I am now training and quality improvement coordinator, reporting to the
Quality Assurance Manager for Region 17 ( of 20) for the newly formed
Ministry of Children and Families in the Province of British Columbia.
I have direct access to the Regional Operating Officer (ROO), who is much
like the VP of a semi-autonomous division of a large coorporation. She
believes in the Learning Organization, CQI and her vision includes
creating her region in that vision.
The new Ministry(called "MacFamily" by most now) has been put together
from pieces and programs formerly of other ministries, such as Social
Services, Drug and Alcohol(children'd prgrammes), Probation, etc. The
largest segment being the former Social ServicesMinistry. You can imagine
the cultural fractionation and shock among all. There is great hurry to
put together a new infrastructure to delivery services in the new way(the
vision) while little continuing to maintain services (the old way).
Does anyone have similar experience, or been in a similar situationand can
offer some wise words of comfort and support? One of my tasks is to build
multi-disciplinary (or cross-functional teams) to provide a continuum of
services to children and familiesin "neighborhood" centers. And in a way
that can be measured, evaluated and "continuously improved".
These teams will consist of professionals ( social service, psychiatrists,
mental health, probation, nursing, etc. ) from among the above mentioned
"cannabilized" ministries who have not worked this way before, and who
come from different "cultures" and value-sets. In addition, the provincial
government, and the public service bureaucacyholds the purse strings, and
that includes the number of FTEs ( full time positions) available to each
region.
I'd appreciate any commentary about his scenario.
----Tim J. Sullivan, Vancouver, BC
"Material and opinions contained within are solely those of the
author and do not represent in whole or in part the position of
the Ministry for Children and Families or the Government of
British Columbia."
--"Tim Sullivan" <TJSULLIV@BCSC02.GOV.BC.CA>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>