Sct in Action by Susan P. Gantt and Yvonne M. Agazarian

Author:Susan P. Gantt and Yvonne M. Agazarian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Taking the Next Steps

During the next few months, Operation Join took on a different tone. Members explicitly supported the CEO at meetings—often a member sat next to the CEO—members consciously used “I” statements instead of questions, and, using eye contact, helped each other to contain impulses and slow down the pace of the meeting so that they were able to respond by joining rather than reacting too quickly with discharges. Outside of the meetings, the JSO staff became more proactive in addressing problems with employee benefits and with agency procedures that interfered with their ability to (unction as clinicians. When met with frustration, they reminded each other that frustration is information about the level of functioning of the agency and that such information was what they needed in order to make decisions about continuing to work at this agency. In the meantime, rumors of financial disaster were becoming more frequent in the agency, but there were, as yet, no facts available to support or refute those rumors.

Eventually, we did discover that the rumors about our shaky finances were true and that the agency was being acquired by a larger organization. For the acquisition to take place, however, the agency needed to trim its budget, and management positions, including mine, were eliminated. Although the department members were shocked, angry and upset, I believe the work we had done with Operation Join had prepared them to deal with my departure. For ten months, the JSO staff had practiced opening themselves to their responses without taking them “just personally” and had developed an ability to think in a multi-systems way.

At a final department meeting, the staff explored their sense of “betrayal” of me if they continued to work at the agency. Again, we focused on role and context, and they recognized that “betrayal” was in what SCT calls “person system” and that in their clinical role, the top priority was the clinical work, despite their personal feelings or dissatisfaction in their employee role. The real betrayal would be to let their personal feelings interfere with the clinical work. As a group, we also explored the way that we had created a functional, supportive system in the department and how the staff could continue to build these systems with each other and with their clients—they were no longer dependent on the external structure of the department; they had internalized the basics of a systems-centered relationship and could replicate it with their clients. Finally, we looked at how Operation Join could function independent of a particular department, and that they had created a system among themselves that was not dependent on me as the director. Their excitement built as they explored ways that they could take Operation Join into their new situation and use this functional subgrouping system to support themselves and the new director as the new team was forming. One of the staff told me at the end of the day that she had dreaded our last department meeting, expecting it to be a “cry fest” but instead came away full of hope.

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