2-3-4 Friday
‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’
1 thought
Hat tip to Tong Yee for sharing this story at the
Social Sustainability Summit on 1 August at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, during the launch of the Centre for Resilience and Inclusion.
Jalan Kukoh is one of the most deprived areas of Singapore. For years, policymakers tried
everything they knew. Sent in social workers, did policy interventions, gave handouts, but nothing seemed to work.
Over and over again, the same signs of deprivation appeared. Poverty. Unemployment. Youth not being able to find good work.
And then suddenly, a social worker came. This social worker wasn’t even experienced. He had just graduated for two
years.
But suddenly the residents there started trusting him. He started making headway.
What was the difference?
Take a guess before you read on.
Yeah, I knew you’d scan quickly downwards. No
cheating!
Guess first.
No, it wasn’t that he was smart. Nor was he someone charismatic or politically connected, knowing how to drive resources to the area.
All he did, was play.
Each day, after 5pm, he would finish his
work, take off his shirt, and then start playing with the kids on the street soccer court. He would rub his sweaty bodies with the kids, kick the ball (and possibly their shins), and buy drinks for the kids afterwards.
The families there began trusting him and seeing him as one of their people.
He did what years of highly paid policymakers could
not.
Build trust. You can’t build any change, without any trust.
And you can’t have any trust, if you’re just seen as one of ‘them’.
1 talk
“If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are
nothing.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
1 tip
What does this mean for those who work in jobs where you’re expected to bring change, whether internally, or externally?
It means that rather
than trying to come up with the next fancy idea, the most important bit is to learn to ‘get dirty with the ones doing the work’.
We hear of ivory tower policymaking, or people who are disconnected from the ground, and part of what this means is that the people who are having the change done to them, don’t feel decision makers actually are for them.
But with time pressures, how do you make the most of the limited time with clients?
You might not always be able to do this, but get your hands dirty. For example,
- If you’re working with a client, then do whatever they fear with them (whether it be clearing their home, hoarded with items, and crawling with cockroaches)
- Playing with their kids
- Sitting with the people in pain, intentionally
It always comes back to the same thing. If you’ve no skin in the game, no one trusts you. If you don’t suffer, then starting off telling people in pain what to do, can reek of pride and arrogance.
Get your hands dirty first, before you expect others to get their hands dirty for you.
John
Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love
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