On the Precipice of Advancing the Revolution, We Attack the Talented Revolution Leaders

Now, the time is now
We can still turn it around
Raise your voice like a weapon
Til they fall to the ground
Light, let there be light
Without a shadow of doubt
We will fight tooth and nail until
Salvation is found
–Viking Death March, Billy Talent

It would really be something if all voices were raised in unison to complete the radical change of ending homelessness. If there is one thing I have learned about a career in this sector where I have often been the misfit…the divergent thinker – it is that when you are making strides in change there are people that will be ready to try and tear you down. What astounds me is that this tear down happens from within the group that does comparable work and/or proclaims to share the same passion for the population.

House homeless people directly from the street without using shelters or transitional housing, like I did for many years, and you will be accused of being anti-shelter or siphoning off resources to where they are really needed, or somehow making the lives of homeless people worse because they are alone and don’t have the socialization they once had on the street. Or people will agree that housing people is a good thing, but because you haven’t resolved their poverty you have somehow failed.

Try to undertake a Point in Time count with rigour to account for those that may have been missed using a capture-recapture technique and you will be accused of getting “too cute” with an otherwise simple task, or trying to fabricate (inflate?) numbers or distort the truth. Or people will agree that the concept is good, but they will disagree on some aspect of the methods and therefore try to throw the entire thing under the bus.

Create a training curriculum to elevate the professional development of case managers within the industry that serves homeless and under-housed persons, and people will be quick to tell you that it disrespects those well intentioned men and women with big hearts who do this work because their church compels them to, or you will be told that what you are doing is too basic for those that are already professionals. Or people will tell you that your ideas are fantastic, but not implementable where the training is occurring because: a) it is unique; or, b) there is no leadership that will allow it; or, c) the people that have been doing it for a long time do it differently; or, d) it is a very conservative (or liberal) place where these sorts of ideas just don’t fly; or, e) all of the above.

Spend years researching and testing how to assess the support and housing needs of homeless families and individuals, and there will be somebody (trust me) that believes the research is inadequate. Or someone will argue that because you won’t share every last detail of the work with them publicly that it isn’t credible. Or that while assessing is a good idea, it is a waste of time because people have been at this a long time and just know who needs what type of help intuitively.

Develop an action-oriented plan to end homelessness and there will be naysayers that suggest what is needed is action, not planning. Others will insist the plan goes to far (or not far enough). Some will tell you that some critical action or evidence-informed practice that is suggested is not as credible as the data and literature suggests or that it can’t possibly work where you are because your circumstances are just so different.

This work is hard enough. There are huge injustices to tackle. There are massive problems to solve. And there are some remarkably talented and dedicated and intelligent and passionate people that are trying to work on it. Must we tear them down? Must we burn them out? Must we cast a shadow of doubt on everything they do? Can we not find a more constructive voice for dialogue?

I will fight tooth and nail until justice is found. But I admit there are times I am tired and weary. Not because of the 16 hour days or hundreds of days on the road each year. Nor am I tired and weary because of the time spent away from my family. Nor am I tired and weary from changing time zones on an all-too-frequent basis. I am tired and weary from the bickering and attacks within the industry, from the lack of solution-focused conversations between colleagues and peers, from the politics of difference. We can do better. We should demand it from each other.

The PG Me

Recently I was asked if I could make sure a presentation PG. The organizers were concerned that the message of the talk would be lost if I said too many provocative things or my language was too colourful. There may be some truth to that, and I am working hard to make sure everyone knows and appreciates that I amend my approach and language depending on the situation I am in and with whom I have the pleasure of speaking.

That said, PG ain’t what a lot of people think it is. The Motion Picture Association of America says a PG-rated film may not be suitable for children. The MPAA says a PG-rated should be checked out by parents before allowing younger children to see the movie. There could be some profanity, some violence, or brief nudity, however there will not be any drug use in a PG film. By this standard, I should be able to swear, hit someone and flash the audience, so long as I don’t do drugs in front of them. (Kidding folks…I won’t do any of that.)

It is true that I say things sometimes defined as provocative. I don’t do this to be disrespectful. I am not trying to change anyone’s personal morals. I am not trying to be sensational. What I am trying to do is open people’s minds to an alternate way of thinking about homelessness and solutions to it, while simultaneously being grounded in the reality of the people we serve. It is okay for people to consider alternate viewpoints and language to explain an issue without feeling their own morals are under attack.

Depending on the audience, the subject matter, and the intent of the speech, I may end up including items about substance use, dealing drugs, sex, sexuality, the sex trade, violence, self-harm, mental illness, and/or a range of other topics that may collide with a person’s own sensibilities, morals or world view. I am not out to disrespect anyone personally, though I can appreciate these matters make people feel uncomfortable. I firmly believe we have to be able to speak about some remarkably uncomfortable things if we truly want to be person-centered and meet people where they are at in our journey with people to housing stability. The people that we work with are no better nor worse than any of us that work in the industry, just different. Different does not imply “less than”.

In the updated Promoting Wellness and Reducing Harm training we unveiled a month or so ago, this text was on a slide at the beginning as people came into the training room:

This presentation honestly, openly, respectfully, and at times graphically depicts mental illness, substance use, and matters of sex and sexuality.Some of the words, phrases, pictures and graphics may make some participants feel uncomfortable.You are encouraged to stay and learn despite your discomfort at times.You are encouraged to ask questions and open yourself up to a different way of thinking about mental illness, substance use and sex work.

Rather than shutting down the discussion about matters such as this, I think it may be best to open up the dialogue.

I have been known to use humour to take a sensitive subject that can be difficult to talk about and disarm people through laughter. In this regard I will own that I can push things even farther than some people are comfortable. Not everyone has the same sense of humour. Not everyone thinks the same things are funny. Some people are uncomfortable with themselves for laughing at things they wish they hadn’t found funny. And other times I will accept that the humour is so close to the line in my mind that it has crossed the line for others. But flirting with an imaginary line is also not an exercise in trying to be offensive.

Sometimes I hear after the fact that someone took exception to the language I used or the humour I used. Here is the thing…while there has been less than a handful that have been able to tell me they were offended with what I talked about or how I talked about it, there are hundreds – maybe even more than a thousand over the past year – that have gone out of their way to come up to me during a break or after a presentation, hit me up on FaceBook, mention @orgcode on Twitter, call or email me with compliments for being real and honest and “getting it”. I will always do my best to be authentic in what I talk about and how I talk about it. I am not saying this to be boastful. Instead, what I intend to illustrate is that while there may be a minority that can take issue with what is said or how it is said, it needs to be appreciated that there is a massive volume of people that love the style and approach that is used.

Know that I try to read my audience and the environment within which I have the honour of speaking. I will continue to say provocative things, but I will increasingly be aware that how I say those things can be very important or else the message is lost. And given the definition of PG, I can assure just about everyone that my public presentations meet that definition quite well.

Using Data to Improve Your Hiring in Human Services

You are looking for really talented, compassionate, skilled, dedicated people. You know you are not going to be able to pay them a lot. And you don’t want there to be a lot of turnover.

You think the answer to this is to talk about how great your organization is, how they can join an exciting team, how they can contribute to helping those in need in your community.

You will hire a really keen person. They will work with you for less than a year. Then they will leave. And you will go through all the effort again of posting and hiring for the position.

Maybe, just maybe, if you had used data and transparency in your posting you’d end up hiring the right person for the job, being transparent about the demands of the job, and making sure they are up for the challenge before they get started.

Here is a mash-up of job descriptions I’ve helped provide some organizations in the homelessness services world over the past couple years. The result? Hiring people that are highly skilled and motivated who did not leave because the work was harder than they thought it would be.

(name of organization) is a national leader in working to end homelessness – and we want you to be part of our team to provide leadership in our emergency shelter if you:

believe every person that uses the shelter can and should achieve housing, regardless of presenting issues;marry your compassion for helping people with intelligence and strategic problem solving to get individuals out of homelessness;understand – but are not crippled by – the complexity of homelessness;do not confuse opinions about homelessness with facts about homelessness;motivate staff to share a vision of homelessness ended one person, one family at a time regardless of whatever issues they may have in their lives;have a passion for creatively solving complicated issues;can put the mission, vision and values of our organization into your day to day practice;believe that shelters are a process, not a destination;exude positivity and promote positive change;can successfully manage programs and people when there is no clear right/wrong answer;are persistent when staff or shelter users try to tell you that they cannot or do not want to get out of homelessness.

Here’s what we don’t want:

people that have pity or sympathy for homeless individuals (empathy is okay);people with no experience in human services;people that hate data;people that think shelters and permanent housing are the same thing;people that refuse to grow, learn and innovate on the job;people that are judgmental or punitive in motivating change in others.

(name of organization)’s shelter has 86 different people under our roof each night. Approximately a third have been with us for greater than three months, approximately a third have been with us 1-3 months, and the remaining third less than a month. The average length of stay across all shelter users last year was 79 days per person. It is our target within the next year to get average lengths of stay to under 45 days per person, and to know for certain that at least 80% of the people no longer staying with us have moved into permanent housing (including reuniting with family when that is appropriate and safe) at the end of their stay in our shelter. Currently we only know for certain that 59% of our shelter users move into permanent housing, and this is unacceptable to us.

Here are other things you should know:

on average, in the course of any given month, more than half of our shelter users meet the HUD definition of chronic homelessness;on average, more than 70% of the shelter users in our facility each night have stayed in another shelter in the city directly prior to staying in our shelter, and 8% were living outdoors directly prior to staying in our shelter;on average, 18% of shelter users in our facility on any given night are tri-morbid (have a co-occurring chronic physical health issue, mental health issue and substance use disorder);almost 15% of shelter user information in our Homeless Management Information System is incomplete;the staff group of 24 people you will be supervising has an average of 2.3 year experience with us and 3.5 years of experience altogether working in the homelessness field, with over 70% having a degree in Social Work or comparable degree;each week you will spend three hours on Thursday mornings meeting with the entire senior management team of our organization, because the shelter is one of 8 core program areas we operate;your base salary will be $62,300 to start with incentives for meeting performance targets such as improved housing access and decreased lengths of stay in shelter;you will be expected to spend 14 hours per month working directly alongside your line staff to see how she/he is performing and to monitor opportunities for operational improvements, and we expect at least half of these hours to be between the hours of 10pm and 7am.

10 Things to Keep in Mind if You Are Serious About Ending Homelessness

1. Don’t just think about it – do it!

Imperfect action trumps perfect planning. Experiment in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. Evaluate what you are doing. Learn from it. Improve.

2. Be your own community, but don’t dismiss proven practices from elsewhere.

You have to make ideas fit where you live, not changing where you live to fit ideas. While there will always be local context to consider, avoid making excuses as to why a specific approach won’t work where you live. Instead, try to figure out how to make proven practices work where you live.

3. Make strategic partnerships – don’t be needy or excessively eager.

Strategic partnerships have mutual gain. They are not one-sided. Getting an organization or institution to do what they are mandated to do is not a partnership – that is accountability. To form strategic partnerships there has to be something in it for both parties. That can mean compromise. Don’t be too demanding.

4. Use humor, carefully.

This work is really, really hard. It is okay to find times to laugh and relax and reflect casually on why and how you are doing what you do. Remember that outsiders rarely understand our context or demands. What is blowing off steam for us may seem disrespectfully or uninterested to them, so be careful where and how you use humour. But my goodness, use humor. A lot.

5. Don’t reinforce or reward bad practices.

Every time you make an excuse for an under-performing organization or person on your staff team you are saying it is okay not to succeed. I don’t think the people you serve think it is okay to suck. You shouldn’t either.

6. Don’t play favorites.

If you are a funder, competition for available funds will help cream rise to the top without interference on your part of picking your favorite organization. If you are a service provider, don’t play favorites with service users. The person/family that may use the most colorful language – or say nothing at all – may, in fact, be the person/family that needs your services the most.

7. Accept that some people/organizations just won’t get it.

Try to get people on board. Use facts. Use moral persuasion. Make an ethical argument. Haul out pie charts. Show them the economics of homelessness versus housing. Use pressure from peers, allies and elected officials. Use funding. And then if they still don’t want to get on board with ending homelessness, let them go. As I have heard many times, “It isn’t me. It’s you.” This time, it’s true.

8. Relax.

If you are Type A on steroids working to end homelessness everyone will hate your guts. You’ll come across as a self-determined, glory-seeking, zealot. Be cool. This problem wasn’t created over night. It won’t end over night either. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

9. See the glass half full.

Find evidence of success then exude positivity about it realistically and enthusiastically. This helps remind others (and yourselves) that success is possible, and that success breeds success. If you are the “sky is falling” sort, people will not get on board with what you are trying to achieve. There are a litany of things to conquer – discharge planning, economic poverty, inadequate supply of supportive housing, etc. If all you see is the stuff that still needs to be tackled instead of the success you have already realized, people will not be motivated to continue to journey to the ultimate destination.

10. Be confident in the big picture and the long-term plan.

Your confidence can carry your organization/community over the hump from informed pessimism to informed realism in the goal of ending homelessness. It is hard work. There will be a lot of hard days. Some people will remind you that what you are trying to do cannot be done. New leaders will take office. Trusted service providers will have staff turnover. Some people will return to homelessness. That doesn’t mean you aren’t doing it right. It means you have to see the long-term. It means you have to investigate and evaluate your plan to update it and make improvements. And it means you have to embrace your potential to be awesome.

Four Mottos

Here are the four mottos that matter to me in the work that we do, with a brief explanation of each:

“Great consultants. Lousy businesspeople.”

We have to make enough to pay our bills, but we absolutely have no desire to ever be rich doing this work. We are not motivated by money. We are motivated by making a difference. That’s why we give away so many of our tools. That’s why we do so many things at a discounted rate.

“Training that doesn’t suck.”

A trainer that understands adult learning knows that any good training combines many different approaches. Here are my three foundations to training:

1. Training should be pragmatic for what you do.

If your trainer doesn’t get “it” then it will just be one gigantic snooze-fest. If you don’t actually learn something you can immediately put into practice it is a waste of time. Let me give you an example of a pet peeve – lots of organizations realize the value of knowing Motivational Interviewing, but are not taught MI by someone that has experience working with homeless or precariously housed people in either a homeless or permanent supportive housing setting. So many of their approaches assume a clinical or quasi-clinical setting, which seems like the antithesis of the sort of environment you function in on  a daily basis.

2. Training should be grounded in theory and evidence.

If your trainer has not read a peer reviewed journal article on the subject matter they are training you on in the last 10 years, chances are they have missed some relevant advances in the field. Your trainer should know why they are training you on the things they are training you on.

3. Training should be both educational and entertaining.

To me it is simple: if you are entertained at the same time you are learning you are more likely to put down your defenses and be engaged with the subject matters. You are also more likely to want additional training in the future if the trainer didn’t bore you to tears.

“Catalysts for better outcomes.”

We should be able to change behavior, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or results through our work. It should have a lasting impact. We never want to be the people who parachute in, look at your watch and tell you what time it is. Our job is to challenge and change.

“Hip and nerdy. Not your average consultants.”

If people ever think of OrgCode as just another consulting firm, we have failed. Our research should be different than what you have experienced before. Our reports should be different than what you have experienced before. Our training should be different than what you have experienced before. Same thing with our planning, facilitation, engagement strategies, charrettes, keynotes and materials. The world has lots of “average”. We believe you deserve something better than average. If we are just “the world’s okayest” consultants, we suck.

Job, Career or Vocation?

I’ve had jobs – and probably you have too – that were only about doing something for someone else in order to get paid. I have some great stories from some of those jobs (especially summer jobs during undergrad years). But when I have had jobs in my life, time off was critical – from milking every coffee break to downtime on the weekends to vacation time.

I’ve had career stops when I was truly a careerist. In those times in my life a lot of what I was involved in was not as much about the content of the tasks (though I did like a lot of what I did), but more about how far I could get up the ladder and how fast. It was about advancement. It was about status. I may not have called it that at the time, but upon reflection that is a lot of what was driving me at that time. In careerist mode, I worked loads of hours above and beyond what I was required to do because I wanted people to see my drive and pursuit. I was in work early and out later than most. I became frustrated when I couldn’t see a clear pathway to the next rung on the ladder up or when my ideas stopped getting traction or when I sensed competition from other careerists.

Since late 2009 I have been in vocation mode. The difference? I felt a calling…a summons of sort to do the sort of work I am doing now. From my career years to the present I have been heavily immersed in matters of homelessness, housing, social policy and leadership development. I don’t particularly love the title “consultant”, but my consulting years I think are the ones where I have had the broadest reach in making a lasting difference across the most lives. My love and passion in the vocation mode is the work itself. It has nothing to do with status or money. At all.

While I was in careerist mode, getting a raise with each advancement in my career was the reward. There was a value that could be attached to the status. Reaching six figures was a moment I won’t soon forget. Now I don’t find myself motivated to do this work because of money. In a perfect world, I would get to do all the things I do for free and have neither mortgage nor other family financial obligations to worry about, nor would any of the staff of OrgCode have to worry about their finances. So yes, having positive cash flow is necessary, but not a driver. We aren’t a typical for-profit business in that way. To me the measure of success in my vocation is not how much profit it yields me. There isn’t much about this job I don’t like, but a big one is negotiating prices for the work that we do.

I knew I was ready for the vocation stage of life when I started listening to my inner passion. I don’t really know how to describe this “listening to my inner passion”. I don’t mean to say there was a person talking to me or that I was hearing things that weren’t there. It was more of an emotional connection…the more I was engaged with people and projects that I thought could have a lasting impact on social issues in their community and it was aligned to my perspectives on justice, the more I wanted to be doing that thing.

Once I started listening the work became all about the passion. It was a passion to learn more. It was a passion to share more. It was a passion to have a larger impact on the world. It was a passion to make a difference.

As a trusted mentor to seven people currently in their journey towards awesomeness, I love the sessions I have with people about their feeling of vocation, career or job. I am in no way judging one as being better than the other because I think it is dependent on the needs and wants of each person. I feel a connection and kinship, though, with those that have found a vocation in life that brings them meaning beyond financial remuneration or status. For several people this has meant less pay but greater emotional rewards. For others finding the vocation has also meant finding a way to put other parts of life in balance. For others still it has meant similar trade-offs in life like mine (in order to follow my passion I end up spending less time in person that I love because so much travel is involved.) Those in the careerist mode have come to appreciate how their lives are made more productive if they embrace the role that people with a vocation play in their achievement and how people in job mode provide a foundation for their career to occur. And the one that I have in job mode has realized careerists and vocations people are not dismissive or judgmental of job mode folks.

The truth is, we need all three: jobs, careers and vocations. And a further truth is that many of us will experience two if not three of these throughout our life times. I consider it a moment of grace that in my late 30s I had the opportunity to listen to and follow my vocation. I don’t see myself turning back. This is truly whom I am and what I was called to do in this world. I am grateful and perhaps lucky, and meanwhile committed with fervour to embrace my vocation, open to wherever it takes me and however much money it loses me.

So what are you going to be when you grow up? I gave answers I thought people wanted to hear and little to what I really wanted. After grad school my answer to that question had more to do with careerist pursuits. Now, (well, as an aside I can tell you my father thinks it is possible I can get a real job after I get a haircut and take out my earrings so long as I hide all my tattoos) I can answer the question of what I want to be when I grow up with a lot more clarity: I want to be me; and, I want to be the best me possible making the biggest difference to complex social issues as I can. That is what I feel called to do. Whether or not I achieve that is what I should be measured against after my days on this earth are through.