Andrew Horn is the Executive Director at Dreams for Kids. Dreams for Kids DC empowers youth living in poverty and those with disabilities by uniting them with their peers, recognizing their abilities, and allowing their voices to be heard. The most isolated young people from every community in the metropolitan area are reminded they have something to give. While fearlessly pursing their dreams, they are leading others to their own and compassionately changing the world.
What Is The Perfect Internship? The Anti-Internship!
It all started with Dan Pink and a little acronym, AMP (Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose). Dan Pink delivered his talk titled “The Surprising Science of Motivation” at Ted Global 2009 (http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/the_surprising.php) and it transformed my idea of and strategy for employee happiness and fulfillment. It opened my eyes to a world of opportunity and enabled me, an untested and under experienced manager to lead and grow an organization through the support of unpaid volunteers and interns.
When I first heard Dan’s speech, I was 22 years old and in the process of starting a children’s non-profit, Dreams for Kids DC (www.dreamsforkids.org/dc). I needed help to get things going and had managed to recruit seven unpaid interns. Interestingly enough, I was managing them via g-chat while sitting in the office of my “real” job as an Executive Recruiter.
As a first time and very green manager, my objective was simple, identify what we needed to get done and have my interns handle the necessary tasks. Allocating tasks on a day to day basis proved exhausting for me and ineffective for the organization. Even worse, I was a young person who genuinely wanted to help young professionals develop and I was frustrated by the fact that these internships I had created resembled the stereotypical clerical or administrative “paper pushing” internships that I had experienced and HATED in college. Then AMP happened and the perfect internship began to take form.
If you have never watched Dan Pink’s talk on the science of motivation, I suggest you do it now. It will change your approach to work forever. In his talk Dan stresses that the key factor for employee happiness is progress, your employees feeling that they are working towards something and growing at all times. Rather than talk to you about the specific components of AMP, I will let you watch the video and discover for yourself.
After I saw the talk, I sat there inspired and had this lingering idea of the anti-internship…the entry level position that would create a platform for young people to do relevant work that they cared about, while also making significant contributions to our bottom line. Here is how we did it. (with unpaid interns)
1. Identify your own needs and untouched projects.
- Identify all organizational needs that can be presented as projects i.e. an event or specific essay/paper. For Dreams for Kids this would be an adaptive baseball clinic or our monthly newsletter.
- Think about any organizational projects that you have wanted to develop but have not gotten to because it is a low priority i.e. a new system or strategy development. For Dreams for Kids this was our social media strategy and a new contact management system.
2. Identify your interns goals and aspirations (help them figure it out if need be)
- It is of the utmost importance that the work your interns are doing is relevant to their professional development. They should be able to say that this job will be the exact notch on their resume that they would want to show a prospective employer.
- When an intern calls in for an interview, the first questions I ask them are “what is your dream job” “what are you hoping to learn about” and “what do you want to take away from this internship” if they can’t answer these questions I will tell them to think about it and call me back, literally. If your interns have no idea of what they are working towards, there can be no progress.
- They don’t need to be able to specify a particular “job” but they do need to specialize a function that they want to focus on i.e. Communications, Project Management, Development, PR etc.
3. Identify projects that match your needs to your intern’s personal aspirations and give them space to create.
- Your interns will be excited and empowered by the fact that they have an opportunity to take ownership of a significant project that they can see is relevant for their personal development and success. The incentive to do well on the project has been laid out for them and the motivator is now intrinsic.
- You can lay out bare minimums to ensure the work gets done, while also making sure they know the possibility to scale their projects is available. Make it clear that they are responsible for the project and it is up to them to complete the projects status quo or to take them to extraordinary levels that will differentiate them from their peers moving forward.
4. Detailed goal setting
- Your check on the amount of autonomy you give your interns will be detailed goal setting every week. For Dreams for Kids this equates to a “weekly work back” that details what is expected of interns during the week. They are responsible for accomplishing all of their tasks by the assigned deadlines. The only exception is for those interns who have come to you with questions and concerns ahead of time.
- It is important that you encourage questions and make yourself available as a teacher when they ask you. Your interns will be expected to accomplish all of their goals on time and if they feel that they will be unable to do that, they need to come to a manger ahead of time to express concerns and overcome the difficulties. This means that all unfinished tasks that have not been brought to your attention will not be tolerated.
Want an example?
Earlier this summer one of our summer interns had managed to plan an enormous adaptive baseball clinic with the Washington Nationals. The clinic ended up getting cancelled a few hours before the event due to rain. As I sat there in the rain telling families and volunteers that the clinic was not going to take place, I looked over at my intern and asked her if she was going to be alright, she started to cry. She had taken this clinic from a simple adaptive clinic to one of the largest in DC’s history, with high level disability advocates, professional athletes and media outlets poised to attend. The impact would have been huge and she knew it. As we stood there in the rain, we talked about how this was going to pave the way for many clinics in the future and what a great job she had done. I didn’t tell her at the time , what was most special as a manger , was to see a young person, who at only 21 years old was able to plan a truly world class event and felt so connected to the work that she was literally brought to tears at the thought of it not happening. It takes some work and if you dedicate yourself to it, the “anti-internship” can change the way you do business forever.
By the way, want some good news? That clinic has now been rescheduled with the Washington Nationals and it looks like it’s going to take place after all.
- Do you have a cool business that you think young people would enjoy getting involved with?
- Do you have unfinished projects in your head that a young person could help manifest?
- Do you aspire to help passionate young people who want to make a difference?
Maybe it’s time you considered the “anti-internship.”
I want to hear your experiences and advice. Do you already have interns working for you? What do you do to motivate them and give them pride of ownership with their projects?
Have you ever had an “anti-internship” position where your boss let you fly? Tell me about it.
