Option Expansion - Tower of Babel

The Center for
Creative Community

@ -- permission for use-with-acknowledgment .Draft – October 1989

Request for Input and Assistance in Developing a New Mini-Think Tank F-exercise provisionally entitled

OPTION EXPANSION (Ugh!)

Introduction: HELP!

Further Background:
This is a possible additional exercise for the encouragement and support of creative approaches to volunteerism generally as well as specific volunteer programs, These exercises are currently collected in a Center publication entitled " A Reconsideration of Volunteerism: Exercises for Creative Gadflies" The proposed new exercise can overlap some of these; it is only necessary that it add some fresh and distinct impetus for release of creative energies.

Philosophy of the Strategy:
Sometimes we fail fully to release our creativity because we see problems in terms of deciding between a relatively limited set of alternatives when in fact we should invest more first, in being sure we have in mind the full range of possible options and choices. (There's got to be a better way of saying this)

Types of Option Proliferation:
I. Composite Options -- Develop an awareness that you may not have to be restricted to an either-or choice between X and Y; maybe you can have a little of each, and especially you can perhaps have a "taste" of the newer choice while still retaining your base with the old. The suggested awareness confronts old saws such as: "You can’t have it both ways" (turns out, you can), or "You can't have your cake and eat it, too" (Actually, you can have a piece now and save another piece for later).

You’re- working (paidwork) full time and wonder whether you should go back to school or not. (Obviously (in this example, anyhow) it needn't be ah all--or-none choice; you might, for example, continue working full-time (or cut back just a little on hours) and, say, take one course, to see how it goes.

You're a line manager/operator of programs and would like to evolve towards a trainer/consulting role. Again, you can (and some have) test out the new without totaling abandoning the old, e.g. continue salaried work full-time while testing out the waters of consulting "on the side" in your spare time. If it goes well, you can progressively increase the time and commitment invested in consulting. Again, it's a way of crossing bridges without burning them...

Should you move with a current trend to change your job title from coordinator/Director, etc. of volunteers, in order to recognize and presumably profit from the additional power and status in evolving larger gestalts such as community resource development or community-based support systems? But that might endanger losing the precious "volunteer" identify. Jarene Lee of New York City creatively got some of both by changing her title from Director of Volunteers to Coordinator of Volunteer Resources. Not perfect, of course. And, to be sure, a compromise", perhaps inviting some of the unfortunate, and also unfair connotations of that word...

2. Conditional
A related way of "getting both sides" of a benefit, is to change the above title change questions and change it form ‘which do you choose", to "under what conditions might it be better to keep the volunteer prominent title, as distinct from conditions under which it might be better to move towards community resource type job designation?

3. Composite-Plus Options
Here there is-a-little bit of both" as in composite options (par. 1), but there is something more than a mix of the original two options in the "third option"; something at least a little new seems to be emerging.

a. Should we fire that poorly-performing volunteer or not? The "third option" would be to both fire and not fire him, by offering or placing him in another volunteer job within the organization, deemed more appropriate for him.

b. We seem to have a clear choice: allow our volunteer program (or organization) to grow, thereby filling more needs of clients and staff, but also risking loss of some quality in our program because of "mass production". The third or "best of both worlds" option here, something more than a mix, is to let the program grow but decentralize it into (volunteer-led?) cadres or sub-programs so that the personal touch remains, even with larger total size.

4. Partials
Here the creative breakout is in seeing that there is really more than "one thing in the current structuring of options, and that you can be "for" one component and "against" another, thereby creating another option. Thus, consider the question or issue: "How do you feel about certification (of individuals) as a means of upgrading the power and status of the profession of volunteer administration? For? Against? "Undecided?" Note that usually the question is asked without specifying the above parenthetical "of individuals". So stated, I personally would refuse the question, or reject the alternatives, as presented. For while I am distinctly skeptical about certification of individuals as a way of empowering the profession collectively speaking (it has other values, though), I happen to believe that certification of organizations as to receptivity and support of volunteers, has a great deal of promise. What this does is develop a "new" alternative by partialing/separating certification as a process (which I didn't object to), from the target of certification (individuals or organizations).

5. Neithers
Here, we are aware we can "get out of the box" of a limited set of options by at least considering that neither/none of them may pertain. This more complete freeing up from existing options, has the most promise of producing truly creative alternatives

a. Where shall we place most emphasis in developing increased supplies of energy for the future? Nuclear energy? Oil? Coal? Wind and sunpower? A neat set of alternatives, but the potentially creative option exists of denying all of them and saying: why don't we instead concentrate on decreasing consumption of energy so we won't have to worry about any of the supply-increasing alternative. Are you stymied about whether to go to the conflict resolution of the training of trainers workshop (especially since it's your own money and there's not too much of it)? A potentially creative third alternative would be to say "neither", and put the money towards a training video instead, or a small shopping spree.

My asks of you, are:

In your view is this OPTION EXPANSION process of good potential in helping unlock and facilitate energies, and also different enough from existing mini-think tank exercises to merit, at separate development? (whew!)

If yes, how about more and better examples of the five kinds of expansion? All suggestions most welcome.

Are there other kinds of option expansion not covered above?

Please, can you think of a better name than "option expansion"? I can't.

Background Valuable for creative/effective thinking and approach to challenge/problems. But be careful not so many as to be confusing ...

1) REFUSING to choose, as possible, is a choice.
a) Between go to movie and to concert, another choice is stay home and do neither.
b) Between folding and better fundraising—neither = say, cutback

2) (Related but -distinct) DELALYING THE CHOICE

a) Hire X or Y by _____? wait until have more info. b) crossroads tomorrow example.

3) COMBINGING CHOICES, WHOLE OR PART can produce added choices
a) with entree, either salad or desert to both (smaller portions)
b) between fulltime paid salary & Consult, do both part-time

4) BREAKING DOWN CHOICES INTO COMPONENT PARTS

a) Continue ed or work fulltime now -break-out-t ad incl Antioch-type
b) Confrontstaff res or selective involvement vs. at which level of staff resist

5) LIFTING ANCHORS
a) what kind of workshop for staff –
b) policy change –
c) workshop for VOLS (ownership). (also method)

6) REPHRASING THE ISSUE/QUESTION Question the question, like anchors. but?
a) how better train board.. set of alternatives, becomes broader if it may really be how get rid of board? b), agency jobs to all-vol group

7) VISIONING, IDEAL AND DISASTER SCENARIOS, may open up possibilities 'never before clearly aware of e.g. for career options and ...

8) and on. Include GETTING PERCEPTION OF OTHERS – who know you but maybe not too well.

TOWER OF BABEL

Volunteerism is still in the process of defining itself. So, sometimes when we use the same word we assume we're talking about the same thing, but we really aren't. Appeals to evidence or principle settle nothing when in fact the same word screens important differences in meaning. Example: if by "volunteer" you mean someone who receives no money at all, and I mean someone who can receive expense reimbursement and even a stipend, it's hard for us to have a productive discussion about incentives for volunteers. My suggestion that they be offered expenses reimbursement strikes you as a contradiction in terms because then they will no longer be volunteers. And your suggestions for how to attract low-income volunteers strike me as fundamentally unrealistic because they can't include offering such reimbursement.

Another example: suppose you and I agree that we need to apply the principles of management more rigorously to our volunteer program. Sounds good. But what if, deep down, "management" means to me controlling volunteers enough so that they'll be accountable to the agency, but you take the enabling concept of management Seriously--management to help people do what they want and can do. This being so, our apparent agreement on the need for more management is really saying two opposite things. Such chaos in communication is not to be confused with creativity and in fact suffocates it.

EXERCISE I

Have two or three individuals, or small groups, independently look at the following list of key terms (and any others you'd like to add) and each come up with their own definition. Don't consult the dictionary at this point.

Volunteer
Volunteerism
Networking
Coordinator of volunteers
Volunteer Administrator
Director of volunteers Voluntary Sector
Recognition
Empowerment
Accountability
Management
Evaluation

In discussing the differences and similarities in your definitions, you may want to refer to the dictionary to "settle" differences. But that isn't the main point of the exercise. The point is to illuminate how differences in definition can affect the basic assumptions we make about a subject, the recommendations we make, etc., and how failure to recognize this destroys communication.

EXERCISE 2A (Intended to accomplish the same as Exercise 1, but more open-ended

In pairs or small groups, look at the following paragraph and:

1) Identify the terms on which there may be serious differences in definition among discussants. A few examples are asterisked, but there are many more.

2) For each of these terms, what are the main variations or differences in definition?

3) How do these differences (unconsciously) affect our assumptions about what we are doing or should be doing?

4) "Volunteerism has always been a vital part of the way we do things here. Volunteers* built this country and even today, the voluntary sector* remains strong in our society. Indeed, over the past half-century, an entirely new profession* has evolved which specializes in the recruiting, screening, training, and supervision of volunteers. This is the profession of volunteer administration which employs an estimated 100,000 people in North America to facilitate citizen participation."

Some comments on the paragraph in Exercise 2A:

We've already mentioned the word "volunteer's" many meanings. "Voluntary sector," to some, includes a whole lot more than volunteers, e.g., the private sector or at least the private nonprofit sector. Finally, we are probably throwing around the word "profession" as justification for all kinds of different behaviors ranging from ethical to elitist. A recent article gave eight distinct definitions of professional!

EXERCISE 2B

Discuss and analyze in the same way, the following paragraph:

"Expertise in management is a key competency in the field of volunteer administration. The Volunteer Coordinator's skills as an enabler assure that her volunteers will be accountably to the agency. Communication is another skill that any certification process needs to look at carefully for the Director of Volunteer Services."

Some comments on the paragraph in Exercise 2B: Do "expertise. " "skill" and competency mean precisely the same thing? And how is a "field" related to a "profession"? (previous paragraph) What is "management," and insofar as it enables a person to do what she/he really wants to do and does best. How can we

be sure that is also what the agency wants the person to do (accountability)?

EXERCISES 2C, 2D ...

The above kind of exercise can be repeated with virtually any paragraph from a text on volunteerism, a handbook, journal, newsletter, workshop handout, and even a paragraph from-elsewhere in this publication!

Concluding Discussion

This, can reach beyond specifics to a general consideration 'of what we should do about the kinds of misunderstandings illustrated here. First of all, are they frequent and basic enough to be of concern, or merely occasional oddities? If frequent, what can we do except be wary in discussions? Is there such a thing as being too wary, e.g. spending so much time trying to define things precisely that we never really get to discuss them? And are there some important concepts that are intrinsically undefinable, for example love and friendship? Finally, is it possible that the clash of misunderstanding sometimes actually stimulates creativity?

1999--in the relatively few times I've used this exercise or seen it used, I'm struck with how frequently people, without awareness, use the same word with different meanings, sometimes crucially different This communication disability is at or near the heart of many group failures to think creatively together. A second strong impression is how long and difficult the process is for identifying and, where possible reconciling these differences. I recall one Tower of Babel exercise in which a small bright group spent half a day trying to identify and reconcile the significantly different meanings they had of the word "volunteer". All were careerists in the volunteer leadership field, some of them with many years of experience.

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Ivan Scheier
Stillpoint
607 Marr
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 87901
Tel (505) 894-1340
Email: ivan@zianet.com

For comments and editing suggestions please contact Mary Lou McNatt mlmcnatt@indra.com