Capstone

Outcomativity: Destroying the Box

by Joe Mills, Director of Quality Outcomes, Threshold Rehabilitation Services

“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half a hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” –Lewis Carroll

Outcome-a-what? Outcomativity – It is what we do best! It is what we do everyday as we support individuals through Personal Outcome Measures. Supporting individuals with disabilities often challenges us to think in non-traditional ways. In other words, we are challenged to be creative as we develop new and exciting ways to support individuals. Sometimes we do this individually, more often we are a part of a team of individuals. Simply put, Outcomativity is the combination of two words: outcome and creativity.

Personal outcomes are the heart of what we do. We listen and learn from people with disabilities in order to discover what is most important to them. We then are challenged to develop a plan which supports the person to achieve their outcomes. Individuals who have more life experiences, greater skills and ability make our task easier because they can move forward with their life with minimal support. However, others may be more challenging to the team because they have fewer life experiences, and may not have as much skill and ability to be more independent without additional support.

In all cases we use our creativity to develop the supports necessary to assist the individual to achieve his or her outcomes. “Thinking out of the box” challenges us to break away from traditional thinking and planning. However, the key focus with Outcomativity is not to “think out of the box” because OUTCOMATIVITY HAS NO BOX! No impossibilities to bog us down!

Outcomativity dares us to destroy the box and to look at the impossible. Outcomativity demands that we practice the impossible every day. We can do this using three phrases to guide our thinking: “What if we …” – “What else …” – and “Why Not…"! These three prefixes are powerful tools to enhance creative thinking. Traditional thinking (“in the box”) often creates more barriers than solutions. These three prefixes are powerful enough to destroy the box of traditional thinking – freeing our creativity.

“What if we…” presents unlimited possibilities to brainstorm ideas that surround the individual with creative thinking. With this, the team takes a “no idea is wrong” approach to experience real outcomativity.

What if we tried…
What if we did…
What if we acted…
What if we believed.

“What else…” enables us to break away from traditional thinking that simply re-treads old ideas. This prefix encourages teams to look beyond what has been tried before inviting them to get out and destroy the box.

What else can we do…
What else can we see….
What else do we hear…

"Why Not?" really destroys the box challenging the team to become creative. It commits us to find solutions by adopting a “can do” or a “whatever it takes” attitude of support and action.

Why not do….
Why not create….
Why not be…..

Outcomativity Challenge:

Are you ready for the outcomativity challenge? Here goes.

Get together with at least 5 people you work with and think about one person you support. Using the Outcomativity prefixes of “What if we…” “What else…” and “Why Not…” and without discussing your thoughts list a minimum of 5 ideas for each of the Outcomativity thoughts for the individual you have chosen to discuss.

Rules: Accept all ideas! No idea is wrong! During discussion the team lists all positive thoughts about an idea first.

The result is:
1. You start with a fairly large number of ideas, i.e., 5 times the number of participants.
2. You get the benefit of everyone’s thinking not just those who always speak up!
3. This process confirms that everyone has something positive to offer!

Put your Outcomativity ideas to work!

One last thought: Make it fun and before long you will believe in impossible things –even before breakfast!

Threshold Rehabilitation Services is accredited by The Council on Quality and Leadership.