MENDING LIVES WITH HELP
MENDING LIVES WITH HEALING
MENDING LIVES WITH HOPE
MEND is 3200 volunteers from all walks of life, under the guidance of a small, dedicated staff, providing all the basic human needs vital to day-to-day survival, plus the education, training, opportunities and support essential to transitioning out of poverty.
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The CEO's Leadership Blog
By Marianne Haver Hill
Thoughts on Leadership, November, 2011
Mission • Vision • Strategic Direction • Quality • Innovation • Teambuilding
• Communication • Leadership Development
MEND’s Vision: "All members of our community living in poverty
attain self-reliance and contribute to society as caring human beings.”
Having vision is to imagine
what life could be in a perfect world
order. But vision can also have very practical impacts on day-to-day
leadership and management, if we recognize its value in moving us forward.
For example, in MEND’s Clothing Distribution Center, we have talked
about what it means to have a “thrift store model” –i.e. “whatever we happen to
get donated is what we will give out to our clients”. To have this kind of view keeps the “status
quo”. In contrast, we’ve also imagined
having a “department store model” which would imply that, when a mother who has
several children comes into our Center, she will find every size of clothing
and every type of clothing she would need for her family. This “department store model” has prompted us
to form a solicitation committee of volunteers and staff who proactively seek
out donations of items we don’t currently have much of, such as underwear,
extra large sizes, teen clothing, etc.
Even though we have not fully attained our vision of a “department store experience” for our clients, this
image has generated a lot of productive effort on behalf of our recipients.
MEND has had since the early 1980s a solid ESL program which has been
supplemented over the years with computer classes, after school activities for
neighborhood children, etc. But early in
2011, teams of volunteer educators and staff began work on a transformation
plan to move our Education and Training Programs into a “new future”. They re-visited every aspect of our ETC
program, including student recruitment, retention, curriculum, and evaluation;
volunteer recruitment and training, and gave thought to what types of classes
would best meet the needs of our students.
This vision of a “new future”
for our educational programs has brought tremendous creativity among teachers
and staff, as well as high morale and progress in learning among our
students. And certainly, the plans that
are being implemented this fall fit very well into MEND’s overall vision of moving our clients toward”
self-reliance” and creating opportunities for them to “contribute to society..”
From the Leadership Literature
“Creating a new future…takes a radically different
path…it starts with a different intention: to displace nonproductive
conversations with conversations that establish a future so vibrant that people
are eager to bring it about.” Steve
Zaffron and Dave Logan in The Three Laws of Performance
This past year, the MEND Administrative staff, at
the suggestion of our Controller Scott Mikels, read and discussed together
Zaffron and Logan’s book The Three Laws of Performance. Much of the book focuses on considering how
situations occur to people, and based on this information, establishing a blank
slate so that a new future can be created, using future-oriented language
rather than being stuck in old paradigms.
The book is very thought-provoking, and I have to admit to reading it
twice to really absorb the principles espoused by the authors!