Solution Focused Practice for Human Services Organizations: A Beginner's Guide
Thanks for joining us as we cultivate this space for exploration of Solution Focused (SF) Leadership and Practice in human services and education organizations. In this space, we will explore SF principles, a.k.a Solution Focused Basic Assumptions; examine case studies; and engage tools for experiential practice to harness full positive community impact. We will also explore intersections and enhancements to SF practice with other philosophies and known strategies that align with SF practice, such as human-centered design, motivation psychology, and productivity science.
Background
Foundational to our consulting and coaching practices are the fundamental aspects of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy model (SFBT) as researched, identified, and articulated by Insoo Kim Burg and Steve de Shazar in the 1970s. Since then, many highly collaborative and effective organizational and community leaders have been studying and applying this model to work toward long-term solutions to community needs.
Why Solution Focused practice? Research on highly effective and responsive service agencies and leaders, demonstrate characteristics and strategies consistent wth Solution Focused practice.
In over 10-plus years of SF practice, I have seen leaders and organizations employing SF practices to be more responsive to their communities by tapping into staff and community engagement and empowerment for to solve their unique problems.
In this post, we’ll start with a quick overview of Vibrant Iris Consulting’s Solution Focused model comprised of three interrelated areas: Reflective Practice, Mindset, and Solution Language. As we consider these three concepts, we ground in what we identify as the foundational understanding: The future is both created and negotiable.
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Solution Focused Basic Assumption:
The future is both created and negotiable
Our choices and actions have the potential to create new possibilities and opportunities, as well as to navigate and overcome obstacles and challenges. By recognizing our agency and capacity for collaboration and innovation, we can work together to co-create a more positive and sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.
This concept, the future is both created and negotiable, relies on the acceptance that some things may be beyond our control, and at the same time we have the power to shape and influence many things. By holding true that there are things we cannot influence or control, helps us elimate those distractions from our focus so that we can focus more acutely on what which we can effect.
I think of this phrase as a distillation of the Serenity Prayer. As I consider this assumption, it reminds me to hold the space to ask what is negotiable in my sphere of control and consider what I need to let go of as it is beyond me or those I partner with. With this acceptance, there is a relief and renewed energy to put towards that which is shapable. It’s in this space that we begin to imagine a future where something better is possible.
Solution Focused Basic Assumptions: Reflective Practice
If it’s not broken don’t fix it.
If something is working, do it more.
If something is not working, discontinue and/or do something different.
Reflective practice is a crucial component of SF practice. When we focus on one small step-by-step at a time, and then reflect on that step, we harness the power of being present in the moment. This allows us to best absorb and assess our true effectiveness in real-time. Fromt here we can take our very next step with the context of today. This means our likelihood of taking the best possible step is high as we are best situated with the reflection of the most recent step and with the best foresight for our immediate future.
Reflective practice is an easy entry spot to begin to cultivate your Solution Focused practice. Most of us have experience with reflective practice in some form or another. Connecting to those past experiences can bring comfort through familiarity, even if from the distant past.
Step By Step Guide to Solution Focused Reflective Practice
We identify our future vision. This may be as short-term as an hour from now, to something many years away.
When the futute vision is established, we return to our present moment, to identify the next small step.
We take this small step. And for real, the smaller the better.
At this point, we pause and reflect. Again PAUSE, and REFLECT on that one small step. If you’re anything like me, this is the hardest part. Action is invigorating. But, trust me with this, the pause point here is essential to activating the reward centers in our brain for longer-term motivation over immediate invigoration.
Imagine that you are told you get a reward of an ice cream sundae with all your favorite toppings for a great job on a project at work. Exciting and fun right? Your brain and your mouth are excited. Today is your lucky day! This is a reward!!! Then imagine, as soon as the three-scoop, all-your-favorite-toppings-loaded on, just as you get your hands on it, you are told you only get to eat as much as you can in 30 seconds time. Doesn’t feel like much of a reward, does it? This is what happens to our brains when we don’t take the time to truly reflect on and absorb the learnings from the last step taken. Let your brain have it’s 5, 10, heck 45 minutes with the ice cream sundae reward. It’ll pay off later on cause it will hold on to the memory of the reward center getting tickled. Meaning your brain finds a win for you regardless of the progress toward the solution.
CELEBRATE! Celebration closes the loop need to fully engage the executive function and reward centers of the brain. This is where resilience is built for long-term movement toward your future vision.
Solution Focused Reflective Practice Cycle
There is so much more to come on the topic of Reflective Practice in the future. For now, let’s continue with our overview with mindset.
Making your Mindset
Solution Focused Basic Assumptions:
No problem happens all the time. There are always exceptions that can be utilized.
People want to do well
People’s methods aren’t always effective
In Solution Focused practice, cultivating mindset is crucial to framing how we address problems in a sustainable way. This is not to say that we don’t see the the difficulties and challenges, actually quite the opposite. We see and acknowledge them, and then set them aside to frame our future in order to bypass or eradicate them by capitalizing on success.
Above I suggested SF-style reflective practice helps us frame our interpretation on the world around us. As you engage in reflective practice, you focus your mind in a particular way - to see opportunity. And the more you see opportunity, the more you will see even more opportunity. This is known as the frequency illusion - the more you look for something, the more you will see it. You know this story, you are considering buying a particular car and all the sudden you start noticing that car everywhere. It’s not always that it’s getting more popular, but may also be that you have trained your brain to now see something that it didn’t know to look for before.
Solution Focused offers us two types of mindset assumptions: exceptional thinking and people perceptions.
People Perceptions
Our people perceptions sometimes trick our brains into focusing on what we see as other people’s issues. This is a distraction that prevents us from truly considering what’s in our sphere of control. This happens as our brains fill in vast stories with very little information. Your brain is not a natural fact checker, it will automatically interpret others’ actions, reactions, needs, wants, or attitude is about you.
And honestly, 99% of the time, it’s not about you.
Because your brain belongs to you, not anyone else, it doesn’t want to give anyone else the benefit of the doubt. By intentionally reminding ourselves that for the most part, people want to do well and right by others, even if they are ineffective, or even harmful. More often than not, someone does not realize their actions do not meet their intentions or there are conflicting intentions.
People typically use the same stategies over and over, and without reflective practice (as we discuss above) they may not realized are actually working against their positive intent.
Exceptional Thinking
Exceptional thinking is shorthand for “no problem happens all the time”. By this, we mean that with intentional engagement to find even one exception, we can illuminate that which is not working so well with the possibility that maybe change is possible. All we have to do is think that change might be possible someday, to begin to allow our minds to imagine the preferred future.
Do not mistake Solution Focused thinking with yet another toxic positivity-type outlook. Solution Focused practitioners see and acknowledge the problem along with the significance of real and perceived consequences.
At the same time, we allow ourselves to suspend our focus on the problems in front of us and begin to imagine what a future where the problem is resolved or significantly reduced.
Language
Solution Focused Basic Assumptions:
The language we use to describe solutions is different from those we use to describe problems.
People benefit from questions that help them to explore and reach their goals
Language plays a critical role in Solution Focused (SF) practice. Our words shape our thoughts and our thoughts shape our words. With slight adaptations in the language we hear, use, and think with we can transform our thoughts (our mindset) and thus our approach to problems.
SF practitioners often say, "The solution doesn't care what the problem is." This is a short phrase to describe something much more difficult which is to intentionally shift your gaze away from the problem to instead focus that energy onto making change. This phrase gives us permission to talk about the preferred future, which inherently changes the language we use.
The more we practice facing problems through the preferred future, the more we become familiar with and influenced by the language of solutions.
As we think about and describe the future in a way that assumes the problem has been resolved, we can start to envision the steps needed to achieve that outcome. This technique aligns with the idea, "that which you focus on gets larger."
Onward to Future Vision…
Over the next few months, we’ll go deeper into how we use SF practice for organizational and professional development with practical strategies tips, and tricks you can use.
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Olivia Coyne, is VIbrant Iris Consulting’s Owner, Founder, and lead Consultant. Schedule with Olivia here.