Based on real life events. Like Dhurandhar.

Imagine you are Mr. Ajay Sanyal, head of Indian Intelligence.

A vacancy opened up for the role of an Indian spy in Pakistan, pre-Dhurandhar and you – Mr. Ajay Sanyal needs volunteers who will do dirty work in a dirty country for very little pay.

I know, I know…this sounds too far fetched. So instead of hiring spies, let’s take a more everyday problem. Let’s say you are the President of an Owner’s Association and you need volunteers (from among the owners) to take up responsibilities and contribute time.

So – Mr. Sanyal, how will you find your recruits?

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I’ll tell you how.

First: do not approach the problem like an engineer. It is not an input – output kind of problem. It is not a use force to move object kind of problem. You are dealing with humans and the way to get them to do things is via a more subtle and nuanced way.

Second: become friends with Rory Sutherland.

And so, Sanyal meets Rory.

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Rory: Hi Sanyal! What seems to be the problem?

Sanyal: Hi Rory! You see, I live in an apartment complex and it is run by an Owners’ Association. We need volunteers to run the Association for two years. After two years, it would be run by another set of volunteers. And so on.

My apartment complex has legacy issues like parking or that all buildings don’t see eye to eye. Then we have operational problems like idiots throwing garbage from balconies. And then we need to invest for the future like set up solar panels on the roof. In short, there is past, there is present and there is the future. And this work takes a lot of time and dedication.

Hence, we find it very difficult to add volunteers. So tell me Rory, how can we get more volunteers?

Rory: So what is the pitch to new volunteers?

Sanyal: The outgoing committee tries to recruit volunteers through guilt. Like: we have contributed and now it is your turn to contribute.

Rory: No wonder, you don’t get volunteers because you are playing passing-the-undesirable-parcel.

Sanyal: So what should we do?

Rory: Aah…now, you are asking excellent questions!

What should we do? What should we do? What should we do?

Let’s see … I see that you are wearing an expensive watch. Why do you wear an expensive watch, when even a cheaper one can tell time?

Sanyal: Because this watch looks good by itself and it looks good on me. Wearing it, makes me feel confident.

Rory: Precisely! You are wearing it not for the time, but for the meaning. The watch stands for confidence and success like you said it, and wearing it makes you confident. So you bought the watch for it’s meaning – what it stands for and not for what it does – which is show correct time.

And that is how you must position the volunteer’s job too. Instead of it being one of drudgery, you can make it one of privilege and sell that meaning.

How? For example – Give special access to events to volunteers, give special parking zones with high visibility, create interviews and publish them, put people’s pictures on the walls of the apartment, celebrate their work … in short, create a new meaning to this role.

Today, there is no meaning or if there is one, it is not appreciated. But suppose you create meaning, then selling that meaning will become extremely easy. You see, people are always seeking meaning. The meaning that they don’t find at work, they will find it here.

Let me narrate an anecdote which is from my book: Alchemy.

In 19th Century Prussia, the kingdom’s royal family needed gold to fund the war. And so they asked the people to donate gold and get iron jewelry in exchange. You may be shocked: give up gold and receive iron in exchange?!

So, how did they do it? The way they did it was to get the rich to donate gold first and in exchange they received iron jewelry. At social parties, these rich people wore iron jewelry.

Gold jewelry merely signaled: I am rich.

Iron Jewelry on the other hand signaled: I am rich and patriotic.

And so Iron became a stronger and more desirable symbol than gold. After that, getting people to give up gold became easy.

So, you see, Iron does not have to be Iron; it is whatever meaning you can give to it. Imagine, if they had forced people to donate, it wouldn’t have been nearly as successful. Instead they created this meaning and got people to voluntarily donate.

Right now, it looks to me, that this volunteer work is like Iron without meaning. You just need to find a way to add more meaning to it.

Sanyal: Thank you, Rory! This makes so much sense.

Rory: Welcome! I hope you succeed, my friend.

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So, whether you want spies or volunteers, find a way to add meaning to those roles. And then you will have a problem of plenty.

Cheers!