Eva Pavlíková (Česko.Digital): If you can manage volunteers, you can manage anything

In this episode of the CEO na ostří nože podcast, we talk to Eva Pavlíková, CEO of the non-profit Česko.Digital, which brings together expert volunteers to tackle social problems under the motto “Changing Czechia for the better through ones and zeros”. She is joined by Kristýna Tvrdá, a senior consultant at Kogi CON who volunteers there as a scrum master, so we look at the culture of a non-profit from both sides.

The main difference from a commercial company, Pavlíková says, is that the organisation doesn’t choose its people. People choose it because they’re looking for meaningful work and want to be useful. The community has more than 5,500 people on Slack, and in busy periods five to six hundred of them work on projects. The core team is around ten people, and the whole organisation works mostly remotely. Managing volunteers is “like herding cats”, Pavlíková says, which is why people say that if you can do it, you can do anything. In her words, she doesn’t manage the organisation. She creates an environment in which people feel good, feel useful and see meaning.

Kristýna Tvrdá confirms this from a volunteer’s point of view. In the community, nobody thinks in terms of “top” and “bottom”, and nobody feels they have a boss. What drives people is the purpose of the project. She can’t take away anyone’s bonus, so she relies on transparency, clear direction and good collaboration. People take on tasks themselves according to their capacity in two-week sprints, and if they don’t deliver, the whole team can see it. “Nobody wants to feel like the one letting the team down,” she says. As scrum master, she often has to stop people from taking on too much.

Pavlíková also points to the downside of volunteering. The search for meaning can be addictive, almost like a drug, and people then neglect their hobbies or their families. “If you’re not at peace with yourself, please don’t volunteer,” she says. It’s never wrong not to help. You first need to help yourself before you can help others. The organisation hasn’t expelled anyone in three years. In her experience, people who don’t fit in leave on their own.

What defines the organisation’s culture most is radical transparency. Leadership has no private channel and everything is discussed in the open. Pavlíková says this saves time and misunderstandings, because once a secret space exists, people stop being able to tell what’s public and what isn’t. Tvrdá admits it was one of the hardest things for her: telling four hundred people she was going on holiday felt like spamming at first. That level of openness, she says, takes seniority, the ability to communicate well and not take things personally. When a team gets stuck on relationships and grievances, it helps to come back to one question: what do we want to deliver in the next three months?

What else will you learn in the podcast?

• How a purpose-led organisation works without bosses

• Why someone who isn’t at peace with themselves shouldn’t volunteer

• Has the organisation ever expelled anyone?

• What the risks and benefits of complete transparency and open communication are

• What expert volunteering is and why it could replace some corporate training

• How technical and non-technical people work together when they share the same goal

This volunteer community shows that people don’t need money or control to stick together. A clear purpose, open communication and an environment where people say for themselves what they can handle are enough. And that’s a lesson commercial companies can learn from too.