P&P February 2016

DIRECTOR’S MEMO continued from page 3

As human service leaders, wemust shift from historically paternalistic approaches to ones that honor families’ role inachieving their potential and giving fully to their community.

Fortunately, the new research from Frameworks Institute 1 offers tested values and metaphors that show great promise in changing mindsets. By leading with the value of Human Potential, Frameworks research illustrates how we can help people recognize that human services benefit us all. Through the metaphor of Construction, we can better explain what “well-being” is and how it is shaped for all of us. Effective framing is not easy. It will take our collective effort as a field to apply the tested research and resist our old ways of communicating. You can read more about the latest Frameworks research in this issue and at http://www.frame- worksinstitute.org. North Stars and Roadmaps. With Pathways 2 continuing to set the desired future state for human services, our value proposition strategies have evolved in ways that strengthen how APHSA can support our members on their transformation journey. Most notably, the Human Services Value Curve 3 is a viable frame that works as a developmental model that can be built on without losing its underlying simplicity or meaning. At the local level, it has resonated par- ticularly well with policymakers. In state-supervised, county-run struc- tures it is serving as a common frame for accountability across jurisdictions. State systems have also found the Human Services Value Curve and our associated self-assessment tool to be valuable guides in grounding the work- force in a common goal. Our National Collaborative and Organizational Effectiveness teams will continue to work closely with leaders who are applying the Human Services Value Curve in a multitude of ways. As the field applies the Value Curve, there is a growing apprecia- tion that the “regulative stage” is one that must be intentionally planned and deployed. Just as a house requires a good foundation, the Value Curve’s regulative level must be strong in order to effectively progress to the other stages.

historically paternalistic approaches to ones that honor families’ role in achieving their potential and giving fully to their community. To do so requires us to let go of past practices and recognize that well-being is built and strengthened by the opportunities human service organizations provide that allow families to tap into that potential. To learn more, join us on May 22–25 in Washington, D.C. for the first APHSA National Health and Human Services Summit. We are excited to utilize this newly structured conference to continue leveraging opportunities to shape our collective path forward through our Pathways initiative and the Human Services Value Curve. For more information visit APHSANationalSummit.com. Reference Notes 1. FrameWorks Institute’s mission is to advance the nonprofit sector’s communications capacity by identifying, translating, and modeling relevant scholarly research for framing the public discourse about social problems. 2. For background on Pathways: the Opportunities for Human Services, see http://aphsa.org/content/APHSA/en/ pathways.html. 3. To help human service leaders make World reviewed best practices and worked with practitioners as part of the Human Services Summit at Harvard University to develop the Human Services Value Curve framework. See http://lnwprogram.org/ sites/default/files/HSVC%20Guide.pdf for more information. progress on their capacity-building journey, Leadership for a Networked

Check our web site to learn more about this framing model and to utilize our self-assessment tools. Pacing and Patience. Renowned leadership expert Professor Ron Heifetz of Harvard’s Kennedy School has taught us that there is a pacing to this work that requires constant evaluation of the opportunities that are most ripe for action and those that need cultivation. Heifetz explains that innovation takes patience and is, at its root, the result of creating differ- ences. Too often we talk more than we listen. We must be willing to bring different voices and sources together to generate ideas. We must also be disciplined enough to fully embrace the diagnostic process so that we do not end up spending time in secondary repair processes. At the same time, we must be constantly scanning for windows of opportunity and be ready to take action on them before those windows close. Learning Environments. Another common theme among health and human service leaders is the need to create an environment where it really is okay to learn. Heifetz stresses that developing new competencies actually requires that, at some point in the process, we feel incompetent. As leaders, one of our jobs is to help our staff “be able to stomach” that feeling of incompetence. Similarly, we need to create work environments where “failing” is a part of learning. Authenticity in Partnership. Most important, we must work in authentic partnership with families. Bobby Cagle, commissioner of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, reminds us that: “Families are the CEOs of their lives.” As human service leaders, we must shift from

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