Bradford Frost is our guest blogger this week. Brad works at United Way for Southeastern Michigan. He recently moved to Detroit and currently lives in Mid-Town with his girlfriend.
Check back here every week-day to read Brad's thoughts about reframing Metro Detroit’s problems and finding new solutions.
Want to join the conversation? Please send your comments to: feedback@metromodemedia.com
04.04.07
Post No. 5
An Outside/In Detroiter on Himself and The Region’s Future
We all know the world is rapidly changing: for that story click here and here. You can even search for it here to review any of the 207,000,000 web pages available on the subject.
What does this all mean for Detroit? What does it mean for me?
My Detroit story is new narrative, one of momentum rising and abundant opportunity. Here I get experience beyond my best expectations. Diversity is the region’s strength. I believe racial understanding and reconciliation is possible. For an outside/in Detroiter, I think in these terms, everyday, before thinking about what hasn’t or won’t work.
I take an experience first approach to life. All my resources and choices are centered on trying to answer affirmatively one thing: does it, whatever it is, maximize my experience in the world?
With that in mind, I choose Detroit.
I choose this place, my work at United Way, even my time here on this blog because I deeply believe transformative progress is possible.
But what about me—How am I affected by an evolving community problem solving paradigm? What’s my role in the infrastructure of good I’ve described?
I reflect on that a lot. Unlike other enterprises or business ventures, nonprofit work like mine rests on the central premise—indeed tension—that I show up everyday and say: “I sure hope we put ourselves out of business today.” If getting rewarded for community based work through intangible means is critical, this is supposed to be our ultimate payoff.
But enough about me.
We need space to safely evaluate the structures and rules we have in place; to authentically gauge if they remain the best ones for us in our current context.
There are times when, against all odds, we can take ownership and truly demonstrate progress by working together to effectuate change. Our opportunity ... United Way's ... Southeast Michigan's ... ONE D's .... Yours ... Mine ... is here, now, begging us to seize the moment.
Change is in the air.
As my prior posts indicate, I try to see the world in microcosmic analogies. Take the largest issue and try to conceive of it in real everyday and personal terms. Consider Detroit and the region. Consider race. Consider community problem solving techniques. How are these similar to your own personal issues? Trying to make a change in your life? Trying to understand the world better? I am, and I process the big questions by putting them into personal terms.
Next time you hear the same old complaint about this place and its problems, try this:
Reframe.
Problem Solve.
Deliver.
04.03.07
Post No. 4
Myelin, Bananas & (Quitting) Smoking – Tools to a Better Future
Three vignettes. Nothing terribly special about them. Just conceptual tools that help me understand the world better. Tools that can help put our problem solving work into perspective and perhaps stir conversation. Credit goes to the New York Times, my twin brother and the Marlboro Man.
1. Heard about Myelin?
Myelin is this incredible substance, addressed recently by the Times on this basic question: what is talent? This infinitesimal biologic neuro-chemical stuff—most appropriately likened to “bandwidth”—allows us to execute key physical and mental processes effectively, like playing the piano or hitting a tennis ball extraordinarily well. The most essential ingredient is technique – or as the old adage goes “practice, practice, practice.” I read the article in amazement.
It made me think about how often we look at our deficits first as what we need to “work on.”
According to Myelinists’ theory, though, what’s most critical is an extraordinary focus on technique—those things we’re strong at; increasing our sweetspot to deliver where we have the most potential to succeed.
You can imagine my relief – we should focus on what we’re good at and make ourselves great, even extraordinary.
2. How would you, without a tranquilizer, catch a wild monkey?
Actually, its amazingly simple. Place a netted trap with a banana hanging in the center. A monkey can reach in and out with ease. But as soon as it grabs hold the banana, the net locks its arm and it can’t move.
To get out, all the monkey has to do is let go of the banana. But, as zoologists know from experience, the monkey will not let go of the banana, no matter what.
I think everyone benefits if we can answer one fundamental question: What’s our banana?
What’s yours? Your industry’s? Detroit’s? The Region’s?
I’ll lead by example: Mine is meaning. I am trapped by it; it nourishes me. I refuse to let go. That’s why I care so much about my experiences, my work, where I choose to live and how I spend my time. It can make me a royal pain to be around sometimes. But that’s me, and that’s my banana.
We need to know our banana, embrace it, see its flaws and merits. Mitigate the bad and harness the good.
Here’s an example: one about relationships, incentives, old rules and a new world.
3. Quitting smoking is a hard thing to do. Even harder is to quit being a smoker.
In the last two decades, the relationship between smokers and, well, everyone has changed enormously. The rules – from social etiquette to bar room bans – are different. The world is more enlightened and knowledgeable on the subject.
Yet people still smoke, in droves.
Why?
I think the central problem is one of incentives. And the beast is gradual taxation. Cigarettes cost about 25 times more than they did 50 years ago. But that sticker shock didn’t come all at once. Instead, it graduated up, at a glacial pace.
Want smoking rates to go down? Multiply the price of smoking by 25 times.
Tomorrow.
Seriously, would you pay $125 for a pack of cigarettes?
It’s a lot like asking what it takes to sustainably change our diet. Are we so addicted to certain behaviors we delude ourselves into thinking that, no matter the consequences, for now this still feels good …even though its glacially painful …even though its going to kill us.
These three vignettes raise lots of questions:
Are we building on past success or hurting future progress? Are we in an environment that promotes new ideas, innovation and creative problem solving? Are we using dated techniques and rulebooks?
Are we focused on our strengths and expanding our sweetspot? Are we clear what our banana is? Are we addressing monumental shifts in complexity by glacially weaning ourselves off old habits? Do we know the difference between quitting them and actually, sustainably, changing who we are in the process?
04.02.07
Post No. 3
Relationships and Community Problem Solving
Answer this: Who’s the single most important person to you?
Now, imagine they’re in trouble. Here’s what I assume – you would do everything reasonable within your power to help them out of the dilemma. If not, email me why. But on that assumption, read on.
Personally, my greatest advantage on this planet is I can fail – utterly fall on my face in financial ruin – and still have resources, i.e. relationships that would come to my rescue to help me get back on my feet.
You know what I call that: privilege. In fact, I represent privilege in powerful ways: An American born, college educated, heterosexual, white male with full use of my physical and mental faculties, born into an upper-middle class family of other college educated white Protestant Americans; that’s perhaps the singular image of privilege worldwide.
When I have a challenge or goal, say paying for college or buying a home, I have a whole army of resources rushing to help alleviate the barriers I face to entry. Those include not only my parents and their support, but government loans, college scholarships, a mortgage from the bank. Public, private, nonprofit – personal, familial, teachers, advisors, mentors. Relationships. Trust. Appropriate risk for high potential returns.
My personal mission on this planet is to help develop solutions which alleviate the barriers those with less resources and less privilege face in the pursuit of their own dreams and aspirations. Luckily, I’m not the only one that wants to work on these issues, so rather than trying to achieve that mission on my own, institutions like United Way provide the perfect vehicle for me to have a meaningful impact in areas I want to effectuate change.
But United Way, like all institutions for that matter, or any individual – we are all really only as good as our best relationships. Nothing matters more.
Yet, when people come together to discuss community problems and social issues, there is often an overwhelming Us/Them dichotomy. A dichotomy of the haves and have nots, those of privilege and those without. In Metro Detroit this is most evident when we look at the regional geography, synonymous with race, and the troubling racism which infects us and hinders our capacity to work effectively together. We have to continue to build these relationships through empathy and sincere understanding, and work hard at it until we solve them.
Frankly, we have to re-frame our thinking. We have to recognize how powerfully our success is directly related to the success of others. That for this region to succeed, we must authentically embrace our interconnectivity.
Here’s what I think – Regional Detroit is just like the person you love the most. And we need to affirm our commitment to making this the best place it can be. We can only do that by improving our relationships – personal, institutional and across sectors. We don’t do that by obviating our differences, but by recognizing our mutual dependence and working together to better understand and help each other’s growth.
We have to start demanding more from each other. Re-frame our thinking around key relationships rather than institutional interests.
For United Way that means asking more of our investors and in turn, more from those we share resources with; otherwise, we’re simply status quo plus – new paint job on an old failing house. We have to work on the structures and improve the foundation.
Southeast Michigan just called for help – what are you doing to help break down the barriers to our success?
03.30.07
Post No. 2
Case Study: United Way
I work for United Way. My job is to help move this historic institution from an efficient fundraiser on behalf of community non-profits (all good organizations) to one with multi-dimensional strategies (i.e. research, investments, public policy, community awareness, volunteer mobilization and fundraising) focused on the region's most pressing social issues. United Way's everywhere are looking themselves in the mirror and asking this central raison de etre: How do we add the most value to the communities we serve?
Why change the largest nonprofit in the country? From a resource and operating efficiency perspective, sure we're successful. What's the problem that needs to be addressed?
In brief, for over a century, United Way has been at work mobilizing resources to make the community better – yet almost all of the social ills we face persist. They stubbornly persist despite all of the dollars we’ve placed against them—further, they are ever more complex.
Consider: More people are homeless; illiteracy is rampant; and educational and wealth disparities persist despite all efforts de jour or otherwise to address them.
However, just like other issues, big and small, these problems can be solved.
Plus, here's an inside scoop: without a change in strategy, United Way is dead, a study in obsolescence.
To understand what that means, consider the razor blade industry; they purposefully make their wares obsolete by releasing better versions of themselves every 3-5 years. You think it took Gillette, driven by a profit motive, five years to figure out that a 4th, 5th or 6th blade would make their Mach Razor better?
So what does this have to do with United Way? In the information age, there is limited value to United Way as mere fundraiser, but extraordinary value to United Way as community problem solver. Built from a foundation of 75 years working closely with corporate, public and nonprofit institutions, we are uniquely positioned to help agencies and corporations work better together by aligning them against common purpose. When United Way substantiates its case by harnessing community will, we can then collectively, dare I say, regionally obtain meaningful results.
Our position enables United Way to serve as trusted broker between the multiple and often disparate community stakeholders we represent. In fact, it was only a year ago that over 6,500 people across the region gave voice to United Way’s first ever Community Action Survey. The survey told us powerful things: Residents demand that the region work better together (by an 85% margin). City/Suburb; Black/White; Rich/Poor – all the dichotomies we know of – shared regional priorities and possessed common aspirations.
With the community voice, United Way moved confidently. We began reframing how we perceive Metro Detroit’s traditional divides. As stewards of the community’s agenda—United Way could leverage the historic response to help change the regional conversation. Suddenly, progress seemed more possible, more imminent, than many could remember for a long time.
Critically, by taking on regional issues, United Way embraces Metro Detroit from a new-narrative perspective, from a “what’s ailing and needs help” to a “what’s possible and can be solved” paradigm.
Baby steps.
But to stay relevant and add value; United Way will continuously need to reframe and transform its work in order to effectively address ever more complex issues. Every industry faces this dilemma these days.
More than that, its personal.
Lou Glazer, of Michigan Future, calls this the “Rock Climber Effect;” simply, there are no more linear ladders to progress and advancement. For as adaptable as we are individually with new technologies, new rules and new realities for advancement, institutions—or any bureaucracy—are slower to keep pace.
Thus, for United Way and other nonprofits, the stark challenge comes after we commit to the necessary transformations our globalized-rock-climber-world demands from us. To more effectively address community problems, we will have to continuously redeploy our efforts by consciously (and rapidly) changing with the times. We must build from the things we do best, do them better, and re-focus our efforts to make long-lasting changes.
Summary: United Way
Relationships – Corporate and nonprofit leaders built on a foundation of working to make the community better in meaningful ways. Add regional voices to synergize community based interests with those of our civic and corporate leaders.
Incentives – Obsolescence. As a prominent leader in a community-first industry and central player in the Infrastructure of Good, United Way owes it to those we serve to change and reposition our work in order to best deliver results where the region shares common purpose.
Old Rules – Built on an industrial, pre-information age bedrock, United Way cannot count on the historic position as Community Fundraiser to be sustainable. We must lead by example to show that “entitlement” is no one’s prerogative anymore. Community stakeholders demand more from us and the investments they make in social causes; United Way and other nonprofits must follow their lead and demand as much from investors in return – this is the new donor institution paradigm.
New World – Be regional, be local. Embrace global. Take risks. Southeast Michigan needs to re-frame the rules by which it engages. It needs leadership from all sectors. Leave your baggage at the door, role your sleeves up, and get to work.
03.29.07
Post No. 1
Community Problem Solving
How do you solve your problems? When hungry, eat. Thirsty, drink. Tired, sleep.
Simple.
More complex problems? Want to lose weight? I know there are thousands of books on the subject, but here's the answer I know works: Either consume less calories than you do now or, work off more calories than you currently consume. People call this going on a diet.
Amazing.
Here's the thing – you can't change something sustainably unless you re-frame your thinking. Consider this: you are always on a diet – it's not optional. But we're powerfully conditioned (marketed) to think we can elect a short term solution that will give permanent and lasting results. To lose weight and be at a healthy body mass, you need to actually change your diet, not just temporarily go on one.
I just don't think we can expect the world's problems – and, more importantly, our own – to be effectively addressed if we continue to think and act as we always have. Isn’t insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
Sound familiar?
It's helpful for me to see the regional issues (they are plentiful) in similar terms: What if we just thought of Southeast MI as a place that needs to sustainably change its diet?
Too simple? Sure.
But perhaps it helps to think this way: rid ourselves of the baggage associated with the terms we usually ascribe to Metro Detroit’s problems, and get down to some long-range thinking on how to make the situation better.
How do we move from a deficit-first, zero-solution & unconstructive-narrative, and start on a path that is asset-based, solution-focused, performance-oriented, results-driven & impatient-with-anything-but-constructive-problem-solving-type-people-and-organizations?
How do we re-engage and reposition our work in a way that makes sense to those involved and yields results for everyone?
I’m lucky: everyday I'm asked to reframe what United Way means to itself and the communities it serves. The analytic process of trying to understand this enormous Infrastructure of Good, its dynamics, and the issues it faces in our neighborhoods, schools and communities is both fascinating and overwhelming. The complexity and nuance can be paralyzing. But the questions are central; thinking about them in a new way, essential; working together to make sustainable change, critical.
I see our community problem solving techniques in these terms: Relationships, incentives, old rules, new world. I believe we must continuously put our thinking and orientation into deep question. Like individuals that wake up January 1st each year and commit to personal change, and institutions like United Way that discern change is required across the nonprofit sector, this region must continue developing techniques that will change its approaches, mindsets and results.
Indeed, perhaps its high time—imperative even—for Metro Detroit to sustainably change its diet.
Reframe.
Problem Solve.
Deliver.
FEEDBACK
03.29.07
"I love Brad’s Blog; it is eloquently written and right on the mark. I’d like to add one more observation that I’ve learned recently from the popular movie The Secret and books such as, “The Art of Possibility” and “Consciously Creating Circumstances”. That is the simple fact that to create positive change, we need to focus on positive outcomes. What is it that we truly want out of the city of Detroit? Identify what needs to change and then ENVISION the ideal city, that way you have concrete and exciting goals to work towards. Look at what Rudy Giuliano, the former Major of NYC did? His goal was to eliminate trash and crime in the streets, something that no one thought was possible. Today, as a frequent visitor I can say that I feel safe walking through clean streets in NYC. Positive ideas turn into Positive Outcomes and kudos to Brad for his positive ideas!"
- Lisa Jackson /
03.30.07
Brad,
Liked your article and wanted to add my thoughts. When I travel to other cities such as Chicago, LA, and Toronto and arrive back here I always ask myself why don't we have a thriving city like these other cities do and the only reason I come back with is that the governing body that runs
this entire region are just content the way things are or they have this huge inferiority complex in not thinking aggresive or don't think any way out of the box they live in.
If you continue saying I have to go on a diet but don't then you never change your appearance and that is the way I think they operate. Just look at what these cities offer, the large assortment of big hotels, first rate convention halls that always are packed with something going on and stores as far as you can see or able to visit.
Chicago has that great Natural History Museum always full of people, and a top notch aquarium and Navy Pier. LA has an area close to downtown called the Garment District with 85 blocks of stores and restaurants jammed with people.Toronto has that fabulous subway and just a superior city atmosphere yet here it has a handful of lofts that became successful and world class baseball and football stadium but out side that box there is really nothing but empty space.
How much longer will that go on while other cities are twenty years
ahead of us already? I visted these cities since the early seventies and tracked there progression over the years and we just sit stagnant year after year. I have read that Detroit is compared in Europe with Dresden after the war.
Your influence must count and you have a responsibility to get these people moving or there will be nobody left. It scares me when I read about are state of economy and the state of our city conditions and somebody needs to do something to stop the flight out. I could go on and on but I don't think it will really help in a city were the officials have no ears or eyes to the problems.
Thank you for letting me respond.
Christine / Royal Oak
Photographs © Dave Krieger