I stood at the side of the bustling room, talking, smiling and taking pictures with team members, guests and participants of the just concluded event ‘Go Pro from Uni’, organized by ProEdge. It’d been a packed 3-days of learning for participants, (and of course a lot of being up and about for team members), but my smile and outgoing demeanor belied the exhaustion my body felt as I chatted with as much energy as I could muster. But, despite and beyond the exhaustion, I was satisfied that the team’s months of planning had culminated in an impactful experience for all involved.
Executing an event with a solely volunteer based team is no mean feat. So, how did we pull and keep together a team of young people who volunteered and dedicated time and resources to our vision? How did we achieve efficiency despite not having one physical meeting prior to the event? How did we manage our individual and team schedules with the diverse team of students, full time employees, youth corps members and entrepreneurs?
I decided to put down my thoughts on some of the things that worked for my team, with the hopes that you find them helpful as you lead your teams.
1. Share the vision and paint the big picture of success. Many of our volunteers had participated in our first event and had experienced first-hand the impact of our initiative. Others were individuals we spoke to one on one, having identified their interests and passion for our work. So, everyone carried the vision – to inspire learning, and equip the Nigeria undergraduate for career success.
2. Co-create the building blocks for success. It’s okay to have your picture of what success looks like and a planning structure, but it’s also necessary that your team members are part of the process. Ask for thoughts on what needs to be done, offer guidance during the thought process, then summarize the list of tasks and assign.
3. Create teams-in-teams and assign leads for each split. For us, this improved ownership, created a sense of responsibility within each unit and improved collaboration.
4. Leverage technology for regular drum beats. Getting regular updates on deliverables was key for us, but keeping in touch was also important to grow the sense of belonging and build team bond, especially because we weren’t seeing physically. We used digital tools such as WhatsApp for day to day chats and updates, Google Hangout for voice calls, GoToMeeting for video calls/presentations, Google Docs for content updates, and Drive for file sharing.
It’s okay to have your picture of what success looks like and a planning structure, but it’s also necessary that your team members are part of the process. Ask for thoughts on what needs to be done, offer guidance during the thought process, then summarize the list of tasks and assign.
5. Assign two or more people to tasks. Due to different individual quirks, pairing people to work on items was helpful in boosting confidence. The set up enabled those who were shy or nervous about publicly sharing ideas to first discuss with their partners before sharing with the broader team. In addition, it improved accountability and efficiency.
6. Play on interests and maximize areas of strengths. Identify areas of interests and assign tasks in line with these, but but don’t be afraid to push volunteers out of their comfort zones to take on more challenging tasks. Assigning difficult tasks helps grow individual and team capabilities.
7. Reward and create value for your team. In the absence of financial reward, the first thing we did was organize an exclusive Mentors Hangout for volunteers. In addition, through their work, we positioned them for contact with our guests, partners and attendees. This opened them up to interesting and valuable opportunities to learn and grow.
8. Say thank you and acknowledge individuals for exceptional work. Shine the light on your team members, willingly and openly give them credit for their work. ‘Where’s the young lady who sent me mails and called me? I’d love to meet her. Your design and social media team is really doing a great job’. It was a delight to hear these comments from multiple sources and such a pleasure to put the team forward for the work.
9. Grow genuine relationships with team members. Get to know individuals and encourage them through the entire process.
Over to you to reapply in your own way with your team and share your ideas also.
Cheers!
Simi Joel 
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