Provider Transformation: Breakout Session
Customer Focus: How to Message Change and Solidify Stakeholder Buy-In focused on Employment
Dale Verstegen (TransCen, Inc.)
Allison Smale (Ken Crest Services)
June 9, 2016
Objectives
- Review three stakeholder engagement strategies
- Develop key messages that support a transformation plan
- Develop communication strategies that support a transformation plan
- Review Tools and Resources related to stakeholder engagement
Questions?
- What are the key elements of your organization’s transformation plan?
- Who needs to ‘buy-in’ in order for the plan to be successful?
- Of those who need to ‘buy-in’, who would have the most issues or concerns with the changes?
Strategy #1 Community Conversations
One starting point is to begin by having some conversations that extend beyond the school and bring together a community to solve a community challenge.
This is not a school challenge. This is a community challenge.
We have to engage a larger segment of our community to effect real change.
How do we--as a community--support all of our community members to live the good life?
What might this look like?
Community Conversations: World Café Model
In each community, Project Summer will hosted a World Café ( to create a dialogue around ways that schools, businesses, agencies, families, and others can come together to broaden the employment experiences and involvement of youth with disabilities in their local community.
- HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE BEEN PART OF A WORLD CAFE?
- HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE ATTENDED ONE ANCHORED TO YOUTH TRANSITION ISSUES?
- Clarify The Context (What is the topic or issue we want to address or explore?)
- Hospitable Space (Hospitable space begins with the invitation to attend a Café.)
- Explore Questions That Matter
- Encourage Everyone's Contribution (People engage deeply when they feel they are contributing their thinking to questions that are important to them. Encourage all participants to contribute to the conversation.)
- Connect Diverse Perspectives
- Listen Together and Notice Patterns
- Share Collective Discoveries (Conversations held at one table reflect a pattern of wholeness. What is emerging here? )
Levels the playing field and tells communities that they are the best experts on how to respond to a need and mobilize their assets and opportunities.
Inviting the Community
Avenues for extending invitations:
-Flyers and e-announcements
-Announcements in Chamber newsletters
-Newspaper articles (before and afterwards)
-Parent/school newsletters
-Word of mouth...require everyone to invite at least one of your friends
Goal is to get a cross section of the community...not just the usual players.
Emphasis was on also getting people there who are not the usual players. To convince people that they didn’t have to know anything about disabilities in order to have something to contribute and something to learn.
Location, Location, Location
Atmosphere is everything. Should be a comfortable setting.
Cafe feel. That’s where conversations happen.
Evenings...6:30 to 8:30
Ideas:
-Food (made by high school students).
-Get a business to donate space--may have ulterior motives...no problem!
Costs were between $100 and $300
Writer’s strike
What Background Information Do We Provide?
Overall project goal
Contributions of employment to job seekers and the community
Changing expectations of job seekers and funding sources
It can be done...and everyone else is also changing
Most people present are not tied to the school system; many are unfamiliar with special education services. We try to lay out a rationale for why the question we will pose is important--not only for youth and schools, but for communities as a whole.
World Café Guidelines
Image of a world with a coffee cup resting on the tp. The steam rising off the coffee cup forms swirls which have one guideline written in each swirl:
Play, dream, doodle
Listen together for patterns, insights, & deeper connections
Link and connect ideas
Slow Down – so you have time to think & reflect
Speak with your mind and heart
Focus on what matters
Contribute your thinking
Facilitate yourself & others
Have Fun!
Questions That Matter – What questions Matter to You?
Conversation could focus on any number of questions.
What can our community do to...
...increase recreational opportunities for people in our community?
...support people to live in the communities?
...create employment opportunities for anyone with disabilities?
Our focus is on possibilities...recognize their are challenge...but what can we do in light of those challenges.
Change the conversations we are having...to one exploring possibilities.
What are the most pressing issues facing your schools and communities?
Our Process (2 hours-6:30 to 8:30 pm)
5-8 participants sit at café style tables
Every café table has a host who remains at the table
People travel to various tables engaging in conversations lasting for about 15-20 minutes
People listen together for patterns, insights, and ideas
When the first round is completed everyone (but the host) travels to a new café table
Travelers begin to synthesize their discoveries and sometimes a deeper question emerges
At the end, members share collective discoveries and insights as a whole group in a town meeting called “Harvesting”
The result is a sense of the larger whole, new possibilities for action emerge.
- Okay to write on the tables...it is strongly encouraged.
- Facilitator to keep people focused on the question to encourage people to write things down!
- Cross-pollenate ideas
Harvesting Ideas
Group Share
Place Mats
Table Cloths
Conversations Before and Afterwards
Follow-up Conversations
Images of flipcharts they have developed
Why Do This?
Raises awareness
Gets new conversations started
Avenue for launching community-wide efforts
Fuels creativity and idea generation
Brings in new partners & allies
Focuses on local assets and community pride
Networking opportunities
Connects the agency with others
Frames this as a community issue
We are not alone (affirming)
Generates a list of “first steps”
It is actually fun! (even for hosts!)
Calls broad community attention to the issue of youth with disabilities and employment challenges.-- Provides a vehicle for launching community-wide efforts-- Identifies new (undiscovered) allies-- Uncovers untapped resources and opportunities-- Focuses on local assets and community pride, rather than deficits-- Generates creative ideasfrom a broad spectrum of community members on ways to overcome barriers, begin new initiatives and develop partnerships-- Develops a list of “first steps” that moves participants from discussion to action
Strategy #2 Resource Mapping
Resource Mapping Defined
A system-building process that:
Leads to change
Identifies resources and barriers to building a system
Strategizes optimal uses of resources
Identifies limitations and gaps in resource coordination
Explores new resources
Coordinates resources for strategic planning
Resource Mapping
Helps consumers, families, and employment teams identify all available community supports and resources:
Disability-related services
Generic services and supports
Employment and volunteer opportunities
Social and recreational options
We will gather all of the informal and formal resources that could help improve employment and community participation for youth with disabilities and share this information with schools, families, and communities.
- What organizations, agencies, networks, associations, programs, services, etc. are already present in our community?
- What do these groups do and why do they do it?
- Which are available to everyone in our community? Which are focused on people with disabilities?
- What resources and opportunities might they be willing to share?
Most youth, families, teachers, businesses...indeed any individual group...are often unaware of the spectrum of resources and supports potentially available.
These two strategies should provide information that is beneficial for all youth with disabilities attending participating schools.
What are the assets and opportunities that exist within our communities?
Difference: Not just organizations and numbers--that is a yellow-pages. It should be people willing to be assets contacted. Not just a resources directory.
It is a list of your community’s strengths in an area
ASK THE GROUP WHAT MIGHT BE THE FOCUS OF THEIR MAP. WHAT IS THEIR ISSUE?
Purpose of Resource Mapping
Comprehensive approach to:
build capacity
sustain practice
inform strategic action planning
make informed decisions
collect and analyze data
share information that benefits all stakeholders
Why Do This?
- Helps document many “unspoken” resources--makes them public for everyone
- Brings together disconnected and fragmented efforts into one place
- Show areas in which communities are doing well
- Identifies areas in which talents and gifts of communities are being used well or underutilized
- Invites new partners into this work
- Gets info into the hands of consumers and families
Provides resources and connections that teachers, families and youth may not know about.
- Can identify key contacts (the movers and shakers in communities) who can act as connectors between youth and families and community opportunities.
- Organizes resources so they are all in one place and easily accessible.
Outcomes of Resource Mapping
Improved outcomes
Competitively employed
Community integration
More collaborative partnerships
More efficient and effective in delivery of services to consumers and their families
“Map” of resource available for consumers and families
Strategy #3 Futures Planning
Futures Planning
Promotes individualized supports and services based on person’s interests and abilities
Makes long-term planning relevant by connecting future to short-term opportunities and goals
Brings together key people in individuals’ life to help design and support meaningful outcomes
Depends on active involvement by consumer in the planning process
Can be used as a piece of assessment information in IEP developmentExamplesare PATH, MAPS, Essential Lifestyle Plans
This planning process will bring together important people around participating youth with disabilities to help them plan and participate in meaningful summer activities. This planning process is rooted in recommended transition practices calling for active student and family involvement. We believe a focused conversation with supportive people about summer plans will enable students to explore options and interests, gain needed skills, and connect with critical supports.
An Example Planning Tool
This is a tool we are using in our project...so it has some of our research questions embedded
Explain WHY this planning is so important.
Doesn’t have to happen as a separate meeting. Could be part of the IEP meeting or other meeting. But, it has to be explicitly addressed or it simply won’t get done.
Makes sure the student is there.
Structures the conversation.
How do you make it a plan that will actually get implemented?
Designates specific roles. When this process happens after the community conversation and the resource mapping, it becomes much clearer how to fill these different blanks.
Why Do It?
Prompts early planning
Brings new players to the table
Increases consumer and family buy-in
Provides important logistical information teams need to effectively locate opportunities
Provides mechanism to ensure needed experiences, supports and connections are identified
Essential Components of Effective Communications with Individuals & Families
Give individuals and families opportunities to express their hopes and fears
Describe what employment and wrap around services will look like – what will change/what won’t
Establish trust – let them know you’ll be there if the job falls through or if there are benefits issues
Access to management level staff
Maintain Ongoing Contact from Rachel Pollock
Strategic Partnership Engagement through Effective Messaging
Powerful, strong, but concise statements that convey palpable and easily digestible messages that you can use consistently in your communications with targeted stakeholders in order to secure their positive engagement in your transformation efforts
from Rachel Pollock
Effective Messaging StrategiesThree-Step Process
Step One: Goal Clarity
Step Two: Creating/Customizing “the Schtick”
Step Three: Effectuating Belief in the Inevitability of the Goal
Consistent Message Dissemination (Roll-out, Vehicles, Timing/Sequencing)
from Rachel Pollock
Questions?
Which stakeholder engagement strategy would best support your transformation plan?
Who needs to be involved in implementing this stakeholder engagement strategy?
What tools and resources do you need to implement this stakeholder strategy?
Homework #3:Getting Started with Stakeholder Engagement & Message Development
WHEN YOU RETURN HOME:
1)Conduct Stakeholder Mapping
a)WHO
i)Top Three Targets: For the purposes of your transformation efforts, who are the top three targets that you need to reach? [These are your “essential partners”]
b) WHEN
i)Timing: What is your timeline for garnering the level of support required of key decision makers within your three top targets?
c) HOW
i)Action Steps: Which stakeholder engagement strategy is your team is going to commit to in order to engage the right people in your top three stakeholder target categories?
2)Develop an Effective Message Tool for Organizational Leadership & Staff
a)Identify key messages for each targeted stakeholder group.
b)Test messages through focus groups and 1:1 feedback sessions with members of targeted stakeholder groups.
c)Create easy-to-use reference tool for organizational leadership and staff to use to memorize and practice key messages.
3)Develop Communications Roll-out of Transformation Process
a) Create phased in communications & stakeholder engagement plan, with specific milestones and timelines.
from Rachel Pollock
Some Final Thoughts...
Begin planning early
More actively involve families and stakeholders
Engage business community
Capitalize on Community Involvement
Draw in other formal support systems and agencies
Contact Information
Dale Verstegen
TransCen, Inc.
(240) 994-2666
Allison Smale
Ken Crest Services
(610) 327-4606 ext. 2430