[00:00:00] Hey friends and welcome to another episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. This is episode 102. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this podcast on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin, Brisbane.

[00:00:15] And today's episode is another Topic in 10 where we tackle one of your questions in 10 minutes or less. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a question so far. There is still time to get yours in. So head to the link in the show notes if you have something you'd like us to brainstorm about. And if we don't answer you in this series, your question could form the basis of a future episode anyway.

[00:00:38] So please, ask away. So today's question I absolutely love. Here is what it says. Hi Mel, how do I get people to give a shit? So, some context. I volunteer a lot at our primary school.

[00:00:52] We require a lot of volunteer time to keep things running. Tuck shop, uniform shop, and events that everyone loves. The trouble is, it's increasingly hard [00:01:00] to get people to volunteer some time. And it's always the same people. I'm always trying to find ways to communicate to people the vitality of volunteer time without nagging or resorting to threats.

[00:01:09] So, for example, the tuck shop will close if you don't volunteer at least once. I just need more people to do a little bit more and understand that the culture of the school that they so enjoy depends on everyone pitching in. While this is a specific example, I'm sure there are other people needing to communicate similar ideas.

[00:01:27] Thanks so much, Mel. Phew. Well, firstly, let me just say, I feel your pain. I have been a member of many volunteer run committees and organisations, and it is tough out there. I do think it's not so much that people don't want to be involved. It's more that they're time poor. And also the people who do sign up to these things often do so with the best of intentions, but they soon realise they're overloaded with work and life and the volunteer stuff is usually the first thing to go.

[00:01:57] And by the way, side note for those of you who are listening who [00:02:00] are outside Australia or the NZ. Tuck shop is a canteen, but not like you have in North America or the UK for example. It's literally like a little shop front at the school where you go and buy snacks or you pre order and pick up your lunch.

[00:02:13] So let's look at your situation specifically, but also purely from the context of messaging as opposed to rosters and all that kind of logistical stuff. First, let's think about your audience.

[00:02:24] I imagine most of them are busy parents who probably work as well as run around after their children and just generally try to keep everybody alive. Their time is limited, so you have to appeal to them in a way that makes them think it's worth their while to spend their limited free time volunteering for the school tuck shop or fate or whatever it is.

[00:02:44] So I'm going to share a few tactics with you that you can try, and it will be a bit of experimentation to see what works. I'll leave that up to you. Now the first tip you can try is reframing. So as I said, your audience is probably super busy and time poor. So [00:03:00] if you're asking people to volunteer for like 20 days a year, that's going to feel pretty overwhelming.

[00:03:06] So my question to you is, can you just reframe the request into a more palatable number? So for example, if it was 20 days a year, ask for this two days a month or one day a fortnight and it's even better if you can break it down into hours. So for example, one hour a fortnight. Now, we know this works from a whole bunch of different experiments, but one of my favorites is a study led by Katie Milkman from Washington University.

[00:03:29] I've mentioned on the podcast before, they asked people if they'd volunteer for 200 hours a year, while other people were asked if they'd volunteer for four hours a week. And by reframing the request to four hours a week, they increased the hours volunteered by 8 percent over a 12 week period. But, they also found those people tended to volunteer for longer.

[00:03:52] The other way you could use reframing, and I've found this works a treat in certain situations is to talk about how if X number of parents [00:04:00] volunteer, that means everyone would only have to volunteer X number of hours a year. So for example, you could say if 200 people sign up to the tuck shop roster, each person only needs to volunteer two hours a year.

[00:04:12] That works really well because again, it's reframing into a palatable number, but also it can inspire other people and encourage them to encourage other people to sign up. Now, the second thing to try is tapping into people's sense of identity and unity. And you mentioned a bit of this in your question as well.

[00:04:31] And one of the most famous and well regarded behavioral scientists out there, Robert Cialdini, has seven rules of persuasion. I highly recommend you read his books, by the way. And one of those is unity. And it refers to this sense of shared identity between whoever's communicating. So it's about being part of a tribe, essentially, and it works because as humans, we want to be a part of that tribe.

[00:04:53] We want to be part of the in group. If you're in the out group, that doesn't tend to work out too well for you. So similarly, the sense of [00:05:00] identity shows up in the language we use. So Jonah Berger found that simply by changing a noun to a verb, you could change people's minds and behaviors. So, for example, do you run or are you a runner?

[00:05:12] If it's the latter, it gives an impression that you're more committed to something that you're more serious about running. So in a corporate sense, often we say change leader rather than leading the change. So what kind of words could you use to really tap into that sense of identity? And this is where we can also tap into the consistency bias.

[00:05:32] So as humans, we really like to be consistent, which is why often when we're proven wrong on something, we resist accepting that we're wrong. But it's also why we act in accordance with what we've publicly stated or what we want to be known for. So how could you use this in this case? As I said, you could use messaging that appeals to that sense of belonging to one community.

[00:05:55] So for example, I've just come up with a couple of sentences here. The first one is, do you [00:06:00] consider yourself a community minded person? Then be a part of our school's tuck shop. Uh, another option. If you're the kind of person who likes to give back, then report for tuck shop duty. And the third one, we all want our children to grow up with a strong sense of community, be a role model and volunteer for tuck shop.

[00:06:19] So again, Take that as you will, play with it, but just a few ideas to how you can bring that sense of unity and identity into the language that you're using. The next strategy that you can try is using social proof. Now, social proof basically means we change our behavior to suit what we see other people doing.

[00:06:38] It's why we will line up at a coffee shop that's got a really long queue out the front, even though the one next door has no queue, and we might have no idea about which one has the better quality coffee. It's called social proof. We do this because we're social creatures. We look at what others around us are doing to get cues about how to behave.

[00:06:57] Because we want to be in the in group, right? Again, as I said, nobody [00:07:00] wants to be in the out group. And by looking at what others are doing, it helps to alleviate some of the effort that goes into decision making, because we just follow what everybody else is doing. So, how are you going to use this to get your parents to volunteer?

[00:07:14] Firstly, Show that other parents are volunteering. So can you get in the school newsletter, for example, and profile a parent who is volunteering? Can you do that more regularly than not? Can you publicly proclaim who else is volunteering? Take photos of people when they're working at, in the tuck shop or the face or whatever, put them on the school Facebook page.

[00:07:34] You want to make it seem like lots of people volunteer and that that's the social norm at your school. So some testimonials from these parents would be great too. Just ask them why they volunteer, what they love about it.

[00:07:46] A note on social proof though. Use it in the positive. So, for example, if you say, only two people have signed up for the next roster, it gives the impression that nobody is doing it, so why should I? In this case, the [00:08:00] social norm appears to be that people don't volunteer when you use that kind of language.

[00:08:04] So use it in the positive. And finally, on social proof, you could encourage other people to sign up with a friend or with their group. So instead of targeting individuals, see if you can have some messaging around how signing up together with a friend could make a difference. I mean, it could even be along the lines of, you know, join your other grade two mums for tuck shop duty next month.

[00:08:26] So that's social proof. The fourth tip is reciprocity. So typically speaking, when someone does an act of kindness for us, we feel obliged to repay with an equal act of kindness. So a couple of ways you could take this here. One is remind people of the value they get from the school. What are they getting from the school that they might feel a need to repay with an act of kindness, like volunteering.

[00:08:51] The flip side, how are you rewarding your volunteers? So sometimes it is as simple as a shout out in your school newsletter or social media groups to thank people [00:09:00] for volunteering.

[00:09:01] So think about that reciprocity. How can you tap into the value they get from the school that sort of nudges them in that direction of, I feel like I need to give back. And how can you show reciprocity for their action as well? The fifth of the six techniques I'm going to talk about is scarcity. Now, again, you can take this a couple of ways.

[00:09:24] In your question, you said you didn't want to nag people with those threats of the tuck shop will be closed if we don't get volunteers. But I counter with the fact that doing so does create a burning platform for people and it gives a sense of scarcity around the availability of tuck shop or any of those other services.

[00:09:40] And that honestly could give some people a good kick up the bum. But secondly, you can use scarcity by making it seem as though getting on that volunteering list is a hot ticket. So for example, can you say something like, there's only 10 spots left for next month and these are filling up fast, getting quick so you don't miss out on this [00:10:00] opportunity to contribute to your school community.

[00:10:02] So again, scarcity can be a very powerful bias. The final tip is one, look, I'm not sure how easily you'll be able to do this, but I'm going to throw it out there. See if you can make it work. And that is defaults. Now defaults have been shown all over the world to help get people involved in things, whether it's signing up to be organ donors or continue with subscriptions, right?

[00:10:24] You don't have to go into your Spotify account every month and pay. There's a default there. It automatically comes out. Um, why they work and why they're so powerful is because it's about making it easy for people. We inherently want to reduce our cognitive load and we don't want to do things if they're hard to do or if they're perceived to be hard to do.

[00:10:45] So a couple of options here in terms of defaults. Number one, when kids enroll for the school year, their parents are automatically added to a volunteer list. And if they can't be bothered getting off that list, then you'll be able to slot them in. Number two, when a parent finishes their [00:11:00] shift at the tuck shop, or the fate, or whatever, grab them before they leave, give them a few options to volunteer again, and ask them which one would suit them best.

[00:11:08] Don't ask them, can you volunteer again? Don't ask you, will you? Default them to an option. Okay. So I've covered six tips there. Hopefully some of these will be useful for you in your school environment, but also whether you run a nonprofit, you're trying to get people to volunteer or even just to give you money.

[00:11:24] These things could be useful as well. So a quick recap. The first tip was reframing. Can you take the ask and reframe it in a way that is more palatable for your audience? Number two, tap into that sense of identity and unity. So tapping into this sense of you're a community minded person, you want to role model good behaviors to your children, all those sorts of things.

[00:11:46] Number three was social proof. So sharing those stories of other parents who are volunteering, really making song and dance about it, their testimonials, and you know, as I said, getting people together in a group. So volunteer with the rest of the moms in your [00:12:00] grade. Number four, reciprocity. So how can you tap into this sense that people are getting something from the school and so they feel obliged to give back and vice versa.

[00:12:10] If I give my time to tuck shop, what will I get in return? Number five was scarcity. So how can you make it seem as though these are the hottest tickets in town to be volunteering, but also that these are scarce resources. These are scarce events like your tuck shop and your fate. So again, create a burning platform.

[00:12:29] And number six was defaults. If you can default people onto a list and see how that works for you. All right. I really hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes, what you find works, what you don't. As I said, it's all experimenting. So that's it for this week. That's your topic in 10. If you have any other topics you'd like us to cover, as I said, pop into the show notes, grab the link and submit your question or just shoot me a message or an email. No dramas there.

[00:12:54] You will remain anonymous, so nothing to worry about. And in the meantime, don't forget to [00:13:00] keep following us on LinkedIn and Instagram. There's heaps happening in the next few months. I'm hosting workshops. There's a new book coming out. There's all sorts of stuff happening. So please stay in touch and until then keep doing amazing things and bye for now.