Eden Alternative Tip of the Week: Embraching Change with Humor

St. John's Home in Rochester, NY is pursuing a radically new organizational model and our neighborhood teams still struggle with artifacts from the old model of care. During a recent gathering of our Neighborhood Team Guides, the group sought closure on the past few years and began to look ahead to the process of changing roles.

 
Change can be difficult to promote, as we have to encourage new approaches, while not dishonoring people for their past work. There was much concern about striking the right balance, and one of the team members, Mimi DeVinney, came up with a clever and fun way to do this. She constructed a "Mad-Lib". Each team got the list of word types they needed to come up with (e.g., adjective, verb, positive emotion, negative emotion, co-worker, regulation, etc.). After each team made their list, they were given the text to plug the words into and read back their result to the large group. The text was "A Eulogy for the Institution." The eulogy had both positive and negative associations, as in real life, and the mad-lib style made it light and humorous for all.

 
Here's how it works...

 
“We've come here today in memory of The Institution. The Institution was our (1 - relationship). It was a (2 - positive adjective) Institution, a (3 - negative adjective) Institution, and above all, a (4 - past tense strong feeling) Institution.

 
Institution lived a good life. It existed for (5 - long period of time), and it dreamt of becoming (6 - legendary place). It survived many (7 - emergency code at the home), and overcame (8 - unpleasant situation at the home). Those who knew it, know that its (9 - negative association with a nursing home) kept it from achieving all its dreams, but that didn't stop it from building a reputation for (10 - positive association with a nursing home).

 
Reputation wasn't the defining element of The Institution. It's real heart was its staff. Looking at this group of (11 - word for workers), this is evident. I see (12 - person in the room) and (13 - person in the room) here today, each of whom made The Institution very (14 - positive feeling). I see members of (15 - department at the home) here, whom Institution loved since their day of hire. I've heard stories of (16 - task at the home) at (17 - a place in the nursing home), long nights of (18 - task at the home), fond memories of eating (19 - favorite food at the home) and days spent playing (20 - game played at the home). I've heard stories of the sacrifices made for the Institution, going without (21 - necessity of life), so The Institution could have (22 - tradition at the home), and comply with (23 - nursing home regulation).

 
I think it will make it easier to say goodbye, knowing how much Institution was (24 - opinion of another) and how it was (25 - past tense feeling) in its lifetime. Institution lived a good life and may (26 - a higher power) bless it. Amen.”

 
(Ad lib activity created by Mimi DeVinney, care partner from St. John's in Rochester, NY.)