I am part of a volunteer group working on sustainability issues, interested in supporting the city of Sydney’s 2030 plan.
We were reviewing a list of our own behaviour preferences for working together as a group – our preferred ‘culture’. We had finished with a reasonable list. It had things like ‘mutual respect’, punctuality etc etc. We were all nodding and about to move on to other issues when a new bloke asked a simple question: “Do any of these items really excite you, personally?” I looked at the list. None of them did. What a great question.
Then he said something else that knocked the stuffing out of me. “When I work as a volunteer with groups I often don’t stay long if they don’t meet my needs. I have a very specific need for groups to have a high capacity for self-reflection. I need them to constantly review how well they are doing and meeting the individual member’s needs.”
The idea was very familiar. But I had never heard it put as a personal need. For me, it is now.