Person-Centered Business Planning: Discovering Personal Genius

Person-Centered Business Planning: Discovering Personal Genius

By Cary Griffin, Dave Hammis, Molly Sullivan & Beth Keeton

Introduction

The business development literature contains references to enterprising personality types, entrepreneurial assessments, and various checklists for determining a person’s suitability as a business owner (Straughn & Chickadel, 1994; Sumner, 1999; Fried & Hansson, 2010). A quick Google search turns up thousands of quizzes and checklists for base-lining one’s business readiness (May 24, 2010 search). Although there may be something akin to an entrepreneurial personality, owning a small business does not require testing to assess one’s potential business character. In fact, the very term entrepreneur represents yet another prejudicial blockade against people with significant disabilities seeking employment. Most people who own businesses are after all, artisans: people who know how to deliver a service or produce a product. They are not, as the entrepreneurial myth holds, graduates of business school or super-humans tracing Bill Gate’s footsteps. In fact, most of the people who own the estimated 20.4 million single-owner/operator companies in the United States learned business processes such as bookkeeping, sales, and inventory control by doing them, while relying on purchased services for tasks that are too complex for them to master or too unprofitable for them undertake (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005; SBDCnet.org; Phillips & Rasberry, 2003).

The recommended approach, person-centered business planning, recognizes the need for business and personal supports. Simply put, person-centered business planning as developed by the authors is an inclusive process that seeks a fit between a person’s skills as an artisan, their various talents and preferences, and a viable business idea. Business ideas emanate from the individual’s experiences and skills and are matched with a market that needs the product or service. This approach focuses on supports and not on remediating deficits. Unlike traditional economic development approaches, this process starts with an individual’s vocational profile (i.e. skills & interests) and a complimentary business idea, and finds a market rather than first finding a market and then forcing people to produce a product or service that they may not be committed to or excited about.

Many people who want to start businesses already have ideas and a variety of resources to support them in their venture. Many others do not, however, and the following person-centeredapproach, known as Discovering Personal Genius, can be quite useful for finding a match and refining a business direction. The process typically costs about as much as standard vocational testing, such as psychometrics cost, but it yields critical information for developing a plan for employment and for designing supports necessary for business success.

Discovering Personal Genius (DPG) does not start with the idea that owning a business is the best path for a particular person. DPG is about options, knowing that there are unlimited ways to make a living in this world. DPG is about determining the essential elements of work and supports that will make the individual successful, regardless of whether the final format is self-employment or a wage job. So, it is not uncommon that the process, especially when applied to individuals with little or no work experience, yields no clear vocational direction. In such cases, step back and consider a wage job as an opportunity for the person to gain experience and make money. This is a natural means of discovering career paths, especially for transition-age students. Most successful business people learned about business by working for someone else first, and wage employment is certainly a reasonable outcome of person-centered business planning. For individuals with little or no work history, getting a job is a terrific first step to owning a small business. Yet, for many reasons, the job market locks out people with disabilities, so keep digging for clues about the individual that point in a business direction.

Finally, as part of the person-centered business planning process, visit workplaces “where the career makes sense”: businesses owned or operated by people who have similar vocational motivations and can offer advice, suggestions, and encouragement (Griffin, Hammis & Geary, 2007; Griffin & Keeton, 2009). In other words, if the profile developed by the team reveals that the person has an agricultural vocational theme, then meet some farmers and others involved in that industry. Discuss how to get started in a related career, emerging business trends and innovations, and means for determining an agricultural firm’s feasibility. People often support others who share their interests; they also know the business and can serve as mentors. Most people enjoy talking about their life’s work, and giving advice, so engage them in conversation.

Primary Steps in Person-Centered Business Planning

Person-centered business planning, in this case Discovering Personal Genius, is a flexible, thoughtful, and action-oriented process that leads to the determination of three over-arching vocational themes and career plans for individuals with significant disabilities. A person’s disability is largely unimportant because it is the series of vocational ideas, contacts, supports, and actions taken that ultimately determines the individual’s business design and success. Disability is too often used as an excuse for why a person cannot work. All people can work and/or own a business when provided the proper supports. People are not unemployed because they have disabilities; people are unemployed because they do not have jobs. Many people believe that they are better off working for themselves or that they cannot easily enter the traditional labor market. For these individuals, self-employment makes sense as an accommodation. The business planning process that follows is based on various components of person-centered planning (Griffin & Keeton, 2009; Callahan & Condon, 2007; Callahan & Nisbet, 1997; Forest & Pearpoint, 1992; Griffin & Hammis, 1996; Mount, 1987).

Discovery

Discovering Personal Genius (DPG) is one of several emerging iterations of a process more broadly known as Discovery. DPG has been evolving for about a decade, and owes a good deal to the approaches articulated by Michael Callahan and his colleagues (Callahan & Condon, 2007). DPG is the Discovery process Griffin-Hammis Associates ( developed, first assisting individuals transitioning from large congregate institutions into employment, and over the years, helping people face various life complexities and changes in employment status.

DPG is not used specifically to design a business or to acquire a dream job or the career of a lifetime. Rather DPG is used to focus on getting individuals into the work arena, be that wage or self-employment, as quickly as possible where they can begin the more long-term tasks of sculpting a career. Therefore, DPG is a time-limited, fast-paced, outcome-oriented process resulting in creating work opportunities that fit the individual and provide for personal and professional growth. Employment derived from DPG is ecologically relevant, beneficial to both employee and employer, or business owner and customer, and is generally developed without regard for the “labor market” or traditional comparative methods of employment that often favor those applicants without disabilities. DPG produces a real-time vocational profile that guides work development using a process that unveils or creates career opportunities. Because DPG shuns the pursuit of job descriptions or specific enterprises and instead focuses on interest and skills, unique vocational outcomes often result.

DPG also deviates from the foundation laid by person centered planning in that the latter’s emphasis on the individual’s interests is tempered by the former’s focus on skills and in situ skills development. It is true that interests foster personal engagement and speed the accumulation of skills, but beginning the DPG and career design process with an eye toward skills the individual possesses, and which can be built upon, is of profound importance. Many of us have interests but lack skills. Many people would love to be a rock star, but few of us actually have the musical skills and talents to become one. Matching the preferred work to existing and teachable skills is crucial. DPG activities may be identified through recognized interests, but the DPG activities themselves are used to identify existing skills, or those which can be improved through systematic training, workplace or business supports, and technology.

Stages of Discovering Personal Genius

The “Discovering Personal Genius Staging Record” outlines DPG in seven basic stages, and within each tier exists an array of tasks and observations that the individual’s team takes into consideration. Current (2004-2010) anecdotal information from numerous project sites across the United States indicates that DPG can be accomplished in 20 to 60 hours, over a period of approximately 6 to 8 weeks, sometimes less, and occasionally more, as when interruptions such as illness complicate or compromise the process. DPG is managed as a time-sensitive team-based effort with the goal of formulating a descriptive profile capturing whom the person is at the present time and answering the basic question “Who is this individual?” Without a time limit, DPG can go on forever, because people are constantly learning and evolving. DPG’s purpose is to get someone active as a worker; DPG is the short cut around the tradition of endless work-readiness training. The steps of DGP lead to a vocational profile, captured throughout the Staging Record, illuminating at least three (3) solid but broad vocational themes and enough knowledge of the individual to guide the successful development of employment, including small business ownership as a viable option.

The Stages of DPG include:

1. Home & Neighborhood Observation
2. Interviewing Others
3. Skills & Ecological Fit
4. Review
5. Vocational Themes
6. Descriptive Narrative
7. Career Development Plan

The sample DPG Staging Record form located at the end of this chapter illustrates the collection methods and types of information sought. However, prior to starting, there are some elements of DPG that require refinement.

Smooth Listening

In traditional home visits or individualized meetings, the individual and any family involved are typically interviewed and questioned about the individual’s likes and dislikes, behavioral issues, program funding, future plans, medical concerns, et al. In the worst scenarios these sessions become regulation-satisfying events where little is communicated, little is learned, and the next year proceeds much the same as the previous year; deficits are categorized and interventions constructed, but little changes for the individual. Professionals do most of the questioning and talking.

DPG is a conversation, not an interrogation. Service Coordinators (e.g. Case Managers) and others who traditionally lead the planning process are part of an engaged team including the individual and family, if available and desired by the individual, with a common goal: get employment that matches the individual’s vocational themes. The teams assign tasks that compliment each member’s skills and interests, and spread the work across the 3 to 7 member group, who are responsible to the individual and the other team members.

The initial home visit is essential to setting the stage for this on-going conversation, and the critical skill for the professionals involved is to probe and then listen. In essence, the focus moves from the smooth talker to the smooth listener, because the relative silence of those listening elicits more information from the talkers. Here, the talkers are supposed to be the individual and those who know him/her best.

In many situations, and especially one where the “professional” is trying to give up control, the best way to start the conversation is: “Tell me about yourself.” What we learn is that people start these conversations where they believe the important information lies. So, in DPG’s first stages, we prompt folks to: “tell me about yourself” or “tell me about Max.” Sit and listen, perhaps take some notes. Do not interrupt the flow with un-needed patter or reinforcement such as “oh, I didn’t know you all go the Grandma’s for Sunday dinner” or even “that’s interesting.” Such reinforcement signals the talker that you think this is the important part. This little reward can derail the conversation as the talker now pursues what the listener has indicated is important, but which may have just been a simple statement of fact. When the listener hears something that is relevant, just jot it down inconspicuously and come back to it once the talker is completely finished. No news from the listener is good news and silence prompts the talker to keep talking.

Of course, the give and take of questioning is a common component of most conversation, but surprisingly rich interchanges occur using this technique, especially during the first home visit. There are several questions that do frame the pursuit of knowledge during DPG stages though. We are most interested in finding out, of course, who this person is, and some of the elements that help the team create a profile, using interview and observation in a variety of community and work experience settings, include learning:

Where this person is most at ease and most productive;

When the individual is most engaged and by what people or activities;

What supports are needed most in particular situations and how they are best delivered;

Situations and environments to be avoided;

Personal skills, talents, and interests.

Occasionally conversation slows. Prompting more or deeper discussion is accomplished with such prompts as:

Tell me a bit about chores and tasks done around the house;

Tell me about typical and special family activities or traditions;

Tell me about family vacations or holiday celebrations;

Tell me about major life events that have influenced your son/daughter;

Tell me about events or activities your son/daughter really looks forward to;

Tell me about techniques you’ve found helpful when teaching your son/daughter something new;

Tell me about your son/daughter’s favorite people, such as teachers, clergy, relatives, or neighbors;

Tell me about what you and your other children or close relatives do for a living.

DPG is not a Test or Assessment in the Traditional Sense

DPG relies on both current and past experiential situations in real environments to reveal clues about vocational interests. The team performing DPG is not asking, “What career, business, or job would be best?” Psychometric testing, taking interest inventories, and other forms of vocational assessment are largely discarded as irrelevant for people with complex support needs and lives because these traditional approaches often suggest people are “not ready” for employment. Further, they often use norm-referenced scoring that compares people with serious life complexities to people without, further suggesting they “get ready” for working. DPG assumes everyone is ready for work and that supports to help an individual succeed will be necessary. Further, these assessments typically suggest only a small number of vocational options or rely on job description data for their recommendations. DPG assumes a Customized Employment approach where non-comparative, economic development mind-set accepts the person as they are and creates employment that matches their skills, talents and, interests.

When beginning our careers, most of us have only experienced a few jobs. Trying to divine a job for someone with our limited experiences is difficult. Even a test battery pulling on 400 job samples is still wanting for several reasons:

1. The tasks represent only a small sampling of what often goes on behind-the-scenes in a business;
2. Co-workers and supervisors in a work setting have a tremendous and unique influence on work culture, skill development, and success;
3. Job descriptions often frame the test samples, and job descriptions may contain tasks irrelevant to the individual’s skills or interests;
4. There are unlimited ways to make a living in the world.

Developing a vocational profile by pursuing interests and skills revealed by DPG is a more ecologically sound and individualized method of creating personalized opportunities.

DPG Stages: Methods and Tasks

The outcome of DPG is a vocational profile, captured in the DPG Staging Record that reveals the Ideal Conditions of Employment for the individual. The basic process, as modified from the work of Ellen Condon at the University of Montana’s Rural Institute ( involves following certain steps. Depending on the step you are on, you will:

• observe
• interview
• listen more than talk
• take notes
• take pictures when it makes sense

After each step the team compiles notes being thorough and descriptive about what was done and what was discovered. The team identifies overarching vocational themes in the person’s life and seeks to find at least three of them by the end of DPG. Themes are not job descriptions or generic interests that almost everyone has (e.g. eating ice cream, drinking coffee, playing with kittens). Themes include: “sports,” “aviation,” “organization/fastidiousness,” “agriculture,” “transportation.” The themes must be further supported by the individual’s existing skills, or proof from DPG activities that these skills can be learned by the individual or accomplished through the use of technology, tools, or other supports.