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Welcome back to The Dyslexic/Dyspraxic Social Worker: A conversation starter for social work leaders. This week is the final episode of the series, episode six, where we will explore the question How can leaders inspire change?
Last week, in episode five, we explored how we can challenge associations we hold outside our conscious awareness and control. We might hold these associations and unconscious biases because; we think other people think the same, we don’t want to rock the boat, because we only seek out information which confirms our thought/beliefs or because we seek familiarity.
Association and unconscious biases can discriminate against neurodivergent social workers and negatively impact the support they receive from the organisation, their experience in the workplace and their ability to turn up to work.
However, these associations and unconscious biases can be challenged if leaders complete self-reflective work, encourage others in the organisation to do the same and give others the tools to self-reflect.
How can leaders inspire change?
As a leader, you can inspire change at all levels of your organisation. As a front-line neurodivergent social worker, I know we need this change now. So, what can you do?
Self-reflect:
As social workers, we always reflect as it informs our practice, decision making and planning. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that I have suggested this in almost every post and therefore, I will not go into a lengthy explanation on why you need to reflect.
It’s important for you as a leader to reflect on if you are prepared to lead change:
Do you have the skills?
Do you have knowledge?
Do you have the tools?
Do you know what your neurodivergent social workers want to see change?
Do you know the aim and purpose of change?
Do you have enough active allies to set the tempo of change across the organisation?
Be realistic:
We can all have grand plans of how we envision something to go. However, when affecting change, it is important to be realistic because this can help you identify barriers and plan on how to overcome them before they arrive.
Moreover, affecting change is hard, and you need to be prepared for this. Set up a team of active allies across the organisation to help you in times of resistance and struggle.
Finally, you won’t get everything right the first time and this is important. Even if you co-produce an idea with neurodivergent social workers, it might not work the first time. You might need to come together on more than one occasion and regularly review the changes you are trying to make. Know this is normal and it’s important to always strive for excellence – if we think we’ve achieved it the first time, we are missing something.
Be humble:
Finally, and most importantly, you need to be humble as a leader.
You don’t know everything about being a neurodivergent social worker - especially when we are all unique neurosparkly fingerprints – and that is ok. Be honest about areas of knowledge or skills that you need to develop. Ask others for help whilst you are growing and developing. Ensure you do everything in collaboration with neurodivergent social workers.
It is important that you don’t make the change about yourself or your vision for the organisation. The changes are for neurodivergent social workers and the neurodivergent people they work with, this should be the cornerstones of everything you do.
Thank you for joining us on this 6 part series. If you are interested in writing a blog post or would like to learn more about how to support dyslexic/dyspraxic social workers, get in touch.
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