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Interviewer: As I was listening to you talk, I am really fascinated
by the fact that you really support your staff in developing skills.
The example of how you just ordered them a book that you are going
to have a book study, I am not so sure that is a commonplace thing
that happens in many organizations. Did you set out to have a plan
to do that Nancy? Or, how did you go about arriving on that idea or
that design?
Nancy Brooks-Lane: The staff development piece was a very purposeful
process. We knew we had staff that were good people but had only been
exposed to how you support people in a building. We did a lot of training
up front, and it was only the cost of the books and the videos. We
actually have an organization where we are very fortunate that employees
are interested in the arts. That was a nice benefit, because we knew
what was out there beyond just the typical human services kinds of
information. We also knew innovative human services writings, such
as Closing the Shop. We did a weekly
study of a customer driven approach for person's with significant
disabilities return to community. We paired that with, again, literature
and film and book studies. It was a very purposeful process, and we
knew we did not have a lot of money up front to spend. We even went
to the library and checked out resources.
Interviewer: That is great. I think that is probably the least used
resource don't you? I would just be curious, when you were doing a
book study or watching videos did you give out the book and say you
were going to talk about it Friday or Monday?
Nancy Brooks-Lane: I have actually done it two ways. There is an
ebb and flow in terms of stress and stressors that are impacting an
organization. I was real aware of what was happening in terms of our
regional boards and the state level, in terms of needs they had for
us as an organization. If it was at a point in time when it seemed
like there were less of the stressors, I handed out the book, and
we just read it chapter by chapter. It was like “Between now
and next week read the next chapter we are on,” and then we
discussed it. There had been times where I reviewed some of the tapes
and just played sections and then we talked about how people saw that,
reacted to it. Or got books and went through what the basic piece
of the book was and then read excerpts. So I tried to tune into where
staff were in terms of their stress level.
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