What is a strength-based approach and why does it matter?
In training 100's of people in strength-based approaches (SBAs), people have best understood the approach viscerally. Take a look at the first image below, try not to peek at the second image. This left image is a deficit map of a place we will call "Tempat." The map describes an actual location, but we have given it a fictional name, the descriptors were offered by people who live there. The deficit map describes everything that's considered wrong or broken with Tempat. Categorised by physical assets, association assets, and individual skills. How does it make you feel reading this?
When I show this map in a training, the heaviness in the room is palpable. When asking people how they feel in seeing this map, people share words like: "depressed," "hopeless," "lots of problems." And because I often deliver this to engineers, I also often here: "lots of problems to fix." When I ask if they would like to live in Tempat, almost everyone says a definitive: "No."
Now look at the second image, an asset map. Same categories, but this map focuses on what exists and gives life to Tempat. Again, read the description and note how you feel inside.
It can be difficult for people to reconcile these two maps being the same place. When people see this map, the vibe in the room lifts immediately. When I ask how people feel, they use words like: "happy," "a nice place," "opportunities," "fiestas!". People often describe this as somewhere they would like to live.
If you have ever read a funding proposal for a community or development project, they will usually focus only on the deficits. When describing people and place for said projects, you will see words like "poverty", "lack of...", "low income...", “systemic issues”, etc.. Imagine outsiders repeatedly describing your town or country by its problems? If you didn't believe it before, there's a strong chance you might internalise the deficit narrative and see your place as lacking, poor, and in need of help.
This effect, and its implications, is at the heart of SBAs. SBA advocates (and outing myself, I am an advocate) argue language matters. Advocates describe the need to start with questions like: what exists in a place? What gives it life? What are people proud of? What change have people created in place with no or outside help? By asking such questions, people are inspired and hopeful. They identify stories of success and celebration that can be built on for future success. It creates an environment of "I can". It moves people into a state of active engagement, to being active citizens.
By contrast, focusing on deficits can foster learned helplessness. It creates passivity, and demand for outside experts and outside help to solve problems. It creates this strange dynamic of outside experts having the answers for places and people they often have little understanding of - a service model. In the international development context, it can keep in place colonial attitudes and approaches to development. Hence, in a SBA, apractitioner’s role is as a facilitator rather than an expert. The table below provides a helpful snapshot of the difference between a SBA (one called Asset Based Community Development), and a Service Model.
SBAs are not restricted solely to development projects. They apply to most change processes. People have used them in health care, organisational change, and social work to name a few. They can be a philosophy people carry with them, to see a place and people differently.
"What about the problems?"
An inevitable and reasonable response from people when learning about SBAs is, you guessed it, "what about the problems?" People still tackle challenges and problems in a SBA. What changes, compared to the deficits approach, is the starting point. SBA practitioners start with enquiry about strengths. This changes the starting point for the change process. It develops a more equitable relationship between the practitioner and the people they are working with.
Shining a light on strengths and previous examples of positive change, can foster a sense of hope and power in people. Further, identifying strengths, and acknowledging and learning from change, provides building blocks to tackle challenges or progress their aspirations.
For example, in the image above, perhaps the abundant rainfall, enthusiastic mayor, community spirit, and existing business structures could be used to tackle the lack of potable water. When acknowledged and used, strengths can be energised and used as vehicles for change. The risk of not identifying strengths is that existing strengths or assets are ignored, and they can, in worst-case scenarios, strengths can devalued, eroded and disappear.
Importantly, in a SBA, the person, or community identify what challenge matters to them rather than this being defined by an outsider. By doing so, people endorse that issue "X" matters to them. It means any subsequent strategy to address "X" is relevant, and more likely to mobilise engagement from people.
An example
I'll give you an example, I worked on a water project in Indonesia. The project was initiated by the community and their water committee. Significant strengths we found were the existing local capacities in the community, and the desire for local ownership of the project. For example, a networked, respected and loved water chairperson; committee members with maintenance skills; and one community with an established water tariff that funded maintenance and upgrades.
If these existing strengths weren't first identified, an outsider could well ignore them and import a top-down approach that costs more, devalue the existing strengths, and possibly implement an irrelevant project as it ignores the local context.
In this example above, the water committee identified previous government water projects implemented by the government as "imposed". One of the water committee members noted: "…with the government project, we do not know the planning, who is doing what and why the project become like this. We just received and accepted the thing which was done. So, we never really knew the story behind the project. So, I think [the SBA] is good because we are involved right from the beginning, even if it takes a long time."
Different forms of Strength-based approaches
SBAs can take various codified forms, Asset Based Community Development; Positive Deviance; and Appreciative Inquiry are some you may have heard of. I will talk about these more in a subsequent article. But at their heart, SBAs share a focus on starting with what brings energy to a place, what works. In summary, SBAs are energising and foster hope. They stimulate change from inside rather than top-down, and hence change is often more lasting. They support people or groups to tackle challenges that are important to them, and they bolster and build off (rather than ignore) the things that work.
Want to learn more?
If you would like to learn more about the relevance of SBAs to your work, or work with us to integrate a SBA into your SBA, please get in touch.
References:
Images adapted from Cahill, A., 2010. Playing with Power