The Center for Creative Community

Anchors ....... & ....... Sails

 @ -- permission for use-with-acknowledgment

Anchors Aweigh:

Creative Thinking on Constraining Conditions
International Conference on Volunteer Administration
October 27, 1995

Objective:
Participants will…

• explore causes of constraining conditions
  consider three strategies to break free of constraining conditions
  be involved in "think tank" or "reflection pool" methodologies

Conducted By:

Ivan Scheier, PHD.
VOLUNTAS
2882 State Highway 14
Madrid, NM 87010-madr

&

Judith Lonergan, M.O.E
Lonergan Associates
58 Forest Park Drive
Rochester, NH 03868

ANCHORS AWAY

A. Preparation: Before proceeding with explanations for this exercise ask participants to describe:

• up to 3 or 4 main issues or concerns related to their volunteer program or organization.
• several issues, concerns or challenges they see facing volunteerism in general.

Then ask participants to put these aside to come back too later.

B. The "Anchors" Metaphor

Anchors keep a ship from moving when you don't want it to. But you must pull up anchors first when you want your ship to move; otherwise, anchors become a serious drag. We have something like anchors in our thinking, too, fixed ideas; taken-for-granted assumptions never challenged; psychological sacred cows; forbidden perspectives; rooted reference points around which everything else must move, but which do not themselves move. When we do move these anchors, considerable creativity can be unleashed. Results can also be merely absurd--or actually repugnant. But that's always the chance creativity takes. Nor do we claim the process is easy. Sailors tell me that, sometimes, you have to move against the current before you can get your anchor up; this, for us, means moving against current mainstream assumptions.

(You may wish to have some group discussion of the metaphor at this point, although it may be better first to consider the examples which follow.)

C. Examples of Anchors

• Bernard is 5 f t 4 inches tall, weights 220 pounds, and has trouble buying clothes. At any rate, that will be seen as the problem as long as his present weight is a given, taken for granted. If he pulls up that anchor, he may be able to re-perceive his problem not so much as finding clothes for his present figure, but rather changing that figure by taking off some weight. Joshua, too, has trouble buying clothes because he is 6 ft 11 inches tall. This anchor cannot be pulled up (e.g. by cutting oneself off at the knees, as some have threatened), and we should be on the lookout, always, for such truly fixed anchors.
• Josie's volunteer program is going poorly, though she seems to have good volunteers and agency support. One assumption might be that she needs to become a better manager. Never (except in one think tank I know of) is it seriously proposed that the management process itself may not be able to cure the ills of her program. True or not, that proposal is, I believe, essentially undiscussable, for most people in volunteerism today. Of course, so the assumption goes, better management is the solution to (all) volunteer program problems.
• Another volunteer program panacea (there are at least two of them) is workshops. Essentially the snake medicine of the late twentieth century, workshops are seen as being able to cure just about any volunteer program- related problem. This anchor tends to suppress serious consideration of alternatives such as policy change, longer-term education, improvements in motivation or incentive systems, or simple recognition that a problem may be inherently unsolvable--at least for the present.
• Accountability to the host agency anchors much of our thinking about volunteer programs (e.g., volunteer supervision, job descriptions, training). This stifles exploration of 1) ways in which the host agency should be accountable to its volunteers, and 2) productive forms of entrepreneurial volunteer effort which don't involve agencies at all.
• Volunteer recruiting is falling off in Steve's program. A strongly suggested remedy, almost always, will be to improve recruiting techniques. Relatively rare will be consideration of the extent to which the volunteer program itself might be changed to make it more attractive to volunteers. Not as a priority, anyhow. The volunteer program is an anchor, a sacred cow.
• This kind of anchored thinking--they must change, rather than us--is particularly unhelpful in considering why certain ethnic, racial, income, or other groups do not volunteer. Their "apathy" is defined in terms of the immutable goodness of our program-as-anchor. Too little attention is given to how our program might be changed to become more attractive to them, or, beyond that, the possibility that maybe our entire organization doesn't really deserve their participation and support.
• The progress of modern volunteerism has been seriously slowed by massively anchored perceptions of certain groups as intrinsically recipients of services, rather than providers. The list is long and includes older people, youth, persons with disabilities, people who have emotional problems, etc. Pulling up such anchors one by one, e.g. seeing older people as part of the solution, not just part of the problem, has been the success story of modern volunteerism, in tremendous release of new helping energies. One wonders how many more recipient-to-resource conversions remain to be explored and cultivated? (Might be worth some discussion at this point.) Chances are, too, that the more "obvious" the group's role as help-absorber (e.g. infants), the more ripe the prospects are for challenging this role. (How about infants bringing smiles to nursing home residents?)
• A related anchor may be that desirable transitions are always in the direction of receiver-to-giver of help. In fact, volunteer administrators now seem in the midst of a transition in the other direction, from being solely or primarily givers of help, to seeing themselves as in need of help (e.g. Sue Vineyard's book, "How To Take Care of Yourself...").
• There is also some inkling of movement in a fairly fixed perception that staff's role is predominantly giving support to volunteers, towards a more balanced view in which volunteers also have to give staff a great deal of recognition and support.
• Taking both the above perceptions together, there seems to be general movement towards the center (as both receiver and giver) both by groups formerly considered mainly receivers and groups formerly considered mainly givers of help.
• One fairly common anchor concerning recognition of volunteers--though hardly ever stated quite this baldly--is "the more the better." This anchor prevents many of us from seeing that some volunteers, especially "internally" motivated ones, do not necessarily value external recognition, especially in its more public forms. (See Gil Clary: "Intrinsically vs. Extrinsically Motivated Volunteers..."). Similarly, we are blinded to the possibility that some forms of public recognition events are more for the benefit of agency executives and politicians than for rank-and-file volunteers. (See Scheier, "Exploding the Big Banquet Theory of Recognition.")

D Other Anchors. (About 30 minutes)

Participants at this point can be asked to think of other anchors, either in their own experience or in other written material (including these exercises). Analyze these anchors as in the preceding examples.

E. The Concern You-Came With (30-45 minutes)

Go back to part A and in small groups or pairs look for possible anchors in the issues and concerns you raised there. Would it help to pull up some of these anchors? If so, how?

~

The Center for Creative Community
P.O. Box 2427
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
(505) 983-8414

ANCHORS TO END 1994

(Superficial, nonetheless as often, powerful). Learning is good; it is good to acquire knowledge/information. Misses all the bad dysfunctional learning that can occur, early in life, for example, but certainly throughout life as well. Existence of anchor prevents from 10 being more discriminatory about good vs bad learning and 2) more emphasis on value of DE-learning or unlearning.

The way to learn best, most deeply, is through a (fierce) focus on the subject to be learned (vs. distraction, dilettantism, etc) as with Nancy's Buddhist Teacher. But in some circumstances, at least, this could be anchor; e.g. best way to see something at the horizon at dusk etc is to look slightly AWAY from it. Value of peripheral acuity in almost any athletics. Value of COMPARATIVE literature, religion, etc. Value of travel--helps you see home more clearly, etc.

Anchors about whose fault it is. Thus, chronic mortality of marriages in U.S. (Western Society generally?) is usually attributed to some flaw in the people rather than the institution (e.g., they need to go for marriage counseling, etc). Anchor is, institution is sacrosanct, and if it doesn't work, it's the fault of the participants. (Can substitute lots of other things for "institution", e.g. method....)

Generally, lots and lots of anchors about whose fault it is. Thus, for conservatives (Social Darwinism, etc) it's the fault of poor people that they are poor. For liberals, it's more the fault of rich people that poor people are poor--or else government. Anyhow, though the blame varies, the statements of blame are all anchors.

Whoever is "blamed" tends to be given responsibility for rectifying the problem. Lots of anchors on who's responsible. In volunteerism, one of the most damaging is that volunteer coordinators must assume (too much) responsibility instead of entire agency and every individual in it. How Susan Ellis book broke through that.

Political anchors are many. Simplified anchors are conservatives generally want to protect the rich from the poor, which liberals want to protect the poor from the rich. Overall anchor is that they need to be protected one from the other--which makes it harder for us to see win-win cooperative, synthetic possibilities in rich-poor.

Anchor, we must strengthen either or both of existing political parties (in U.S.). Breaking that anchor, recent article (David Broder?) says present alignment of parties is breaking down, but retains anchored framework that must be two (or more) new parties emerge, But further freeing from anchorage might say that we are entering an era in which government will be less willing and able to solve social problems so it doesn't really matter that much which parties contend for which government powers. (Private Corporations, Private citizens (in a sense, Jimmie Carter).

Lots of anchors are like the above in that they establish a FRAMEWORK for dealing with an issue or problem, which can be or become counter-productive, dead-ended. I would think mediators often succeed by changing that framework to one which permits movement towards solution.

Viz the pervasive and powerful "management" framework in volunteerism. Whatever’s wrong, virtually, is because management is defective in some sense, rather than because another function ought better to be engaged. Ditto, lack of volunteers is lack of recruiting technique.

   

Set Your Sails!

 A. Preparation
Before this exercise, have participants identify 2 or 3 dreams for their program. Ask everyone to take out a pencil, not a pen. The pencil signifies that dreams and plans can't be permanent; it's important that they can be changed. If you have the resources, you may want to provide the pencils. Ask everyone to put these aside for later use.

B. The Sails Metaphor
We have learned to lift our anchors and to expand our ways of thinking. At first, this can be scary, because we're not sure where it will take us.

We sit in our sailboat. We drift about, moving in the direction the waves and wind send us. It can be interesting to drift; we may see and do things that we wouldn't have planned. We may end up in a fascinating port where we discover new things. That's how most volunteer managers came to their jobs.

Those uncomfortable with drifting (most volunteer managers don't have the freedom to drift along to see what happens) prefer to go in a specific direction. We chose a destination and SET OUR SAILS. We plan, but it is advisable to write this plan in pencil.

Some days we will experience smooth sailing. Those in our support circles help us; we have or find the resources we need. On other days, we may have to sail against the wind. Taking risks, we change policy and methods; we challenge authority. We may have to change our course as storms challenge us, or as we approach rocks that could end our journey. To go forward, we adapt our plans to the current environment.

Good sailors know how to use sails to their advantage. The same wind that sends them out to sea, carries them home. We don't always need more. We can use and adapt what we have to our advantage.

We may arrive at our destination on time and as planned. We may end up at a different place at a different time because dreams and plans may change along the way. We may discover that this is only the first part of a longer journey.

~~~ Bon voyage.~~~

C. Discussion Questions Related to the Metaphor

Example: Pat majored in history and got a job in a small museum setting up displays. Pat began to see that more could be done, if only there were more person-power, so he started a volunteer program. The word of its success spread, and now Pat has been hired as the volunteer coordinator of a large metropolitan museum. Pat is giving workshops at national volunteer conferences.

Question: What put the wind in Pat's sail?

Answers: Pat was able to see beyond his initial narrower job description (setting up museum displays) to a broader people-empowering one. He was able to see beyond paid help to get things done.

1. Fran knew that more people could be helped if they had access to the agency and its staff during hours when most people aren't working... There was staff and administrative resistance to early morning, evening, and Saturday hours. Fran met with people related to the field, not related to the field, clients and non-clients. She asked for 30 minutes of their time to focus on an idea she had for non-traditional hours. While still closed on Saturday, the agency is now open two nights a week and one morning at seven o'clock. What put the wind in Fran's sail?

2. Mindy's annual volunteer recognition program was legend. Volunteers looked forward to it all year. Alas, the local economy turned sour, unemployment soared, and donations to Mindy's nonprofit plummeted. The budget for recognition was ten per cent of what it used to be. The new foodless, giftless, make-our-own-fun recognition event was so successful, that Mindy has never gone back, to the original costly program. What put the wind in Mindy's sail?

3. Good news from Rick. His volunteer program expanded rapidly, as a result of excellent recruitment methods. Bad news from Rick. He couldn't keep up with it all, and administration refused to hire people to help him. He looked at his options: remain out of control, stop growth, cut back the program, or find a way to manage the program without hiring additional people. Good news from Rick. He has things under control by spending a significant amount of his time, working with middle management volunteers - people who train and supervise other volunteers and who report to Rick. What put the wind in Rick's sail?

D. Other Ways to Put Wind in Our Sails

What we say: I'm going to do it. There's time. There's enough money. There are people to support me. I'm an innovative person. I'm a creative person. This will work.

What we do: Start! Make it a priority. Share with others. Reach out for ideas, resources, support systems. Use the eraser on the pencil, then sharpen and use the lead. Keep at it - persevere.

Have the group discuss other ideas.

E. Back to the Dream

Have the participants take out the dreams and the pencils with which they started. Have them spend some time "putting wind in their sails", that is, finding ways to make the dream(s)come true. Have them share with others in pairs or groups

Judith E. Lonergan
Lonergan Associates
Rochester, NH 03867

 

SAILS

We have asked the right questions, found support for our dream, and pulled up our anchors. We drift about, moving in the direction the waves and wind-send us. (Without taking steps to move in a certain direction, outside influences and people will direct our course, and we will end up where they want us to go).

It can be interesting to drift; we may see and do things that we wouldn't have planned. We may end up in a fascinating port where we discover new things.

Those uncomfortable with drifting (most volunteer managers don't have the freedom to drift along to see what happens) prefer to go in a specific direction. (Planning). We set our sails. Some days we will experience smooth sailing (support circles). On other days we may have to sail against the wind (change policy and methods, challenge authority). We may have to change our course as storms challenge us, or as we approach rocks that could end our journey (adapt plans to the current environment).

Good sailors know how to use sails to their advantage. The same wind that sends them out to sea, carries them home. (Use and adapt what we have to our advantage).

We may arrive at our destination on time and as planned. We may end up at a different place at a different time because dreams may change along the way. We may discover that this is only the first part of a longer journey.

~~~ Bon voyage! ~~~

(For Sails, as the creative counterpoint to anchors, we thank the creative mind of Judith Lonegran, Rochester, NH.)

ANCHORS	SAILS
WHAT WE SAY:	WHAT WE SAY:
There's not enough time. There's not enough money. It's too complicated, People won't understand. No one else does it this way. We’ve tried it before. It's too "far out." People will think I'm crazy.	I'm going to do it. There's time. There's money. There are people to support me. I'm an innovative person. I'm a creative person. This will work.
WHAT WE DO:	WHAT WE DO
Procrastinate. Don't make it a priority. Keep it to ourselves. Find excuses, reasons. Insulate ourselves, from ideas, resources, support systems.	Start! Make it a priority. Share with others. Reach out for ideas, resources, support systems. Keep at it - persevere.

Judith E. Lonergan
Specialist, Volunteer Leadership