Go Nigella

Please Note: All the names and places mentioned in Lucy's blog have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

Last Christmas a directive came from my brother and sister in law who were kindly hosting us on the 24thDecember to say we were going for the £5 or under option for Christmas presents this year. I decided to make chocolate brownies for everyone. I told a friend of mine, she decided to too. We shopped: boxes, ribbons, ingredients. We baked. We packed. Yum.

A central part of my work introducing and developing the use of intensive interaction within a house environment is working with staff teams to produce a plan for the next 3 months. I often use the PATH format (prepare yourself – Planning Alternative Tomorrow’s with Hope – I warned you!)

The first part is to co create a no holes barred vision of how things could be. Forget cuts, redundancies, time restrictions, what is your dream of how an environment would look when intensive interaction is at the it’s core?

One of my favourite visions is

‘No 47 Traymill Close is a place where lives become richer through freedom of expression, connections, laughter and fun. We are passionate about communication not medication.’

Then we come back to down to earth and start to look at the nuts and bolts. How would this look in 6 months time? 3 months time? Then what are the first steps to make this happen? I usually miss out the explanation of what PATH stands for.

This starts a conversation amongst the team for them to predict what is needed in their own individual setting for intensive interaction to flourish. Ideally staff present will have attended an intensive interaction introduction course. Creating goals for the next 3 months basically boils down to making educated guesses. The goals are in many ways secondary, the key thing is that the suggestions and thoughts from staff become useful conversation pieces.

After 3 months we hold a review and the process starts again. Creating this rhythm keeps ii on the agenda, keeps people grounded and focused on doable tasks. Often there are interventions in between. Preparing for one of these reviews I looked back at the January meeting and was amused to see that chocolate brownies had featured. Not literally, they wouldn’t have survived the 40 minute car journey there, but metaphorically. I quote my notes…

“Imagine you’ve just eaten the most delicious cakes in the world and you’d love to have some more. You find out there’s a recipe and you suggest to your friends that you take it in turns to make brownies each week for a coffee morning.

‘There’s great anticipation you’ve told everyone how fabulous these cakes are and the recipe is sent off. What do you think are some of the key things you as a group need to know to follow the recipe for chocolate brownies successfully and fulfil that anticipation?”

Well, you probably need to know how to read; you need to know what the ingredients mean, and how to measure out ingredients.

Goal setting can be challenging, but I find without this 3 month process, while teams are in the process of embedding II into the culture that teams can loose touch with the enormous task.

Asking teams the question, ‘What do you think are some of the key things you as a group need to know for ii to continue to develop and grow within this setting’, will help promote discussion and to inform what your next goals are.

Bringing along a few batches of ‘Brownies’, page 193, ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’, by Nigella Lawson, might help hold their interest as well.