A while back, I was walking in downtown Chicago with a friend. It was December, the stores were lit up for Christmas enticing shoppers to come and spend money on shimmering gifts and goodies of all kinds. It was also very, very cold. As we passed what was then Marshall Field’s, I was approached by […]
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The Hardest to Love, The Hardest to Serve
In our line of work, we sometimes reach a point where we must remind ourselves to “work smarter, not harder.” This point generally comes when we’ve been working with someone who’s exhausted all the usual routes to treatment, refused our best social work advice, and argues their way out of every healing situation we offered, […]
The Power of Great Leadership
There is a photo going around on the internet that shows a pack of wolves trekking through the wilderness. The view is taken from an airplane, so you can see the entire pack as it makes its way through the frozen, wintry forest path. In the lead are three elderly wolves walking together. Next come […]
You are the main ingredient
There’s a show on the Food Network called “Chopped” where four chefs compete head to head to create a three-course meal using the ingredients they find in their surprise boxes. They all get the same ingredients and the rules state they must use all the ingredients in whatever they create. Each of them can use […]
When the Teacher Becomes the Student
Over the years, social work and the methods used for service delivery has changed. It hasn’t always been an easy road. While the adage “change is good” may be true, it is also true that change can be uncomfortable and scary because it often takes us out of what we know and puts us in […]