Doing Good Work in the Caring Professions

How do we do good work? I do not think it matters what you do in life but I do think it is important to most of us to know that we are doing a great job. It is no different in the caring professions. For me hearing a clients successes however small or amazingly enormous is rewarding. When I talk to clients and my colleagues about what works, what has been useful? I am exploring my work practices, my successes and my failings. I am continually looking at increasing my tool box by reviewing what is current and taking the opportunity to embrace new learning's.

This type of analytical approach to my work practice is important to me and my belief in doing good work. Now we are getting down to my beliefs, interesting to share beliefs :-). I believe every person accessing my service deserves the best that I can offer. Not only am I worthy of making sure my work is at least good, but I believe my clients are worthy of a professional with great skills. What do you believe? How do you evaluate what you do? How do you plan for your future work? Or as one of my favorite guru's says "how do you role?"

In the past I have found it frustrating working with people in the caring professions, not only as a colleague but as a professional attempting to be in the industry in work places. Some workplaces and workers do not have the opportunity to continually evaluate what they do, these people and work places are so busy, so consumed by workloads, and so unsupported in what they do, that they do not have the time or the desire to do anything other than what they already know. Those who attempt to evaluate, analyse and plan in these environments are so busy that often what they attempt to achieve is tokenistic and of little value. I not only find this frustrating but interesting because I know that I can not work in these environments, in this way. I know that to keep doing what I do with people I need to be assessing the value of my work and looking for improvement in my work practice, skill base, and effectiveness. It is a fact that others can and do, do, the caring profession differently to me.

The way some of us do our work is the way that we have always done our work and quite possibly the way that it will be done in the future, this is more than just no time, no support. The way of doing ...becomes a faith, a belief system in how things work. I find these work practices are inhibiting the current resources of workers, and denying some workers the opportunity to do anything differently. Most people in these industries are good workers, and they have done good work, and will continue to do good work.

So you might ask what is the big deal? They are doing good work. It is difficult for me to put this concern into words I will attempt this by using the example of a kid with a yoyo. Billy has learnt to walk the dog; he is truly amazing at walking the dog. He believes this is the only trick he needs to know to show his capacity as a great yoyo artist. He finds that he impresses people, he has won competitions and everyone knows that Billy is good at walking the dog. Billy is offered the opportunity to learn new tricks, to become a great yoyo artist, and decides it is more important to do what he is doing, he thinks he should focus on his trick and is happy to walk the dog. Billy is offered other learning's but he wants to just walk the dog. Billy grows up and he can walk the dog. He does not impress as many people, but he can walk the dog. Now I am not comparing the caring professionals to a young Billy with a yoyo, but I can see the learning in the comparison. Even with those of us who have learnt many yoyo tricks.

I remember recently reading a passage in a book the Monk who sold his Ferrari, I will attempt to recapture it, it went something like this. The student asks the monk 'teach me everything you know'. The monk replies by starting to pour a cup of tea and says ‘I will show you what I know’, and keeps pouring the cup of tea, the tea is spilling all over the table, all over the floor, all over the rug and the students says 'what on earth are you doing?' the monk says ‘the cup is full’. ‘Yes says the student but you are getting tea everywhere’. ‘Yes says the monk, that is because the cup is full’. The monk says ‘if we already have a full cup there is no room for anything more.’ If we already know all there is to know there is no room for more learning.

The caring industry workers, me included are often guilty of full cups. How is it possible to continue our growth, our worth, our ability if we already know everything there is to learn? Is walking the dog enough? Are we being useful to our client base? So please ask yourself how do you explore, analyse, and progress what you do? How do you do good work? I hope you take the time to reflect on your achievements, discover your strengths, evaluate your good work, and plan for your future work. I hope you found this useful.

Many thanks to the people I learn from, the inspiring good company I keep, and all of the amazingly talented professionals out there doing good work, and those of you who choose to learn more than one trick :-)