LASTING CHANGE REQUIRES ADVANCE PREPARATION

Using executive function principles and concepts in human service programs requires that programs structure and do their work differently.  While it is tempting to start by training staff how to do their work differently, it is important to start by assessing your current approach to service delivery and making changes that are realistic given your current context.

For example, does your agency's mission support customer choice? Do they allow participants to focus on small steps to build their executive function skills and to build self-confidence?  Are staff accountability measures consistent with an approach that supports client choice and small steps?

The resources below can help you to gauge your readiness for change and guide you through a process to get there. These resources take different approaches to organizational readiness.  We suggest that you browse through them first to decide which seems best suited to your management style and your organizational context.  
CREATING A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR CHANGE (25 pages)
This guide is designed for programs working with low income families to use as a resource when implementing a new approach to doing business, such as integrating executive function principles and practices into their work.   It focuses on looking at readiness for change, so that the improvements will take root and grow in fertile ground. It is built on an appreciative inquiry approach which deliberately asks positive questions to encourage constructive dialogue and inspire action.  This guide focuses on six stages that organizations or programs can use to prepare themselves for change:  describe, reflect, assess, focus, plan and learn.   
EXECUTIVE SKILLS IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT:  A GUIDE TO APPLYING EXECUTIVE SKILLS IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AND EMPLOYMENT SOCIAL ENTERPRISES (42 pages)
New Moms, a workforce development program and social enterprise, developed a series of tools to help program leaders and frontline staff integrate executive function skills and principles into their programs.  The “Readiness Checklist” is designed to help program leaders assess their readiness to move to an executive function-oriented approach, and the “Environmental Modifications” tool is designed to guide program leaders through an assessment of the program environment to identify ways to alleviate potential barriers and better support goal achievement.
FAMILY-CENTERED COACHING: ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS & CREATING PARTNERSHIPS (40 pages)
This guide explores how organizations can take three steps to assess their readiness to successfully create new ways of working with families as they strive to reach their goals.  The three steps are: (1) assessing your organizational readiness for coaching; (2) assessing organizational readiness for whole family work; and (3) developing partnerships to support family-centered coaching. This guide is accompanied by a Family-Centered Coaching Toolkit. Both of these resources encourage organizations to examine readiness and develop their coaching model through a racial equity lens.
PRACTITIONER'S PLAYBOOK FOR APPLYING BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS TO LABOR PROGRAMS (31 pages)
A key organizational strategy for improving programs using executive function concepts and principles is reducing the complexity of program requirements in order to reduce the demands on participants’ executive function skills.  Behavioral science provides a number of insights for how to do this.  This playbook was developed to give program administrators and managers in employment and related programs an overview of how they can use insights from behavioral science to improve the effectiveness of their programs and services. These two guides – one on steps to improving programs using behavioral insights and one on using behavioral insights to improve communications – are quick guides that identify the kinds of changes programs can undertake to improve their effectiveness. While staff can implement some of these changes on their own, many are within the purview of program administrators.  Making these changes before investing heavily in staff training can help to create a better environment for implementing an executive function-informed service delivery approach.
RESTORING LIVELIHOODS WITH PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT:  PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF BRAIN SCIENCE TO LIVELIHOOD INTERVENTIONS (9:51)
This World Bank series introduces why and how "livelihood" initiatives can be designed to appropriately and ethically respond to psychosocial and mental health needs. The fourth video in the series provides specific examples of strategies based in an understanding of executive function and behavioral science that organizations can implement to create environments, materials and staff interactions that maximize participants' chances of success.    
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE:
This site is the product of a collaboration between Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP)  and Global Learning Partners (GLP), made possible through support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.