The ETOlutionist recently had a chance to catch up with Steve Butz, President and founder of Social Solutions, to find out more about the company and why it was founded.
The ETOlutionist: You started your career as a human services case worker. How’d you get here from there?
Steve Butz: I loved being a case worker. I got to help young men stay in school and out of jail by keeping them focused on the value of themselves and their education. That’s of course just one small corner of the human services world, where many skilled, compassionate people are working to make a difference in people’s lives. The dynamics of human services, however, can sometimes make organizations ineffective. People are passionate about their work, but don’t always have the tools and disciplines to do it well. Unfortunately, they end up feeling frustrated. Frankly, I got a little frustrated myself. There are so many good intentions paving roads to nowhere. When I had an opportunity to help make human services more effective, I made the move, even though it meant leaving an environment I love.
E: So you left human services to help make it better. Why not do that from inside?
SB: I tried, and unfortunately got stopped cold at several points. That’s when I realized I needed to work from the outside. We created ETO Software® (Efforts to Outcomes) and related processes as a turnkey tool for supporting the good work of human services organizations. Our solutions help organizations align their funders’ expectations, their mission, and the daily work they do by connecting these—through the daily work—to clearly articulated, tracked, and reported outcomes. It’s not rocket science, it’s really just good organizational discipline. But, sadly, it’s lacking in much of the nonprofit sector.
E: How’s it going?
SB: I feel like there’s good progress being made in general. Our software alone has been acquired by several thousand human services groups and other nonprofits. So we’re in a position to watch organizations complete their ETOlutions, to better connect their efforts to outcomes. They begin with a disciplined desire to help their constituents succeed, and that compassionate motivation drives their transformation. The great news is, once an organization has gone through an ETOlution, not only are they making a bigger difference in people’s lives, but they become a beacon for other groups. Everyone seems to want to learn how they’ve done it.
E: How does an organization get past the hurdles that would keep them from better connecting efforts to outcomes?
SB: They do it by caring enough to muscle through the changes needed to ensure greater effectiveness. It is a challenging transformation. But once people start down the path to ETOlution, they begin very quickly to see benefits. Case workers become energized as they get a clearer picture of the true impact of their efforts. Program managers find themselves with a much better understanding of what’s working well and what really needs their attention. Development people find themselves with a more compelling story to share with funders, a story that’s backed by solid, easy-to-retrieve data. It can be very motivational.
E: Is this concept of efforts to outcomes really going to make things better?
SB: Organizations are finding that once they can demonstrate success by tying efforts to outcomes, they better serve their constituents, and the scorched dialog with their funders turns into a celebratory discussion about what more can be done. Their mission statement becomes more alive as staff members live it out daily. So yes, to the extent people can focus on human needs instead of process issues and burdensome reporting, things will get better. When the value of a case worker’s efforts is unclear, it can be frustrating. There’s so much human need and so little time and resources to address it. I’ve been there; emotionally I never left. But we’re trying to give people reason to believe they can make more of a difference. And they can. It takes work, a little know-how, and some tools, but the results are very rewarding.