Skip to main content

Fixing What’s Broken

As workforce professionals, it is easy to feel frustrated. We desire to help people find success and feel as though our actions are meaningful in the lives of others. Often times we are troubled by the ineffectiveness of our systems in truly helping others. 
 
How do we fix the broken? Broken starts at the top. The broken starts with people that create the systems and have not used them. This is not only true about workforce development, but also about any social service program.  I am talking about all levels of broken, from elected officials that create laws on the federal and state levels, workforce development boards that implement programs, and the direct service staff that may not be truly suited for their profession.
 
The systems of broken are everywhere. We only have two options as workforce development professionals that truly care. Be part of the problem or be part of the solution. When we are part of the problem, we ignore the broken systems, programs, or services. We continue our day to day without trying or just give up. When we are broken workforce professionals, our final stand is to leave workforce development for another profession. Our other option is to work to find solutions.
 
I am a firm believer that true change comes from the top.  One way to foster this change is for policy makers to experience workforce development. Not just for two hours at an appearance for the press, but to spend a day or week. Come to the table and experience workforce development as a job seeking customer and also as a staff member. Forget bringing your child to work. Bring your elected official or your workforce development board member to the place where the direct service happens.
 
That may be easier said than done, but those of us that are on the front line, we have options to facilitate change from above. Speak with an elected official or policy maker about the work that you do. Not everyone can experience every job, but they can hear from those that they serve. What are the challenges that you face in the job that you do? How can systems be improved to make service more efficient? What does success look like for different people?
 
Even more important, you can improve your broken day to day experience. What change can you recommend to make improvements? What role can you take in fixing the problem? How will you be part of the solution? 
~Karen Cirincione
Twitter:@kcirincione

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mastering the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Project

An engaging book club discussion about email, how we work, and also just how we as people manage our lives. The more we talked the more I started to realize that essentially project management is essentially a life skill everyone needs to master to be successful. If we simplify Project Management down to the easiest way of explain it and applying, we can define it as taking a big end goal and break it down to smaller goals, figuring out the tasks with each smaller goal, and then allocating lots of resources along the way. Ultimately at the core of project management is planning and organizing, but communication is really at the heart of it all. A project may be big, like building a bridge, creating and implementing software, or it can be as small as figuring out what to make for dinner. Along the way to said goal, every step needs to be clear and everyone needs to communicate about all the said steps along the way. Sounds easy, but apparently it is not so simple. One would think ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

A WIOA Fairy Tale

I thought it was time to have a little fun with WIOA and write a fairy tale. My last fairy tale was published in June of 2014 and was before WIOA legislation. To read the first workforce development fairy tale, check out the archives. Once upon a time in a far off land called Weeoha, lived a community of residents. Many of these residents had jobs and careers, but some found themselves in need of services and assistance to get jobs. Some were reliant on the government for assistance with basic needs because they could not find jobs. Three of these residents, Jack Butcher, John Baker, and Josie Candlemaker, found themselves not satisfied with their lack of opportunity and decided to go on a pilgrimage to find the legendary Cup of Career Success.   According to urban legend, whomever drank from this cup was promised eternal employment and self-sufficient wages as long as they desired. Jack, John, and Josie set out on foot to find the legendary cup. Their first stop was to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do you Birthday?

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...
Post a Comment
Read more