2. Move Beyond “Meeting Needs” and “Solving Problems”

move beyond needs and problems

You’re reading this, so most likely you’re tuned to the needs and problems of your community and the world. I applaud that sensitivity. (It’s sure better than the opposite.)

But a constant diet of problems leaves us malnourished, weak, unable to claim our personal power and see greater possibilities.

There’s something else at work, even more serious. It’s a small step from spotting needs and problems to defining certain people as “needy” or “problematic” (and therefore deficient). But that’s nothing more than assumptions about what’s missing and (even more to the point) who has the power to do something about it.

Here’s an example: Some years ago, I went to Nairobi to work with trustees and staff from relief and development organizations in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya.

Toward the end of our time together, folks separated into groups by country and planned what they would do when they returned home. Three of the four groups decided (unknown to one another) to work on “the problem of street children.”

Well, that had me scratching my head. How could the perspective I teach apply to this situation that weighed so heavily on their hearts. Who could deny the neediness of children who had no homes, no families? Besides, what did I know about street children?

Then it came to me: What if I were a child of the streets? What would that be like? What kind of person might I be?

That led me to ask the group: “What are street children like as individuals? What do they have going for them? What capabilities and assets do they have?”

We started to see that these young people live by their wits, creativity, and tenacity. No matter how daunting the circumstances and how little the hope, they somehow continue to have a will to live.

Seeing their strengths was the first step toward working with them to improve their lives. (In the end, who has more potential, someone we see as a pitiful urchin or someone we see as a strong-willed, resourceful individual? Well, you got the answer to that earlier, right?)

Here’s what I want you to take away: Seeing needs and problems can get you going, but you’ll want to move to the next step as quickly as possible.

What next step? Read on.

NEXT: Focus on What You Want

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Portions of this manifesto appear in What Kind of World Do You Want? — the forthcoming book by Jim Lord, with Pam McAllister.

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