Aanpak evalueer, leer en verbeter in het sociaal domein
Are we doing what is right and are we doing it well? Explore multiple perspectives in stories and discover strengths and opportunities for change
De aanpak in het sociaal domein bestaat uit:
A. Online infrastructure
We designed and developed a customized StoryPoint and dashboard for this approach.
B. Tailored storytelling session
We designed work sessions for this approach. Our method is: show - do it together - do it yourself.
C. Structured approach
A structured approach was developed: stories were shared, insights were built, implementation of ideas and evaluation.
Based on lived experiences
Kenmerkend voor ons werk is: Wij werken met verhalen (reflecties op situaties) van alle betrokkenen in het sociaal domein en doen dit op een gestructureerde manier waarbij we uitgaan dat kennis aanwezig is bij werknemers, cliënten om inzicht op te bouwen en met elkaar te leren en te verbeteren. We ontwikkelen samen de infrastructuur (vertelpunt, dashboard) en de manier (werkwijze) om te kunnen werken met verhalen. Wij leren jongeren, ouders, teams/organisaties dit aan en blijven aangesloten voor eventueel vragen, begeleiding advies, ed
Evaluate, learn and improve using stories
Why work with stories?
Reasons to work with stories are: a. Stories help us to understand (experiences of) people and gain a picture of situations. b. In stories, there is a lot of information for building insights and generating rough ideas for change, experiments, and/or initiatives. c. By telling a story, the storyteller reflects on his/her own life and actions, initiating change. d. Stories make visible what remains hidden without them. In organizations, this is referred to as the undercurrent. e. Everyone can tell stories, and no one is excluded. f. Stories are easy to remember and thus powerful in storytelling.
Verhaal uit de praktijk
One example project that adopted this approach is the Regional Safety Team in the Foodvalley region. Here, we supported this team for a period of 2.5 years in working with stories. Stories are shared from multiple perspectives: 1. Parents, family, and young people if possible. 2. Team members of Foodvalley. 3. Employees of the Social Team. Every six months, we work with stories from different perspectives. Together, we discover what we can learn from them and what we can improve. For instance, we evaluated, using the stories, how the principles are experienced in practice. We initiated small adjustments to further strengthen what is going well and improve what needed to change. Based on this, the team devised and implemented 5 adjustments.
Evaluate, learn and improve using stories
Hard and soft data
Hard and soft data are often viewed in competition with each other. This is not the case for us. We use both hard and soft data to increase understanding and develop ideas for change. The number of assistance requests, waiting times, the duration of guidance, and the number of escalations are hard data that can be quantified. In stories, people express how they experience the assistance, what they think is going well. These are stories that people may share with friends and family about the youth care they receive. We refer to this narrative information as soft data. After sharing a story, the storyteller answers a set of questions about the story, such as what emotions were experienced, the theme of the story, etc. For us, this is a form of more concrete soft data. We use both counting and storytelling data and both are used in work sessions.
Shifts in practice
Als je continu met verhalen in het sociaal domein werkt dan kan je ook het mogelijke effect van uitgevoerde acties in de praktijk monitoren. Als je verandering ziet in de verhalen of in de beantwoording van de vragen over het verhaal, dan bespreek je met elkaar of dat door de ingezette acties komt. Of dat er iets anders aan de hand is dat zorgt voor verandering. Zo kan je in het complexe domein veranderingen monitoren voordat effecten zichtbaar worden in hardere data zoals begeleidingsduur.