Mad River Behavioral Health

  The Glorious Vision Senior  managers often have a beautiful vision … that becomes degraded, distorted, muddled, mangled, and tangled up as it passes down through the human layers toward the bottom of the organizational structure, where the workers who really need it most in order to make it happen never see it in all its glorious clarity.  The senior managers have to manage the transmission of  the vision personally. It’s not a “fire and forget it” issue.  In order to make it happen, it has to be actively kept out in front, at the top of the weekly conversation all the time.  It will need to be de-muddled, de-mangled, and de-tangled on a regular basis. Even small deviations will need to be actively managed.  It’s not that the middle tier is populated by bad people, just that it is populated by human people who are largely poorly trained and endowed with regular human flaws, stressors, shortcomings, etc.  ~ The middle tier needs its morale to be ...

 I proposed to the president of a New England ski resort that  a Money Back Guarantee be field tested on non-holiday, non-weekend days in January and February.  The guarantee would be limited to equipment failure. If the resort’s equipment failed while the mountain was open,  customers impacted by the failure would be eligible to request a refund if they were dissatisfied.  Equipment failure is a customer experienced defect, a relational discourager.  I proposed that the resort’s maintenance team implement a proactive preventative maintenance program to sharply reduce equipment failures, reducing the number of defects the customer’s encountered.  I proposed that the resort would be able to self-fund this guarantee by adding $1.00 to the price of every ticket sold.  In researching money back guarantees, companies  (not ski resorts) that offer them can charge significantly more than competitors for the same product or service, in some cases 300...

  A Typical New England Ski Area  *** Customers flow through this cycle beginning with “select your resort” to visit.  There are many ski resorts in New England to pick from.  ~ Why would they pick yours? Why might they not?  In general, once they choose to ski at your resort, they enter your Macro Cycle. There are steps you can control and steps you cannot control.  1. Travel to your location (no control) 2. Embarkation (arriving, off-loading, parking, etc.) 3. Base Lodge 4. Purchase Ticket (unless pass holder) 5. Rentals 7. Lessons 8. Lift Operations 9. Snow (making, grooming, etc.) 10. Weather (no control) 11. Disembarkation (pack up, get car, load gear, drive away) Each step is a potential point of contact and an opportunity for the customer to be satisfied or disappointed.   While you cannot control the travel experience, it does impact how the customers arrive.  Are they stressed / not stressed when they first enter your zone of responsibili...

  Relational Encouragers & Discouragers How are your relationships with your loved ones, friends, customers doing?  *** Relational encouragers are small, sometimes imperceptible things that gradually strengthen a relationship bringing people closer together over time.  Relational encouragers heal a relationship after a fracture.  They might be a hug, a smile, a gentle touch, an apology, affectionate eye contact, etc.  Small gestures.  Relational discouragers are small, sometimes imperceptible things that gradually weaken a relationship. Relational discouragers make things worse after fracture. These might look like an eye roll, an exasperated exhale, physically distancing, an irritated tone.  Small gestures.  Relational discouragers are defects. Across time after exposure to multiple relational encouragers and / or discouragers, combinations of both, relationships become closer, stronger, or they move further apart, become weaker, some eventua...

  To master your performance, you must master your self.  To master your self, you must master your subconscious.   Your subconscious is driving everything.   What are your subconscious thoughts on this idea?  K. H. Little Consulting Services Kenneth H. Little, MA cell: (603) 726-1006 kenlittle-nh.com

Parenting Is: Continuous Quality Improvement The very best response to the vast majority of children’s misbehavior is a simple, quiet conversation moderated by reason, wisdom, and compassion; a conversation that guides the child quietly and gently to a better, more helpful place in life.   Raising children is a long, gradual process.  It takes years and years of patient and persistent effort. Gentle guidance is the primary choice in parenting.  Sometimes a planned system of positive and negative consequences makes sense.  This is not a system of rewards and punishment, so to speak, but a well crafted system of inductive consequences; constructive and instructive consequences that gradually teach better behavior, better problem solving skill, and better decision-making skill. Arbitrary and / or harsh consequences should be avoided.  They are far more likely to inflame the situation and create resentment within the child which will obscure any learning benefit...

  Our Little Thought Gremlins  Most of your thoughts emerge into your awareness from your subconscious.   You felt it happen when you read that statement.  You had  some sort of instant reaction.  Perhaps it was barely perceptible or maybe it was a quite strong thought.   • “That’s bunk!”  • “Hmmm, that’s interesting.” What was your first thought?   Where did it come from? It wasn’t there. You read the statement.  Suddenly, it was there in the blink of an eye.  This happens in simple, unimportant scenarios like this, but it also happens in your personal relationships, your parental relationships, your work relationships, your random interactions with strangers, even with your self.  Watch what thought leaps instantly into your head the next time you spill your coffee on your nice shirt.  “I am such a dingus!”   A person cuts you off on the highway. A thought or series of thoughts jumps immediately into your awareness....