pressure, wonderful things happen.

Let Me Finish, Please

We use meetings to exchange information and to explore complex issues. In open discussion, we tend to interrupt each other. Interruptions can be disruptive, distracting, funny, essential, and frustratingly common. What can we do to limit interruptions without depriving ourselves of their benefits?

Who Would You Take With You to Mars?

What makes a great team? What traits do you value in teammates? Project teams can learn a lot from the latest thinking about designing teams for extended space exploration.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.

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Person-to-Person Communication for Project Managers

When we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program you'll learn a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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• Houston, Texas: May 9, Monthly Meeting, Houston Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

The Race to the South Pole: The Power of Agile Development

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough. Lessons abound. Among the more important lessons are those that demonstrate the power of the agile approach to project management and product development. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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  your calendarSt. George Banquet Hall, Kitchener, Ontario: March 6, Dinner Meeting, Canada's Technology Triangle Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
   

Human-Centered Risk Management

Most of us can assess technological risks, but risks related to human behavior tend to resist our best efforts. This session provides a framework for evaluating risks related to the behavior of individuals, teams, organizations and people generally. Human-centered risk differs from technological or market risk, because objective evaluation requires acknowledging personal and organizational limitations and failures. Since some of those limitations and failures might apply to the people assessing the risks, or to their superiors, there's a tendency to deny them or to explain them away. Our approach examines capability, organization, context, risk mitigation, and workplace politics. It has tools for guiding the assessment and management of human-centered risk, and we show how to extend these tools to suit your situation. You'll learn how to identify sources of risk in human behavior; recognize systemic and individual barriers to acknowledging risk; assess the effects of organizational turbulence; determine the risk associated with inappropriate internal risk transfer; estimate the effects of team dysfunction, toxic conflict and turnover; and measure the impact of workplace politics. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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  your calendarMITRE, in Bedford, Massachusetts: March 20, Monthly Meeting, Boston SPIN. Register now.
   

The Race to the South Pole: Ten Lessons for Project Managers

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough, but to project managers, the story is fascinating. Lessons abound. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Columbia, Missouri: May 17, Full-Day Workshop, Mid Missouri Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

Project Management in Fluid Environments

Most people now work in environments that can best be characterized as fluid, because they're subject to continual change. We never know what's coming next. In such environments, managing — teams, projects, groups, departments, or the enterprise — often entails moving from surprise to surprise while somehow staying almost on track. It's a nerve-wracking existence. This program provides numerous tools that help project managers who work in fluid environments. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Columbia, Missouri: May 17, Monthly Meeting, Mid Missouri Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

The Politics of Meetings for People Who Hate Politics

There's a lot more to running an effective meeting than having the right room, the right equipment, and the right people. With meetings, the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. How the parts interact with each other and with external elements is as important as the parts themselves. And those interactions are the essence of politics for meetings. This program explores techniques for leading meetings that are based on understanding political interactions, and using that knowledge effectively to meet organizational goals. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Rochester, New York: May 24, Professional Development Day, Rochester Chapter of the Project Management Institute.