The Mountaineers
Leadership Pathway
Building a flexible and modern leadership structure to engage and support critical volunteer leaders at an outdoor education non-profit.
My Role
Service designer, project manager
Employer
The Mountaineers
Focus Areas
Service design, UX research, strategy, IA
Problem statement
The Mountaineers is an organization that lives and breathes through the hard work and dedication of talented volunteers. For more than 116 years, their outdoor educational programs have taught the next generation of hikers, climbers, paddlers, and more, and these students have chosen to contribute back to the programs they came from, sustaining the community.
As demand for programs continues to grow, recruiting a sufficient number of leaders to run programs is a constant challenge for volunteers within the organization.
The reason for this is complicated, and built on decades of entrenched structures with little to no collaboration between regional branch locations.
Each volunteer-run branch of The Mountaineers governs their own leadership structure while adhering to an agreed upon set of organization-wide standards.
Staff have limited ability to mandate changes. Revising the leadership structure would require volunteer leaders to unanimously vote to approve. This means organizational advancement must come from effective communication, compromise and strong relationships.
How might we encourage more members to become leaders and reduce the burden on our most experienced volunteers, while making the process clear and consistent?
What I did
Successfully implemented a complex service design initiative that executive leadership called “near impossible” to achieve by utilizing UX methodologies and designing a cohesive volunteer leadership structure that aligned seven regional branches.
Why I was successful
My management team did not expect me to solve this problem. A modest increase in volunteers and alignment across the organization was our measure for success.
However, my work far exceeded expectations. I created a unified solution that had a huge impact in resolving the known leadership gaps.
The team
This work was done by me in partnership with my staff colleagues, along with a committee of volunteer leaders.
In less than three years from launch my work contributed to
43%
increase in new leaders
41%
revenue growth
Background
A complex organizational structure makes for messy problems
The Mountaineers is made up of seven regional branches, run by volunteers, supported by staff, overseen by a board of directors, and guided by a set of organization-wide standards that all branches agree to follow.
The structure of The Mountaineers is a flat hierarchy and quite messy!
The legacy leadership system was not working
Under the old system, aspiring leaders in many activities found it challenging to understand and navigate the requirements to become a leader in their activity.
One strength of Mountaineers programs is that they’re tailored to local branch communities, but when the process to becoming a leader varies by activity and branch, it can create confusion.
Transparency about the process is necessary to encourage those who are interested in leadership opportunities,
and a lack of it created a perception of needing to “know the right people and make the right connections” to have a role as a leader in The Mountaineers.
Without a well-documented and accessible leader pathway, inviting new volunteers into the fold and improving issues around equity and inclusion was very difficult.
Years of data supported this. The board and staff members knew this was important for long term organizational health.
So why wasn't there a solution in place?
No one knew how to actually get it done. In fact, many senior staff thought this project would be impossible to actually implement due to complex structural and social dynamics, and the delicate nature of needing volunteer buy-in.
I was uniquely positioned to take on the challenge
My role involved building relationships with and supporting volunteers across the organization to help improve programming outcomes. I knew that it would be a big challenge, but I recognized that I was in a unique position and had the skill set to match.
I decided to take on this project with the goal of implementing a unified leadership structure that would reduce barriers and grow the number of leaders.
Research & Discovery
Understanding the root of the problem
To find a viable solution, I needed to know more about what people were experiencing, and why the current system was so problematic.
I explored the issue through a number of methods that helped shed light on challenges volunteers and members faced at all levels of the organization.
A variety of methods to understand and communicate the problem
Survey data analysis
I reviewed years of survey data and existing process documentation to validate my hypothesis of the problem and find insights.
Ethnographic field studies
I accompanied aspiring and experienced leaders on trips to better understand the challenges they faced in their roles.
Persona & empathy map
To keep the many siloed stakeholders focused on the challenges leaders faced, I created a persona and empathy map.
Process synthesis
Comparing and mapping the fragmented leader processes helped me identify variances and find common ground.
1:1 interviews
Speaking with leaders and members helped me dig deep into the questions I had about challenges, roadblocks, and solutions.
User journey map
Because of how different their approaches, a journey map helped show regional branches the challenge that aspiring leaders faced.
My research validated the hypothesis of the problem and revealed paint points.
I generated insights that were instrumental in developing the solution. These insights were grouped into several buckets.
Research insights
Insight group 1
Current leaders
-Distrust other branches from siloed processes
-Fear of mandated to adopt "inferior" methods
-Cannot clearly define current leader process
-Afraid new process will be a burden
Insight group 2
Aspiring leaders
-Feel existing system is confusing
-Perception of being left out of the "in crowd"
-Hindered by rigorous leader requirements
-Want entry level roles
-Want mentorship and guidance
Insight group 3
The organization
-Varied processes are liability risk
-Reduced revenue from program capacity
-Staff can't effectively support volunteers
-Equity & inclusion efforts hindered
Design & Collaborate
With a solid understanding of the why behind the problem, and an idea the needs each branch had, it was time to think about how to solve the challenge.
Building solutions with volunteer buy-in
Process developement workshop helped turn ideas into reality
Working with a committee of volunteers, I hosted a brainstorming session to generate ideas and work towards a solution.
Including volunteers in the process was critical to ensuring there would be buy-in down the road.
Using the same volunteers, I held a process development workshop to build off of our brainstorming.
Working in small teams, they designed their ideal leader process and shared it with the group. We reviewed each process and identified the common ground.
Synthesizing the workshop results revealed several potential solutions
The group had a number of ideas and I synthesized the results to outline a system that everyone felt might just be a solution to our problem.
Potential Solutions
Solution 1
Modular leadership
Creation of new entry-level roles and allowing specialization in preferred disciplines to create an easy path for new leaders, with the option to work towards high level leadership positions.
Risks: Difficulty in approval and implementing, more complex.
Solution 2
Linear leadership
All branches would follow a linear path with a single entry to a single high-level leader role. Familiar to many, with a unified process that would simplify things.
Risks: High barrier to entry perpetuates feeling of gatekeeping, inflexible.
Solution 3
Maintain status quo
No change in process. Documenting and publishing each variant to increase visibility and access, this would be the easiest choice to get most branches to approve.
Risks: Ignores most problems and likely little overall impact.
Recommendation
The Modular Leadership Structure
I reviewed the solutions that were on the table, and in collaboration with the volunteer committee, we agreed that the modular leadership option was the best course of action.
In addition to being flexible and a low barrier to entry, there was evidence that an approach like this could be effective, as some branches had implemented a smaller but similar approach for their educational programs.
This was the most challenging of the solutions to work towards, but if successful, would have by far the biggest impact on solving the problem.
Presenting to staff and the board of directors
I presented this solution to the staff senior leadership team and the board. I fielded questions and inputs and had the green light to move forward with the project.
The structure was tested by two branches
With a rough process outlined, I built modular leadership roles that would allow leaders at all stages in their journey an opportunity for growth.
I created leadership documents outlining requirements and steps to obtain each position.
I worked with the volunteer committee group to test the structure with two branches who were in full support of the work.
Testing showed great results
The branches used the proposed structure for a year. This allowed a significant amount of data to come in.
I tracked the experiences of new leaders, and the impact on existing volunteers and their programs.
New leaders were asked to fill out a feedback form on the process at the time of application, and three months after becoming a leader.
The test showed very promising results, and new leaders really liked the structure. We saw big improvements in satisfaction for aspiring leaders, and some modest relief in over burdened volunteers who needed help.
After a year of testing
New leaders reported
78%
felt the path to leadership was clear vs. 42% before
84%
felt they belonged in leadership roles vs. 54% before
92%
high satisfaction with The Mountaineers vs. 76% before
Many issues still persisted, so I iterated throughout the test period
Adding endorsements created much needed flexibility
Despite great results, there were a number of challenges to be worked out. Some leader roles needed changes to their requirements, others needed to be scrapped entirely as they did not make sense after testing.
During the test period I worked with the volunteer committee to update and improve the process, continuing to seek buy-in along the way.
For example, certain highly technical and unique skills could only be performed by a small set of leaders, but it was important that we accounted for this. This meant still very onerous requirements for some roles. I implemented an endorsement system, where leaders could obtain a highly specialized certificate to run certain types of trips.
This system would allow these skilled leaders to run the specialized trips while remove a major roadblock to leadership for most.
Key differences between regional branches were resolved through collaboration and compromise
After testing and iterating, I knew there would still be changes and compromises would need to be made, so I began working to bring the branch leaders on board.
Each branch had unique needs and requests. Many of the branches were on board from day one, but there were a few that had some concerns. I met with each of these leaders to understand their concerns and work them out through a variety of means.
Listening and communicating helped clear up many issues. Some leaders were worried about losing autonomy over some of their programs, and others had questions about requirements. I was able to elaborate or clarify on the proposal.
Because I had involved volunteers from each branch throughout the process, in many cases there was simply a matter of assumptions and misunderstandings.
Negotiation to find common ground brought the holdouts on board. For the few volunteers who were still not convinced, worked closely with them to understand their issues and find a solution that worked for everyone.
The vote to approve the leadership structure had unanimous support, bringing historic change to The Mountaineers
After 18 months of challenging work, we brought together each of the branches for an organization-wide summit meeting and the branch leaders voted to adopt the modular leadership structure.
The vote was historic, as it would allow The Mountaineers to grow and move on from decades of entrenched and outdated processes. It was a huge win for the organization.
Implementation
Turning concept into reality
All that was left now was to implement. Still a big task, I set about putting the pieces together to make the concept a reality.
This work included deliverables such as:
- Logos for the website
- Web pages that hosted the structure and its supporting documents
- Designing and testing a central application form
In the end, implementation took about six months and the project was rolled out in early 2020.
Impact & Results
Impact
Since implementation the new structure has been a huge success. It has been working as designed and The Mountaineers has seen growth in leadership numbers as well as much improved feedback from member surveys.
Branches are embracing the structure and they have seen a large increase in engagement and development of newer leaders, reducing the strain on volunteers and boosting program attendance.
By the numbers
This project has directly contributed to:
43% increase in leaders, including increases in women and non-binary folks, and people of color
41% increase in revenue from programs
17% increase in total volunteers
“Nick is an exceptional leader and the kind of person that has the capability of combining deep domain expertise with strong strategic thinking skills to drive results and inspire transformative change.”
Tom Vogl, CEO
The Mountaineers
Learnings & Takeaways
This is one of my proudest professional accomplishments. The scope and complexity of this work made it very difficult.
By using UX methodologies and my experience decoding the why behind problems and advocating for apsiring leaders, I was able to deliver a successful result.
What I learned
Never assume you've communicated clearly. People have biases and hear things in their own way. Using a variety of methods (visual, verbal, text) to communicate ideas is really important to breaking through these assumptions.
Seeking buy-in with critical stakeholders as early as possible can really make others become big advocates for your work.
Effective solutions often mean compromising and finding the best option for the most people.
Things I'd do differently next time
Building a service blueprint would have helped align staff and branch leaders to better support the new structure. If I could do things over I would have delivered this during the implementation phase.
While I met with many stakeholders and did my best to build trust and buy-in, I think I could have spent more time up front talking with potential holdout volunteers, and better understanding their issues.