You Can Lead a Horse to Water
In study after study, one of the most cited reasons why companies value employee volunteering is the perceived benefit it has to developing employee skills. The thinking goes like this: because volunteering requires you to use certain skills, it must be good to practice them outside of work on a volunteer project.

Yeah, maybe... kind of... In my experience, it is sheer luck if anything of real value happens, and it is one area that could benefit from some additional thought and process for making a real linkage.

Team building is a classic example. Volunteer projects require teamwork. If, the thinking goes, we send a team on a volunteer project and they work together to get it done they will possess better team skills. If they come back with higher energy, they will have developed team spirit. Volunteering is good for team building.

That's a little like the proverbial horse being led to water. In the absence of someone either setting a standard for better teamwork or helping the team identify and problem solve around what worked and what didn't during their time together, the benefit of the experience will have the nutritional value and staying power of white bread.

In order for learning that really matters to result from volunteering, you have to make a direct and intentional link between skill development and the experience of volunteering. That requires having clear learning objectives, conveying new knowledge and skills through some form of training or facilitated reflection and dialogue, and utilizing the service experience relentlessly toward the end of refining employee performance abilities. That won't happen by chance. It takes some planning, structure, and leadership.

Here's how I've seen it work. I had a client who was forming a new project team. It was critical to start it off on the right foot, and she wanted to have a volunteer project to cement the bonds among the team members -- but they didn't think they had the time. We helped them do both simultaneously and for better results.

We started by teaching the team about behavioral styles and how they impact individual and team relationships. We then used the volunteer experience as a learning laboratory to observe behavioral styles in action and discuss the opportunities and pitfalls confronting the team in light of its mix of styles. We then tapped into the feelings inspired by spending an afternoon serving adults with Alzheimer's to spark a deep discussion about values and purpose -- a launching pad for bringing the team together around a shared mission and vision.