I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the weekly Great Interactions blog and I should like to thank all my colleagues and guest writers who have shared their stories. Each one is unique and I find there is always some new insight and something to learn. Collectively they add up to convey a real sense of common purpose right across MacIntyre; colleagues everywhere being thoughtful about their work and how to improve the little things, the everyday interactions or moments that, although are fleeting, are still important. The sum total of all these everyday interactions, these quickly passed moments, the hundreds and thousands of little positive experiences is to help someone feel like they are leading a life well-lived: it has a purpose.
Everyone has their part to play: colleagues on night duty doing the ironing at Wingrave School at 02.00 in the morning helping a restless student to settle back into bed; a support worker at Woodacre in Essex helping someone to scramble eggs for the first time; a No Limits Community Learning Facilitator in Nottingham encouraging a reluctant teenager to try a new activity; a Support Worker in Waring Close, Leicester massaging the feet of someone who loves sensory stimulation; a volunteer in Warrington sharing their time with someone who likes reminiscing; an administrator in Ellesmere Port helping a tenant with their paper work... I could go on for pages.
Indeed we could write a book- and we did! The new edition of the Great Interactions book was published this year and I love all the stories, just like those above. I have given a copy to many people I meet during the course of my work- actually most people! Invariably they write to me a few weeks later saying how inspired they were and questioning why Great Interactions is not taught everywhere. But I know no one is resting on their laurels- central to the whole approach of developing a facilitative way of working is the idea of continuous improvement. Like Andy Murray still trying to perfect his backhand I am still trying to perfect my listening skills and some colleagues think this will be a lifetime endeavour!
Next year we will be making more of the new “My Key to Developing Facilitation Skills”. Thank you to the many colleagues who have helped to develop and pilot this new reflective tool and the feedback to date has been really encouraging and your work has led to our nomination for a Skills for Care award. I look forward to lots more stories and how your equivalent of the Andy Murray “backhand” is coming on.
But of course the most important thing is to remember the point of all our hard work: encouraging purposeful lives. Perhaps it is partly this that will give our lives purpose too?
Bill Mumford
CEO
MacIntyre