Resources

Marshaling Resources for Personal Outcomes

James Gardner, Ph.D., President and CEO, The Council on Quality and Leadership

The Personal Outcome Measures are action oriented. Individuals and organizations learn about and become proficient in personal outcomes through implementation. Studying the personal outcomes and preparing for implementation may provide a steady approach, but it does not result in action learning. The action learning begins when individuals and organizations engage people in a dialogue about their personal outcomes and then coordinate organization resources to facilitate those outcomes.

Conducting personal outcome interviews is not enough. Organizations sometimes mistakenly believe that personal outcome interviews alone will result in increased quality in supports and services. Individuals and organizations need to take the next step and marshal organizational resources to facilitate the identified outcomes. Marshaling resources may include restructuring the organization, changing position descriptions, reassigning staff, finding new organizational partners in the community, or intersecting informal support networks.

The Personal Outcome Measures provide an integrated and comprehensive approach to organizational management. They offer:

A person-centered planning model that is based on personal interviews with each individual. The Personal Outcome Measures provide a consistent framework for talking with people and identifying their personal outcomes.
A systematic approach to marshaling organizational resources that is grounded in the personal interview process. The Personal Outcome Measures guide organizational change and ground it in the advancement of personal outcomes. Changes in mission, structure, and staffing take place in the context of increasing the opportunity for facilitating personal outcomes for people receiving services and supports. High quality dynamic organizations understand the close linkage between learning about personal outcomes and the rationale for making organizational change.
A comparative self-assessment model that is based on the person-centered planning model and that will measure organizational efforts to marshal resources to facilitate outcomes. The organizational self-assessment is based on the same values, language, and measurement of the person-centered planning model.
An independent, third party evaluation in the form of an accreditation review that is based on the Personal Outcome Measures validates organizational success in marshaling resources to facilitate outcomes.

The Personal Outcome Measures provide a common thread that links the process of person-centered planning, organizational change management, and self-assessment and an independent third party accreditation review with common values, language, and measurement. The Personal Outcome Measures offer a seamless approach to organizational management.