Rapid Response:
The “Real Practitioner”

The Art of Rapid Response Service Delivery

“The Real Practitioner” is a site where I focus on the “art of being the Rapid Response Coordinator,” as a practitioner in the profession of service delivery in the Rapid Response program. I have been a Rapid Response Coordinator in southeast Virginia since 2006, but I was involved in it well before that date. The art in Rapid Response are the innate, abstract, and intangible, the things that you cannot see, touch and feel, and you can only attain and have the vision to see and passion from doing the work and getting intrinsic value from doing the work. In the art is where innovation and opportunity are derived. The art is where ideas that move us forward come from. The true artist knows the importance, significance and expression of an idea, therefore a true artist is not a thief.

 No idea, vision, or process, and there have been many, has ever come to me sitting behind a desk writing policy. Again, the art is developed from doing the work. The work is where the nuances lie; and with each nuance there is difference and divergence that manifests into needs. Needs are what we expressly address in making the layoff impacted employee whole again (the whole person concept).

 I will give you one example: The concept of dislocated workers are a different kind of worker, came to me by doing numerous Rapid Response Employee Informational presentations and hearing people say…I got a mortgage to pay and bills to pay. I need a job now. What is the nuance and art in that statement; and, how does knowing the nuance and art help the workforce system and the Rapid Response field practitioner do his or her job better?

So, the idea came to me in December 2019, when I was asked to conduct the training for a new Rapid Response trainee. In preparing for this training, I went through documentation that I thought would be valuable to understand the concept and intent of the Rapid Response profession. After the training was completed, I reviewed what I collected, and I noticed that the one document that I did not send was the Rapid Response Practitioner’s Guide. It never even crossed or came to my mind to send that document.  As a Rapid Response Coordinator, it has been of no use and consequence to me.  Others may disagree. If you do, then do you disagree in understanding that Rapid Response coordination and service delivery is nuanced-driven…that A + B does not necessarily mean or equal C? And, it is in that circumstance where expressly lies the development of the art of Rapid Response service delivery.

 Therefore, a practitioner’s guide should be put together by practitioners (those that have done the in profession field work for at least five years). And, it should tell and demonstrate to a Rapid Response practitioner how and what they should do to be successful. When you focus on the practical nuts and bolts, anyone off the street thinks they can be a Rapid Response Coordinator. When you focus on the art of coordination and service delivery, it becomes a far more complicated process.  In this technological world, we as Rapid Response Coordinator practitioners do not have a site that shows us how to understand the nuance and art of what we do. There is merely a focus on the nuts and bolts. You will be able to compare and contrast my site with others. The goal is not just to be a practitioner, but to become an artist; and, in doing so, you will not just become a practitioner, but a “Real Practitioner.”  All the best!