Communication with the Community

This is the second in a series of weekly posts by members of the Vendor Leadership forum. The idea is that each week, one of us will write a short paragraph about thoughts that we have regarding the availability of person-centered support and then ask a question. All are invited to respond in the comments. So here is installment two.

What stops us from learning? Sometimes we are just too busy to learn-people mentally register something they've learned but it disappears amidst the day-to-day presures of life. Sometimes people simple don't think things through and so a mistake made or something which worked really well is forgotten. Sometimes learning doesn't happen because of blame culture-because people feel unable to 'own-up' to mistakes, the learning that might have resulted is buried and instead people cover their tracks.

So here is the question how do we ensure that learning is taking place? How do we find staff that are keen to learn? How do we as organizations provide a learning culture and environment?

Communication within the community

This is the first in a series of weekly posts by members of the Vendor Leadership forum. The idea is that each week, one of us will write a short paragraph about thoughts that we have regarding the availability of person-centered support and then ask a question. All are invited to respond in the comments. So here is installment one:

As a service vendor, I receive a great deal of input from clients and families that ¡Arriba! already serves. This provides me some insight into the needs and wished of people who already work with us. However, I recognize that the input I receive has an automatic bias in that it comes from people whose needs our agency is already competent to address. Styles and modes of support that may be needed but for which we do not provide are not made known to us because our communication begins only after the client has been determined to have needs that we can address.

Do clients and families have a forum in which to discuss their needs with vendors that can lead to innovative solutions?