The next Monday, I arrived at the office before seven.<\/p>\n
The building was quiet, and the lights on the upper floors had not all come on yet.<\/p>\n
I made coffee in the kitchen and carried it to my desk.<\/p>\n
The six-month review was still open on my computer.<\/p>\n
I had read it several times over the weekend, looking for something I might have missed.<\/p>\n
There was no hidden answer in it.<\/p>\n
The program had improved in measurable ways, and it still left people waiting.<\/p>\n
Some referrals worked.<\/p>\n
Some did not.<\/p>\n
The staff had become better at recording what happened, but recording a problem was not the same as solving it.<\/p>\n
I understood that distinction.<\/p>\n
I was still learning to live with it.<\/p>\n
At eight, Elaine called from the community center.<\/p>\n
She had sent me an updated list of partner organizations whose availability had changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we should go through the process before the team starts using it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs something wrong with the process?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot exactly. We found a few places where the instructions could be misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n
I opened the attachment.<\/p>\n
One line said that staff should confirm availability before making a referral.<\/p>\n
Another said that a referral could proceed when an organization had not responded within one business day.<\/p>\n
I could see the conflict immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they haven\u2019t responded, how can we confirm availability?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t,\u201d Elaine said. \u201cThe second instruction was intended to prevent unnecessary delays, but it creates a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho approved it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it plainly.<\/p>\n
I appreciated that more than an explanation about how the wording had appeared during editing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you recommend?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemove the exception. If we can\u2019t confirm availability, we tell the applicant that we haven\u2019t confirmed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could mean more waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould we identify alternative organizations while we wait?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can, if the person wants us to.\u201d<\/p>\n
I paused at that last sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the person wants us to,\u201d I repeated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people would rather wait for a specific service. Others would prefer an alternative. We shouldn\u2019t decide that for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I approved the change.<\/p>\n
Elaine thanked me and ended the call.<\/p>\n
I stayed at my desk, thinking about how easily an effort to make things faster could turn into another form of pressure.<\/p>\n
We had wanted to keep people moving.<\/p>\n
That was a reasonable goal.<\/p>\n
But movement was not always progress.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the best next step was to wait for accurate information.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it was to offer another choice.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the person had already made a decision, and our job was simply to respect it.<\/p>\n
By nine, the office had filled with the ordinary sounds of a working day.<\/p>\n
Phones rang.<\/p>\n
Doors opened and closed.<\/p>\n
People stopped outside my office to ask questions about budgets and schedules.<\/p>\n
I answered them, signed documents, and attended meetings.<\/p>\n
Nothing about the day felt especially meaningful.<\/p>\n
I was grateful for that.<\/p>\n
I did not want every ordinary task to become another opportunity to congratulate myself for changing.<\/p>\n
At lunch, my assistant brought me a revised budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community program is within its approved limit,\u201d she said. \u201cThe transportation fund is being used more often than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that because the original estimate was wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPartly. We also have better records now, so we\u2019re seeing costs that used to be recorded elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we cover the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, but we\u2019ll need to move money from another administrative line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich one?\u201d<\/p>\n
She showed me.<\/p>\n
The amount was manageable.<\/p>\n
I asked her to confirm that the adjustment would not reduce funding for an unrelated program.<\/p>\n
She checked.<\/p>\n
It would not.<\/p>\n
I approved the transfer.<\/p>\n
Then I asked her to include a note explaining why we had moved the money.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want the note to say the program exceeded expectations?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I want it to say the transportation costs were higher than projected and explain why.\u201d<\/p>\n
She made the change.<\/p>\n
I watched her save the document.<\/p>\n
A year earlier, I might have preferred a sentence that made the decision sound like evidence of good planning.<\/p>\n
Now I wanted the record to show what had actually happened.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, Denise sent a message about the staff training.<\/p>\n
The employees had asked for more examples of difficult situations, especially when someone needed assistance that fell outside the program's limits.<\/p>\n
They wanted guidance on how to explain those limits without making people feel they had done something wrong.<\/p>\n
I asked Denise to schedule a session.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould I prepare the examples?\u201d I wrote.<\/p>\n
Her response came a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff already have examples. They need time to discuss them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the message.<\/p>\n
Then I replied, \u201cPlease give them that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The training took place two days later.<\/p>\n
I attended the first twenty minutes, sitting in the back of the room while Denise introduced the purpose.<\/p>\n
A caseworker described an applicant who had needed help paying a utility bill.<\/p>\n
The program could cover certain emergency expenses, but the bill was outside its approved scope.<\/p>\n
The employee had explained the limit.<\/p>\n
The applicant had become angry and left.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat should I have done differently?\u201d the caseworker asked.<\/p>\n
Denise did not answer immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you have another service to offer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a list, but I wasn't sure which organizations had funds available.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you explain that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said we couldn't pay the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat tells the person what we can't do,\u201d Denise said. \u201cDid you tell them what you could help with?\u201d<\/p>\n
The caseworker looked down at her notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen that may be the place to start next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not a complicated lesson.<\/p>\n
It was also not a guarantee that the next person would stay.<\/p>\n
The caseworker could explain every available option and still be met with anger.<\/p>\n
Someone facing a serious problem might not have the patience to hear about a different service.<\/p>\n
The staff needed to understand that their responsibility was to be clear and respectful, not to control how people reacted.<\/p>\n
I left before the session ended.<\/p>\n
As I walked down the corridor, I heard the employees begin discussing another case.<\/p>\n
Their voices continued after I reached the stairs.<\/p>\n
They did not need me in the room.<\/p>\n
That was a good sign.<\/p>\n
The following Friday, I received the first monthly report from Elaine's new directory process.<\/p>\n
The number of verified referrals had increased.<\/p>\n
The number of referrals sent to unavailable services had fallen.<\/p>\n
It was too early to claim that the change would hold.<\/p>\n
Still, the figures showed that the extra calls were doing something useful.<\/p>\n
I sent Elaine a short message thanking her for the careful work.<\/p>\n
Then I closed the report.<\/p>\n
I did not forward it to the board with a note about what a successful leader I had become.<\/p>\n
I did not ask communications to prepare a headline.<\/p>\n
I went back to my desk and finished the budget review I had postponed.<\/p>\n
The work continued.<\/p>\n
That was the point.<\/p>\n
The next Monday, I arrived at the office before seven. The building was quiet, and the lights on the upper floors had not all come on yet. I made coffee … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-every-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17635,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615\/revisions\/17635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feeleverystory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}