Peter Block is a world renowned author, speaker, consultant. He is also a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that provides consulting skills workshops. Block is the author of Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, and The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion, and The Answer to How is Yes. He has also written many books on the topic of stewardship, leadership, and citizenship. Peter Block is a true friend of the nonprofit sector, and has contributed to transformative change in countless communities across North America and beyond. He generously shared his time and expertise with AVA for this dialogue to discuss what matters most to volunteer resources management, and how professionals in our field can support healthier, and more socially-connected and engaged communities.

***

Convening the Conversation

Peter Block is no stranger to AVA or volunteer resources management. As a result, the interview began with Block ready to engage in the type of provocative discussion a group of volunteer resources managers could—or should—have with each other. “What conversations do we need to convene among citizens who care about serving, about service, so that we can facilitate a process to make our organizations and our communities healing places? Do we represent the voice of volunteering,” asks Block? Are we, he challenges, “bringing those individuals” who are now on the “margins of involvement in our communities into the center?” These are the types of conversations that Block says must occur wherever volunteer resources managers gather.

Focusing on What Matters Most

Whenever practitioners gather the conversation typically—and understandably—centers around “how to” topics. How can we best position the profession? How do we get more money and support for volunteer resources management? How can we identify the strategies needed for ongoing recruitment and retention of today’s volunteers?

Block suggests a new starting point and a new orientation for our conversations: focus on what matters most. Clearly, answers to the list of “how to” and other questions are important, but the ongoing exploration about our evolving role and responsibility cannot be ignored. Block says one of the issues that matter most for volunteer resources managers is designing meaningful opportunities for people to serve their communities and improve the quality of life. Because of that, Block believes volunteer resources managers fill the role or archetype of “social architects” in society. Block says that “Volunteering creates the experience of democracy,” which on its own merits is a transformative experience, and that “one of the most priceless byproducts of volunteering is its purpose in changing and transforming the consciousness and spirit of the volunteer’s life.” History has demonstrated that when people are transformed, the ground is ripened for social change to occur. The role of the social architect is a powerful one, and it is a natural role for volunteer resources managers to fill.

Block says that one of the key roles social architects play is in their “power to convene.” It is in this role that volunteer resources managers act as “engagement managers,” says Block, working to assure that all voices are welcomed. Welcoming all voices in our profession means ensuring that volunteer contributions are appropriately received and utilized, based on the volunteer’s individual gifs and capacities, and the organization’s needs. As such, volunteer resources managers are stewards of both inclusion and volunteering within the sector.

Asking and Answering the Right Questions

Block says another key role of social architects is to “name the question.” That occurs by “asking the right questions,” which he says allows the people who are asking the questions “to name and frame the debate.” He suggests that the profession of volunteer resources management has allowed other people to name the questions and frame the debate, putting us in a reactive position. Block goes on to explain that a reactive position usually triggers “victim language.” It is language that he says “must be abandoned” if we are to live up to our roles as social architects, and “be the voice of volunteering” in society.

According to Block, acting on what matters most starts with asking the right questions. Timing matters. The type of question also matters. For instance, Block explains that “how?” questions are the most frequently asked questions in our society. “How?” oriented questions are necessary to move forward and achieve goals. If asked too soon in the dialogue, however, this type of question can push people into premature action, and “actually postpone the future you desire,” says Block. “How?” questions tend to shut out possibilities, which is the domain where many of the best right answers to a problem or opportunity are found.

Embracing the Paradox

In his book, The Answer to How is Yes, Block describes a paradox as “a question that has many right answers, and many of the answers seem to conflict with each other.” This certainly applies to some of the most pressing questions posed within the community of volunteer resources management. Block illustrates the nature of paradox with three answers he says are always present when well-intentioned people make the commitment and take the time to explore what matters most.

	“We are all right.”
	“We are all wrong.”
	“We are all responsible.”

******

Did you find this dialogue informative? Would you like to know more? AVA would love to hear from you, so click on the envelope and let us know what you think.	For more information about social architects and how they interact with other societal archetypes, read The Answer to How is Yes, by Peter Block, available at Amazon.com. ****** dialogue is a free, on-line quarterly publication of the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA), the international professional organization promoting excellence in the effective management of volunteer resources. The dialogue series is funded under a generous grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The series provides AVA the opportunity to dialogue with authors, advocates, and leaders across multiple sectors about the profession of volunteer resources management, and their mutual goals to build a more engaged and sustainable society. In keeping with its name, this publication was created by AVA to stimulate thought and discussion, and to present viewpoints to practitioners from thoughtful individuals they may not otherwise hear from on this topic. Please feel free to forward dialogue on to your colleagues, executive directors of nonprofit organizations, and other nonprofit advocates whom you believe would value its content.
Pass it on... Is there someone you know who might find this particular dialogue useful or valuable? Click here to forward dialogue to a friend or colleague.
Privacy Statement Your privacy is important to us. Any personal information collected for the purpose of subscribing or unsubscribing to the dialogue mailing list will not be rented, leased, sold, or otherwise disclosed to any third parties.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Click here to subscribe to our mailing list and receive email notification of future dialogue publications. AVA members are automatically subscribed. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to unsubscribe. Already a subscriber and need to update your email address? Click here.