Issue 046 at times it felt like I was failing
Donna Ohdedar - Review Consulting Ltd
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Since 2009 I have been involved in reviews whose dominant focus is on what went wrong. We might note strong practice [usually in a discrete paragraph at the end] but rarely do we prioritise actively learning from it. I wanted to change it but for many years it felt like I was failing. Were those around me programmed to maintain a deficit focus? I turned to the great thinkers. Those who understood strengths focus and had applied it in their own fields. And so my practice involved trial and error, many failings and a true sense of victory as I saw the approach begin to embed.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI), when applied to reviews, encourages learning from strong practice. When we begin our review conversations with consideration of strong practice we:
(1)?increase motivation & engagement in a review setting
(2)?encourage greater performance
(3)?enable teams to be more effective in managing change
How Can We Learn AI in a Way Which Will Effectively Embed the Approach in Our Reviews?
4 Stage Process..
Do you remember when you learned to drive? You had to learn it to unlearn it. You start off doing it consciously then with time you don’t have to think about it.
When we want to execute reviews in which strong practice is given a higher priority. There are 4 stages along the way.
1. Unconscious Incompetence — This is the phase where you don’t know what you don’t know. There is a skill that you are missing but you don’t know what it is yet. This may well manifest as a desire to leave behind notions of blame in reviews, accompanied by some frustration at the lack of progress we sometimes achieve despite having the best intentions.
2. Conscious Incompetence — Now we realise there is a gap and identify the skill we need to develop. If we want to learn and grow. we set to work to close the gap. In a review this may look like an intention to begin the review with an appreciative focus, finding areas of it which feel impossible to convert to an appreciative style & / or finding the approach of others brings us back to deficit focus.
3. Conscious Competence — This is where the learning begins. Now we are actively working on the skill but we are yet novices. We try some things, we fail, we learn some lessons and try again. We keep getting better. Our new style terms of reference may feel like a game changer, but the appreciative recommendations still feel like a stretch for example. The key here is to be persistent and determined and keep practising & trouble shooting with colleagues & mentors.
4. Unconscious Competence — The final stage where we’ve mastered the new skill or behaviour such that its instinctual. We are not practicing anymore. While we’re still learning and growing, we’ve established a strong foundation and can be confident about our competency in that area.
The SILP Approach to Appreciative Reviews
The appreciative focus we adopt in SILP reviews comes from three intertwining strands – appreciative inquiry, solution focused practice, and strengths focus. In the case of all these three approaches, we prioritise learning from what went well.
When you come from a starting point of being a naturally strengths-focused individual or team, you have a head start.
领英推荐
I have much to share about my own journey, including how thinking from positive psychology, solution focused brief therapy & the organisational development world influenced my approach. Join me on 9th May at 1pm for 'Robust Reviews Using Appreciative inquiry Techniques'.?Members of the AOCPP can access the lunch and learn for free and non members can join for ￡15. Click here to save your space.
P.S. – date for your diary ????
On 16th May?I will be speaking at Open Forum's 'Preventing Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation' Conference in Manchester. I will be alongside speakers with knowledge, expertise & best practice to share. Kelly and I will be there on the exhibition stand, too. If you can make it there will be some half decent freebies, & we can get to meet in person.?You can buy a ticket here ?with our special SILP newsletter subscriber discount of 40% by using the code reviewconsulting.
Speak soon
Donna
If you are a reviewer, commissioner, review participant, or quality assurance professional working on Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews, or Safeguarding Adults Reviews, join me for Tuesday Takeaway. A bitesize, 20-minute lunchtime discussion, plus sharing of ideas & networking with peers. Join live or watch the replay. Click here for more information.
Donna Ohdedar, CEO of Review Consulting
Donna has 16 years public sector experience, including her last role as Head of Law for a leading metropolitan authority. Now a safeguarding adviser & trainer, Donna is involved in serious case reviews in both children’s and adults’ safeguarding, domestic homicide, and is a SILP Reviewer and Mentor. Donna offers ‘SILP School’ her university accredited training course, CPD for reviewers & a free online network for leaders in review practice. Click here to join. Click here to hear the latest episode of the Safeguarding & Domestic Abuse Sector podcast.
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