minding your language

The language of strengths individualises each of us; whereas, the language used to describe problems tends more to aggregate us into less well-defined groups. In the following brief video, I will contrast the types of language we use for describing ourselves either from a problems perspective or from a strengths approach. Click on the following link now to access the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bALixNzWHVU

This video is part of the email sequence providing subscribers with access to a wide range of strengths-based resources. If you wish to subscribe to the email list click the following link (it's FREE resources that I am offering, with no catch!):

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/

How good must the book be?

Sign up for a series of emails containing access to a range of FREE checklists, tools and YouTube videos, offered to help you further develop your knowledge and practice in working with a person-centred strengths-based perspective...

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/ 

People are naturally suspicious of material given away for free... is it any good, what is the catch? The answer to those two questions is Yes & No respectively.

These are materials I have been aware of, developed and used since the early 1990's, and now I am getting into the autumn of my career (as much as I would like to think of 60 as being spring!), I would like a much wider range of people to become aware of, and make good use of them.

So, whether you think you know it all already, or you are always open to continual learning and reflection, why not check out the link? What have you got to lose, other than a few minutes of your precious time when my occasional informative emails arrive in your inbox? I promise I don't do spam.

https://positiverisktaking.lpages.co/working-with-strengths-2/ 

If the free stuff is that good, I wonder how good the book must be?

Sacred Fools

Why listen to the self-styled publicity of the author when you can take the word of an independent expert? The following are extracts from the Foreword written by Professor Steve Onyett for this new book 'Working with Strengths':

Steve OnyettRadical in the sense of challenging the status quo. I love the notion of "funky" mental health services where we first break all the rules – not in a spirit of anarchy so much as in recognition of the fact that so many of our current assumptions simply don’t serve. We need more sacred fools who will run into the royal court and fart in front of the King or Queen in order to shake things up and reveal new and better ways.

There is no shortage of guidance around. There is a plethora of exhortations to be positive and focus on strengths from every direction. However, not so many get behind the rhetoric to look with clear and open eyes at how this plays out in reality. This requires that we look not just at what people say they do, but what they do do. It means that we need to look at what happens in practice and learn from that experience.

Steve Morgan is one of our greatest assets in this context. He has been at the forefront of the movement for strengths based practice in mental health services for a long time and has borne witness to both its successes and it’s disappointments. He has brought this invaluable perspective to bear here in a book that tells you pretty much everything there is to know about how things could be, while also equipping you for the stark realities of implementation in challenging contexts. He does this without judgement or cynicism, thereby leaving us with a sense of the possible and a range of first steps that we can take to make it happen. It has been said that a cynic is a passionate person that does not want to be disappointed again (Zander and Zander, 2000). Here Steve talks to the passion rather than the disappointment.

Analogue man goes digital

On 22^nd April 2014 ‘The Strengths Revolution’ podcast show launched… without any fanfares, major venues, or even a fireworks display. It is just great content brought to you for free from Practice Based Evidence productions, in association with Inspired Marketing productions, Libsyn Hosting, and to be found in the podcast section of the iTunes Store.

The intention is to offer approximately 15-minute weekly episodes (recognizing that your time is precious), usually on a Thursday (to coincide with that brighter end-of-week feeling), on all subjects ‘Strengths’ related, and reflecting much of the type of content you will find on this site.

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to the iTunes Store now, click the podcast section, search for ‘The Strengths Revolution’, and enjoy. Then, please do me a favour by subscribing, downloading, and even reviewing particular shows. It will cost you very little time, and nothing financially! If you are a glass-half-full can-do sort of person, what could be better?

Targeted training

In health and social care services we have a long tradition of adopting a scatter-gun approach to staff training. Perhaps this is why staff members often feel negative about mandatory training initiatives, or feel that provision is often made as a knee-jerk response to something going wrong. More generous feedback emerges from events that individual's have personally chosen to attend, but these often have little positive ripple effect out into the team they are part of... if you weren't there you simply aren't going to know much about it.

The Practice Based Evidence initiative has long tried to establish a strengths approach to training, as well as to working with service users. The essence is to get all team members to provide a baseline evaluation of the good and not so good practice in their team, against a series of positive statements of best practice that should be relevant to the way they work. Hence, several Practice Based Evidence tools were devised to address different types of teams and different person-centred approaches to working.

In the case of one of the Newham Community Mental Health Teams in 2006 an honest anonymised evaluation of team practice helped to identify the priorities for a subsequent 5-day programme tailored to their needs. This example illustrates how a practice development approach to training initiatives can respond to the needs identified by practitioners themselves, impact on the practice of a whole team, and engage people more in the process of change. This is how a strengths approach can apply as much to team development as it should do for working with service users. See also Take a picture of this for a larger initiative following a similar approach but capturing the evidence of positive change.