NDIS rules!
What rules?
One of the best features of the NDIS is the abolition of the reams, nay tomes, of program guidelines, rules, and regulations on how services should be delivered that currently exist in our fractured, broken and inequitable present.
Under the NDIS it will simply be about delivering what people need and want, how they want it, when they want it, and where they want it.
Amen!
What it means though, is that successful organisations will be those who adapt to the new environment and deliver person-centred assistance to people with disability.
What will this look like?
I dunno - but how exciting is it going to be to find out?
Hint - it won't in the main, be centre-based day programs and centre-based respite - just to name a couple of today's service staples.
The reality is the future is there for the creating.
The way I see it, organisations have 3 options:
1. Be like Apple
Some of the most clever organisations will become the 'Apples' of the disability sector and create something people don't even know they want yet.
When Steve Jobs envisioned the iPhone, it wasn't based on market research, he just knewit was a cracker of an idea and that 'if he built it they would come'.
How right he was.
Like just about everybody else on the planet, I didn't know I wanted an iPhone till it was invented. And for those who say "iPhone sucks" and its Samsung all the way - remember no matter how good Samsung is, or isn't, it is still a 'me-too' product - not that there is anything wrong with that.
The lesson?
If you are going to be an 'Apple' you need to go on innovating or risk the others creaming you.
But the satisfaction of your customers will be immense.
2. Be like Olivetti
If you were born after 1990 - I'm talking about what was a typewriter company (Google it).
For the rest of us, we remember Olivetti as the name in typewriters.
But whatever happened to them?
Well long before typewriters went the way of the dodo, they had a spirit of delivering what the market was telling them they wanted. They were at the forefront of the evolution of electronic calculators and in 1965 released what is considered the first desktop personal computer - way before Apple and IBM.
And yes, they failed.
But then they got up again and followed the market.
And today they are a major supplier of infrastructure to the Italian cellular telephone industry turning over in excess of 340 million euros per annum.
In 2013 they released their own smartphone offering.
The business looks nothing like what it did, but they are meeting a market need and are thriving.
The lesson?
Olivetti demonstrate that a willingness to adapt and respond to market needs is a winner of a way of ensuring survival.
And their customers are satisfied.
3. Be like Kodak
They refused to adapt as the market needs changed and clung to antiquated technology and ways of doing things.
And yep - they're gaaaaawwwwwwwwwn!
The lesson?
No satisfaction, no customers.
Nuff said!
So if you haven't already, start creating the future - don't just sit there and let it pass you by.
Think what the world for the people you serve could look like and build it.
Don't ask people "what do you want?" That is just dumb!
While some people might know what they want, most won't - because they can't yet envision what choice and control looks like.
Start educating the people you serve about the constraints you have had in the past and the liberties that will exist into the future - and take the journey of discovery together.
If you are truly a Mission driven organisation, then let go of the past and embrace the future.
Be an 'Apple', or be an 'Olivetti' - but whatever you do, don't become a 'Kodak'.
I can assist you and your organisation with the change process of transitioning to the NDIS - or you can read my other posts for free.
Be well