PD Maps
Enable Reflective Practice within the Team
The sections below outline simple ways to weave Advantaged Thinking into team meetings, supervision and organisational conversations.
As a Team Leader/Manager, you set the tone for how Advantaged Thinking is lived out in your operational environment. Creating intentional, structured spaces for reflective practice helps your team strengthen coaching skills, apply the Practice Framework and build a shared culture grounded in high belief of young people.
Team Meetings
Team meetings are a natural place to bring small doses of practice reflection into your operational rhythm. This helps normalise coaching, celebrate examples of Advantaged Thinking and create shared language across your team.
How to get started
- Put Advantaged Thinking on the agenda to ensure practice is part of the conversation
- Add a short Advantaged Thinking reflection/example/highlight to your agenda each week or fortnight.
- Keep it light. Focus on small examples or moments from practice.
Serving suggestions:
- Use a Test of Advantaged Thinking prompt: “Can you think of a recent example through which you have spoken about a young person’s current challenges in balance with their future goals?”
- Discuss a My Voice planning resource: “Has anyone used Next Steps lately; what support do you need to use this when coaching a young person?”
1:1 Supervision
Supervision provides a valuable space to strengthen the coaching relationship between you and your staff. You can bring Advantaged Thinking into this space by intentionally shifting the conversation from “What’s going on?” to “What did you do in your practice and what strengths or skills were you using?”
How to switch into a coaching conversation
- Name it
- Be targeted
- Affirm and celebrate
- Ask curious questions
- Promote growth and positive risk
- Seek feedback.
Serving suggestions:
Try questions that open up a different kind of conversation:
- How do you put young people in the driver’s seat?
- How do you support young people to lead their own future-focused conversations?
- What techniques build a reciprocal coaching relationship?
- How have you contributed to thriving?
Internal Campaign
Advantaged Thinking is strengthened when it is visible across your whole organisation, not just within your immediate team. Team Leaders/Managers play a key role in influencing culture, sharing examples and shifting internal expectations around working with emerging adults.
How you can champion the internal campaign
- Bring AT language into organisational conversations: especially with senior leadership, finance or staff from adjacent programs unfamiliar with the practice.
- Promote flexible, youth-centred decision making: e.g., supporting finance teams to understand the purpose of flex funding and positive risk.
- Share short examples of Advantaged Thinking practice at cross-team or network meetings.
Ask curious organisational questions:
- How does this decision support young people’s opportunities?
- How are we making space for positive risk?
- What do we need to adjust to uphold high expectations for this young person?
