Last week I blogged about people versus systems, and Jeff De Cagna added the following comment:

Jamie, let’s take this conversation into the volunteer realm, in which associations do not have all of the flexibility they would like in choosing "the talent." What is your advice on how we design association systems that can withstand marked inconsistency in the quality of the talent working within them?

How do you design a system that can deal with inconsistent quality of the people? The short answer: you accept mediocrity and move on.

Seriously, if you KNOW that you will have mediocre talent on average, then you should prepare yourself for mediocre results and mediocre systems. Why would you expect anything other than mediocrity under those circumstances?

But that’s too depressing, isn’t it? So here is my advice:

Change the way you run your organization.

You and your volunteers should change things so you can capitalize more on people’s strengths. If you have a mixed bag of talent on the volunteer side, then don’t put them in charge. Or, more specifically, get clearer on how the volunteers can best contribute to leadership, and redesign your leadership systems so that you more consistently get the right people meeting together and making decisions together so that maximum value is created (and see Jeff’s writing on this).

This will mean, of course, that your association won’t look exactly like the association of yesterday. Gasp! I know, it’s hard to imagine, but you have a clear choice: mediocrity or change. Choose one. The change doesn’t have to be a revolution, but there definitely has to be change (we have a word in English for systems that don’t change, by the way: stagnant).

And don’t forget: you (execs) are not changing them (volunteers). You are not changing the system and then helping them to adapt (the traditional definition of change management, or change enforcement, as I like to call it). This is something you all will do together. Even if they are mediocre, they are integral parts of the system, so you must engage them in the redesign. Help them see how they can best contribute. Be more curious about them and what strengths they bring to the association (as you look closer, you may change your tune on the whole "mediocre" thing too). Challenge your own assumptions and take a closer look at your strengths (and weaknesses).

Bottom line: your volunteer pool is mostly beyond your control AND it’s arguably more of a force in your system than you are. Move towards it. Engage it. Work with it to redesign the systems in ways that downplay the weaknesses and harness the strengths. It will stir things up, but the infusion of energy will likely be a good thing. And I would predict that in the long run if you get people engaged and working to their strengths, and it becomes an energetic, exciting place to be, then the best and the brightest will start knocking at the door.

You don’t control the talent. You simply create a place where the talent want to be.