Shaping Meaningful Futures: Creative, Courageous OTs

Jen Gash

OT, Coach, Artist

jen@otcoach.com

27th November 2014The OT Show

I was that pesky, enthusiastic Basic Grade (err… Band 5)

“Don’t worry in a few years time Jen, you will be just like us…you will have lost all that enthusiasm and energy….”

The questions I kept asking myself as I became a “grown up” OT….

• Is this OT? Is it OT enough? Is this what I trained to do? Is this the best use of my skills and talents?

• Am I enjoying my work?• Do I have to leave this job…again? or can I re-

craft this role to be more me and more creative and occupationally focussed?

• Can I challenge myself, my practice, this service, this institution?

• Is what I’m doing each day, helping this person, my clients, live meaningful, engaged lives?

ShapingMeaningful

FuturesCreativityCourage

What the future might be like… What might world/society/human occupational needs be ?

Can we create “future” ?

Or should we just respond/react?

Borrow a TARDIS

What might the world look like in 20/30/40 years time?

What occupational challenges might we all be facing?

What expectations might we have from our work, social life, government, health providers?

How will travel/mobility be different? (assuming we all don’t have a TARDIS!)

From my TARDIS I see….Changing work patterns predicted years ago, are now taking hold = Less “work” … this is not due recession

An aging population with complex health needs. Significant increase in depression (what sense do you make of that?)

Greater leisure time/ opportunities, but increasing mental ill health…

Globalisation – we are not an island anymore!

Information: people are more informed and have greater options for managing their lives. Are people are questioning the status quo?

Cycling, walking, baking, growing, making…

A search for meaning……meaning as the new currency?

How do we know what is meaningful for people?

“…..when we sit together and talk about what’s important to us, we become alive…. “Margaret Wheatley (2002)

“….if we sit and listen long enough, people hear the answers themselves….(Gash et millions al)

• Conversations matter: ask questions and listen more and more

• this is why coaching is so important

My “Mini Meaning Self Exploration” (MMSE)

Creativity aka “Bringing something new into being”

Combinational

Exploratory

Transformational

• What does that mean for OT?

• Creativity in new services, businesses, models of delivery

• Differing groups of customers…

• Creativity in practice…how we provide occupationally focussed services

Lets play!

• When you were a child, what did you love doing? What activities did you enjoy – the things that you had to be dragged away from?

• What things do you love doing now, that make you happy, in flow or just re-charge your batteries?

(If you can’t think of something, what do your friends and family like doing!)

• What things really bug you…what do you really want to see sorted in the world? (clues…things that make you angry, upset or excited!)

Or…a bigger question:

• How do you want the world to be different because you were in it?

• Combine one of your childhood passions or current hobbies with one of the things you want to see differently in the world…what new idea did it generate?.......However weird or wacky!

Write some of your ideas down and please give them in at the end!

Ideas…• An OT in every high street ? Based with

Osteopaths/Chiropractors or community cafes???

• Discovery Party…combines OT, coaching and parties

• Using a passion for baking to form a social enterprise (for all sorts of client groups!)

• A OT bus for isolated communities for assessment/advice and also groupwork space!

• OT combined with Circus… e.g. Holistic Circus Therapy Ltd (integrated into social circus, not just circus skills)

• OT combined with Equine approaches (neigh)

• Working in sustainability education/public health etc….”Ecopation”

• OT taken into large organisations, not just for wellbeing…. Using our unique models (MOHO, PEO, KAWA) and occupational approaches for systemic change and personal/professional development and performance…

• Not a choice between philanthropy and commercialism….it needs to be both.

• Hold OT firmly in one hand and use the other to feel, scope, understand and relate to the broader world

The Courage to Create

“Shall we, as we feel our foundations shaking, withdraw with anxiety and panic, shall we become paralyzed and cover our inaction with apathy? If we do… we will have surrendered our chance to participate in the forming of the future…”

Rollo May

Passion

“If I get to 90 and haven’t done this, how will I feel?”

Nurture

New ideas are delicate – share them wisely. Nurture yourself too…

Small, small, small steps

Test your idea out on a small, very low cost way. If you find you are not moving forward or are sabotaging your plans, make your actions smaller.

Permission

Please vigorously question any thoughts you have like “am I allowed to do this?”

Evidence

The medical model has made us very scared and compliant… If we are operating outside this, the rules are different

Emergence

Plans are not linear – they are messy, emergent and uncertain and failing is normal and healthy!

Introduction to Coaching skills for OTs eCourse:Discount code 25% off ….. “ots2014” www.otcoach.com

And a new product…. “From OT idea to value proposition” OR “How to sell OT ”FREE for 2 weeks only! Just email jen@otcoach.com and request access!

Spring 2015 look out for “Enabling Positive Change: Coaching Conversations in Occupational Therapy”

jen@otcoach.com 07772267004 @otcoach @jenngash FB /OTCoach