Hollywood comes to Volunteerism.

Professional Change Management Consultants use a variety of methods and tools to help organizations shift from older organizational structures and work cultures to newer, most productive ones.

The Hollywood Model for voluntary organizations

“It’s like herding cats”.

Those are the memorable words of former political leader Allen Small who described what it’s like to lead a voluntary community of like-minded people.

Allen Small was the leader of the Ontario Libertarian Party (OLP) between 2009 and 2019 who presided over its best showing in 43 years. Allen led our efforts to recruit and register 117 candidates for the 124 electoral ridings in the 2018 provincial election. While this was an historic achievement, it barely nudged the election outcome past prior best results for ‘total votes’ received. The political power cabal (LIB, NDP, CON), supported by ubiquitous mainstream media messaging, successfully garnered all of the public’s attention and successfully drown out any share hoped for by the OLP, in spite of this accomplishment.

It's now 2024.

The pandemic drew me into other kinds of voluntary organizations which I loosely describe as “freedom fighters”. Their numbers are many, their size and group structures varied, leadership is generally haphazard and their mission is often unclear.

One such group I joined boasts 1000+ paid members.  It contains hundreds of health-related research and medical professionals; this attracted me given my life-long interest in health and fitness. During the pandemic, these highly-educated and very capable professionals focussed on one vitally important MISSION: to reach the public with scientifically and medically sound information about the Covid19 disease, the “vaccine” injections, and the mandates imposed by the public “authorities”. The type and quality of information that was coming from the “official” channels was very disappointing, so this group filled an important information gap for which many concerned citizens, like me, craved. Now that the pandemic “is over”, this group is currently redefining its mission along broader public health lines.

Force of habit.

Leaders of volunteer organizations often rely on their own experience as the paid employees of corporate or institutional organizations where structures of hierarchical authority prevail. It is tempting to think and lead in this way because the majority of volunteer members also understand this paradigm.

However, as former science teacher Allen Small discovered to his never-ending frustration over his ten years of political leadership, volunteers cannot be counted upon to show up or deliver on their promises when needed. Without some form of compensation to keep them motivated and committed to objectives, unpaid volunteers are readily distracted by other priorities in their lives.

If not money, then what?

Are there other forms of “compensation” that will work to align and energize a volunteer organization towards productive results?

Motivations are deeply personal and vary greatly from person to person. The best managers that I experienced throughout my 43-year career understood this to be the key to getting the best results from each staff member and, consequently, each team and ultimately, the organization.

Success comes not only from top-down planning, delegated orders, and strict control which is the way all large, hierarchical organizations operate. In voluntary enterprises, success arises through a “roll-up” processes that aggregates from the contributions of individual, motivated members operating in a culture of “free market” choices as ways to contribute.

How Hollywood succeeded.

The movie industry is unique.

Creative people generate ideas then seek ways to bring them to commercial realization profitably.

Every Honeywood blockbuster movie began with an idea. Money and people were needed to take the idea through many stages of evolution towards the end goal - a commercial success. Obstacles and bottlenecks were expected, but creative people find creative ways to overcome them. Persistence and determination were also elements required for success.

Yes, a winning project in Hollywood was driven by a handfull of leaders who took lots of risks in the hope of a big payday. However, many of the contributors along the way were motivated by ego - the desire to be part of a winning team.

Competitive athletes know this desire well, especially those who play for the love of the game and their association with teammates. These athletes play to feel the glory and pride that comes from winning through exemplary team effort.

Shape-shifting for productive outcomes

I think of the Hollywood Model as a dynamic organism - a chameleon - that restructures itself frequently to achieve results and overcome problems along the path to success.

It's structure is informal, not rigid. The more successful leaders encourage and nurture the participation of individual members to “bring their ‘A’ game”; they do not command, cajole  or control. These leaders recognise that every participant is different in skills, knowledge, approach to work, motivations, etcetera. The larger the voluntary membership of the group, the larger the talent pool to draw upon to find the right person at the right time to volunteer the right skills and knowledge when needed. Think of this as a volunteer Just-In-Time Talent paradigm.

From an organizations respective, the Hollywood Model has the best chance for success over the familiar hierarchical models because it better leverages the motivations of individuals to apply their time, talents and interests to making progress on group goals.

The value of Talent Pool database

By the end of my 28-year stint as a professional IT Recruiter (1981 to 2009), I had 70,000+ resumes with associated candidate profiles at my fingertips, all stored within a Lotus Notes database. Whenever I interviewed an IT professional over those years, I gathered information about their abilities as well as their personal goals; both we essential to make a mutually rewarding match when filling job openings. Paid 100% on commission, I was motivated to do this diligently and well.

From 2009 to 2018, I was Director of the Talent Supply Chain for the international division of a Canadian consulting company based in Montreal. Upon hire, I began to build from scratch a similar database of IT professionals for our consulting practices which required local citizens of the USA, Mexico, Brazil and France where we completed over one hundred large projects. This repository of information about specialists was the life blood of our success in winning and retaining corporate clients within the Automotive Manufacturing sector and our creation of a new USD 20,000,000 business.

I tell this story to elaborate on why I believe it is so important to know about the people you wish to engage in projects or initiatives if you happen to lead a voluntary organization. Motivations matter, especially when paid compensation is not one of them.

If course, all of the above is an expression of my life lens which is different from everyone who may read this. Use it in good health if it resonates with your life lens.