(Lemon Creek Glacier, Southern Alaska)
There is a philosophy in management studies which suggests that the key to being successful as a manager is to remove obstacles from the path of your teams, and then get out of the way to let them do what they’re good at. The obstacle in question is usually something within the internal operations of the business.
It has also been proven time and time again that employees who have less personally stress, strife and distraction contribute more significantly and more productively to the organization than those who have more. In fact, SAS, a research software development organization in Cary, NC has – for eleven consecutive years – been in the top 30 of Fortune’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. One of SAS’s successes during their 30+ years, is the way it treats its employees, including providing: onsite subsidized medical centres, onsite subsidized gourmet cafeterias, subsidized health and daycare programs, among others. SAS believes that by helping employees relieve their personal pre-occupations, they will have employees who contribute more to the success of the organization – and they do!
This doesn’t mean that people who have more personal issues aren’t as smart or as capable; rather, they are distracted. You might think that one should separate their personal life and work life. To a degree, I’ll agree with you. But what if the “distraction” is the concern of whether this week’s pay check will be enough to pay rent, bills and to put food on the table for your 2-year old? Do you still believe it’s easy to just leave the personal problems at home? To so many, these issues are like a boulder in the middle of the highway and you’re driving towards it at over 100mph (160km/h)!
What if we could expand these business theories and practices into society at large? We all want our communities to continue improving – so, let’s be a part of the movement!
Those boulders I referred to are usually major hope crushers for so many people living in poverty. They may want to change their lives, learn, grow, earn and stand on their own two feet, but these big huge rocks (among others) are in their way:
• Who is going to take care of the kids while I go to school and learn?
• If I study, and give up or reduce my salary for 6 months (the average amount of time required to get a certificate), how will I make ends meet?
• Even if I study part time to not give up my salary – can my body handle the demands and stresses?
• Even if I get a job, I can’t leave the kids because I still can’t afford daycare!
• Will I make it through? And, even if I do, what’s at the other end? What if it’s all for not?
To make matters worse, these rocks are next to impossible to budge – and these people are usually alone (remember the reliability issue in "Lemons have families too..."). So there’s no help to even try to move them. What would you do? Over time, most people give up. Voilà: hopelessness!
What if we could create a movement whose key goal is to remove these boulders from the paths of people who aren’t quite as privileged as many of us? Don’t worry about the “how” right now? Worry about the “who”… If we could all commit to “creating a world with no borders where everyone can have true equal opportunity to improve their life”, we would all find the right ways to budget, nudge and even remove these boulders.
Boulder Removing Experts
Here’s idea #2… and, to tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ve heard of this kind of program in existence. Imagine with me:
…An organization that people can turn to for support in order to remove boulders from their path when they want to work toward self-sufficiency. In order to qualify, you need to be willing to work with a counsellor/case worker who will evaluate your needs and ambitions. Let’s be clear – this group is not going to help you get a BMW! But if you work with them, you could be able to get your own.
Independently of what your problems are, this organization removes the boulders. You can get a job, but you can’t leave your children because you can’t pay for daycare: we’ll help you cover daycare. You realize it’s time to get a high school diploma because no matter how hard you try, you can’t get a full time job that pays enough to cover rent and the bills: we can help you get that diploma. You have been working for years in a basic paying job without benefits or savings and now you’ve been laid off: we’ll make it easier for you to find another job and bridge the gap.
You’ll notice that the “helps” provided are built to remove boulders. These individualized programs are temporary. You and your case worker build a plan and timeline together (which unto itself is a learning). Once the boulder is out of your way, and you’re on your way, we get out of your way and you live your life. The point is to get you to self-sufficiency, to teach you how to fish.
There are two small additions to the organization and its programs: 1/ if you want to stay in touch, you are always welcome; and 2/ please pay it forward.
What do you think?
It has also been proven time and time again that employees who have less personally stress, strife and distraction contribute more significantly and more productively to the organization than those who have more. In fact, SAS, a research software development organization in Cary, NC has – for eleven consecutive years – been in the top 30 of Fortune’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. One of SAS’s successes during their 30+ years, is the way it treats its employees, including providing: onsite subsidized medical centres, onsite subsidized gourmet cafeterias, subsidized health and daycare programs, among others. SAS believes that by helping employees relieve their personal pre-occupations, they will have employees who contribute more to the success of the organization – and they do!
This doesn’t mean that people who have more personal issues aren’t as smart or as capable; rather, they are distracted. You might think that one should separate their personal life and work life. To a degree, I’ll agree with you. But what if the “distraction” is the concern of whether this week’s pay check will be enough to pay rent, bills and to put food on the table for your 2-year old? Do you still believe it’s easy to just leave the personal problems at home? To so many, these issues are like a boulder in the middle of the highway and you’re driving towards it at over 100mph (160km/h)!
What if we could expand these business theories and practices into society at large? We all want our communities to continue improving – so, let’s be a part of the movement!
Those boulders I referred to are usually major hope crushers for so many people living in poverty. They may want to change their lives, learn, grow, earn and stand on their own two feet, but these big huge rocks (among others) are in their way:
• Who is going to take care of the kids while I go to school and learn?
• If I study, and give up or reduce my salary for 6 months (the average amount of time required to get a certificate), how will I make ends meet?
• Even if I study part time to not give up my salary – can my body handle the demands and stresses?
• Even if I get a job, I can’t leave the kids because I still can’t afford daycare!
• Will I make it through? And, even if I do, what’s at the other end? What if it’s all for not?
To make matters worse, these rocks are next to impossible to budge – and these people are usually alone (remember the reliability issue in "Lemons have families too..."). So there’s no help to even try to move them. What would you do? Over time, most people give up. Voilà: hopelessness!
What if we could create a movement whose key goal is to remove these boulders from the paths of people who aren’t quite as privileged as many of us? Don’t worry about the “how” right now? Worry about the “who”… If we could all commit to “creating a world with no borders where everyone can have true equal opportunity to improve their life”, we would all find the right ways to budget, nudge and even remove these boulders.
Boulder Removing Experts
Here’s idea #2… and, to tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ve heard of this kind of program in existence. Imagine with me:
…An organization that people can turn to for support in order to remove boulders from their path when they want to work toward self-sufficiency. In order to qualify, you need to be willing to work with a counsellor/case worker who will evaluate your needs and ambitions. Let’s be clear – this group is not going to help you get a BMW! But if you work with them, you could be able to get your own.
Independently of what your problems are, this organization removes the boulders. You can get a job, but you can’t leave your children because you can’t pay for daycare: we’ll help you cover daycare. You realize it’s time to get a high school diploma because no matter how hard you try, you can’t get a full time job that pays enough to cover rent and the bills: we can help you get that diploma. You have been working for years in a basic paying job without benefits or savings and now you’ve been laid off: we’ll make it easier for you to find another job and bridge the gap.
You’ll notice that the “helps” provided are built to remove boulders. These individualized programs are temporary. You and your case worker build a plan and timeline together (which unto itself is a learning). Once the boulder is out of your way, and you’re on your way, we get out of your way and you live your life. The point is to get you to self-sufficiency, to teach you how to fish.
There are two small additions to the organization and its programs: 1/ if you want to stay in touch, you are always welcome; and 2/ please pay it forward.
What do you think?
It may sound like welfare – but, I’d like to think it’s better. If this is what welfare is supposed to be then I apologize to those who created the welfare programs. I would suggest that those programs get better managed. I know people who live on welfare, and they really don’t believe there’s a way out. They almost seem to think that it’s going to be “welfare forever”.
In the meantime, feel free to share these ideas with anyone you think could contribute to making a difference. We need to take a stand today. The longer we wait, the more the issues proliferate. The more the issues proliferate, the more we get comfortable with the idea that “this is just the way it is”. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to accept poverty as a norm that just is…
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"The Boulder Remover" would appear to suggest we could make a brave new world for lots of people ... but it would take a lot of funding, or funding rechanneled ... in this time of recession, it would be wonderful! Our you going to cost it out, Judi, and give us more details!
ReplyDeleteI can certainly cost it out based on a few scenarios; I'll work on these over the course of the next few days. It certainly will require funding: likely a good amount to start. But, as I mentioned before... the cost required to start this up and begin mitigating the problem will be counter-balanced in the long run when we reduce the poverty issue and allow more people to contribute to the economy.
ReplyDelete