Let’s make a real difference…Realigning training systems to support effective services to children and families.
Tricia Mosher, MSW, LCSW
Independent Consultant
Building on What We Have Learned:
Today’s discussion: We already know how to teach people information. We know that making changes in how we deliver services
is a constant and important role for training and professional development systems.
Some things can’t be ‘trained’. Effectively growing our agencies means growing with our
agencies. Building a strong and effective Child Welfare Workforce is
going to take creative and varied approaches, all occurring simultaneously, and all aligned for results.
Here’s what I know
Most of you already have the elements in place to effectively grow your workforce into the work ahead.
Most of you are trying to do more, and use more effective and innovative approaches, even with diminished resources.
This group can generate a better model together than what any of us can generate alone.
Implementation: What works? Aligning systems to get what you want…
Take the time to explore and build an effective approach. (Implementation Science) Find out what you have. Find out what you want. Identify the strengths Identify the gaps
Break down the gaps into adaptive and technical challenges and solutions (Adaptive Leadership)
Align your solutions so that they support each other
Try, Assess, and Try Again (Self-Directed Learning, Kolb, Reflective Practice)
(Fixsen & Blase, 2008)
Performance Assessment
Coaching
Training
Selection
Systems Intervention
FacilitativeAdministration
Decision Support Data System
Adaptive Technical
Integrated & Compensatory
Com
pet
ency
Drive
rs
Com
pet
ency
Drive
rs
Org
anization
Drivers
Org
anization
Drivers
LeadershipLeadership
NIRN Implementation Drivers
Graphics by Steve Goodman, 2009Leadership Academy for Middle Managers • www.ncwwi.org A Service of the Children’s Bureau, a Member of the T/TA Network
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Adaptive Leadership: Challenges
Leadership Academy for Middle Managers •
www.ncwwi.org A Service of the Children’s
Bureau, a Member of the T/TA Network
6
(Heifetz, Grashown, & Linsky, 2009)
Technical/ Task Adaptive/Organizational Culture
• Alignment• Clear definition• Solution and implementation clear• Can be resolved by changing a process. • Leader can take primary responsibility
• Different perspectives• Unclear definition• Unclear solution and
implementation• Root Causes lie in cultural
and workforce beliefs, values, attitudes
• Leader cannot be primarily responsible
Training is good…..
Training is a part of the Competency Driver in the NIRN model ,and is linked to selection and ongoing development and growth.
Training is a good solution for a knowledge gap.
Training can provide a forum for shifting paradigms about what works: using research, fostering dialog, pulling people out of the field and into reflection.
Training can ready the ground for attitudinal change.
Training is not enough….
Technical Challenges: Solutions need to be hands-on and practical. Training doesn’t find the ‘teachable moment’ Training staff when the ‘Organizational Drivers’ are not in
place can satisfy requirements for action but in the long run, may not make the change ‘take’.
Adaptive Challenges: Meeting the adaptive challenge can begin in training by
fostering dialog about challenges. Making meaningful change in values, beliefs, attitudes,
and paradigms requires dialog in real time, in ‘real place’.
Additional Solutions: Competency Drivers Coaching
Supervision at all levels
Alignment with the Organizational Drivers
Creating a ‘Self Directed Learning’ process.
All change is self-change
Goleman, Boyatzis, & MckKee, Primal Leadership, 2002
Additional Approaches we use:
Coaching: In person By Phone Individual and Cohort Peer and Expert
Additional Approaches we use:
Supervision at All Levels: Performance
management and development
Case, Clinical, and Workload supervision
What do you use?
Additional Approaches we use:
Technology: Information and support at the touch of a button. Online Instruction and Help Webinars What else?
Deciding on the appropriate intervention
Knowledge gaps: training
Attitude gaps: reflection and alignment
Skill gaps: model, coach, observe
Practice gaps: development of the whole person.
Polling time
Poll the audience: When you think of your career in the field (social work, child welfare, etc.), who taught you the most important lessons about practice?
1. My academic program faculty
2. My preservice trainer
3. My supervisor
4. My field instructor
5. My cubicle mates
6. The families I worked with
Polling time
True or False: Trainee reactions to training reflect more about the
trainee’s motivation before training than about how much the trainee learned in the course. True
Trainee reactions are highly correlated with affective learning and change when the trainer is interactive and engaging. True
Trainee learning when a course is designed to increase knowledge is most effectively measured by whether the trainee liked the course. False
-Sitzmann, Brown, Casper, Ely, and Zimmermean
Nomological Network of Trainee Responses,
Journal of Applied Psychology 2008, Vol. 93, No. 2, 280 –295
Designing the right intervention to support effective implementation
Knowledge Gaps: Classroom Training Books and Articles Websites Online Training
Designing the right intervention to support effective implementation
Skill Gaps1. Video tape and self-
assessment/feedback
2. Coaching
3. Performance Appraisal
4. Teaming and Partnering
5. Get input from families and other stakeholders about skills* added by participant S. Fitch, Ohio
Designing the right intervention to support effective implementation
Designing the right intervention to support effective implementation
Overall and Widespread gaps in practice Examine Organizational Drivers Look at line staff selection Insure that training and resources support the practice
you want to see. Look at supervision and management for information and
solutions. Start with aligning the organization to the outcomes you
want to see and work your way back.
Group Vote: Choose Our Example
Engagement
Assessment
Diversion from High End Intervention
Trauma Informed Child Welfare Systems
Team approaches Fatherhood and Extended Family Network Involvement Systems of Care/Wraparound
Alignment begins at home
Identifying the appropriate developmental approach involves assessment of the agency in context, and understanding what we want people to do.
The training department needs to have a strong link with the other key players in the system to make the optimal strategic difference including: Leadership/Management/Field Policy/Procedure IT HR
Let’s start with what we want people to do… what would success look like?
Based on our example, what would families and communities say the effective worker did to implement this practice change?
Be respectful/the family will say they were listened to . Cultural Awareness: They would feel like the worker
respected their norms and values, i.e. taking shoes off at the door.
Family is driver of change.
Now that we know what we want, what is it going to take to get there?
What will the toughest change be?
Don’t know versus Won’t go…. Both are likely to be issues we have to plan for. Isolating the two issues and making appropriate plans for
each gives you the best outcomes.
Do people need to learn something new to do the work this way, or do they need to change their attitude about roles and effectiveness to implement this change? Identify strategies for each and have ways to differentiate
and individualize learning and change plans.
Break it down: based on our example. (some examples…)
Technical Skills and Abilities Needed
Adaptive: Attitudes, theories, and beliefs about the work.
•Time and permission to spend time with families.•Specific engagement techniques.•Integration of the strengths, safety and other assessment factors as part of full functional assessment of the family. •Integration of the family identification of issues and family’s plan into the agency (court?) planning process.
•Families can craft their own solutions. •Families can be the primary guardians of safety before case closure.•Working with the underlying or root causes of the behavior will get us further than basing services on one event. •Families are worth listening to.•Parents have their own story that guides their behavior.
Addressing the Technical Needs
Technical Needs: Knowledge Technology Policy/Procedure Adding/changing
resources HR processes (job
descriptions, etc.)
Addressing the Adaptive Needs
Adaptive Needs: Attitudes Beliefs Effectiveness Paradigm Values and vision Role paradigm (how we
are in the role, what is and isn’t our job).
Designing effective Coaching
Coaches Need: Competence in the area
to be coached to foster confidence.
Relationship building skills to foster trust.
Communication skills for feedback to the person and to the agency.
Agency supports to facilitate time , access, and feedback loop.
Turning the training team into a multi-functioning team:
Be Picky: Identify Coaching competencies for the specific initiative.
Identify People who ‘get it’ Understanding of organizational context
Be Relevant: Understanding of the Job as it was and as you want it to be.
Be Thoughtful: Development of the person: Reflective Practice
Be Present: Modeling the practice in practice, in real time.
Trainer Competencies
Typical Child Welfare Training Competencies: Presentation Skills Research and integration of EB
Practices. Facilitation Skills: Training
Group Instructional Skills: Contextual Skills: Understanding
of CW and organizational values, mission, goals.
Engagement skills (Training Group)
Supervisory Competencies Work Management Skills
Analytical Knowledge and skills
Interpersonal Knowledge and Skills: One:one and Team Building
Self-Management
Contextual Skills: System and Field specific.
Technical/HR Skills
What are the competencies our coaches need?
Examples for Engagement: (just a few) Interpersonal Skills: To engage families and to engage
coach-ees. Strategic thinking: the ability to link the family narrative
to the current and future issues, then the ability to link family experience and strengths to a planning process.
Feedback Skills: the ability to identify, narrate, and give meaningful feedback that mirrors a strengths/needs perspective.
Valuing Family Voice: the attitude that families are worth listening to.
Implementing Coaching
(Fixsen & Blase, 2008)
Performance Assessment
Coaching
Training
Selection
Systems Intervention
FacilitativeAdministration
Decision Support Data System
Adaptive Technical
Integrated & Compensatory
Com
pet
ency
Drive
rs
Com
pet
ency
Drive
rs
Org
anization
Drivers
Org
anization
Drivers
LeadershipLeadership
Aligning the System for Mutual Support
Graphics by Steve Goodman, 2009Leadership Academy for Middle Managers • www.ncwwi.org A Service of the Children’s Bureau, a Member of the T/TA Network
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Advocacy for Alignment
The effective organization uses a feedback loop based on self-directed learning to track and adjust, and to self-correct.
Goleman, Boyatzis, & MckKee, Primal Leadership, 2002
Further Information/Conversation
Trish Mosher, MSW, LCSW
Tricia Mosher Consulting, Inc.
www.tmosher.com
Phone: 321-278-6359