Innovation In Social Work

In the field of social work there is not a high emphasize placed on innovation. The field tends to value concepts that have been highly researched and there is little variation from the tried and true methods already established in the field. As society evolves the field must follow suit in order to maintain relevance. An innovation within the field of social work that would benefit my current organization and the field of social work is developing an online therapy and supervision component. Some states have developed a similar concept but it is not universal within the field. Online therapy and supervision would be considered an evolutionary change due to the fact that most of society has fully embraced all aspects of online and social media. The goal of implementing online services is to improve the quality and quantity of services quickly. This is in contrast to revolutionary change where the goal is to make things different and generally takes longer to implement (Gamble & Gamble, 2013, p.266).

My current employer does not allow employees to have Facebook or other social media due in part to fear that it can lead to boundary issues between the worker and clients. In this day and age many aspects of everyday life

are partially online. For example; students are pursuing online degrees, shoppers are buying online, daters are dating online, and parents are identifying babysitters online. Those are only a few examples of how services have evolved over the past decade or so. People are consumed with their online gadgets and busy in their day to day life. Individuals who find themselves too busy to actually meet in the office with a therapist can meet over their phone, tablet, or laptop. Not only is this beneficial to the potential client it is also beneficial to the therapist who has multiple cancellations due to the client being too busy. Some people are simply better communicators through social media.

Technology can be intimidating, especially to someone such as myself who does not have any form of social media.

According to Gamble & Gamble for leaders to be innovative they must overcome resistance to change within themselves. As a transformational leader, I do a good job influencing others to be innovative. Social workers are change agents and must be willing and able to change with society. As a transformational leader part of my leadership ability is assisting colleagues with feeling positive about their work and contributions to the organization and field. If the other workers develop an understanding that the change is not threatening to their livelihood they will be more likely to embrace it as an opportunity (Gamble & Gamble, 2013,

p.260).

In order to implement innovation on a large scale I will begin by increasing the urgency of the need to change with society among team members. Once I have built a guiding team to work cohesively we will develop a vision to effect change and encourage others to buy into the change. Once more people act on the vision momentum will build to fulfill the vision with less resistance. Waves of change will occur until the vision is fulfilled and the new and winning behavior continues (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 7).