Maintaining Effective Partnerships

We aim to be effective in our partnerships. We are effective when we don’t ignore — instead confront with compassion. We are effective when we don’t do for — instead share responsibilities and redress agency.

family member and behavioral health provider talking in partnership, seated on couch

Staying Effective In the “Zone”

To be effective to the people we support, we must acknowledge the complex reasons they are seeking support. We cannot assume that we understand the individual’s goals and the best way to reach those goals. Instead, we partner with them to develop a menu of supports that the individual and family feel they can achieve independently.

The Washington State Community Connectors (2023) use a framework, The Zone of Usefulness, that can be highly effective to help you identify and evaluate the effectiveness of your partnerships and interactions with individuals and their families. The model is:

  1. Encouraging of autonomy: draws on whole families’ knowledge, skills, and supports as you partner (instead of enabling or ignoring)
    • “Overseeing your daughter’s medication is not working for you and you want her to manage her medication independently.”
  1. Realistic: explores and honors the function(s) of being “outside the zone” at times
    • “It’s sometimes easier to track your daughter’s medication than to worry and wonder if she’s taken it.”
  1. Interactive: offers a framework to help us reflect on previous interactions and plan future interactions
  1. Change-oriented: includes a 7-point scale that invites thinking about successive stages and incremental, sustainable shifts toward effective, authentic partnerships

According to the model, the center of the zone is the target area for effectively and authentically partnering with families. When partners are in the center of the zone, they are making progress toward their goals with autonomy.

zone of usefulness; graphed line ranging from -3 to +3

The lefthand-side of the graphed line (-3 to -1) is colored red. This end of the model represents ignoring in the relationship, or choosing to not give attention to.

The righthand-side of the graphed line (+1 to +3) is colored green. This end of the model represents enabling in the relationship, or doing for to make possible, practical, or easy.

When individuals are in partnership they are neither ignoring nor enabling.

This model facilitates practice:

  1. Identifying useful/not useful interactions in the partnership
    • “I’m not being effective if I’m the only one sharing ideas.”
  2. Evaluating the effectiveness of “enabling” and “ignoring” actions
    • “The family cannot feel valued if I’m making the decisions.”
  3. Exploring how it feels to “enable” and “ignore”
    • “I feel disappointed with myself when I don’t prioritize partnering.“
  4. Making progress toward more effective interactions and relationships
    • “I’m going to do better to encourage the individual and family to share and lead.”

Practice Pause: Staying Effective Intentionally

Gather some note-taking materials (e.g., paper/pen, file on your computer). Then, take a few moments to reflect on an individual and family with whom you currently work.

  1. What issue or topic have you maybe not addressed or ignored?
  2. Is it effective to ignore?
  3. How does ignoring this issue or topic make you feel?
  4. What actions have you taken that could be considered “doing for” the individual and family?
  5. Is it effective to “do for”?
  6. How does “doing for” make you feel?
  7. What do you want to do differently?

On Showing You CARE

We can tend to ignore issues that are awkward or difficult for us to address. As providers, we want to show we CARE by engaging in topics, even when they’re uncomfortable.

CARE: Challenge, Acknowledge, Revisit, and Embrace the silence

  1. CHALLENGE – with compassion, name words and/or actions that are disagreeing or dissonant
    • “You say you don’t want to keep giving him money, and it’s hard for you to stop.”
  1. ACKNOWLEDGE – proactively name existing or potential challenges; do not wait for families to bring up challenges
    • “It must be stressful for you being the only one all the time. I imagine it feels lonely and isolating at times.”
  1. REVISIT – return to the topic because addressing it once is likely insufficient
    • “I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten about the impact your parents’ divorce has on how you’re feeling.”
  1. EMBRACE the silence – give individuals and families space to process and share their thoughts, feelings, and responses.
    • “Let’s pause here to let all this sink in.”

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