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Research for Social Change
Leadership executives, career and personal coaches, and even grandmothers say that there is no such thing as failure, only opportunities. The old football coach says, “We didn’t lose, we learned today”. Performance evaluations are full of language that speaks more about opportunities for improvement or areas of needed growth and development as opposed to failure or weakness. Does this same mindset exist when an organization closes its doors? Failing to meet your objectives as an organization in a way that leads to the unfortunate closure or shutdown of an agency is a failure. Or is it simply a harsh learning lesson for those involved in advancing the organization's mission? What does an organization's closure say about those in leadership? What does it say about the employees and staff, the frontline workers? Where are the learning opportunities for people who are out of a job or have had a role in the creation and development of the organization? What is the chance for the people who may have had a role to play in the organization’s demise? These questions could be asked about any organization in any imaginable field of endeavor; yet, there is an added impact when discussing the closure of an organization whose primary purpose is to meet the needs of human beings who require additional support to develop and maintain a whole, healthy life in society. What happens to them? NOIRE examines these issues and reviews the experts' opinions.
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Perspective and Learning from the diaspora
Lean Management: Friend or Foe of HSO's
As the lean concepts transition from factory and production environments to human service delivery systems, it is critical to ask if principles explicitly designed for the effective and efficient production of cars and other inanimate widgets and gizmos, be applied within the context of organizations dedicated to meeting human need...
Human service organizations should undergo a continuous pattern of evolution; however, with size being one of the key determinants of HSO failure, where is the tipping point on the road to entropy? How can it be recognized and avoided...
Managing complexity poses significant challenges for human service organizations due to the diverse needs of clients, the dynamic nature of social issues, and the complexity of organizational structures and processes. When an HSO is forced to close its doors, whether through its decision-making process or at the direction of an oversight body, there seems to be plenty of blame to go around. Yet, in complex systems, failure, so to speak, is not simply the result of human error or failed leadership.
Bureaucratic structures: unfit for meeting human needs...
What was Dr. Wolfensberger leading us to in his seminal work: The Origin and Nature of our Institutional Models? When you are at work in the delivery of human services, do you get a nagging feeling "like a splinter in your mind", and find yourself thinking "something just isn't right?" The organizational structures that have dominated the landscape of human service delivery for the better part of 50-plus years were not meant to meet the needs of human beings
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