0:00 Kirsten: Open share.
0:01 Elena: Can you see? Can everyone see that?
[On-screen text: WIRE Wellbeing Tool – Adapted Learning Loop]
0:03 Kirsten: Yes, we can.
0:06 Elena: Thank you. Okay, so just a bit of background about why we’ve been around for 40 years and we support women, gender diverse and non-binary people across Victoria. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because I believe you're going to get these slides. The main thing.
0:21 Kirsten: Can everyone still see the slides? No, we can’t. Can you share them please.
0:28 Elena: Again? Okay, sure. I'll try that again.
0:30 Kirsten: Okay, no worries.
0:32 Elena: All right, have you got them now?
0:35 Kirsten: Yes, we do. Excellent, thank you.
0:37 Elena: Fantastic technology yet again. Okay, cool. So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail. We've been around 40 years,
0:45
as I said. Roundabout, 50% or half of all of our requests for information related to family
[On-screen text: Background
Wire: generalist service for 40 years supporting women, nonbinary and gender diverse people across Victoria
Our work: Information Referral – 1st point of contact on any issue or when other support not available (phone/webchat/email/F2F/website)
Engagement & Education – create free resources & design free workshops responding to emerging issues aimed at the community
Contextualise Social Issues – consult with community sector about emerging issues & seek information from experts to contextualise the systemic barriers individuals are facing.
Develop Solutions – work with impacted individuals and communities to co-design solutions and test them.
Professional Development & Training – translate this knowledge into practical training sessions for services & agencies to overcome systemic barriers and respond to the needs of individuals facing those barriers.
Advocate for change – actively influence systems & public policy and use our expert voice to reach decision-makers.]
0:53 Elena: violence. So that's why we're involved, I suppose. So particular our approach to wellbeing and Wire was to be explicit and intentional in what we did. Over the last 12 months, which is the context, which was your question, Kirsten, was about... We've had lots of change. So, we've got a new strategic plan, a new CEO, a new structure, and picking up on Kelly's comment before, we've got new premises as well. So, we had a whole lot of things change and so yeah, lots of chaos. We also introduced, as part of our wellbeing approach, was to include the reflective supervision, and that's obviously been talked about by the last two groups as well. So that's been really important for us. One of the things that we are super happy about, and I'm going to use that language, we had our next PERMAH survey, the second round, just a few weeks ago, and we accomplished an improvement across all factors, and that's in this maelstrom of change that we've had. So, we regard that as just sensational. So, the impact of that is that we're very proud of what we’ve done and it demonstrates that wellbeing is really starting to work at Wire, which is fantastic. So let me take you on through the next slide.
[On-screen text: Wellbeing approach
25 Staff, 1 site in Melbourne CBD
In last 12 months: new strategic plan, new CEO, new structure, new premises…lots of disruption
Updated Supervision, EE) & OHS Policies
Set up 3 wellbeing coaching teams: Leadership, Development & Operations, Community
Results: Wellbeing framework (from staff & volunteer survey), Adapted learning loop, Started on self-assessment tool, PERMAH survey change]
2:25 Kirsten: I love that. That's amazing, Elena.
2:27 Elena: Thank you.
2:28 Kirsten: You can tick that box of accomplishment. Well done.
2:31 Elena: Thank you. And it's good to use these other tools. I'm really enjoying this process. Okay, so what we've done is we adapted the learning loop. That was one of the ones available to us, and Linda suggested that that might be useful to us. And we built upon WIRTE's good practise of our model that we use for interactions. And of course, the learning loop model is act, assess, and adjust, and the Wire model, which is that bottom arrow I've got down there is listen, validate, explore, and empower. And we do that in all our interactions, both in the phone room, face-to-face, amongst staff, right across the organisation. So, it was a good way to reinforce that knowledge and good use of how we were already working together. So, it was a very useful process. The learning loop was really useful for us because it enabled us to find a way to utilise everybody's experience, give them the opportunity to contribute and to try and manage, in whatever way, the change that was happening. So we've used it on multiple occasions and it’s enabled us to actually go through and look at what are we doing well, what can we change, what are the opportunities and so on. And so that's
[On-screen text: Development & Operations Coaching: Adapted Learning Loop Tool
Adapted Leaning Loop
Introduction: Systems and processes in an organisation can be improved over time by applying reflection and learning. The Learning Loop (McQuaid & Melville, 2019) is an establish framework that can guide that procedure. WIRE has developed a model to guide personal interactions. The model is underpinned by strengths-based, trauma informed practice aimed to empower the people involved. It complements the Learning Loop.
The Learning Loop explained
The Learning Loop promotes a psychologically safe learning culture that promotes curiosity, creativity and generosity over judgment and perfection. This process focuses on identifying opportunities for better practice, establishing agreed actions and introducing new practices. It includes delivering specific actions and outcomes to assist with embedding the improvement. The intention is to build future positive outcomes:
Act – playful experimentation – take action towards our goals, Assess – practice your growth mindset – reflect on the impact of actions. Adjust – reach for self-compassion – leverage our learning and try again.
WIRE’s model explained
Drawing on strengths-based principles including the assumption that we are experts in our own lives, the WIRE model is a four-step action-oriented process designed to encourage progress towards self-defined goals:
Listen – listen deeply, with compassion & belief.
Validate – confirm your understanding & affirm strengths and resources of individuals and the organisation
Explore – shared exploration of options
Empower – encourage agency to act
Title of process or system
Summary of process/system
Who is involved and what is their role in the process/system? Name and Role
Review of actions taken
What went well?
Where did we struggle?]
3:56 Elena: where we were able to use it. And then picking up on the last bit, the other half of it. So, we added in a whole lot of different questions that really fit in with our model of what we do. And obviously you could see the optional extra questions, what have you. They're very much strengths-based and trauma informed, which is absolutely what Wire does. Pardon my cough. So it's really been about building up a tool that is very accessible for people very quick, it can also be in depth if it's a bigger change that we're working through and we continue to work through different changes. So finally, a couple of thank you's to Linda.
[On-screen text: Development & Operations Coaching: Adapted Learning loop tool
What have we learned? (While most outcomes are short-lived, it is the learning we get to take forward to the next challenge.)
What are our possible options for next time? (What else do we need to consider?)
Based on this, what will we try next? (Remember that nature wired us all to be perfectly imperfect so that we can learn and grow)
What steps will be taken now:
Optional extra questions:
What impact did we have?
Who else is impacted by this?
What support do we need right now?
What resources do we already have?
What resources do we need?
How can we access them?
What obstacles might we face?
What strengths can we draw from?
Who can we ask for help?
What would make this more energizing?
How will we celebrate?
When will we celebrate?
Thank you for your participation]
4:41 Elena: Great job. The webinar series has been fantastic and lots of people have been going and watching them and continue to watch them. And I've got a book of notes that we continue to use. Obviously, thank you very much to our family safety for enabling us to have this and the staff have been wonderful during all of this chaos that we have been able to contribute and come up with some great results and we continue to work very well towards our wellbeing. That was all my presentation. I wanted to keep it nice and quick. I'll stop sharing.
[On-screen text: With Thanks
Special mentions: Linda Rowley – wellbeing coach – keeping us on track!
Wellbeing Lab webinar series – ongoing source of information and inspiration!
Family Safety Victoria – making this possible & giving us the opportunity!
WIRE staff – being prepared to participate & contribute!
Any questions???]
5:18 Kirsten: Thank you so much, Elena. That was amazing. I especially love how you aligned it with the WIRE model of listen, validate, explore, empower. That’s an excellent approach to any type of communication. I wish every organisation would take advantage of it. And for any comments, please pop them into the chat. Also, if you have any questions, please pop those into the chat as well. I think that was a great example of your ability to bring a whole bunch of ideas together because that’s been a challenge for a lot of organisations, is you involve everyone and that means you have a lot of data to work through. What was your biggest challenge, Elena, that you came across as you were going through the last 12 months?
6:14 Elena: Look, I would say time. Because we had all of the different changes. It was a matter of trying to consciously pay attention to our wellbeing as we were going because so many big changes, so many small changes from, "Where does this box go?" Through to, "How do I deal with this particular person because they're feeling stressed." Or because for whatever, the tech's not working for them, or their manager has disappeared, and they need to find somebody else to report to about a particular thing or something like that. So, this has been a really good anchor to keep thinking, "Okay, looking at the wellbeing, what's going to help all of us to look after our own self-care, but also each other as well." Yeah, that was the biggest change or challenge for us.
7:00 Kirsten: Yeah. But I love how you spun it into a positive. That's awesome. That's what we like to see. Linda's done a good job in coaching.
7:12 Elena: She certainly has, yeah.
7:12 Kirsten: Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing. What I'd like to do is jump onto our next presentation.
[End of transcript]
Updated