Untitled from david curry on Vimeo.

Some years ago I ran a television commercial that showed a homeless child looking up at a parent and saying, “CARRY ME”.  Great commercial created by the folks at Compass Media.  It really highlighted the problem of homeless children.

Shortly after the commercial began to run I started to received calls from citizens suggesting that I was needlessly tugging at their hearts in order to raise money.  ”There shouldn’t be any homeless kids in Pierce County”, one woman emphatically stated to me.  True, there SHOULDN’T be any homeless children.  Unfortunately there ARE many homeless children.  In fact, the numbers are growing at an alarming rate.

I’m asking that the folks  who care about making sure that no child is sleeping in a car or on the streets of Pierce County make a point to raise awareness about this issue.  The Tacoma Rescue Mission has 80-85 children every night of the year and we know that there are at hundreds more that are homeless.

What can you do?

1.  Tell everyone you know that this is a cause you really care about.

2.  Regularly post updates on your facebook/twitter page that raise awareness.

3.  Volunteer to help serve/mentor/teach homeless kids at the Mission and elsewhere

4.  Financially support organizations that serve homeless children.

Too often shelters around the country are known for being dirty, smelly, unkempt places. Often this is a result of lack of money to dedicate towards support staff and janitorial help. Missions and shelters are often placed in buildings that are aging and difficult to keep up.
Just as often however, it is due to the fact that we secretly believe that homeless clients don’t really care about such things, so why should we. Lack of motivation and lack of resources often puts the facilities into a death spiral that is very difficult to pull up from.

One of the primary goals I set when I first got to the Mission was to build upon our environment of excellence and enhance it with more beauty, design and cleanliness. Under the stewardship of my predicesors we were able to build and rehabilitate many of the buildings that now comprise the Tacoma Rescue Mission, but this isn’t all about new buildings. It’s also about having a strategy to make a statement about how you run every building you have, no matter if it’s new or old. Here’s a few simple priorities that make a big difference.
1. Keep things clean. REALLY Clean. This standard is so often lost in shelter work. With constant turnover and limited space, cleanliness is usually the first thing to go. Hold this standard high and you will begin to see almost instant positive feedback from your clients. Encourage them to be part of the solution.
2. Bring in a designer. Most communities have designers that would love to give you their opinion (pro bono). We’ve been blessed to have bunches of talented designers take on projects large and small to help us bring color and design to our shelters. The old hospital look is out…add some style and color.
3. Invest in art to inspire. The Bible tells us God uses the beauty of nature to draw people to Him. Yet somehow we forget all that when we move indoors and we begin to make everything utilitarian. Don’t do it! Add murals, art, sculpture and design to inspire homeless clients to seek God and find peace within your buildings.
4. Create a peaceful environment. If you were living in your car, under a bridge or in the doorway of a business how badly would you need a place of beauty and solitude to which to retreat? Answer: you’d need it badly. Let’s create shelters and Missions that let the people know how much they are worth and how much they are loved.

Watch this video to see me talk about Beauty and Dignity

Beauty and Dignity from david curry on Vimeo.

Recently I was thinking and praying for the great people in our New Life Program here at the Tacoma Rescue Mission when I began to think of what a courageous thing they are doing to break free of their addiction.  So many people are caught in a vicious circle of pain in their lives and so few actually take the steps to break free.

What is the secret of breaking the vicious cycle?  At least one important step is to “LET GO” of the secrets, pain, lust, fantasies that you have for the thing you are addicted to, and realizing you need to move on.  Do people really lust and fantasize about a drug?  Absolutely!  In fact it isn’t just drugs, people often will nurse thoughts in their mind about their pain, anger, anxiety, disappointments, and addictions.

To “Let Go” doesn’t mean that you won’t continue in your struggle or that it’s a simple and easy step to getting rid of ingrained and painful experiences and habits.  But unless you realize that part of the problem is your unwillingness to even consider moving on, of letting go, then you won’t ever see victory.

Recently I was talking with a stranger who had been turned down for a job as the executive assistant to an important CEO here in Pierce County.  ”I got turned down because that woman (CEO) is a #*&%!,” she said to me.  And she continued to rant and rave at me.  I didn’t know the woman, but through the conversation I found out she had been holding anger and refusing to let go of the slights that had been done to her.  Unfortunately, it was affecting her life big-time.  It was becoming a poison that affected every conversation.

Often times addicts will begin plotting their next high before they are even finished with their current hit.  LET IT GO!  It’s well known that people relapse in their mind before they grab a bottle, pipe or needle.  Why?  They pick up their mental and emotional baggage and refuse to LET IT GO.

Are you worried about something?  Instead of taking steps to find out if that fear is logical or manageable do you just isolate and turn it over in your mind?  LET IT GO.  Usually we worry about things that we have no control over and don’t have any energy left to manage the things which we do have responsiblity for.

How many of us work so hard to keep our sin and mistakes secret?  We need to just let those things go. Of course, as simple as that may sound, it is often just not that easy. There are many practical steps that can be taken. The first step is to give those worries and addictions to God. After that, it will be a long and often painful process of recovery that may take you away from those things that you love so much, but that keep you tied to your addictions. There is only one certainty along this path of recovery: God will never leave you or forsake you. Here are some additional steps you can take that can help.

1.  Pray.  Admit that to God that you are struggling and this idea/thought/anger/addiction has it’s grip on you and you need His help to let it go.

2.  Talk about it.  Share it with a good friend, AA group, mentor or spouse.  When we share our secrets with a trusted friend it takes a lot of the power out of the secret.

3.  Get busy loving others.  When you can’t let go of something it ususally means you are living in your own mind and for yourself.  When you are “others” focused you can’t stew in your own addiction.  Love others.

4.  Be a learner.  Go to church, AA, Celebrate Recovery, any group that will help you to learn and put your obsessive ideas in their proper perspective.  The more you know the more you realize you are free to do much more than you ever thought.

I’m praying you’ll live in freedom and LET IT GO.

DC

Seems like a couple times a year I see a non-profit project go up in smoke due to public outcry from the neighborhood in which the project was due to be sighted. Here’s a recent article regarding an outreach at a University Place Church to illustrate the point.   Neighborhoods rightly concern themselves with housing projects and programs that will be moving into the area.

Issues like increased traffic, noise, unwanted foot-traffic, and fear of unknown neighbors lead people to want to fight any development.

Our Adams Sq. project has been an example of neighborhood cooperation and support.  This is due largely to a couple of key factors:

1. Cooperation and Information in Early Stages of Planning.  Our project was crafted with the help of the Oakland/Madrona neighborhood in which it will be built.  Their input on issues and our willingness to put our promises into a contract at the very beginning helped to create a positive outcome for both the Tacoma Rescue Mission and the Oakland/Madrona Neighborhood.

2.  Info, Info, Info.  In my estimation, many of the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) issues arise from disinformation or lack of adequate info.  By providing information early in the process to citizens at all levels (neighborhood groups, neighbors, Policy makers, law enforcement) you can help to avoid a situation where fear spirals out of control.  Early on in the development of the Adams Sq. project we provided a list of details, contact info, and forums for feedback to help shape the housing project in Oakland/Madrona.  This helped to calm any concerns the neighbors had in throughout the re-zoning process and in getting an agreement with the neighborhood group.

3.  Interact personally with neighbors.  I personally believe this is the most important part of any project – the leaders need to get out and talk with the people affected by the project.  I’ve personally be out door to door through the Tyler Sq. and Adams Sq. neighborhoods as well as having a Mission rep. regularly meeting with the business owners around our New Life Sq. facility.  There are many reasons why people don’t do this (fear of angry responses, timidness, belief in the superiority of an “air war” won through direct mail, and awkwardness) but I’ve not heard of a reason that would convince me it isn’t absolutely vital.  People NEED and DESERVE to be heard when you are working with large people groups in their neighborhood.

While I’ve gotten my share of nasty calls, been chewed out, and generally treated rude on my door to door excursions, the overwhelming majority of people are just please to know they can be heard.  They want to know who they can talk to with any question they may have.  This is reasonable.  As far as handling the criticism that is inevitable – That’s why they call it LEADERSHIP.  You’ve got to get out front and lead.

You’re not always going to get it right, I’ve not always gotten it right.  You certainly won’t be able to control all of the unknown consequences of locating a church/shelter/soc. service in a neighborhood.  You can however, make every effort to be transparent and open with the neighbors and listen.

P.S. HERE’S THE COPY OF THE LETTER I TOOK WITH ME ON MY DOOR TO DOOR OUTING RE: ADAMS SQ.:

Dear Neighbor,

I’m David Curry, the Executive Director for the Tacoma Rescue Mission. I stopped by your house today, but you weren’t available, and I wanted to keep in contact with you regarding the construction we have begun on our new Adam’s Square Family Center project.

We realize that construction is not the most enjoyable activity to have going on in your neighborhood, and we want to make the process as painless as possible.

We want to be good neighbors and ensure that the project has as little effect on your lives as we can achieve. There will be contractors and workers driving back and forth on Adams Street. If they cause any undue or excessive disruption such as speeding, please let me know so we can fix the problems.

We anticipate the project to be completed in August 2010. If you have any questions or concerns about the project, please feel free to give me a call. Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time. Our number is (253) 383-4462. If I am unavailable, please call Bob Kilmer at (253) 383-4493.

Sincerely,

David Curry

DC

One of the great ways for leaders to gain perspective on their current challenges is to read history. As I’ve state in past posts about my favorites like Winston Churchill, you can gain understanding, comfort, direction and more from those who’ve faced more difficult situations than you.

I think every leader feels at times as though their burden is unique, but by studying leaders of the past you can see that most leadership challenges have been faced before.

It seems as a leader I can’t turn around without bumping into a leader who isn’t struggling through how to respond to the increased focus on the internet, technology and social media. Whole industries such as newspapers, magazines, television, music, movies and more are being turned upside by a titanic shift in how their content is able to be delivered. Denial by the leaders of these industries in the early stages of the new info/technology development has made the current turn of events even more dramatic. These kinds of shifts aren’t unique in history. In fact, Paul Julius Reuter, the man who started Reuters News Agency, was at the beginning of just such a trend and embraced it with forward looking optimisim and determination.

My first reference to Julius Reuter came while reading Simon Winchester’s book Krakatoa, which detailed the destruction of the volcano near Sumatra in 1883.  Winchester details in great clarity in his book how time consuming and unreliable the transmission of information was in that generation.  With a dependency on sea trade to keep empires alive, citizens were at the mercy of troubled seas, pirates, ships sinking and unreliable staffing to get information. The explosion of Krakatoa and a handful of other major events in which Julius Reuter was able to beat his competition with fast reliable news made him a successful and rich man.  With the invention of the telegraph and undersea telegraph lines Reuter saw an opportunity.

Since the 1950’s he had been trying without great success to get into the business of news, showing incredible creativity and persistence along the way.  He hired agents to row out to passing ships in order to receive news faster than other agencies and at one point set up a group of homing pigeons in order to bridge the gap of telegraph lines between Germany and France.  He would do anything in order to get the news to people faster.  His big breakthrough was when he immediately grasped the future of news and hired agents at key strategic points worldwide that would be near the terminus of a telegraph line to pass on news.  Armed with news hours and sometimes even days ahead of others, he was able to sell subscriptions to the newspapers of the day.

Reuters still exists today, undoubtedly due to the fact that it managed to maintain the forward looking perspective of it’s founder.

So what’s the application for leaders today?

1.  Be a communication futurist!  Clearly the fundamentals of leadership remain unchanged.  We must connect with people and develop common goals and plans to achieve our mission.  But the means by which we are able to communicate and the speed and ubiquity which we must compete with are ever changing.  Here at the Tacoma Rescue Mission we are committed to helping the poor, forgotten, hungry and lost of the Northwest.  Nearly 100 years ago we communicated with those people much differently than we do today.  I’m encouraging all of our staff to get engaged in social media and use the content they are ALREADY creating in the service of others – to bless others that might not be inside our doors, but on the internet.  If we keep looking for new ways to communicate we’ll always be able to fulfill our critical mission.

2.  Be a Need’s futurist!  Look forward and imagine scenarios of how you can “fill the gap” of a need that exists today.  Julius Reuter saw an opportunity while others were looking at a problem.  Certainly there were many who thought that “we’ll just wait till the ship docks to get the news reports” who were soon rendered irrelevent by Reuters desire to fill the need of getting people news.  If you’re goal is to positively fill a need in the lives of others, you will always have a bright future.  Industries come and go, but people need people and the growth of technology doesn’t change that.  In fact, it often enhances our need for real interaction.  How might our needs change with people connecting through more ‘impersonal’ such as facebook and twitter?

3. Don’t give up!  Reuter was persistent.  He had many false starts and sometimes got a story wrong, sometimes terribly wrong, but through persistence he was able to create a reliable, fast news service that became one of the most successful of it’s age.  So many times people give up, when what they should be doing is persisting and experimenting.  Failure means that you have to keep tinkering in the development of your dream.  Don’t abandon hope.  Just try again more intelligently.

Links re: Paul Julius Reuter

1. Statue of Reuter

2. Google search: Paul Julius Reuter

DC

I took Spanish for two years in Jr. High and two years in High School…and I didn’t know more than “HOLA” by the time I went to University.  Like many others I took a second language because I was required to do so by the public school system.  The memories I have of Spanish class are a blur, but I do remember one distinct thought: “I’m never going to need this, so why bother?”  That thought was soon followed by another: “I can’t learn this language, it’s too difficult.”

How wrong I was on both counts.  Later in life I spent 7 years working in South America and I was pushed head-first into Spanish.  In essence, I was force-fed a second langauge.  To my great surprise, I learned that if I was interested in communicating with others I could be motivated to learn Spanish.  Even greater surpise was that I came to love the language.

Nearly five years removed from my work in South America, I actually miss speaking spanish on a daily basis.  Yet I know that many Americans are very particular about speaking English only.  Let me encourage you, learn to speak another language.  It will broaden your horizons, help you understand the challenges of being an immigrant, help you communicate with millions more people, open job opportunities, and give you an incredible feeling of satisfaction.

Here’s a few statements I’ve heard from folks who are resistant to learning a second language.

I won’t use it: You’d be surprise how many people you run into speak another language and how many ways it will help you.  Once you begin studying a language you find multiple ways to use it.

It’s too hard:  For adult learners especially, our thoughts, words, and ideas tend to follow well worn paths.  Struggling to learn a second language can feel like wacking down brush in a jungle to create a new path: slow and difficult.  Yet this is one of the primary advantages I’ve found to making the effort.  It stretches your brain into new territory.  Trying to read a paper in spanish used to be slow going for me, I certainly could have done it faster in english, yet it was so mentally refreshing to push through those barriers and feel like I was learning something totally new.

It doesn’t make sense: Many Americans believe that english is the most logical language.  They believe this primarily because they’ve never studied another.  Spanish, Italian, and French are all more orderly and systematic languages than English.  Don’t give up if you don’t understand the system, once you learn the first steps in these languages and get a picture in your mind of the structure, you will able to learn it quickly.

English is the international language: I love english and operate much, much better in it, yet I must tell you that there are many parts of the world where english won’t get you anything but a suspicious look.  Let me encourage you to make your world a big world.  Learn another language, even poorly, and you will be richer for it.

Here’s a link to a spanish website.  Poke around the web and see what interests you.  In addition, I’m curious about what have been your experiences with learning another language.  Post story or response.

DC

DC

In the recent weeks previous to writing this blog I’ve been swamped at work.  Deadlines to meet, problems to solve, large projects to shepherd to completion and the normal challenges of balancing all that work has to offer with the even more critical responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood.  That’s why I’m so interested in Work/Life Balance.  I’m sure that there are people who have bigger challenges and responsibilities than I do, but I’m putting my whole heart into the work God has called me to and to the organization that He has given me stewardship over.  In the past years, my times studies have shown that I’m regularly working 70 plus hours a week.

I mention that because I KNOW that there are people out there who are going to argue with the premise, that EVERYONE should unplug once a month.  With Twitter, Facebook, Email, and cell phones every present 24/7 there seems to be an expectation, often self imposed, that we must respond to all things immediately.

But don’t be seduced into the idea that you and ONLY you can solve all these problems and that you must be leashed to your technology and job at all times.  Take time, at least once a month to unplug from it all.  Why once a month? Because it’s just too easy to let weeks and weeks go by without coming up for air.  You work all week and then keep in touch with your work all weekend.  Don’t do it, unplug from it all to really get refreshed.

Here’s how you do it:

1.  Inform everyone.  ”I’m gonna unplug and get away” is a good way to start the conversation.  Then let them know that “in an emergency” they can leave a message.  I know what you’re thinking, “my job is really important and i can’t do that.”  Here at the The Rescue Mission all of our facilities are running 24/7, 365 yet I’m telling you that it is possible.  In fact, you’re not much of a leader if you can’t do it!

2.  Turn it off. Once you’ve let people know you’re off the grid – really get off the grid.  Go for a hike, bike ride, to the beach, do something to take you’re mind off the work.  You’re spouse will probably be a big help here.  She/He doesn’t understand why you can’t do this anyway so she/he will remind you to turn off the phone.

3.  Have a goal to refresh and reboot.  I understand from my friends who don’t have a Mac that a computer will sometimes have so much stuff going on that it will just freeze.  This is what we do in our own lives, sometimes you just have to reboot.  Think on something interesting, read a book, play with the kids, make love to your spouse, veg out a little bit.

I’ve done it the last two weekends and it’s been great.  Let me know how it goes for you.  DC

Without a doubt the biggest challenge facing leaders, non-profit/profit/church leaders, is the increasing speed of systemic change in our society and our need to adapt to keep pace.

Things are changing and we have to come up with solutions build or rebuild funding, alternate staffing solutions, new markets, etc. and we have to do it NOW!  Unfortunately few of us think well under such pressure packed circumstances.  We freeze.

What I’m learning now is helping me to cope and adapt as a leader in this new environment and I think it will help you too.

First, I’m recommending that you take a look at The Future of Management by Gary Hamel.  Hamel is the premiere business guru and it shows in this book.  It’ll challenge you to rethink how you are processing the changing environment and thinking about the future.  GREAT, GREAT book.  Here’s some links about it:

New York Times

Harvard Business

Amazon

Also, here’s a great TED video from Daniel Pink on how to pressure sometimes hinders outside the box thinking.  18 minutes and well worth watching.  A plus stuff.

One last note.  Kevin Roberts, long time creative leader at Saachi and Saachi, is one of the leaders I most admire for their outside the box thinking.  I really loved this post on his blog about Grit, Guts and Genius.  Check it out and watch anything he does.