Introduction

Everyone loves involvement in the abstract. Involving others is a great idea and being involved has universal appeal. No matter how much we love the involvement ideal, when it comes down to involving others or being involved, our fears get in the way.

Involvers worry about whom to include and how to include them. When we are the ones who are asked to participate, we have another set of concerns. We want our voices to be heard and we want our ideas to be accepted. We want to experience the satisfaction that occurs when we pull together to make something happen.

Fears and Hopes Around Involvement

What do we worry about? We worry about the time it takes to involve others. We worry about the hassle that occurs when we have to incorporate other points of view. We worry about loss of control. And we worry about failure.

Let's take a look at these fears from two perspectives—that of the involver and that of the person asked to be involved.

It will take too long. The involver fears: Involving others will delay getting things done, causing me to miss important deadlines. The involved person fears: If I get involved, it will take a lot of time away from my day-to-day work, leaving me with more work to do.

It's going to require more effort. The involver fears: It's going to take a lot of work to include others. I will have to bring them up to speed, figure out who needs to be involved, and then work through their differing opinions of what needs to be done. The involved person fears: If I get involved, I'm going to have to convince my boss what needs to be done, and I'm not sure he's interested. Besides, while I'm doing that, my own work won't get done. It all seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

I will lose control. The involver fears: Bringing people together means that I will not be able to predict the outcome. If I do it myself, I might not have the right answer, but at least it's an answer I can live with. It's just easier to do it myself. The involved person fears: If I become involved, it means I'm going to have to consider others' opinions. I don't want to make compromises when I know what needs to be done.

I will fail. The involver fears: When it's all said and done, I'm the one who is responsible. If we fail, no one will blame them. It will all come back to me. I'm not sure that others feel the same sense of ownership that I do. The involved person fears: If I get involved, I'm going to have to live with what we decide. I'm not sure that others care as much as I do. Will we suggest ideas that make things worse instead of better? Will we be worse off in the end?

If these fears ruled the day, involvement would never happen. But opposite these fears reside four hopes. What kind of hopes? The hope that by involving others time will be saved, the work will be made easier, new ideas will emerge, and we will create allies to support our work.

Now let's look at our hopes from both perspectives.

The work will get done faster. The involver hopes: If I involve others, there will be more people to do the work. I won't have to spend late nights and weekends organizing the garage sale or working on a presentation for my boss. If I involve others, they will be able to take over some of what I do. That will free up my time so that I can do the things that I'm best at doing, where I can make a real contribution. The involved person hopes: By getting involved I hope that I will be helpful. I hope that by working with others I will help the job get done sooner. I hope that my contribution will make things go faster.

The job will be easier. The involver hopes: Instead of doing everything myself there will be others to call on to do the heavy lifting. Knowing that others are there to do the work will help me sleep at night. The involved person hopes: I hope that by joining this group the work will go more smoothly. I hope to pull my weight. I want to have fun. I hope that more hands will make light work.

Better ideas will develop. The involver hopes: If I give up some control, I hope I get better ideas in return. My fondest hope in involving others is that we will come up with new and better ways to do the job—ideas that take a fresh look at old problems, ideas that provide solutions I couldn't see because I've worked on the problem for too long. The involved person hopes: By getting involved I hope that I will make a contribution. I hope to help generate fresh ideas so that we come up with some new solutions to old problems.

There will be other people to support me. The involver hopes: What I want most are allies, people to support my efforts, people to spread the word and encourage others to join. I want to know that there are others besides myself who are willing to work hard toward achieving the goal. When I'm feeling discouraged, having allies gives me the courage to move on. The involved person hopes: I hope that by joining this group I will make new allies. I hope that instead of feeling that I have to do everything myself, there will be people to help me along the way.