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John Edwards presenting to 180 Hills Mallee Southern and Riverland staff
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The concept of this workshop was to give a broad base of both regions’ health unit senior staff exposure to concepts surrounding the management of the Change Process. John’s style of facilitation allowed all participants the opportunity to interact with their peers on the range of concepts presented by John. In essence, what John had to share was not ‘rocket science’ but more strongly based on ‘common sense’ and a need to be open, honest and respectful with your fellow workers and clients. A feature of presentations arranged by John but presented by chosen participants was the way communication can be either positive or negative. If we wish to be productive then we need to think carefully about the message to be given and how we give it. Most issues can be turned around to be portrayed in a ‘positive light’, no matter how difficult the situation may seem. Two other aspects of the workshop that we still hear being mentioned by participants are the ‘Ladders of Inference’ and the sense of being the ‘pit’ and the processes for getting out of the ‘pit’.
Feedback from the workshop was overwhelmingly positive with 74 participants completing evaluation forms. The positives from the workshop include; ‘very valuable but confronting’, ‘I am looking forward to applying what I have gained from the workshop’, ‘good concepts’ and ‘I am a “bit long in the tooth” now, but these two days have proved you are never to old to learn new ways’. The negatives included comments about the facilities and ‘not all theories/concepts covered were supported by documentation’ and ‘sessions too long’.
The good news is that the Executive are exploring ways for John to be brought back to the Region, later this year, to do some follow up work. At this stage it is being proposed that John will work directly with smaller groups based on areas - Hills, Southern Fleurieu & Kangaroo Island and the Mallee.
This workshop was the start of a process for the Region and its Health Units to help develop a better understanding of the processes surrounding change. The Generational Health Review recommendations will require all of us to look at how we do our work differently with the overall outcome being ‘Healthy People, Healthy Communities’ built around a framework of Primary Health Care. The Region is currently part sponsoring up to 35 staff to attend a conference on ‘Communities in Control’ - community participation and community capacity building. Hopefully, for those attending, each will gain a different perspective of how we support and engage with our communities and having acquired this knowledge hopefully they will share it with others in their respective workplaces.
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Jeanette Brown (Director AHCHS), Genevieve Hebart (EO/DON Mt Barker) and John Edwards working together at the Change Management Workshop
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For more information regarding the Change Management Workshop please contact the Regional Office on (08) 8535 6833
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