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Why Do These Things?

• Why pick a meeting place that works best for others?
• Why welcome people with a smile?
• How can I be a good host?
• Why take some time to get to know people?
• Why plan ahead for disagreements?
• Why decide together on the goal for the team?
• Why make a clear action plan?
• Why find out the best way to communicate with team members between meetings?
• Why give people a written plan before the meeting ends?
• What feedback should you get about how the meeting went?

Why pick a meeting place that works best for others?

We asked individuals with disabilities and their families what it had been like to work with PDD staff at intake time. A lot of people talked about how PDD staff came to their homes or to a local café for the first meeting.

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Why welcome people with a smile?

Individuals with disabilities and their families said PDD staff took the time to get to know them. PDD staff really listened to find out what was important to them. They said that seeing a friendly face was very important; many had never worked with social services and were worried, because they did not know what would happen. The friendly face and caring helped them speak up.

People may come to a first meeting with many fears. What are the rules? How should I act? What if I cannot help with anything? What can I ask for? Will I seem greedy if I ask for what I really want? If staff do not like me, will they say I cannot get help?

People who come to the meeting may see you, as staff, having power over them. That is why it is important to treat them as equals. Put people at ease. Make them feel they can ask anything - that no question is stupid.

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How can I be a good host?

It is important to make people feel welcome. Offer to hang up their coat. Let them know where the washroom is. Offer them something to eat or drink. If you have to wait for others to arrive, use the time to get to know them.

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Why take some time to get to know people?

Trust is based on your history with a person or group [B4]. Take the time to get to know each other. Do not guess how others feel or what they think [B11]. Listen to understand [B2] [B3]. Be interested about what else is going on in the other person's life. It will tell you if there are things that could affect their work with you [B7].

Take the time to form a good bond at the start. It will keep you from mistakes and losing trust later.

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Why plan ahead for disagreements?

Plan how the team will make decisions. Plan ways to deal with times when people disagree so that everyone wins and has some power. Make it OK to disagree [B11] [B12]. Then people will be more willing to speak up about what they think. People often try not to disagree because they are afraid they will not be liked by people who are important to them. This can make it difficult to find the best answer to problems.

Use words everyone understands. If you are not sure that people understand things the way you do, ask for someone to explain, in their own words. If you must use jargon words, say what they mean.

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Why decide together on the goal for the team?

Begin with the end in mind [B2]. The team needs to work together to develop the same picture of what the goal will look like [B4]. Welcome different points of view. Be a model: listen with care and respect. Once all views are heard, take the time needed to build common ground [B11].

The team needs to look at the big picture, not just focus on a problem to be solved [B7]. Each action taken should lead on to the end result. If the goal for the group is part of a bigger plan, talk about how it fits into that bigger plan. Put the timelines and the steps needed into the bigger plan.

Often someone with disabilities, their family and intake staff work together to find out if that person is able to get PDD services. That is just the first step to the goal of making sure the person has what is needed for a good life. After the group has taken the first step, other steps will be to get funding and to find the right service provider. Another team may need to take part in these steps.

Be honest about how much control the team has over the project. Sometimes the goal of the work is already set by the organization's rules or plans. Sometimes it is part of the team's job to set the goals. Sometimes the team can make changes to a goal that is already set in a general way.

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Why make a clear action plan?

Once the goal is clear, it is time to make a concrete action plan [B4]. (Concrete means that you will know when the actions are done and you have the results you wanted.) You may not work out what all the actions are in the first meeting. But you should decide on the next steps.

Work out together who will carry out each action. Use what you learned about people early in the meeting to match the actions with people's interests and skills. Be clear about what each person must do [B11]. Decide how long each action will take. Then the team will know how long to wait to hear about the results.

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Why find out the best way to communicate with team members between meetings?

Find out the best ways to communicate with everyone between meetings. If people do not speak, you may ask a phone company operator with special equipment to make the call. You will need to know how to reach people if you have to change a meeting time, or to let others know you will be late. Make sure that everyone has a way to contact everyone else in the group. If you have a business card, make sure you give one to each person. Then they will know how to spell your name. They may have only heard it once before.

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Why give people a written plan before the meeting ends?

Before the end of the meeting, go over the main decisions and actions to be sure everything is clear.

Have a short written report of the main decisions and actions to send home with members, if you can. Some actions, like intake, may always follow the same pattern. In these cases, you can make up a form ahead of time and then fill in the spaces at the meeting.

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What feedback should you get about how the meeting went?

Ask how people think the meeting went. Did everyone feel team members listened with respect? Does the team need to change the way it makes decisions? Do people know what to do next and how to do it? Do they know when the next meeting is? You may want to ask if it is OK for someone else to contact them in a week to find out how they feel, once they have had time to think about it.

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