How effective are your 'meetings'?

In this video I define what a meeting is, provide 11 negative observations on how they play out, and offer 7 reflections on what can contribute to making them effective for everyone involved.

https://youtu.be/eLn1alRHVHc

This presentation is part of a wider email sequence offering subscribers an abundance of FREE and practical information to implement in your own practice, and that of others around you. Click on the following link, and follow the simple instructions, if you want to subscribe to the email list (no spam is sent!):

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/ 

minding your language

The language of strengths individualises each of us; whereas, the language used to describe problems tends more to aggregate us into less well-defined groups. In the following brief video, I will contrast the types of language we use for describing ourselves either from a problems perspective or from a strengths approach. Click on the following link now to access the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bALixNzWHVU

This video is part of the email sequence providing subscribers with access to a wide range of strengths-based resources. If you wish to subscribe to the email list click the following link (it's FREE resources that I am offering, with no catch!):

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/

How good must the book be?

Sign up for a series of emails containing access to a range of FREE checklists, tools and YouTube videos, offered to help you further develop your knowledge and practice in working with a person-centred strengths-based perspective...

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/ 

People are naturally suspicious of material given away for free... is it any good, what is the catch? The answer to those two questions is Yes & No respectively.

These are materials I have been aware of, developed and used since the early 1990's, and now I am getting into the autumn of my career (as much as I would like to think of 60 as being spring!), I would like a much wider range of people to become aware of, and make good use of them.

So, whether you think you know it all already, or you are always open to continual learning and reflection, why not check out the link? What have you got to lose, other than a few minutes of your precious time when my occasional informative emails arrive in your inbox? I promise I don't do spam.

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/ 

If the free stuff is that good, I wonder how good the book must be?

Risk and Leadership

Leadership is often lacking, and management is all too often to the fore where considerations of risk are concerned in health and social care agencies. In this scenario fear and back-covering hold the attention, while good practice is presented as an unconvincing façade. Managers strangely play down any questions about excessive bureaucracy while still demanding all the paperwork is completed as the primary target. If something goes wrong it is the paperwork that gets sole attention, and real practice considerations are relegated to a place somewhere to the right of obscurity.

'Good paperwork is a sign of good practice' becomes the convenient smokescreen. This would be true if there was less management and more supportive leadership, as the need for paperwork would be put into perspective: as the essential minimum to support good practice not to hinder it. Good tools are a range of checklists and formats that have been shaped by good practice, and thus they are able to guide and prompt firstly, and capture good practice as a secondary function.

The Risk Decision-Making publication is the update of 17 years of working with individual practitioners and teams across countless organisations, both from within the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health initially and through the Practice Based Evidence consultancy since 2001. The tools and guidance are informed by what we know from the national and international research, but more significantly through the practice based evidence of hundreds of practitioners across all disciplines and service sectors. Most importantly, this publication refocuses the attention on risk as everyone’s business; so it is structured throughout to address issues from the perspective of individual’s, teams and the leadership & management of organisations. Whatever systems your leaders have bought or put into place there is still a role for guidance on best practice, so look no further.

Practice Based Evidence for Risk

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recently engaged the Practice Based Evidence consultancy to undertake an organisation-wide programme of Working with Risk training. By identifying a large cohort of senior clinical staff in ‘Leadership’ roles the Trust is establishing a positive commitment to working as constructively as possible within all teams. My role was to devise a training workshop that would reflect the principles and practice issues identified in the initial Leadership workshops. In addition to adopting their locally agreed set of principles and edited filming of Leadership discussions, I used my own materials on ‘Positive Risk-Taking’ and ‘Risk Decision-Making’ to facilitate reflective practice discussions as a main focus of the workshops. With the help of colleagues in ARW Training the cumulative evaluations across 50+ workshops were overwhelmingly positive. See the following two summaries for the numerical ratings of the workshops (the narrative comments cover too many pages to include, but broadly reflect the ratings).

Cumulative summary of workshop responses

Cumulative responses of additional workshops

The summaries represent 1252 and 72 responses respectively. The main lessons to be learned are that practitioners respond best to relevant and practical content that enables them to reflect on and develop their practice. Successful training workshops start with close attention to design and detail.