Why You Need Programs that Matter

Human services programs have largely advanced the way people live. Sometimes the research was accepted when it was conducted and many times the research was not accepted because it was a departure from current thinking. The evidence existed, but the story was lacking, so the program didn't achieve the desired impact.

Option A: Program 'Make Hats' achieved 'making hats'.

Option B: Program 'Make Hats' responded to an increasing occurrence of heat exhaustion in outdoor workers by delivering 3,000 sustainably made hats---next 'Make Hats' is looking at shifting working hours.

Option A gives the evidence without story. Option B gives the evidence and starts a story. Programs need evidence and story to achieve impact and matter. 

A program that has either evidence or story but not both, is likely to struggle to achieve impact and matter over time. Typically, program staff are trained to gather evidence, but there is less emphasis on how to integrate that with story. Collecting evidence usually entails concrete and measurable steps, while story is less defined and replicable. For example, reviewing the literature is a largely consistent process each time, but story telling is more nuanced and requires different skill sets.

Broadly, it makes programs worth doing if they add to a larger body of understanding and further improve the way people live. Practically, achieving impact with a program often means that the program itself can mature and transition to reach more lives. It also creates positive morale within a program, if the staff know the purpose and see the impact, which will only better serve the program through engaged and committed staff.

Human services programs are driven by people for people. Rote program execution can occur when the culture in which a program is executed loses its compelling story (or never had one). Depending on the pervasiveness of the cultural or contextual shortcomings surrounding a program this limitation to achieving programs that matter can be a serious obstacle. Overcoming such an obstacle often comes down to finding personal value or employing trial tactics to remedy the situation before cutting losses and moving to another program. Because human service programs have advanced the way people live and resources are finite, make the focus programs that matter.

If the problem being solved is there, then keep working at the solution by collecting evidence and looking for new angles to tell the story. If the evidence or story become stagnant, then foster a sense of openness in the organizational culture conducting the human services program to look to novel domains and call on new expertise to contribute novel perspectives and ideas. 

Bottom line: Humans create and tell stories about what they create, which has changed the world; having programs that matter is a means to continue changing the world.