The Volunteer Breakdown

    

Over the past year or so of leading NeighborLink Fort Wayne, I’ve thought a lot about group dynamics of mostly churches, but this illustration really relates to any organized groups. 

Running an organization that attempts to encourage people to do things for others is a challenge and has required me to gain a better understanding of group dynamics. This illustration is still a work in progress and I’d love to get input from others. 

I’m learning that any group/church has three sub-groups within it. The reasons for people falling into one subgroup or another are many and add to the complexity of moving people from one subgroup to another. 

Here’s the breakdown.

The “Do-ers"

This group is never big enough. This group of people are self-starters and will do things without much persuasion or organization. They are natural leaders and will do things alone if they have to in order to get things done. The challenge with this group of people is to recognize their leadership potential and their responsibility to pull people from “Good Intentions” into leadership positions. 

The “Good Intentions"

The majority of people lie in this group. It’s those individuals that resonate with the call or issues at hand, but need someone to personal ask them to get involved. They have really great intentions, but lack the drive or motivation to mobilize themselves. They need the momentum of a group. The great thing about this group is that they’ll usually respond favorably. The downfall of this group is that they’re always waiting on the next best thing to come around and lack the ability to commit often leaving people hanging. 

The “Not Interested"

This group of people is just not interested. For whatever reason, they just aren’t going to participate no matter how hard you try to get them to. It’s often seasonal, so don’t give up on them. Just don’t spend a lot of time targeting them. 

The importance of knowing this breakdown for NeighborLink is to understand who’s going to be the leaders within the churches we need to get involved. It’s often not the pastors or staff, but the lay people that have a passion for helping their local community. I want to connect to them and help empower them to mobilize their fellow church members to begin making  a focused difference in their neighborhoods. 

I’d love to get some feedback on whether or not you resonate with this breakdown and what you experience.