Every bolt on the toilet was rusted. The shut-off valve wouldn’t close. The bolts to the flange on the floor were stuck. So were the bolts in the tank along with the metal arm with the floating ball. The toilet has always wobbled and probably should have been replaced ten or fifteen years ago. Replacing the toilet, a project that would normally take an hour, took closer to four hours.
The Sunday on which I replaced the upstairs toilet, was not a lazy Sunday. As such, when my father texted at 10:30pm that night to say a contractor wants to look at the roof on Tuesday – “any ideas?” I quickly lost my patience. I was tired and didn’t want to be texting at 10 o’clock at night to schedule a contractor for Tuesday. I have enough trouble sleeping on Sundays as it is. I told him I’d be at work on Tuesday they can come after 5. He asked if I could just leave the garage door open for them… I reminded him that I’m in the process of packing and a lot of my stuff is in the garage. I said I’d be home Thursday and Friday (suggesting that those would be better days for me). The contractor was scheduled for Tuesday but then couldn’t make it.
The day before I replaced the toilet, Saturday, I received a letter in the mail. “Greetings, Your United Way community is expanding. By joining forces…” My first thoughts were editorial thoughts. I’d have written it differently. I’d have welcomed the chance to work more closely on the letter. I’m not even sure who it was mailed to. Ultimately, it’s not my name at the bottom. For months, I’ve been practicing fading into the background and ceding decision-making control. I already knew the information in the letter. I choreographed the expansion.
Nine months ago, just before Thanksgiving, I notified the executive committee of my board of directors that I planned to step down from my position. I said they were welcome to pursue whatever avenue they felt was best, but I urged them not to rush into hiring a new director. In the past ten years, we’ve had three different executive directors and five or six different resource development directors. Aside from our grant-funded staff, we only have two core positions, the executive director and the director of resource development. At various times during my tenure, my board had expressed frustration over our lack of progress in becoming the organization we want to be, the organization we’re capable of being. We do good work, but we think we can be better. I would hear things like “we’ve been talking about the same issues for over a decade.” This type of stagnation isn’t unique to us – organizational change (much like behavioral change) is difficult, slow, and has many setbacks. Challenges to making progress and growing as an organization are only compounded when an organization loses institutional knowledge and is frequently focused on training new staff. I assessed this problem when I first took the job nearly three years ago. If we want to behave like a more sophisticated organization, we need to grow and create space for a different type of thinking. As I worked through staff transitions and stabilization, I saw similar things happening at neighboring organizations. For nearly three years I’ve been thinking there has to be a better way. For nearly three years I kept reminding myself that we need to do something different if we want different results. In the end, I leveraged my departure to create the type of change I don’t think we could have accomplished organically.
When I gave notice back in November, I advised my board that I’d be willing to help with a transition if they allowed me to pursue a merger with one or more neighboring United Ways. I wanted us to combine efforts, increase staff capacity, build cross-organizational bench strength, and start the process of forming what I hope will one day be a regional, multi-county United Way.
By the time this posts today, we’ll have hosted a press conference to officially announce the new entity. My hope is that within the next three to five years, two or three other neighboring United Ways will sign on to what I’ve tried to set in motion. At my last board meeting, I told my past board chair (the woman who was responsible for hiring me) that I think this is going to be good for the community and maybe transformational for the region. She said she wishes we had thought to do this ten years ago.
When I first realized the shut-off valve was stuck, I sprayed it with some WD-40. When that didn’t work, I sprayed it some more. I’d check on it every hour or so in between other chores. Eventually, I shut off the main water valve in the house, and worked on removing the toilet. When I realized that I couldn’t get any of the other bolts loose, I began to panic. I wasn’t going to be able to turn the water back on until I had replaced the toilet or figured out a way to fix the valve. I took the entire valve apart which was enough to get it working. This approach proved to be the same solution for the other bolts – different angles, different types of leverage, and patience. Sometimes, (counterintuitively) tightening the bolts was enough to loosen things up and get them going in the right direction.
I may not have much of a say over when contractors come by the house or what’s in the letters that go out announcing our merger, but on this particular weekend I was reminded that with a little patience and effort, and a willingness to revisit a problem several times, I may be able to leave things a little better than when I found them. In another week or two, I’ll be one step closer to leaving State College – at which point, the house will have new appliances and two new toilets, and there will be a bigger, more efficient United Way in the region.