Category Archives: Change

Indifference ~ Your Crime Against our Community

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Last night I had attended two events that lent a startling view to the crisis our city is facing.

My first stop was the reception for the Chief of Police candidates. It would be foolish to judge any of them from a brief 5 minute interaction, but I had to restrain myself from asking them (especially the ones that hail from outside our city walls) what were they bringing to the table to lead a city that hasn’t hired a police officer in two years, and won’t for at least another two? A hiring freeze means those leaving over 4 years aren’t being replaced. What experience, understanding, enlightenment and leadership do they encompass to keep us safe from the wolves of violence and crime, with fewer resources every year? How strong is their commitment, and just how versed are they in the challenges our city is facing?

I know how large their task is, and I left very much hoping the person up to it was in the room.

The second event, a poorly attended community forum at South Mountain Community College, was a glimpse into just how tired those working on the ground actually are. The purpose of the forum is to give members in the community an opportunity to voice what needs they have, and in turn, connect them to the services to fulfill their needs. Connecting communities with resources is half the battle, and forums such as these are a great conduit. ….if actually attended by the public.

The service providers were in attendance, but their faces are starting to show signs of exhaustion. It became apparent to me how deeply the budget cuts and fiscal woes have worn down those in the service and social change fields. The absence of money and funding has a way of creeping into a city’s population. It’s like a slow moving disease, the daily effects are so minute that you’re startled when something dies – even though it’s been slowly dying in front of you a little every day.

2011 was a year of tough conversations. Lack of money and funding have created separation, a loss of momentum, decreased efficiency and a weary populace as more continues to be heaped on the backs of those that carry our city. The groups that protect us and serve others through community building efforts, are what keep Gotham at bay. I read a quote recently: “stop asking for a lighter load, when you should be asking for a stronger back.” These people carrying our city are doing so much more with less; and it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase backbreaking work. I can tell you it may look like they’re balancing the load, but if you listen closely enough, you’ll hear the sharp cracks echoing throughout the city. What’s most endearing about these individuals, is even though they’re tired, their passion and concern is limitless. Their legs may be buckling under the pressure, but they care more now than they ever have.

We have a new mayor, and soon a new Chief of Police. I don’t expect them, and the other leaders of the city to ‘fix’ the problem. It’s not their job. What is their job is to engage the community and inspire the people within in it to not be indifferent. Indifference in a community is a disease, and no leader, officer nor community organization can fight it. What we need is action in our communities. Parents, business owners, young adults and even teenagers all have the ability to affect change. What do you drive by every day that you could do something about? What needs do the children in your community have that are not being met? What are your teens doing if they’re not involved with something positive after school? The list goes on and on, all you have to do is actually pay attention.

Mayhem, violence, chaos, crime and death are all distant realities until they’re at your door. Communities can take an offensive position against them, but it requires a proactive commitment.

If you’re driving around this city day in and day out, complaining of the problems, but get up every single day and focus solely on yourself, you need to realize your indifference is the problem. People ask me all the time, what they can do to ‘start volunteering’ or do some kind of service work. The answer is easy. Make a commitment to do something for someone else (other than your spouse or children) every single day. I don’t know the antonym of ‘indifference’ but I know it has something to do with caring. First step is to care, the second is to take action. It’s really that simple.

Or are you one of the people who think, ‘someone else will do it?’ Ok, let me know how that works out for you, when someone breaks into your home in the middle of the night and it takes the Police Department 45 minutes to get to your door because they’re backed up on calls. You think it’s just a police problem? What was the motive for the criminal that broke into your house? A youth bored after school, uncared for at home, but finds some great friends in a gang. That’s not a police problem, that’s a community engagement problem.

I’m done having nice conversations, sitting around and talking about all the things people should do to help our community. It’s time to start doing.

I’m done having tough conversations, ones where we ask the few that are engaged to do something for us, and they agree with their weary smiles and tired eyes garnered from doing the work of 10 already.

Frankly, I’m done talking. This city needs people to get up, and do something to take care of their community. Sure it’s great when they tide is high, but the tide is out. It has been for a while, and I can’t see it coming back in for a while. It’s going to take everyone doing their part, some small, some massive, to generate a wave that will bring the tide back in.

It’s a call to the members of this desert community that we’re proud to call home. You can sit inside your house, be indifferent and wrestle with the shock when chaos comes to your door. Or you can stand up, take a look around and see what needs to be done around you. A funny little thing happens when you go looking for someone who needs you, suddenly they’re standing right in front of you.

It’s a war on indifference. You’re either fighting it by taking action, or you’re slowly letting chaos creep closer to your home and those you love. It’s a choice everyone in this city needs to make. The only way we’re getting back to be the community we can be, is if everyone shoulders some of the load. It’s not just the work we need. It’s your ideas, your inspiration, your experiences and your insight. It takes a community to save itself, and unfortunately we’re not living in a time we get to sit idly by.

H.G. Wells said “Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State’s failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.”

It’s your community.

It’s your life.

It’s your choice.

The Social Enterprise Revolution

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In a world so focused on the bottom line, and the US so quickly being outpaced by other countries, the urge to push ourselves even further to do more business in less time, is greater than ever.  Though how cliché has it become to see the individual whose attained professional success living a life devoid of meaning? For years we have trained our brains to constantly wrestle more out of our work under the logic of ‘more work equals less time to get more stuff; the value of which Annie Leonard accurately details in the Story of Stuff online parodies.

Our entire workforce has been conditioned to sacrifice time at home, skip church, drink more, sleep less, cancel the gym membership, up the caffeine intake and even at times cross the line of one’s character values to edge out the competition.  An organization’s endless pursuit of superior client service, maximum profit and ultimate efficiency leaves eyes tired and the lines blur.  In this endless hunt the wins become less exciting, even if they result in a higher payout.  At the end of the day, it’s just another win, and after a while they all start to taste the same.

So how do we maintain a healthy balance? How do we navigate the race we’re perpetually running, and not lose ourselves in the process?  We have incredibly and efficiently built a system that means: to succeed is to fail.  If we succeed in work, it seems we inherently fail in life.  How do we release the grip of drive and succeed around our necks enough to find and fund the space that gives our life meaning?

Sure there are your success stories, the exceptions to the majority.  Working in education I came to understand how children learn in the classroom, and I feel it relates to how we apply effort as adults.  Ten percent of the class did the work no matter what was said, ten percent wouldn’t do the work regardless, and eighty percent was the most affected by instruction and support.

I believe our country’s population works much the same way. Ten percent will make it regardless of the odds.  They are successful, in the myriad of ways success can be defined, and live a life in which they find meaning and purpose.  Ten percent opt out regardless of how easy it’s been laid out for them. Eighty percent is what is left swinging in the balance. So, besides the guarenteeds and the neverwillnomatterwhats how do the 80% make it all work?

It requires a ‘one eye in, one eye out’ solution. No society will ever prevail when the eyes of the entire populace are solely focused on themselves. Same holds true for the opposite. One person cannot make their entire life about someone else; we are hardwired to generate a certain amount of personal fulfillment to be complete.

Benefit Corporations, social enterprise and non-profits working in tandem with for-profits are models encompassing the one eye in, one eye out mentality.  It’s the point where growing a profit and doing good for the community intersect.  It’s changing how we do business, where a customer’s loyalty falls, and how our communities are supported.

Growing a profit feeds fulfillment, and doing good creates meaning in our life.  An environment where both of these are accomplished leads to a balanced life.  Like cylinder rows of an engine, one effort can fuel them both.   As Simon Sinek states in his book Ask the Why, brand loyalty is born when people believe what you believe.  When for-profit companies also have a non-profit organization they support, they live what they believe. A meaningless mission statement, on some expensively printed collateral, is as effective as the ‘we’re green, please consider before you print’ tagline in an email signature.  The marketplace knows our community and world needs are far beyond being impacted by one piece of paper saved by not printing an email.

Relationships with clients and strategic partners deepen when people come together as a collective to benefit someone other than just each other.  Insightful connections mean better communication, and this drives more business, period.  When a portion of those efforts are fueled back into the community, such as a Benefit Corporation; or relationships in a for-profit company drive sustainability of the non-profit, one engine answers both marketplace demands and community needs in one.

The US did an incredible job being at the forefront of both the Industrial and Technological Revolutions; but we must understand that a Social Enterprise Revolution is what’s next. Being the first two were profit-driven eras, this will also require a behavioral shift and a new mentality, for us to succeed as well as we did the first two.   What’s interesting though, is a pure profit focus creates a type of tunnel vision.  Social enterprise creates meaning and inspiration in our work, and ultimately gives us an edge by increasing our creativity and fueling our momentum.  The US has been one of, if not the, most compassionate countries in the world.  We are just as able to lead the world in this new era as we were the first two.

One eye out reminds us that serving others also means staying responsible to our own. Helping others will have far greater impact when we stay connected to our families at home, honor the gift of health our bodies provide us, enjoy our relationships in a peaceful emotional state and keep the valve of our heart wide open and loving with its entirety.

Thomas Jefferson said “every generation needs a new revolution” and everyone in the US workforce has an opportunity to have an impact on ours. It’s a new era, building business to do good for the community, the environment and one another.  When our drive to succeed is satiated by being paid respective to the effort we’ve put forth; and our desire for a meaningful life is met through the work of service to others, we are balanced as individuals and better as whole.

Change

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One of the simple beauties of life is that there are no constants.  We move through a kaleidoscope of events that allow us to see an end, and in turn, thrust us forward to a new beginning. Like tiny little bookmarks the events that shape our lives allow us time to pause, breath and truly feel. Sometimes the excitement of the new beginning carries us in its buoyancy, and sometimes the end of an era overwhelms our joy as  it’s ragged last few breaths rip through us in its separation.

But sooner or later, like spring after a long winter, the smell of hope, and joy in anticipation start to give us reason to believe…believe that what lies ahead will be greater than what we have left, or what’s left us.  It’s the ambiguity of not knowing the way the road will go is what gives us solace and eventually we start driving again – taking life’s hands back off the wheel and again putting on our own- as we set out with eyes focused and heart determined to seek a brighter day. One that will lend us the light to see our way through the next transition.

The importance of this process lies in our understanding that what lies behind us, the people, the events, are always with us- because they have become a part of us.  We carry them on our journey and instead of losing energy in our separation, these past experiences instead provide us fortitude and grace, making us stronger with each new twist and turn the road takes.