Most people believe collaboration is the answer. Fewer understand why it becomes so difficult once real people, pressure, and competing visions enter the room.

Why do you want to step into this work? Why this issue? Why now? Motivation matters more than we want it to, because only the right kind of motivation will carry you when the work becomes costly.

You cannot build anything meaningful in a place where people are waiting for you to leave.

Moving to York City in 2006 was one of the best decisions we made as a family. We got close, saw the city firsthand, met the people, and fell in love. The problems of the city were not over “there” but became our own. School issues, drug dealing, domestic violence, hopelessness, and even child abuse were right on our doorstep.

I will never forget the morning I read the headline about a two-year-old’s death. Hours later, we learned it was our neighbor, Darisabel Baez.

Her death revealed a hard truth. The problems that break our hearts are complex, shaped by many intersecting factors, and they resist simple solutions.

If we hope to lead well, we must learn to sit in that complexity and listen to those closest to the pain.