Greatness is a Shared Responsibility: Why Collaboration is Important

This week I was in Detroit for a couple of days wrapping up an assignment we had been working on with the Homeless Action Network of Detroit on Performance Management. On Tuesday, I was making a presentation to the community on the most salient points and recommendations of our final report. What struck me during the delivery of the information was how important it is for greatness to be seen as a shared responsibility.

Want to end homelessness in your community? Not going to happen by one person or one organization. Not going to happen because the Continuum of Care wills it to be so. Not going to happen because external experts were brought in. It is only going to happen if there is a shared responsibility to work on greatness across all organizations, working in collaboration with the CoC, and where necessary, external experts.

The word “collaboration” is an interesting one. Let’s break it down (with apologies to those who have heard me make the same remarks during a keynote or presentation in the last six months or so…).  “Collaboration” comes from the Latin “collaboratus” which means to “labor together” and came to rise in the 1860s after the Industrial Revolution and the organization of labor that resulted from the paradigm shift in the economy. [Aside #1 – while tempted to go on a diversion about social justice and the Chartist movement, I am showing considerable restraint. Aside #2 – “Collaboration” also came to have negative connotations in the 1940s in a treasonable sense, but we’ll park that for now. Aside #3 – methinks these parts of my blogs are perhaps too nerdy for some readers but I can’t help myself.]

To labor together.

Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel once proclaimed: “Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ’em to play together is the hard part.”

When I think about Stengel’s quote what immediately comes to mind are all the organizations I have spent time with over the years that have some amazingly talented people working for them – yet that talent seems to work competitively within the organization rather than laboring together to achieve the mission of the organization. Sometimes it feels like different program areas in the same organization pit themselves against each other for no discernible reason.

Thomas Stallkamp, who has had a rather successful career in business and now leads a group called Collaborative Management remarked, “The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other.”

Let us agree (please) that the problem we are trying to tackle is homelessness. A lot of work I do in communities is about getting organizations to focus on how the specific strengths of their organization assist in solving that problem. [Aside #4 – I feel somewhat nauseous each time an organization tells me they are the only ones in their community that works with really “hard to serve” or “hard to house” people and they wear it like a badge of courage and one-up-personship. For the sake of argument, let’s just say that all of you work with the really “hard” people that no other organization will work with. Aside #5 – I despise the phrases “hard to house” and “hard to serve” because it blames the people we are funded to serve for their hardship…ever think that maybe it is not that they are hard to house or hard to serve, but rather us that hasn’t offered the right – and dare I say easy – housing or service?]

We need to adjust the conversation towards how the greatness of each of us will be shared towards solving the problem, and how each of us will be responsible for our piece of the puzzle.

Social anthropology, human geography, sociology, history and biology all offer research contributions related to human civilizations and other animals (even some plants) that demonstrate time and again that those groups that have collaborated have prevailed over those that have not. There is sufficient evidence for my liking that if we want to prevail in ending homelessness we are going to have to collaborate…that our greatness in that pursuit is directly linked to us seeing the task as a shared responsibility.

So, let us truly labor together.

Let us all do our piece of work and take responsibility for our contributions.

Let us not send every difficult conversation or complex matter to a sub-committee or on the lap of one or two people, but rather grapple with it – labor through it until a conclusion is reached – together.

Let us team build not just within our organization, but across our community.

Let us train together to reach a common understanding of effective approaches.

Let us appreciate the strength of our diversity as we labor together – that “difference” is not de facto synonymous with “worse”.

Let us each contribute our talents collectively for the goal of ending homelessness.

Let us appreciate that some of us will always be smarter than one of us.

Let us banish thoughts that “collectivism” is somehow a weakness and embrace strength inherent with many passionate contributors to a great social issue.

Let us encourage a culture of inter-dependence across homeless and housing organizations so that they work as an integrated system, not a collection of projects or independent services operating in silos.

Let us not be afraid of the good debate as we labor together, grounding our opinions in fact instead of fiction or opinion.

Greatness is a shared responsibility. It requires us to labor together.

Be Awesome (And if you are already, please keep at it)

I haven’t figured out where along the way people think, “You know what would make for a great career? To work with chronically homeless people with a whole bunch of co-occurring complex issues and help them get and sustain housing.” – and then decide to do it for goodness sake. This pertains to the fine folks on the frontline, program administrators, policy wonks, foundation types, elected officials that give a darn about homeless people and a whole raft of other people.

The mesmerizing and at time perplexing thing is that some people do decide that this is exactly how they want to spend their lives. In communities large and small. In countries close and far. And it is awesome.

Be awesome. Pretty good mantra, right?

If you are awesome, continue to be awesome and take time out to teach others to be awesome.

If a belief in a higher power made you awesome, then thanks be to that higher power.

If you fell into this career by accident and found you were awesome at it, then continue to count your lucky stars and still be awesome.

If the Yoda adage “Do or do not. There is no try.” made you want to give this a go and you found out you are awesome at it, then thanks be to Yoda.

If (like me) you were attracted to this field because it was a social issue that no one had previously solved, then continue to inspire awesomeness in problem solving.

But what do I mean by “awesome”? I’m not talking some post 1980 slang for “outstanding”. I’m old school and a nerd. So I am reaching back to the 1670’s – “to inspire awe”. In this case “inspire” refers to the ability to create an urge; a feeling…to animate and impel. “Awe” refers to reverence and admiration on a grand, even sublime scale.

Those on the frontline will never get rich in a financial sense from this work. But their sense of self worth and investment in humankind inspire awe in me.

Those organizations and communities that take huge risks to focus on what data tells them rather than the good story spun by people prone to excuses rather than solutions, inspire awe in me.

Those politicians who dare to make homelessness an issue worth investing in and focusing attention on – and risking social and political capital in the process – inspire awe in me. (David Millerand Joe Mihevc will always be heroes of mine.)

Secretary Donovan from HUD on The Daily Show putting the costs and reason why we need to invest in Housing First into the living rooms of hundreds of thousands of people inspires awe in me.

Organizations that were pioneers in their community in making the move from managing homeless to ending homelessness – even before funding caught on to the idea – inspire awe in me.

The families who support their loved ones in working in human services, inspire awe in me. (As an aside, people like to talk a good game about practicing self-care but loads of people bring some of that emotion home or rely on home to provide the emotional strength for another day in the trenches. That cannot be ignored.)

Phenomenal organizations that remain committed to ending homelessness inspire awe in me. This is especially true when local sentiments from some rather vocal groups can be in opposition to their message and blatantly ignore facts.

Social media giants like Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) who raise the public consciousness about the issue of homelessness and have lived experience, inspire awe in me. (As an aside, I don’t always agree with everything Mark says like the Homeless Hotspots, but I think we are enriched by the dialogue that he creates.)

Researchers who make homelessness – and solutions to it – the focus of their inquiry, inspire awe in me.

Temples, synagogues, churches and other places of worship that open their doors and have their congregants try to meet immediate emergency needs for shelter and food night after night without financial reward inspire awe in me.

Organizations like the USICH that have an array of resources for people to learn from, and the amazing staff of the organization like Barbara Poppe, Laura Zeilinger, Jennifer Ho and Anthony Love who continue to tirelessly organize, effectively engage with other orders of government and promote an end to homelessness, inspire awe in me.

The smiles on the face of homeless children, fervent in their belief that tomorrow will be better than today inspire awe in me.

Fundraisers with integrity who can eke out a few more dollars for the mission of their organization, even in a troubled economy, so that programs and services can keep on operating inspire awe in me.

The Dean (Barbara Rahder) in the faculty where I teach who supports my practitioner bent to academia in a Graduate learning environment inspires awe in me.

Risk takers in the public service who believe in solutions to homelessness and that different departments can and should work effectively with each other rather than at odds (even if well intentioned), inspire awe in me.

Community leaders who have considerable strengths while still thirsty for professional development, inspire awe in me.

Media outlets that shun the sensationalism of the story to focus on the triumph of the human spirit and programs that truly work, while remaining objective and with journalistic integrity (here’s looking at you a lot of the times New York Times), inspire awe in me.

Those who never lose the forest for the trees – people like Bill Hobson at DESC in Seattle who still sees value in each and every person who achieves housing – inspires awe in me.

Housing Locators who fervently believes in meeting the needs of landlords while having chronically homeless people achieve community, inspires awe in me.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness for the conferences they spend hours laboring on to organize and for the information that they share and for the lobbying that they do, inspire awe in me.

Organizations like the Homeless Action Network of Detroit that realize the imperfections and perfections in their community and work their butts off to address the former and celebrate the latter, inspire awe in me.

Organizations in smaller communities that realize they need rural and remote solutions to their homelessness issues and invest in training for their local community even when resources are limited, inspire awe in me.

The OrgCode staff who decide that social planning is a cool career choice, supporting non-profits and governments in ending homelessness, inspire awe in me.

My young kids who have already accepted that my job keeps me away from home for long stretches of time, but remain supportive even at their young age, truly inspire awe in me (and keep me going).

Awesomeness breeds awesomeness. Please be awesome to each other. Please be supportive of each other. Would love to hear what inspires awe in you in this work.

Please believe in the awesome idea that homelessness can be ended, measured one person…one family…at a time.

Journey to Housing Stability for Chronically Homeless People

For individuals that have had a long history of homelessness there is a psychological adaptation that occurs. The experience of being homeless and spending most days trying to meet basic needs becomes normal as a survival mechanism. The individual’s social network – if there is one – tends to be comprised mainly of others that have experienced homelessness for long periods of time. All of this is are common – if not expected – adaptations to combat the stressors of long-term homelessness. It helps ensure survival.

In many communities, the long-term homeless population is not one that is underserved. Because of the survival mentality, these individuals have learned how to use the system of services to survive. As a result, they can, in some many instances, be over-served. But none of the services may be adequately focused on ending their homelessness. The services are focused primarily on keeping people alive for another day. Keeping people alive through these services such as shelter, drop-ins, meal programs and the like certainly have benefits (I am definitely not advocating that we do nothing and let people die) but the proliferation of the services and long-term use of them can create a dependency. The very things that are keeping people alive may have the unintended consequence of propelling the psychological transformation further to the point where recipients of the services become desensitized to the true function of the services (to meet short-term immediate needs).

Below I outline the four steps in the Journey to Housing Stability. There will always be exceptions in any typology of this nature, and people need to accept that at the outset. However, based upon review of hundreds of case plans and case notes of chronically homeless people, interviews with a range of service providers and Team Leaders, extensive interviews with persons who have experienced long-term homelessness, an examination of grey and academic literature, and my own experience as a service provider, I think these four steps are rather accurate. If nothing else, they provide a helpful language for discussion amongst frontline staff in working with chronically homeless people.

The first step in the Journey to Housing Stability is Dependent & Unaware. The dependency comes from years of relying on the human services delivery system to meet basic needs. Chronically homeless people (who incidentally also have a history that often includes time spent in other institutional or quasi-institutional environments where needs are met in a similar way) are dependent on others for meals, shelter, access to food, access to health care, etc. Because the experience of homelessness for this group becomes normalized over time, people lose their sense of awareness of the dependency. This is a group of individuals that can be a voracious consumer of resources. While the concept of housing can be quite appealing to this group, the act of being housed is, in fact, abnormal. Increasing awareness about the use of resources (especially in the context of being housed) is critically important for the support worker. Because of the lack of awareness, it is quite common for this group of individuals to make a series of “demands” in the early stages of being housed, even when these demands are couched in language of gratitude or thankfulness. The degree to which they may have become dependent on others to meet daily subsistence needs is something that they are not fully – or at all – aware of. What is being offered by the support worker may be perceived as simply another resource to be consumed.

The second step in the Journey to Housing Stability for previously chronically homeless persons is Dependent & Aware. It is my contention that real goal setting and individualized service planning can really only begin once an awareness of the use of resources is established (or is in the process of being established). Because goals have actions that often require other resources, this is the perfect opportunity to increase that awareness. This group is very likely to be focused on the “why” question. By that I mean there is a sense of inquisitiveness to truly figure out how all of the pieces of the puzzle come together for longer-term housing stability. People become aware not only of what they need to survive on a day to day basis, but what they need to have greater life stability…a “future-based” orientation that extends beyond just living for today. I have found that to provide the best assistance for people who are increasing the awareness of their dependency on a range of other resources is to focus on small wins and SMART goal setting (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and timed). We want to support people in a transition towards improved awareness.

The third step in the Journey to Housing Stability for previously chronically homeless persons is Independent & Aware. This step is characterized by individuals that can establish their own goals and action plans, without the assistance of a support worker helping them with a framework for doing so, or with the support worker being the one to bring the resources to the table for them to consider or access. This transformation happens when people begin to make the transition from a normative stage of their growth to an integrative stage of growth. It has been my experience that individuals that have achieved independence and are aware of the actions and resources they need, may think they are in a position to no longer require supports of any nature from their support worker. Many support workers erroneously back away when this is the case. But if that happens, the final step of the Journey to Housing Stability may be missed – Interdependent & Aware.

This fourth step – Interdependent & Aware – is one of the cornerstones of healthy community living, as much of the literature on community planning can attest to. It is my contention that society works better when people do not live solely in independent isolation, but when we intentionally try to build community…when we nourish appropriate collectivism designed not to strip away personal identity, but to help people position their independent strengths and attributes into a context where they have meaningful connections with others. Part of our job in providing supports to previously chronically homeless persons isn’t just about getting them housing or helping them address the likes of health, mental health or addiction issues – it is about helping people create, recreate, develop and/or nourish social relationships and networks where they have a social safety net comprised first of friends and family before reliance on human services organizations.

Universally, for each person that we serve, achieving housing stability is a journey. Each “journey” has stops along the way; discernible milestones in the trip. The more that we appreciate that the approach we take towards assisting people is incremental and process driven when it comes to informing how we support people, the better off both clients and support workers will be.

The four steps of the “Journey to Housing Stability” are part of OrgCode’s day long workshop on successful Rapid Re-housing & Housing First programs. For more in-depth information on the four steps or the workshop, please drop us a line.

Recidivism in a System Context

Recently I was in a community where a rather large service provider proclaimed that less than 10 of the households they served in the past year experienced recidivism. I was in awe. I wanted to know more. This could be the secret sauce! The holy grail of homelessness! The Colonel’s secret recipe!

But alas, it was all for nothing.

Like so many times before when I have heard about apparently amazing and effective programs, the truth of the matter is that the service provider totally misunderstood what recidivism is in a homeless system. I don’t blame them. I want to educate them.

Recidivism comes from the Latin word recidivus, which means to fall or to fall back. Some dictionaries will focus attention on falling back into crime. If it isn’t obvious to people familiar with me, and my blogs, I don’t equate homelessness with criminal activity.

So, to fall back. Let’s work with that.

What the service provider really meant was that they had less than 10 households that had fallen back to them. To them.

In communities with limited data systems, this may be the only way to track recidivism by organization, but it is a very limited way of tracking recidivism and one that isn’t true in a system context, especially in medium and large cities.  A service provider may know how many households fell back to them, but it doesn’t accurately tell us how many households fell back into homelessness.

Further investigation in this particular example revealed that there were many, many, many, many (did I mention, “many”?) more households that returned to homelessness. Those households just didn’t return to the same organization.

So, let’s make a distinction in recidivism – falling back into homelessness is the more important concern; not falling back to the same organization (which is important, but not as important).

Think about it from the client’s point of view. If you had – what you perceive to be – a failed outcome with a particular service provider, and you had a choice, would you return to them? All the while, that service provider may think they are doing a better job than they really are at supporting households out of homelessness. If ignorance is bliss, some service providers are orgasmic because not knowing and thinking they are doing well supersedes knowledge of the truth.

This isn’t a critique of service providers. Frankly, until there is a shared, open data system in every community that is focused on the needs of clients, this sort of thing will persist. But in the meantime, let us explore further (respectfully) when service providers tell us about their recidivism rate. Until we know what that means in a system context we may not know much at all about the effectiveness of our services and investments. We may be telling clients, other service providers and elected officials that programs are doing better than they are really doing – not with malicious intent, but because of lack of information.

Improving the use of Empathy in Recovery-Oriented Conversations

This week I am unveiling our new Recovery-oriented Housing Support Training. One of the areas I felt it necessary to add more time and attention is related to the importance of expressing and exercising empathetic conversation. Being appreciative of the client’s thoughts, feelings and experience is important to meaningful support, but too often I have seen well-intentioned support workers miss the boat when it comes to creating an environment conducive to an empathetic connection.

What are some of the common mistakes?

Interrupting is a big one. Sometimes it is to provide advice or try to provide a solution or make suggestions when it is unsolicited. I think some support workers think this is helpful and uses their time better. But if recovery is a process and a journey then we need to take time to let it unravel. This may mean multiple interactions over time.

Making demands of people rather than honoring decision-making and empowering people with information that they can discern is another common mistake. Part of recovery is respecting that people will make mistakes and then engaging with them to debrief on what has been learned. I think it is often out of these protective instincts that I have seen workers order, direct, warn, threat, moralize or preach to their clients. The action of making a demand on someone is laden with authority and power that disrespect the equality that is necessary in empathetic conversations.

Another big one for me is judgment. We all have our personal values, norms and perceptions in life. These differences are important to recognize and respectfully discuss. We should accept and respect diversity, and see “diversity” as having deeper meaning than “variety”. Through judgment comes feelings of being critiqued or blamed. This is unhelpful.

Using humor seems like a light-hearted engagement technique and surely it has a time and place in all good working relationships. But in a recovery-focused conversation it can be a distraction, viewed as dismissive or an unwillingness to engage in a discussion that may be uncomfortable. It can also be misconstrued as what the client is sharing is unimportant – even if that wasn’t the intent of being humorous.

Sympathy can creep in when people are trying to express empathy. Support workers can take on a consoling or pitying role. This may be done to try and make clients feel better, but it can interrupt the flow of conversation where the individual is explaining their experiences and feelings.

So what should be done?

Off the bat, let’s be transparent with the people we work with that different interactions will have different communication styles. There is no point in tricking people or thinking that if we just ask the right questions in the right order that everything will be alright.

Let’s focus on listening – actively and patiently listening – rather than telling. When the time is right in the conversation, present information for the individual to consider and discern, and avoid (as best as possible) requirement of immediate decisions based upon the presentation of information. The knowledge we share should be supportive and without pre-determined conclusion.

Let us offer compliments and acknowledge success when it is warranted. Do not be trite or condescending. Respecting the effort that people put into decision-making is important. Done in the right way, the acknowledgement of effort will enhance the collaboration and openness to discussion and help the client appreciate (perhaps intuitively) that you are being supportive and non-judgmental.

Finally, we can’t force people to talk or engage in conversation that allows us to express empathy. The best we can do is create environments for dialogue. If people understand that we are entering into conversation rather than demanding information from them, the process goes smoother.

Qualities of Some Amazing Outreach Workers

Last night I had the chance to ride along with an outreach team in Calgary. It was pretty darn cold…less than -25C with the wind chill. I love doing outreach. It takes me back to my days doing community development work and street outreach. It helps me stay grounded in that part of the reality of the front line.

The people I did outreach with were two fabulous women. I’d like to dedicate this blog to the elements of them that I was so impressed by.

Grace – they honored the people they served through their action, tone of voice and commitment.

Dignity – they humbly made people feel worthy of service and reinforced the importance of how much each person deserved a safe place out of the cold.

Patience – they demonstrated the capacity to accept delay, trouble, suffering, strife, belligerence, anger, incoherence, difficulty communicating, poor hygiene – and more – without ever getting angry or upset.

Humility – they viewed their contributions with meekness and humbleness, genuinely deflecting praise.

Logistics – they navigated calls for service with precision in how best to get through traffic and around the city in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Solution Focus – they seamlessly and without intrusion focused discussions on the best way to meet each person’s needs, while also reinforcing longer term ways to end their homelessness.

Politeness – more than good manners, they genuinely embodied respectful and considerate behavior with people calling the van, passengers, colleagues and other professionals.

Empathy – they showed through actions and words how it is possible to relate to someone and understand their feelings without pity or sympathy.

Intelligence – more than facts and figures and locations and people and system knowledge, they demonstrated how to apply all of this information in tangible ways to problem solve and make the lives of the people they were serving better.

Humor – they knew that humor shared with each other helps them manage the stressors of the job, but also used humor to make the experience of receiving outreach less intense.

Teamwork – they knew – perhaps intuitively – that the combined actions of the two of them together far exceeded the contributions of either of them solo in doing their work the most effectively.

There are more qualities that I could go on about, but these are the ones that lept to the surface for me last night. I appreciated the time I spent with them and each homeless person in the van. The outreach team is definitely worthy of my highest esteem and respect.