Imagine you are a mentor, coach or educator. What do you see when you look at a person? Do you see their strengths or their shortcomings? It may be helpful to understand both – but it is interesting to know which we focus on first. Why? What we see first is often what we put our energy into encouraging or fixing. We concentrate on their potential or problems. Let’s explore how this can work in practice.

1) You can focus on the positive parts of a person.

This was the approach employed by the pioneering ‘Slough Project’ which enabled ‘mentally handicapped’ young people to live in the community. Community Service Volunteers gave me the opportunity to work there as a housefather in 1967 – my first job in social work. The staff focused on the ‘responsible’ and ‘creative’ parts of each young person. George Lyward reinforced this philosophy when I visited his remarkable therapeutic community at Finchden Manor. He talked about looking for those ‘golden moments’ when somebody comes alive. Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Sydney Jourard, Viktor Frankl, Virginia Axline, Virginia Satir, Ashley Montagu and John Dewey were among the writers who supported this philosophy. Many practitioners I met from ‘Slough’ onwards believed it was important: a) To build on people’s strengths; b) To provide tools people could use to manage the consequences of their shortcomings. The education they provided was both practical and inspirational.

Everybody has their own ‘set of questions’ they ask when looking at another person. The strengths approach invites them to ask: “When does the person come alive? Where do they see patterns quickly? When do they flow, focus and finish? What is their ‘A’ talent? What could they achieve?” The next step is to build on the person’s strengths. You will have your own questions and responses when looking at a person. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to focus
on the positive parts of a person are:

*

*

*

2) You can focus on the positive parts of a team.

“Taking over a new team is fascinating,” said one football manager. “My normal approach is to build-on or bring-in the leaders who will provide the backbone of the team – but it is also important to build on the existing players’ strengths. I often find these in training sessions by moving players around and putting them in different combinations. Sometimes you get a surprise, such as two players working together as if they can read each others thoughts. That is what I like doing – looking at how people co-operate, then building on the parts that work best.”

Great coaches often take this approach in sports, the arts, business and other fields. They build on the positive people in the team – because they will act as good models - but they also identify successful patterns. Looking at a team, they concentrate on two main themes. They identify what people do right: a) To achieve success; b) To overcome setbacks. Tapping into the successful patterns that exist in both situations, they educate people to follow these principles in the future. Certainly it’s vital to add other skills to the team’s repertoire, but it is good to start by developing what already works in the team. You will do this in your own way, so try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to focus
on the positive parts of a team are:

*

*

*

3) You can focus on the positive parts of an organisation.

Imagine you have been asked to shift the culture in an ailing organisation. You will obviously aim to do three things. First, to communicate a compelling vision – explaining the ‘What, Why, How, Who and When’. Second, to build successful ‘prototypes’ that demonstrate the future culture. Third, to invite people to decide whether they want to join the future culture and – if so - to clarify the contribution they want to make towards achieving the vision. You can pursue three routes when concentrating on the people. It is possible:

a) To focus on the people who are performing brilliantly, clarify what they are doing right and expand these principles across the organisation.

b) To focus on when people in the organisation have performed brilliantly in the past, clarify what they were doing right then and enable them to follow these principles again in the future.

c) To focus on the people who are unmotivated and performing badly, clarify their personal issues and perceived obstacles - then spend your time trying to fix the situation.

Sometimes, of course, you may need to provide a mixture of all three approaches. But many people are now moving towards the first two options.

Appreciative Inquiry is a form of working with organisations that has gained popularity since the 1980s. Devised by David Cooperrider, it identifies what works well in an organisation - then enables people to pursue these principles to build a successful future. AI does not ignore problems. It interviews people to clarify what they did right to solve such problems in the past. People then follow these principles to tackle the challenges successfully. AI has what it calls a ‘4D’ process for delivering success. This is:

* Discover. Interview people to identify the principles that work well.

* Dream. Envision how the principles can work well in the future.

* Design. Plan how to implement the principles that work well.

* Deliver (or Destiny). Implement the principles successfully.

There are many methods for building on the successful aspects of an organisation – and you will do this in your own way. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to focus on
the positive parts of an organisation are:

*

*

*

“What we focus on, we become,” we are told. If we focus on strengths, we become stronger and optimistic. If we focus on shortcomings, we become disillusioned and impotent. The Slough Project encouraged me to concentrate on the positive parts of a person, team or organisation.

You can read more about Appreciative Inquiry at:

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

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