This is step two of our experiment in using OBM and the principles of the book The 5 Scientific Laws of Life & Leadership to heighten Nurture & Nature’s profile and further develop my leadership skills.
View the previous post in this series, “Checking In with the Stakeholders.”
In looking at improving collaboration across all levels and empowering employees to express their ideas, I took baseline measures across the following actions:
— How often do I seek out feedback about our clinical programs and my performance? Baseline: 0 occurrences per week
— How often do I seek out ideas from others when engaging in clinical programming? Baseline: 0 occurrences per week
Although I have a strong clinical vision for most cases that the practice takes on, I was a little shocked at the 0. Was I really not seeking out valuable information that may be useful in improving clinical performance and clinical outcomes? I found myself too wrapped up in taking data, making observations, directing protocols, and making sure the clinical documentation was on point. There was an immediate realization that these are the goals I want to focus on:
1) Increase the number of occurrences over the course of a week that I seek out feedback about our clinical programs and my performance from the therapists.
2) Increase the number of occurrences over the course of a week that I seek out ideas about clinical programing from the therapists.
For each goal, my target is to reach 7 occurrences or more per week.
I started taking data and made myself a visual that I put on my desk as a reminder. This week I was able to ask for feedback for 4 occurrences and ask for ideas for 3 occurrences.
So, not tremendous growth, but seeds were planted… now I need to nurture the seeds by attending to them, and, most importantly, enjoying the intrinsic rewards of incremental growth and success for the company. My long term and ultimate goal is to boost the score of the staff survey by at least by .5 on average.
A simple, but doable process: Measure where I am at, set the bar where I envisioned myself to be, use a visual reminder, measure and take data, and try to improve upon my performance from one day to the next. I am asking of myself the same thing I ask of my clients: Try your very best every day!
More importantly, I realize that my truly favorite thing in the entire world is watching things grow… and grow as quickly as possible. That is why I love being a behavior analyst... and sneaking off into the garden tor inspiration.
