Monday, January 16, 2017
Questions
One of the biggest problems I had as a day program director was to get my staff to ask questions about why we did things the way we did. Our agency had a single day program for about 50 years (literally) when we broke into three different day programs and I became the director of one of them. I had learned the way we did things in the five years I had been with the agency, but once I was in charge, I soon began to ask myself why we did certain things a certain way... why were certain policies and procedures in place?
It turned out that many times we did things because the former director wanted them done that way... we didn't necessarily do things because it was best for our clients. Once I figured that out, I pressed my staff to ask questions when they found policies or procedures that seemed confusing or that worked contrary to our mission, but they were reluctant to do so.
Why?
I'm not really sure, except that folks don't like to rock the boat... or maybe they didn't want to appear as though they didn't actually know our policies and procedures.
You know that old saying, "There's no such thing as a stupid question," well, in our orientation I used to point out to new staff that there are lots of stupid questions, but I would much rather you ask a stupid question that go out and do something stupid with a client. I used a personal story to illustrate the point.
When I was in the 10th grade or so in school, I strongly admired a kid who was a year older than me. We were good friends, but he was a good athlete and I wasn't so much... he got good grades in most of his subjects and I didn't so much. I wanted to be Billy.
One summer, we both attended summer school for a few weeks. I was all excited because I took a couple of classes with Billy. But one day in one of the classes, Billy asked a stupid question... right out loud. I couldn't believe he did that. I don't remember what the question was, but it was a stupid one.
Then I remember the teacher looking at him... and answering the question for Billy... and we all went, "Oooohhhh," because actually none of us had known the answer either, but we were too embarrassed to ask.
I was never again embarrassed to ask questions. If it was okay for Billy to ask, it was good enough for me. And that's why when I became director of the day program, I asked a lot of questions and ended up making a lot of procedural changes, but I could never get staff to ask questions.
If you are a supervisor, I urge you to make sure your staff knows that it's okay to ask questions. I'm assuming, of course, that you're comfortable enough to be challenged now and then. Are you sure you know why your agency or program does things the way you do?
Think about it.
It turned out that many times we did things because the former director wanted them done that way... we didn't necessarily do things because it was best for our clients. Once I figured that out, I pressed my staff to ask questions when they found policies or procedures that seemed confusing or that worked contrary to our mission, but they were reluctant to do so.
Why?
I'm not really sure, except that folks don't like to rock the boat... or maybe they didn't want to appear as though they didn't actually know our policies and procedures.
You know that old saying, "There's no such thing as a stupid question," well, in our orientation I used to point out to new staff that there are lots of stupid questions, but I would much rather you ask a stupid question that go out and do something stupid with a client. I used a personal story to illustrate the point.
When I was in the 10th grade or so in school, I strongly admired a kid who was a year older than me. We were good friends, but he was a good athlete and I wasn't so much... he got good grades in most of his subjects and I didn't so much. I wanted to be Billy.
One summer, we both attended summer school for a few weeks. I was all excited because I took a couple of classes with Billy. But one day in one of the classes, Billy asked a stupid question... right out loud. I couldn't believe he did that. I don't remember what the question was, but it was a stupid one.
Then I remember the teacher looking at him... and answering the question for Billy... and we all went, "Oooohhhh," because actually none of us had known the answer either, but we were too embarrassed to ask.
I was never again embarrassed to ask questions. If it was okay for Billy to ask, it was good enough for me. And that's why when I became director of the day program, I asked a lot of questions and ended up making a lot of procedural changes, but I could never get staff to ask questions.
If you are a supervisor, I urge you to make sure your staff knows that it's okay to ask questions. I'm assuming, of course, that you're comfortable enough to be challenged now and then. Are you sure you know why your agency or program does things the way you do?
Think about it.
