Healthy Messages™ 6/30/22 Healthy Messages™ 6/30/22

Sharing Intentionally

For individuals in service or people-facing roles, sharing information is an integral part of their work with others. Receiving information is of course relevant for understanding what clients want and/or need but in large part it’s the information that they have to share that prompts a need for their help. Similarly, for individuals receiving services or supports, it is natural to both receive and share information but they are largely motivated to seek out services based on their need for some form of assistance.

Being intentional in sharing information might come easier for professionals or business owners, as well as clients of their services, because there is a specific purpose to achieve. For instance, a financial services professional meeting with a client shares information that pertains to better understanding, growing, and/or protecting money as it relates to that client's goal of investing money for an early retirement by age 60. Or a violin instructor working with a student shares information on how to read and play music in support of that client’s desire to play in their city’s orchestra the following fall. In these examples and other services you can probably think of we see an exchange of specific information with the intention of meeting a specific need.

For all businesses, whether private or for-profit, grant funded, large, or small, it’s important to stay focused on the purpose, the goals that clients want to achieve, and how this relates to the organization’s desired outcomes. Challenges can arise when communication, whether verbal, written, or behavioral, don’t align, resulting in unclear and disjointed inputs and outputs, as well as wasted, misused, even abused resources.

Applying intentionality in sharing can be beneficial organizationally, professionally, and personally. At times though, it can be more difficult to discern intentionality on a personal level. Even within a professional context there is always the possibility for our individual beliefs, values, and passions to motivate us. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially if what motivates us lines up with our organization’s mission, vision, goals, services, and outcomes. However, there may be instances when they don’t because they are inconsistent or contrary to them. Sadly, these inconsistencies are sometimes inappropriate in that they include negative, hurtful, or harmful reactions towards others due to personal challenges that the professional is experiencing. Or it could just be a mismatch in intentions between the professional providing services and the client seeking to access them. Thus, it is important for both parties to be clear and on the same page. Sometimes the work that we do involves uncertainty and depends on the judgment of the professional, which can include some risk, thus practicing discretion or sensitivity to others, as well as one’s environment or context, is crucial. Outside of professional contexts, the same can be applied in our personal lives. We may be motivated by our beliefs, values, and passions to provide support to others, whether friends, family, or strangers. Just the same, we are most effective in relationships with others when we are understanding of and able to effectively meet the needs of others consistently and appropriately.

Personally, professionally, and organizationally, we have an opportunity to share intentionally in the lives of others. What strengths do you possess in sharing intentionally or on purpose with the people in your life? How would you like to grow or improve in this area?

Feel free to share your thoughts on this writing in the comments or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.

Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in service/people-facing roles craft, implement, and improve healthy messages, effectively communicating messages in words, actions, and ideas in one’s life/work, writing, and within and across systems (whole and holistic messaging).

Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.

Healthy Messages™ 8/31/21 Healthy Messages™ 8/31/21

Clear Messages

When something is clear, it means it is ‘not subject to misinterpretation or more than one interpretation’ (Merriam-Webster). I really appreciate the wording of this definition. It speaks to the importance of clarity and consistency in messaging, whether the communication is written, verbal, or nonverbal behavior. This is especially relevant in leadership and organizational and professional development, and I believe a greater focus on improving messaging in these areas would contribute greatly to organizational health and success.

Can you think of a time when you were expected to fulfill a task or assignment but were left with questions about what you should do? What about discrepancies between an organization’s vision/mission, services, and outcomes? Or a leader whose values were not matched by their words and actions? I imagine you have experienced these and/or other instances when messaging was not clear or was contrary to what was intended.

Leaders have a wonderful responsibility and opportunity to cast vision, establish expectations, give instruction and guidance, share strategy, teach, mentor, and model values and behaviors. The messages that leaders convey are extremely important. And not just for leaders in the formal or traditional sense, but for you who influences the lives of people around you every day. Thus, it is important to also consider areas for continuous growth and improvement.

Healthy Messages helps professionals:

Create clear, consistent messaging.
Grow personally and professionally.
Implement practices and systems that support organizational health and success.
Develop tools for evaluating performance and measuring success.
Achieve their unique vision for services or their business.

There are a few questions I would like you to consider:

What do you want to communicate to those who you want to help, lead, or support?
What is your vision or mission?
What goals do you want to accomplish?
What messages do you want to convey in words and actions?
How do you want to grow personally and professionally?

In reviewing these questions consider how a focus on improving messaging can contribute to the bigger picture - organizational health and success.

I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.

Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.

Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.

Healthy Messages™ 6/30/21 Healthy Messages™ 6/30/21

Measuring Success

How is the success of an organization measured? Often success is measured by numbers - how many people are served or products are sold or how much revenue is made. While organizations may be clear on their mission, vision, goals, and maybe even the results they would like to see, one area that I’ve found to be easily and consistently overlooked is how goals/objectives, practices, and outcomes are consistent (or inconsistent) with each other and contribute to success. A question I would like to encourage you to think about is how evaluating progress supports organizational health. As well, consider how you can achieve growth or change by the clarity of your message.

Over the years I have observed this missing link when providing mental health/human services supports more often than not, whether it was for-profit hospitals, non-profit community organizations, or largely government-funded agencies. Although identifying the right goals or questions and the strategies or services needed to achieve outcomes make up the foundations or building blocks of an organization or business, it is unfortunately frequently neglected. On the surface, it may not appear this way - some organizations, especially those which receive Medicaid or other government funding, are familiar with the task of filling out copious amounts of paperwork, even questionnaires that capture demographics and other information about the services individuals are receiving. Yet, when taking a deeper look it becomes clearer that despite these efforts, the most important questions remain unasked and unanswered. Are targets (population, outcomes) being reached? What’s working? What needs to be improved? Are resources being utilized effectively/efficiently? What information is needed and how is information used to achieve goals and outcomes? Is a difference being made and what is its impact? Are alternative solutions needed, and if so, what additional supports are needed or that can or should be outsourced?

It is the absence of these questions and the reality of the answers these questions would produce that has motivated me to advocate for change to support growth. I believe regularly measuring success contributes to the health of individuals (clients and professionals) and organizations as a whole. The information gathered from the ongoing evaluation of leadership, services, and administrative protocols and procedures better informs practice. Not only is it important to close the gaps between goals/objectives, practices, and outcomes, but it is imperative to understand the true impact of efforts. It is my hope that Healthy Messages can be a source of existing data on what makes human services and mental health services in particular successful as well as a resource for related research tools. Additionally, Healthy Message seeks to help shed light on the need for systems of gathering and sharing information and provide solutions for crafting, implementing, and improving healthy messages.

As a leader, how do you measure success? What’s important to you in evaluating growth and change? Please also keep an eye out for opportunities to participate in research from Healthy Messages. Your contribution will help to support efforts to craft, implement, and improve healthy messages for individuals, organizations, and systems at large.