My first professional job came to me while I was working on my
Masters at VCU in Richmond, Virginia. It
started as a work-study program which quickly turned into full-time employment,
forcing me to make the decision to put my Masters on hold. It was a starter-up nonprofit organization
that provided surgical services to children in developing countries. Part of the organization’s mission required running
a small office of five employees, while the other part of the job required the planning,
organization and execution of medical missions to our partnering countries that
received these volunteer services. Part
of our mission was to bring children from Guatemala, Honduras, St. Vincent and
other underdeveloped countries to Richmond Virginia for life-saving surgeries. Children always came with a parent or
guardian. Many of these families were
not used to modern day conveniences, some, especially families from remote
Mayan villages, had never even seen things such as a toilet, lamps, microwaves,
or light switches. Therefore, when these
families arrived in Richmond, they needed constant guidance and attention. Families had to be picked up from the airport,
sometimes arriving at airports that were 2 and 3 hours away. Once they arrived, they needed to be taken to
their accommodations and given an orientation. Depending on their level of knowledge,
orientation could range from giving them a tour of their surroundings and
explaining the rules of the house to showing them how to turn on a faucet. The families also relied on our organization
as their primary source of transportation for hospital visits, trips to the
grocery store, church (if they requested it) and general entertainment. Beyond all the responsibilities that came with
caring for the families, we also had an office to run that was open from
0900-1700 Monday through Friday.
When I began with the organization, they disposed of 5 or 6
volunteers and a few friends that assisted with the families. It quickly became clear that we were severely understaffed
and way over our heads. But everyone was
so busy, between running the office, going on missions and assisting with the
families, that there was no time to develop any changes in the way we did
things. We had to keep trudging along
the best we could. Burn-out came
quickly, and slowly the environment in the office became very negative. I had never worked for a nonprofit before and
had no experience with volunteerism, but it was clear to me that we needed
help. Although I couldn’t label it back
then, I was in the beginning stages of organizational development by observing
the problem and brainstorming solutions. Our reading effectively explains that “OD is
based on a systematic appraisal and diagnosis of problems, leading to planned
and specific types of change efforts” and “is aimed at overall organizational
health and effectiveness” (Brown, 2011, p. 5). It was obvious an appraisal of our current
situation was necessary and the health of the organization itself as well as
the employees was seriously affected. We didn’t have the money to hire people,
so volunteers were our only solution. I
took the initiative to begin a volunteer program at my organization with no
idea as to what I was doing. I began to
do research and asked the Director if they would pay for me to attend some
volunteer training seminars. My Director
agreed, but again, no one had the time to help me get this program off the
ground. I was the only person that saw
the big picture and understood that it would be difficult in the beginning to
get the program going because it required a lot of work and time, all of which we
had none. With some general training I started to
recruit volunteers. I would visit local
civic groups in the area and advocate our cause. Sometimes I would even bring one of the
children with me as pity bait. Finally
people started biting.
When the first real group of volunteers started working with us,
my co-workers started noticing. At that
point, we were all tired of the trips to the airport in the middle of the night
to pick up families who had taken the red-eye flights. Little by little, the volunteers started
taking over the responsibilities that kept us out of the office all day,
allowing us to focus more on fundraising, advocacy and missions. Once my team realized the change in our
responsibilities, they began to acknowledge the need for a formal volunteer
program. My title changed from
Administrative Assistant to Volunteer Director.
As our organization increased, and administrative duties grew
exponentially, I also incorporated an internship program. Again, I was faced with some resistance at
first. I was again able to convince my
Director that the benefits we would receive from senior college-level interns in
our office would outweigh any minor resources needed to get this program off
the ground.
Needless to say, when I left my organization five years later, we
had a volunteer pool of about 60 individuals and 3 part-time interns. The simple staff of five employees was able to
focus primarily on the administrative responsibilities and adhere to a reasonable
work schedule. The moral of the story is
that sometimes it is difficult to convince an organization of change,
especially if it risks disrupting their regular patterns of work. People with high demanding jobs sometimes have
blinders on their eyes which keep them from seeing the big picture. They are just trying to stay afloat. I believe that organizational development and
change is essential for the survival of an organization because it prevents it
from becoming too stagnant. As Brown
states in his book “organizations are never completely static and they do not
exist in isolation of other entities” (2011, p. 3).
To compare to the video A Tale of Power
and Vision I would say that my
co-workers played the characters of pessimism and pragmatism because they were
not able to overcome the obstacle because it required too much work and did not
seem fathomable at the time (Sally
Kohn, 2007). I played the part of power and vision because I was able to
look ahead and see a better future for us despite the immense crater that
separated us from that future.
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