How do you like your eggs?

Appears to be a simple enough question. The first time that I recall hearing this was in the movie The Runaway Bride. Ike Graham(Richard Gere) was asking Maggie Carpenter(Julia Roberts) how she liked her eggs. Maggie was unsure since she had accepted the preferences of her future husbands. This question set her on a quest of self discovery.

I was reminded last week, having spent the day with NADSP Executive Director Joe Macbeth as he trained a room of DSP's in the Code of Ethics, of the simple yet so telling fact that we as DSP's don't know people  until we know such seemingly simple things as how they like their eggs.

With those thoughts rolling through my head, I drive the Nebraska I-80 corridor, headed home. Back to the day to day business of supporting people.

Frustration creeps in as I watch the steps of on-boarding a new DSP, the required training, the background checks, competency, side by side training with a Peer Mentor, the excitement of the person served to finally have a DSP to support them, the excitement of the DSP to begin supporting.

What I see with my new egged eyes is a person served, bending to please the new DSP in their life, the new DSP excited to try all sorts of new things(been there, done that, honey,I've been in the system 70 years ) with and for the person. Whats next, soon the bending will stop, the person served will find their true center, be frustrated, angry,  and fire us all. The DSP will most likely feel the same way,  "things were going so good, and I don't know what happened. I guess I can't support this person anymore."  The cycle continues.

My challenge in all of this, to find an effective process so all of us know people better and ensure that the next person walking through the support door has this information straight up front.

Back to the idea board.