They say there are 4 essential steps

1. Learn if you might be able to access the NDIS.
2. Think about your life now, your current informal and formal supports, and what is working and what might need to change.
3. Identify your strengths, interests, challenges and consider your goals or what you might want to achieve.
4. Write these things down and collect any reports, assessments or information you might find helpful for when the NDIS comes to you.

They have created a video and transcript about this, and have also confirmed elsewhere that thinking about your goals in your first plan is important.

In our work with people, however, we’ve discovered it is not always easy to do steps 2 and 3 and turn them into goals!

“Create a goal! Go on – it’s easy!”

This statement opens up an enthusiastic dialogue about how awesome goals are and why everyone going into the NDIS should go into their planning meetings equipped with goals that will change their lives for the better.

This exuberance is often fuelled by “write down your life story and everything will be hunky dory!”.  And besides, if you’ve been around disability services for long enough, you may have already told your life story to more people than you care to recall.

So. How do you turn a vague idea into a goal without opening up every corner of your life to yet another person you don’t know? Or – what is a straightforward resource that will help you to articulate the foundations of an actionable goal?

Introducing Talia

Talia, a fictional 25-year-old woman who lives with muscular dystrophy, has agreed to share her process with us. Mostly because we created her, but also because she cares about what happens to people going into the NDIS. She also said she’s happy to periodically cut our conversation off mid-stream to highlight the practical questions involved in creating a goal. So obliging!

Talia lives at home with her 18-year-old brother who is doing his final ever exams, and her Mum and Dad.

When we asked her about her goals, she paused for a moment before saying “I wish I knew. But how can I think about that when my support workers are never on time in the morning to help me get out of bed? It seems like it’s every second day that Mum has to help me instead. I’m 25 years old; I shouldn’t be this dependent on my Mum. She’s great – but yeah.”

Well these kinds of ideas are really helpful for thinking about a goal!

• “What is missing from your life?”

In Talia’s case, she is missing reliable support staff. As a result of this, she’s also missing out on having independence from her mother.

Throughout this piece, also bear in mind that these steps can be repeated for as many life areas as you deem important.

If you are looking for some help with what life areas you could think about, the NDIS Grassroots Discussion files also has an extensive list of resources, including pieces on life domains such as personal care, community inclusion, social/community support and employment support; as do WA’s Individualised Services (WAiS).

• “What would you like to change?”

Without going all Louise Hay on you, the answers to “What is missing?” need to be flipped to the positive. This is because goals literally can’t be created from what we *don’t* want – only from what we do want.

During this part of our conversation, Talia worked out that she wants reliable support staff and independence not only from her mother, but also from her family in general, who all provide her with a lot of support. And, although her family are close-knit, she just wanted the opportunity to be a daughter and sister instead.

These are the kinds of statements that can be worked with until they become less of a “wish list” and more of a “goal statement/s.” (Pardon the jargon!)

Talia had some difficulty with this next stage because, up until the NDIS, she’d had no choice but to become resigned to the status quo. How do you turn such experience and discontent into a goal statement?

• “What is stopping the missing things from happening?”

Talia said that the employees of her service provider were stopping her from receiving adequate personal care support, which was having a negative flow-on effect to her having independence from her Mum and family.

This conversation lead her nicely into the final step:

• “What would make a difference?”

Talia was stoked when it dawned on her that, with the NDIS, she could change service providers – or indeed, manage her own funds and hire her own support staff. She could even consider building her own team as a solution. She decided to ask for some mentoring assistance to learn how to properly manage and supervise support workers. And she wanted to learn from someone who was experienced in managing their own staff. She also decided to ask for a experienced person to review and create a recruitment process.

Her goal statement became:

“I want to live my life with maximum freedom, choice and enjoyment. An important part of this is having more reliable staff. I would like as little staff turn over as possible. I would like staff to turn up when I expect them to.”

So that was the beginning of Talia’s process.

Other people come at goal-setting from different angles; some are clearer on what they do want, which means they don’t have to spend as much (if any) time on Step 1. If you know what you want, you would just start from Step 3 – “What is stopping the missing things from happening?”.

And that, in a nutshell, is how to turn ideas into a goal.

To check out more resources about becoming #NDISReady as well as support for families and carers, have a browse of the NDIS Ready page (which has the nuts and bolts of what the NDIS provides for people with disability, families and carers).

A man with friends and support workers

Our previous blog on this issue started ‘at the end’ or on tips to get clear on the purpose of paid support. We recommended this as a first step in successful recruitment. For starters, working out purpose can then really help to nail the characteristics you are looking for in people. Once you know the kind of people you are looking for, then it is far easier to figure out where to look for them. After that, you can think about the best methods to reach those people.

Put together, this is a 4 step process of WHAT (purpose) WHO (characteristics), WHERE and HOW (methods to recruit)

So in this piece we will focus on Characteristics. That is, being clear about WHO it is you are looking for.

Start by thinking about the importance to you of any, or all of these categories below.

What makes the person tick – personal qualities, values and vision

Many people say this is the most important thing to think through. This is about the kind of person you are looking for. It is always better when the person shares your vision. So what are your values and vision?

Skills & attributes

These are abilities that show the person can apply knowledge in a practical way to get something done. This could include work skills they have learned elsewhere that they can use in this job. These might be things such as leadership, communication, problem solving, initiative & enterprise, team work, planning & organising.

Technical and professional skills

What do you hope they come with?

Do professional skills and qualifications matter to the role?

What training do you want them to undertake?

Shared interests and hobbies

Depending on the purpose of the role, shared interest might be a definite pre-requisite. No point wanting to get involved in your local indie music scene, for example, and not seeking someone who is going to lap that up and know what to do and how to be in that context.

Even if the purpose of the role is not as specific as this, looking for commonality of interest makes life easier. Liking the people who support you is very important.

Click here to read how Carolyn Campbell-McLean creates her dream team.

 Matching purpose and characteristics in a (real life) example

Robbie is 27 and about to move into his own apartment in the city for the first time. The apartment is being rented from an extended family member who wanted to help by offering this opportunity. The vision is for Robbie to have a housemate. The apartment has lots of great qualities and some down sides. For example, while it is two bedroom it is quite small. Robbie and his immediate family decided that they couldn’t let the opportunity go, but they are worried about whether living with someone will be sustainable. This is also because while much of what support Robbie needs is known, a lot is also to be discovered. Robbie will have some additional paid support workers at different times, but the housemate role is really crucial.

Robbie is a conscientious man who likes to please people. He is a gentleman. He has an incredible memory for people, places, events and television shows. He also loves classical music, old movies, walking, trains and boats (especially old ones). He works, attends a day program and also volunteers. He can feel quite anxious at times, although he doesn’t want to be, and benefits from patience, empathy, people who see his potential beyond this and provide guidance in times when he is struggling to see past the anxiety.

Robbie’s support team decided to create a 6 month paid live-in role. The purpose of the role is to

• Help Robbie adjust and provide companionship – enjoying time together and looking out for each other
• Create an inviting home – joining with Robbie to create a pleasant, and comfortable home together, sharing meals, thinking about ensuring that Robbie’s day-to-day home life is prepared and planned for with tasks such as food and shopping and ensuring that the home is well cared for
• Provide mentoring in some areas of home life
• Build understanding of the longer term support structure – join with his family and support crew understand what kind of support Robbie needs and when across the week. In the longer term, when might a housemate have a role, when family and friends and when might paid support workers have a role?
• Building understanding of the future housemate role – join with his family and support crew understand what a longer term (subsidised) housemate role might look like. Contribute to answer this question: ‘how will it work best for a housemate and Robbie ongoing?’

What do you think are the values, qualities, skills and shared interests needed?

What kind of person would be good in this role? Try and visualise this person.

Now you can start to think about WHERE you might find such a person and what methods you might use to attract them (HOW).

Want to learn more? Click here to join our next online session on December 9th to learn successful recruitment strategies from people in the know!

Click here to hear what a participant has said about our sessions.

The right people are more likely to step forward when you are really clear on the purpose of paid support. Additionally, people are more likely to stick around when they are fully informed of the expectations and when they understand and share your vision. Unspoken or hidden expectations tend to lead to disappointment and to unnecessary turnover.

Start at the end

Asking the question, ‘What is the end result I am looking for?’ is a really great way to start thinking about purpose.

The importance of such a question can be revealed in exploring this scenario. Consider someone who likes gardening. You might consider matching paid support to this interest and conclude that finding a gardener is the way to go. Taking some time to consider purpose, however, can reveal some interesting differences. If the purpose of the role is to build a garden, finding a gardener might work. But if purpose is to increase opportunities for connection to others through this interest, a person only skilled in gardening may not cut it (excuse the pun).

Here are some other ideas to assist your thinking.

Think about how others get the task done

Ask: how do other people get this thing done or achieve this?
Firstly, think about the task that needs to be done. Now think about how that same or similar issue is solved by other people. How do others in our community get this kind of thing done?

This gives us some great clues on what we want to model and replicate. Sometimes we tend to jump to service and paid responses first. But asking this question allows us to take a breather and see if there are other solutions we could put our energy into (the time and energy we would be using to find paid assistance or service solutions).

So give these scenarios some consideration in light of this:

1. You’ve lost track of time and now your garden is in need of a makeover.
2. You need your lawn mowed regularly

• you have never tried mowing a lawn before and aren’t sure if you could do it.
• you could learn but you aren’t interested and prefer to dedicate time elsewhere
• you aren’t able to mow your lawn

What are different solutions to these scenarios?

Generally the more formal, regular and structured the task is, the more likely it is in our society, to seek a paid solution. But a lot also depends on our family culture, background, gender, the place you live, income, age…… So think about what makes sense to you.

I know in my life, I would be more inclined to turn my dishevelled garden into a social opportunity, provide food and drink or even offer to assist friends with something in exchange for their help. Our lawn is large. I can learn to mow but I’m not interested in mowing. However, this is not something I think is reasonable to ask a friend or neighbour to do on a regular basis. Sure – collect my mail, feed my cat for a couple of days. But not mow the lawn regularly. A neighbour might offer because we have built a reciprocal relationship, but this is different to me asking. Additionally our living expenses mean that getting someone else to do this regularly is not possible. So I need to mow my lawn. But you might have a different response that fits your culture, family, income, community etc! It’s the process of thinking through that is important.

This kind of thinking helps us understand the place of paid support, whether it is actually needed, and also helps us think about the place of informal relationships and whether we could focus energy on this rather than on paid support.

So ask yourself: what can a paid person bring that natural support might not bring? How can paid support add value to what I already have? (not take away or cut off an opportunity for growth of other kinds of relationships)

Regularity, structure and formal teaching are some examples of answers to these questions.

Some other examples are:

• Social connection/bridge building into different parts of a community
• Building a fuller picture of who the person is: helping the person learn more about themselves, trying different activities, exploration and trial. This can be important for people whose interests are unknown or unexplored
• Learning new skills
• Personal care
• Role modelling and mentoring – behaviours, feelings, thinking
• Generating new ideas – creative, innovative, considered ideas
• Team development – developing the cohesion and functionality of a team
• Work or business development

Clarity on role and purpose really helps us to hone the characteristics we are looking for in people. What qualities, skills and interests are we looking for in people? Let’s look at that next.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on successful techniques.

If you want to learn more,  join us for our upcoming webinar on December 9 2014!

Click here to hear what a participant has said about our sessions.

Brightly coloured flowers

Lucy and her family have been very thoughtful in creating a role at her local florist. In this article we share the very practical steps they took.

Download the word version of Engineering the ordinary

Download the PDF version of Engineering the ordinary

A young man talking with four other people

We recently held a workshop called Nurturing your Tribe. We were thrilled to find people with disabilities and their families attended with other people they had made an ask of; like becoming a housemate, or a friend whose strengths could help achieve something. We just loved playing a part in nurturing these vital relationships!

At one stage a young guy, Matt, stood up and spoke to us about being asked to become a housemate. He told us he’d known Chris at school and then after school they had continued to be connected in similar circles. Then he and his girlfriend were approached by another woman they knew, Jennifer, and asked if they were interested in considering moving out with Chris and sharing an apartment together. Both knew Jennifer- Chris was now employing her as his ‘lifestyle facilitator’ partly because she was so well connected.

Matt talked to us about the process of being asked and why he and his girlfriend said yes.

He told us that it was important to hear it from Jennifer because he knew she would be giving solid and trusted information – that it would be as she was saying.

He also gave insight into 3 essentials for a really powerful ask.

1. What’s in it for the person being asked

When you are making an ask consider what could be of benefit to the person being asked. Matt said it hit them at just the right time.Trying to move out into your first place in Sydney can be really hard. They were talking about moving out together but financially it was difficult. Chris’ offer involved financial assistance to make it work (in exchange for some roles and responsibilities with him). It was going to be a win for them.

2. What’s in it for the person

Matt told us that he had always been so impressed with Chris and could see what he had achieved so far in his life. He and his girlfriend were delighted to be asked to be part of helping Chris get further, of helping him take the next major step in his life. He said “we love being part of Chris’ story”. This is a big win for Chris.

3. What’s in it for a broader group or the community

Matt told us that he knew Chris had a wider support network, and could see how their contribution would help to strengthen this network and see the fruits of their efforts come to life. They wanted to be part of that network too and the bigger vision. This is a win for Chris’ parents, his brothers and his community.

So give it a go. Think of your ask in 3 parts. Imagine into all of them – don’t just think ‘what is in it for the person’ but also ‘what COULD be’. Check you have considered all of them. Let us know how you go.