Challenge your peers’ response by discussing your perspective on how the emergent approach to planning can be useful in this instance. Each of your responses to your classmates should be at least 150 words in length, and include an APA formatted scholarly resource. In your response post, please provide a thoughtful reply to promote discussion, critical thinking, and class interaction, and provide an open-ended question for each of your colleagues.
DISCUSSION 1 (Kayla)
Following a nonrational, nonlinear view of planning, and guided by social constructivist social learning, and sense-making theories, in program planning you may see a more collaborative, less reductionistic approach to decision-making. This is an approach you might use when you have an opportunity in which you learn along the way, letting what happens guide where you go. Sometimes, there are what appear to be intractable challenges that are beyond one-size-fits-all remedies offering predictable, measurable results (Netting, 2008).
I believe that we often ignore what is right under our nose. A program might be running itself into the ground, but we think that it is not our job or our place to say something about it. I loved the example in the reading this week regarding nursing homes and treatment of the elderly. Sometimes fixing a problem isn’t completely reconstructing a program, it is simply getting to know the population you are working with and accommodating it accordingly.
If a program is defunct and running inefficiently, management must stop and look at what is causing the inefficiencies. It is too easy to become mundane in the day-to-day operations and overlook simple discrepancies that are being made. Understanding the problem and acting are two very different things. Once the issues are assessed, action must follow otherwise the plan to improve will just fizzle out. Creating a plan to improve within the management team with a feasible timeline should be the first step, then monitoring the active timeline all the way through should keep things on pace. Ensuring that everyone is on the same page and is working diligently towards the end goal must be monitored as well. Programs can hit a rough spot, but staying there should never be an option.
I absolutely loved this statement right here. Managers keep forgetting that it is what they do, not what they plan, that explains their success. They keep giving credit to the wrong thing—namely, the plan—and having made this error, they then spend more time planning and less time acting . . . when more planning improves nothing (Weick, 1995, p. 55).
Reference: Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program
planning. Wiley.
Challenge your peers’ response by discussing your perspective on how the emergent approach to planning can be useful in this instance. Each of your responses to your classmates should be at least 150 words in length, and include an APA formatted scholarly resource. In your response post, please provide a thoughtful reply to promote discussion, critical thinking, and class interaction, and provide an open-ended question for each of your colleagues.
DISCUSSION 2 (Rebecca)
How do you determine when a program modification is necessary?
There are many ways to evaluate if a program is successful. Some companies use an audit system from both the clients and staff and formulate the findings with the data with outside sources to cut down on the biases by using a mixed method both qualitive and quantitative formula. Another way to observe if a program is successful or needs changing is if the program could generate enough revenue to become self- sustaining. When I was the director of a treatment program, we used the power of observation to ensure all areas of the curriculum were used, we could tell if it was not because the offender would become restless, and chaotic at times which mean that staff were not doing their jobs. To determine the overall need of the program modifications were made by evaluating different areas of the programs from both an internal source and outside point of view. Over time revisions are made to meet the conditions of the programs and the governmental guidelines. Often new goals were set to redefine the mission’s visions to adhere to the new standards. Goals of programs are often set to meet the needs of the person it is set to serve; however, goals also are set for the employees to reach. Employee goals are also known as standard operating procedures SOP or policies and procedures PNP’s. Most if not all programs have such standards which could be called different things. Having a good understanding of a program’s objectives and goals will help managers and their employees to modify programs to meet the needs of people while making improvements. Netting, O’Conner and Fauri (2008) suggested that using the logic of emergence is a way for which discovery occurs which will give a tentative understanding of problems.
What do you believe are the most vital steps to modifying an existing, but inefficient or defunct program?
I personally believe using evaluation tools and communicating the findings with employees could be the most effective way to modify existing programs if the suggestion for change is within the guidelines that were set up to follow the mission and vision of the programs. Often the people in charge are just looking at numbers. Whereas the employee is concerned about the numbers but also about the people it serves.
Reference Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program planning. Wiley.
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