Transitioning to Self-Sufficiency:  The Bold Future

Life Steps Foundation is a story about evolution.   Over its 23 years of operation, it has changed as the context in which it serves clients has changed.  For Life Steps and its talented staff, the new adventure in change promotes employees to entrepreneurs. Program managers, their staff and the specific programs they operate will function like independent businesses.  As Affiliates they will be accountable only to themselves and to the Life Steps umbrella organization's standards for their profitability and viability — the opposite of how Life Steps conducts business now (a centralized operation).

Life Steps serves its four special needs populations through its programs.  The programs generate revenue.   No matter how profitable or unprofitable a program is, it gives and receives financial support from other programs depending on its successfulness.   The programs also finance Life Steps support services, administered from the corporate office.

Although this operating structure has served Life Steps well, it provides little incentive for programs (business units) to excel if they have to share their revenue with less successful ones.  Moreover, less successful programs have little incentive to excel if they're typically receiving support.  The transition to self-sufficiency will change that.

In the summer of 2007, Life Steps programs will practice self-sufficiency.  Successful programs will keep their revenue.  That means more money available to grow their programs and to reward their staff with wage and benefit increases, and with more training, which increases retention and service quality.  Self-sufficiency also gives staff a stronger sense of ownership.

Conversely, programs that consistently fail to sustain themselves financially will likely close.  Self-sufficiency eliminates Life Steps' weaknesses and amplifies its strengths.  It ensures robust growth through increased revenue accrual and reduced operating expenses.  The new model eliminates an entire layer of overhead expenses:  division director and chief of operations positions.  It also allows for active participation of the frontline partners, since the business units will be smaller than the current organization.

The business units will still pay the Life Steps umbrella organization a small amount for support services (17 percent of their gross revenue):  accounting, human resources, information technology, training/clinical oversight, and development/marketing.   Some of these services comprise part of the agreed upon package; others are optional.  But support is always available:  if a program needs more support services, they will have them for a small additional fee.

Nor will Life Steps launch its staff into this bold future venture without preparation.   Selected program managers have received and will receive ongoing training in basic accounting, strategic/business planning, employment laws and practices, clinical best standards/practices, computer technology, and leadership.  Life Steps trains and mentors its people.  When they need support, they need only ask.

However, Life Steps does not strictly prescribe how self-sufficiency will work.  Staff discover it themselves!   No one knows better what he or she needs to run a program than the people already doing that.  Consequently, several task forces have emerged to strategize, visualize and communicate about how to make self-sufficiency successful.

All the talented, energetic people at Life Steps have committed to this great adventure.  We are on schedule, and we are confident.  Life Steps enjoys the respect and support of the communities it serves.  Its tenacity and experience have earned it that.  The legacy we have built and will build for the future ensures that Life Steps will thrive and prosper, as will its most valued asset — its people.  Most importantly, the clients we serve will receive even better service.  Transitioning to self-sufficiency will achieve that.

White Papers & Other Resources:

Self-Sufficiency Article:  Speaking of Change
Self-Sufficiency Model: Part I
Self-Sufficiency Model: Part II
Self-Sufficiency: Entrepeneurial Leadership
Self-Sufficiency Update
Self-Sufficiency:  Forum