Anytime there’s a crisis, there’s a flood of people showing up to help. They’re called “spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers” (SUVs) in crisis response circles, and they’re generally considered a chaos amplifier. They’re mostly seen as getting in the way, of being untrained and untasked, and often as not being willing to be trained or tasked.

And at the same time, the amount of work to be done is huge, and there are never enough hands. These folks have dropped everything in their lives because their hearts have been broken open, and they are here to help.

So how to manage this?

When people show up, they are either there to help, or there to “help.” They are either there to serve others, even if it means digging the latrine pit; or they are there to feel better about themselves. Discerning this early on in your intake flow is vital. One way I’ve seen to do this so far is to give someone a task that is not very important (but still engaging) and see what they do with it. If they deliver on it and ask for more, they’re good to go and you can give them more visible things. If they dawdle, take lots of selfies, and ask for other work; redirect them to things that keep them out of the way like sorting and keeping things tidy. They’ll usually phase themselves out.

Or you can follow Drew’s approach! In 2011’s Occupy Wall Street there was a “demands” working group. It was like a honey pot for the self important folks who thought they had the best idea for “what we should do”. This group talked around in circles forever leaving the less self obsessed folks to actually do the work. Create space to give people an outlet for their needs (to be powerful or whatever it is) rather than try to banish them.

There’s a similar concept in gardening, have a garden bed away from the main garden to attract pests. Let the pests have their fun somewhere else rather than in the main garden.

What are other ways to discern between these groups?