Turning Goals Into Action!
by Family Councils Ontario
For this week's 'Back to Basics' blog post, we'll be covering an important topic: how to turn your general goals into actions? Having general goals is essential to success as they provide a structure to your work without limiting your activities. General goals allow your Council some degree of flexibility in choosing which actions and activities to pursue. You can always adjust these goals down the road; start with a few general goals to provide structure to your work and review them after 6-12 months to see what needs to be changed.
Family Councils across the province differ in many ways: size, interests, structure etc... What Councils have in common are 4 common Family Council goals: support, communication & teamwork, education, and advocacy. For a Council just starting out, considering these 4 goals and which they want to focus on in the short and long terms is a good way to move forward as a group. Once you've decided on your goals, include them in your Council's Terms of Reference (for more on Terms of Reference, watch our Terms of Reference: Your Roadmap to Success video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoDDo11TBQs).
Examples of general goals include:
- To inform and educate families
- To share ideas for the purpose of problem solving
- To maintain open communication between families, residents and the Home
- To advocate on behalf of all residents and families
- To provide mutual support for family and friends of residents including those that are new to the Home
These goals are specific enough to shape your work and let you know if a proposed idea or activity fits with what your Council has agreed upon. They're also flexible enough that you can pursue activities that matter to Council members.
So, how do you turn these goals into action? You can start by brainstorming what impacts or activities members want to have in the Home, then ask: does that fit with our goals? If it does, explore how to carry it out. If it doesn't, make a note of it to reflect on later when reviewing your Terms of Reference or doing an Annual Evaluation.
You could also start by doing an Interest Survey of families and friends of the Home to ask them what they would like to learn more about, projects of interest, or changes/improvements to the Home they'd like to see. Then your Council can review and prioritize these ideas to act on.
Another idea is to explore and reflect on what other Councils have done. Check out past issues of Family Council Dispatch or our Facebook page for inspiration.
Whichever way you choose to set your goals and decide on activities to fulfill them, take time to reflect along the way and celebrate your successes! Let us know what you're working on to fulfill your goals on our Facebook page! Visit https://www.facebook.com/FamilyCouncilsOntario to join the conversation!