Shelter’s Edge

I had an opportunity last week to visit the Animal Rescue League of Boston (ARLB). From the minute I stepped inside the back door, I could tell I was in for a great day. Staff were bustling back and forth getting set up for cleaning and feeding, but no one was too busy to smile and acknowledge each other. The back end of the shelter is dated and no frills, but clean and not cluttered – except for peoples’ desks, which are obviously occupied by people with a few too many things on their “to do” lists. (Sound familiar?) The back hallway walls and the animal cages bear evidence of staff looking to communicate with each other…scheduling boards, volunteer sign-in, customized erase boards as animal cage cards, and graphs tracking progress on one of their current initiatives – shortening cat length-of-stay.I was at ARLB to teach a workshop on how to enhance learning that takes place at the point of adoption (and surrender, etc.). There were 42 ARLB staffers in the room – from pretty much every angle of their operations – and they were loaded with ideas about things they’re already doing to support learning, as well as ideas about ways to improve.But it was one moment in particular that confirmed my first impression of this place. We were halfway through the day and all of the conversations thus far had been pretty easy.  But then a staff member asked a question of the full group. It was one of “those” questions. You know the ones – the critical moment in any workshop when the proverbial elephant gets plunked squarely on the table. If workshops were stories, these questions would be the climax point in the workshop, because what happens next leads either to continued rich conversation or a stampede into entrenched positions. And so this staff member bravely and respectfully asked how the intake staff make the tough decisions that they do, and whether they should be making these decisions. (If you’re not feeling your gut tighten right now, it’s only because I’ve done a poor job of capturing the power of this moment in writing.)

So what did the ARLB staff do? The first thing I noticed was that they kept their faces turned toward their coworker asking the question. They didn’t shoot sideways glances to each other; they didn’t turn to side conversations. I also noticed that the group listened to the whole question, there wasn’t a frenzied race to cut off the question or a barrage of hands flying up with “the answer” before she had a chance to finish the question. And then, when another staff took the first opportunity to respond, she started her answer and then paused, pointed to her colleague with the question and said, “love ya” – with a wink. The entire room exhaled. And the conversation that ensued was rich, full of important information and details, completely void of defensiveness, and – judging from the postures in the room – completely engaging.

If you’ve been in this field for a year or more, I’m willing to bet you’ve been in numerous conversations that hit this climax moment – and I’m also betting that you’ve experienced many of these conversations turn volatile. So how come ARLB is having tough conversations so constructively?

I think ARLB has what Peter Senge coined a “learning organization.” In The Fifth Discipline, Senge argues that while there are many skills important to successful organizations – in the complex and ever-evolving day to day reality in which we operate – the most important skill of an organization is the ability to learn – continually, at every opportunity. And that means that every single employee is a point of information exchange and sense-making. The more we empower all employees to see information as opportunities for learning, the more opportunities the organization has to understand its complicated environment and adjust in little and big ways to succeed at our missions and as businesses.I don’t actually know if ARLB set out deliberately to create a learning organization in Senge’s sense of the term. Perhaps some ARLB staff will submit comments and tell us what they do to foster the relationships and learning that I observed. I do know that ARLB has impressive longevity in their staff, they have staff who respect and like each other, and they conduct both formal and informal research as a matter of their day to day business. Whether by design or as a by-product of the organization’s larger strategy, these attributes are without question critical to a learning organization. My first impression was right – I had a great day at ARLB. I bet their visitors (potential adopters, volunteers and donors) do, too.

Tags: Animal Rescue League of Boston, first impressions, learning organizations, staff training, tough questions

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