As an organisation, we are delighted to have been invited
to blog on the Helen Sanderson website. Our journey began from a
niggle that although we're working hard and making a real
difference in the lives of people we support, we could be better
and we could achieve more. Each blog will be written by different
people from our organisation describing how Good to Great has
touched their lives and what it means to them.
Today, Lisa Watchorn (Operations Director) and Brian Hutchinson
(Chief Executive) share their experience of the start of our
journey from Good to Great.
Lisa Watchorn:
As the new Director of Operations, I am thrilled to be
introducing Good to Great to Real Life Options. Having worked with
Helen Sanderson Associates in previous roles, I quickly identified
that Real Life Options, as a person centred organisation was a
perfect match for the Good to Great programme. We aren't looking to
change what we do; we are looking to make that one degree shift
from being a good organisation, to a great organisation. The
programme has also created opportunities to enter into dialogue and
build upon committed partnerships with commissioners and
like-minded organisations.
We are and continue to be an organisation which breeds
individual creative support. The Good to Great tools create arenas
for honest and open conversation and an environment where it is
'ok' to challenge each other. Good to Great also allows us to
handle and evaluate our meetings in a consistent way. The tools are
making big differences- in little ways.
The best thing about good to great is the organic way it has
spread through the organisation from it's beginnings as a days
training session with the Good to Great leadership team (a team of
colleagues and people we support from around the organisation).
Conveying a new message and new way of working to 1,700 colleagues,
people we support, and their families across England and Scotland
is no easy task!
Our leadership meetings are enthusiastic and interactive, they
are made of senior management, support workers, and people that we
support ensuring that the message that is taken out to the
organisation worked for everyone. The people we support are growing
in confidence and telling us how to get it right! For example, Sean
Bryson, a person we support uses the Service User Forum to gather
opinion and share information from the Leadership Team
Meetings.
Like any good organisation, we try to put the people we support
at the heart of everything we do. I am privileged to be working
with Helen Sanderson Associates as partners and am excited to be
part of our journey from Good to Great.
Brian Hutchinson:
Maybe I always would say this but to me it feels like "great to
greater!". I think our services and staff are fantastic as it is
but the chance and the tools to improve are clearly available to us
within the partnership with Helen Sanderson Associates. The next
two years hold some of the biggest challenges and biggest
opportunities that we have ever faced. I think that we will
transform the way that support is offered and truly enable the
people we support to take Real control of their lives. I hope that
everyone joins in and enjoys the next steps in Real Life Options
development. It's going to be great!
http://www.reallifeoptions.org
