Thoughtful Thursday: Initiative

This evening, I will be speaking about initiative to a group of interns. This has been mentioned by several internship directors as something that current students and interns struggle with - looking to see what is needed and then starting to do it. This is something that develops with time, practice, and critical thinking but is not as common as you would think.

I feel like this type of learning difficulty has a couple of causes - devices and No Child Left Behind. I have absolutely no proof of these things being the causes of a lack of initiative, but it seems like I can make a bit of an argument supporting my thought process.

So, as I start this presentation, I am going to start with the definition of the word. Merriam Webster starts off with "an introductory step" as the first definition. I can work with this.

I remember being an intern and having some fear that I would overstep my responsibilities and expectations. I also remember looking for songs to write and things to try with my clients (and this was back in the late part of the last century, so there you go!). As an internship director, I found that interns didn't seem to see what needed to be done and didn't do anything in favor of trying to figure out what to do. I even gave them lists of things to do, and they didn't do them. It increased my frustration as a mentor.

So, how do you teach initiative?

That's my question today.

I have always been someone who would rather be busy than relax. When I was little, if I complained that I was bored, Mom would find some chores for me to do, so I learned to find something to do on my own. There was always cleaning my room (which I didn't like much then and still don't like it now), so I would read books or play with my dolls or ride my bike around the town. I learned to look for things to do rather than to wait to be told what to do.

So, when you are working with other people who have learned in a different way, it can be difficult to figure out what to do to model the initiation of tasks and leadership skills. I am going to start by asking interns to generate a list of non-therapy tasks that are part of being a therapist. Let's see if they have any sort of idea about administrative tasks and the things that happen outside of the direct client services and interactions. Then, I guess that we will talk about the tasks that interns can do when they have some time. 

Problem-solving is part of this topic as well. Critical thinking is also part of all of this. I am going to try my best to talk about it coherently with the interns this evening...