Upload
bethanie-farmer
View
213
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Selling your opinion:Developing professional
assertiveness
Patrick Ayre
Department of Applied Social Studies
University of Bedfordshire
Park Square, Luton
email: [email protected]
web: http://patrickayre.co.uk
Selling you opinion
What would you look for yourself?
Selling you opinion
What would you look for yourself?
Presentation
Content
Oral Presentation
Selling your point of view requires:
Courage
Conviction
Clarity
Credibility
Oral Presentation
The four Cs are founded on:
Comprehension: Knowing your subject
Preparation: Knowing your audience
Reflection: Knowing yourself
Handling that meeting Prepare!
Be clear in your mind about what you want
Arrive early or on time
Speak clearly and confidently
Maintain eye contact with all
Accept resistance
Preparing mentally
Before you start, check your mindset (your own biases and assumptions)
Have realistic expectations:– It is reasonable that involuntary clients resent
being forced to participate– Because they are forced to participate, hostility,
silence and non-compliance are common responses that do not reflect my skills as a worker
– Due to the barriers created by the practice situation, clients may have little opportunity to discover if they like me
– Lack of client co-operation is due to the practice situation, not to my specific actions and activities
(Ivanoff et al, 1994 )
Working with resistance
We need to accept that: The best we may be able to achieve is
honesty rather than positive feelings and a high degree of mutuality
Conflict and disagreement are not something to be avoided, but are realities that must be explored and understood.
Why many interactions fail
Failure to consider where other participants are starting from (probably different from you)
Failure to focus on strengths as well as weaknesses
Challenge your dodgy thinking
I am only a… and he is a…, so I had better keep my opinion to myself.
I am obviously in a minority, so I had better keep my opinion to myself.
We need to maintain harmonious relations, so I had better keep my opinion to myself.
Written Presentation
Make it pretty and easy to read– Neat – Double spaced– One side only– Numbered paragraphs and pages
Language
Good grammar Good sentence construction Simple sentences No unnecessary, unexplained jargon Appropriate tone (formal so no slang, no
contractions, no use of first names for adults)
Sensitively phased (but not watered down)
Content problems
Facts poorly marshalled
Conclusions and recommendations poorly argued and justified (or absent altogether)
The chain of reasoning
Facts
Analysis/summary
Conclusions and recommendations
What do they want to know?
Who you are Why you are reporting The facts of the matter The conclusions to be drawn from the
facts
The facts
Tell the story chronologically without too much editorialising
Facts sufficient support your argument and also to refute counter arguments
First hand evidence is best but give source of any information
Make sure that you have put information as fully and accurately as possible (Checklist: Who, what, when, where, how)
Bias and Balance
Include information favourable to the other side as well as that favourable to yours
It is your job to make judgements but: – avoid empty evaluative words like
inappropriate, worrying, inadequate – Give evidence for descriptive words like
cold, dirty and untidy Beware the danger of facts
Bias and Balance
Born in 1942, he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment at the age of 25. After 5 unsuccessful fights, he gave up his attempt to make a career in boxing in 1981 and has since had no other regular employment
Lies, damned lies and killer breadResearch on bread indicates that More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users. Half of all children who grow up in bread-consuming
households score below average on standardized tests. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within
24 hours of eating bread. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low
incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
In the 18th century, when much more bread was eaten, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza were common.
Analysis
Studies (and SCRs) highlight problems in the quality and level of analysis
Assessments too static and descriptive, resulting in an accumulation of facts that are not analysed in a way that offers an explanation of the situation (Brandon 2008)
But what is analysis?
You have gathered lots of information but now what?
All you need to do is ask yourself my favourite question:
“So what?”
You have collected all this data, but what does this mean, for the service user, for the family and for the authority?
Conclusions and recommendations
Problems:
Unsupported assertions or judgements
Inability or unwillingness to analyse and draw conclusions
Conclusions and recommendations
Summarise the main issues and the conclusions to be drawn from them. (The facts do not necessarily speak for themselves; it is your job to speak for them.)
Define objectives as well as actions Draw conclusions from the facts and
recommendations from the conclusions Explain how you arrived at your conclusions
(Have you demonstrated the factual/theoretical basis for each?)
Conclusions and recommendations In drawing conclusions be aware of the
extent and limitations of your own expertise. Conclusions may be supported by research
(Don’t go outside expertise; be careful with new or controversial theories; be aware of counter arguments)
Your recommendation should usually be specific (not either/or)
Remember: conclusions may be attacked in only two ways– founded on incorrect information– based on incorrect principles of social work
Where has our confidence gone? Deprofessionalisation
Part of a wider trend
Managerialism, McDonaldisation and the
audit culture
Management by external objectives
Professionals not to be trusted
Key themes
Targets and indicators prioritised over values and professional standards
Compliance and completion prioritised over analysis and reflection
The proceduralisation, technicalisation and deprofessionalisation of the social work task.
Managerialism on the front line
We learn by doing
What is important in what I do?
What is good practice?
Supervision: qualitative or quantitative?
What we need
Increased professional assertiveness requires:
Research-informed, reflective, confident and critically-challenging practitioners
Management styles and systems which promote rather than undermine their effectiveness