by Rebecca Mancini
Published in June 2015
In a recent gathering of people who work with the Community Tools projects, we reflected on the role of details in our work. Leading the discussion, Kayli noted that details form the tapestry of our projects and we are the weavers – intertwining the details in both a relational and practical way that accomplishes the daily work while building involvement and inclusion. In the Community Tools projects, the idea of following details seems like a background concept to the importance of welcoming people but as Kayli led us through the conversation, it became obvious that it is by following the details that we provide hospitality for people and open up new pathways for more people to join in the projects.
Relationships and Bookkeeping
As someone who is involved in Tools projects and in the behind the scenes detail work, I started reflecting on how Kayli’s thoughts resonated in work that seems at first glance to be only about details. Bookkeeping at The Working Centre is a good example of this. Surely bookkeeping is only about details? What does hospitality or relationship have to do with it? Everything, is my immediate response. For us, our bookkeeping follows the same virtues as any project at The Working Centre and constantly works to bridge the world of very straight-lined expectations of our funders with the more fluid nature of The Working Centre projects.
Here are some examples of moments that arise each day: A fellow who is involved with outreach and the Job Café receives a large settlement of money but doesn’t have a bank account. Can we store his money and make it accessible to him when he needs it? When he needs it quicker than anticipated, can we return it to him without judgment or frustration? An Employment Counsellor is working with someone who needs workboots in order to start a new job tomorrow. Can we make this purchase happen in time? The Café calls and needs change. Do we have enough small bills on hand? Outreach Workers call and need a cheque right away because someone’s hydro is about to be cut off. Can we fit this into a flex fund or can we loan the person money? Someone from the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers needs to pay for a training course online or a Youth Entrepreneurial Program participant needs to spend some of their microloan but is unable to float the money up front.
The types of questions are endless and each one of these moments means that we stop our regular day to day work and try to follow in thoughtful ways to make sure that we are being responsive to the situation while still holding our funding commitments and the necessary paper trail.
Systems that Respond to the Day to Day
With the full complexity of our diverse funding, the natural instinct would be to tighten things up, to be less responsive and to make things follow a predictable pathway. But instead of thinking of systems that force real life to match our needs, we foster the complexity and focus on building structures and systems that respond to the day to day activities while also keeping our books clear and our lines straight.
We often talk about these kind of detail roles at The Working Centre as bridging roles, roles that work to hold back and reinterpret some of the systems and bureaucratic expectations of the wider society so that the rest of organization is able to respond to people in real and human ways, not as a client or a file or a stat or a number.
The philosopher Jurgan Habermas describes this dynamic in his concept of Systems and Lifeworld. Lifeworld is the day to day world of messy, surprising and delightful human interactions; it is the place where people build their own unique lives and where relationships form. Systems can be useful to help interpret this often muddled Lifeworld but Systems can also easily overpower the Lifeworld. When this happens people become disenfranchised and lose the sense of who they are outside of the way the System interprets them.
The Working Centre is often seen as refuge from the world of Systems. We are a place where people can come as they are without signing a form, where we don’t have a rule book for how people should act and where people are invited to join in the real work each day. The more we can share the work with others, the more we don’t hide behind our systems, the more the lifeworld flourishes.
Work that is Intentional and Relational
We can only do this because of people who commit to keeping a foot in the system world and a foot in the lifeworld; people who commit to bridging the worlds and helping to hold back the ever increasing demands of the system so that we can remain responsive to the people coming in the front door. These people then turn around and spend time translating the day to day activities into the various systems speak. This is not an easy role to be in. It is alert and agile work and requires people to think broadly and minutely at the same time while being open, intentional and relational at each moment.
This work is done in our bookkeeping and also in various roles that help to hold our statistical reporting to funders, in roles that help to write proposals and reports, in roles that help us to follow the various miscellaneous details that come up each day as we follow each request thoughtfully. It is work that is a step removed from “front-line” work but is work that helps to make the rest of the place possible.
The amount of this type of work is growing and we often lament that more people are not drawn to help us hold this complex balance. Many people enjoy the front-line work, but we are a frustrating place for detail-holders who are asked to hold this complex balance while also thinking broadly, diversely and relationally. We always search for people who find as much joy in the messiness of life as when all the details line up neatly – who can bounce from detail work to people work – in an unrelenting way. This is not easy work by any stretch of the imagination but for the right person, it can be enlivening.
Despite the challenge of turning details in relationships, the complexity of finding solid ground in the midst of ambiguity, and the ever growing demands of the system world, it is work that is integral to letting the Lifeworld of The Working Centre flourish.
