Monday, 21 April 2008

Member Care--Help from Leaders: 4

Helping Staff Deal with Difficult Experiences
Part four of four parts
Note--with a music link at the end.

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Leaders and AV2 Encounters: Final Thoughts

AV-1
Acknowledgement and Validation
Helps to affirm our sense of truth
Helps us feel more empowered (less helpless)
Helps lighten the burden on our shoulders

AV-2
Apology and Vindication
Helps to affirm our sense of justice
Helps us feel more valuable (less violated)
Helps lighten the burden in our heart
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AV-3 (recently added)
Attack and Villianise
Covers up truth and distorts reality
Discredits a person's character, competence, and contributions
Reinforces an organisational ethos of fear, impunity, and dysfunction
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AV-1 and AV-2 encounters affirm our sense of reality and our sense of worth.
They affirm who we are as a “person” created in God’s image.
They are “protective factors” that foster our resiliency.
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AV-3 encounters destroy. (People "stomp, smear, sneak."--see Psalm 56, The Message)
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Reflection and Questions
**How do AV2 Encounters reflect an organisation’s ethos of staff development?

**To whom do leaders go for AV2 Encounters?

**How much do people want to have "true change" and not just have “time” with a leader/potential change-agent?

**What if the leader in an AV2 Encounter is part of the problem?

**How realistic is it to expect that disclosures will not be used against a person?

**When might someone in an ombudsman role or an outside consultant be better than a leader?

**What if staff really distort the facts, and correction rather than empathy is needed?

**What experience do you have with AV-3 Encounters?

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Go to this music-video link, by Cream, circa 2008,
a gentler version (Jack Bruce) than the original from 1967:
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Please, open your eyes
Try to realise
I found out today
We're going wrong.
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Please open your mind
While you can find
I found out today
We're going wrong.

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