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Rich Addresses the United Way's NPC
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
(The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation)Rich addressed United
Way's National
Professional Council. NPC serves as a "national leadership body
for the nearly
1,300 member United Way organizations" and is
working to create
pathways for
local United Ways to address the drop-out
rate, one of the three core issues that
make up the Live United campaign.
Rich's speech focused on the importance of
The 3A's
of Public Life as touchstones for
authentically engaging the community, and how
the ideas in Make Hope
Real are central to Living
United.
Authority
Rich argued that to
create change around the drop-out
rate, United Way leaders must hold authority
in their communities. But
authority is not simply a matter of money or
title, rather "we need to know
what values people in our communities are
wrestling with."
Authenticity
Engaging
authentically with those in our communities is
not about better public relations, in fact
Rich argued, "We spend all this time worrying
about how we can be perceived as authentic. But I'm
here to ask each of you,
how can we BE authentic." Doing so
requires us understand the language that
people use to describe the issues and values
they care about, because the
language people use "reflects how they live
their lives and see themselves in
relationship to others. If we want to be
authentic we have to listen."
Accountability
Finally to
create change on the drop-out rate, or any
other issue we must have
accountability.
But again, this is not the same kind of
accountability that we often
hear. Rich asked the NPC to think about
accountability in a new way, "I'm concerned
about the kind of accountability where
we don't look to others first. But
instead where we ask, 'Did we do our job? Have
we done what we said we would
do?'" In the end, "we need to be honest with
people,
they're hungering for it."