Healthcare Training Institute - Quality Education since 1979

What are two benefits to starting with problem-focused thinking before pivoting to the positive?
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Question 1. What is my problem/stressor?

How long have you spent over-analyzing, over dissecting, and over describing your problem? How many: Hours? Days? Weeks? Months?

Question 2. Why did this problem happen?

Question 3.Whose fault is it? List everyone you can think of.

Question 4.What other difficulties has or will this problem cause? List as many as you can think of.

On the previous track, I asked you to brainstorm a list of stressors you have in the facility that you define as being stressful. This track is intended to serve as a convenient reference tool. You are encouraged to play this track often to remind you of the four questions in a problem-focused thought pattern which create stress for you.

Here’s what I mean by a problem-focused thought pattern. Sometimes, do you find you need to go through the thought process of being problem focused, before you can pivot to the positive and be solution focused? I know for me a benefit I find to be problem focused first, rather than solution focused first, is that by immersing myself in the problem rather than the solution. I benefit I experience is that I can vent a lot of feelings of stress, which for me may be really based upon perhaps deeper feelings of hurt or anger. However, when I am problem focused for too long, I am really just wheel-spinning, and not moving towards a solution. A second benefit is when I am problem focused I can more clearly define the problem.

In the future, when you have a problem at the facility, if you find you don't need to be problem focused first, to let off some steam, start with Track 3. Track 3 provides you with the four questions to pivot to the positive and be solution focused instead of problem focused.

On the rest of this track, I am going to walk you through four-questions you probably think about related to the stressors you listed on track one.

Choose one of those stressors to think about related to this four question process.

The first question in the four-question problem focused process is to define the problem. So when you did the exercise on track 1, ask yourself, "What is the problem?" But where you shift from a problem-focused thought pattern to a solution-focused thought pattern is ask yourself, “To what extent do you replay the problem, and keep asking "What is the problem?”

Continually analyzing, dissecting, and describing the problems assumes that when you thoroughly understand all aspects of the problem, you will somehow magically know how to solve it!! You can spend hours! Weeks! and even months going back over every piece of the stressor you listed on track with no solution forthcoming! So ask yourself, "Do I plan to ruminate over and over again the details of this problem, feeling that somehow by rehashing each gory detail of a CNA’s or Speech Therapist’s expression, gesture, vocal tone, or perhaps your own self-recrimination, you will somehow solve it? " But instead, ask yourself, “Do I only end up feeling more stressed, by over-analyzing, over dissecting, and over describing my stressor?”

In addition to over-analyzing “What is the problem?”, the second part of trying to cope with your problem by being problem focused rather than solution focused is asking yourself, "Why do I have this problem?!" Do you feel you are sometimes addicted to answering the question "Why?"

Do you assume that if you know why the Speech therapist had not changed your Helen’s schedule so she could attend the weekly crafts session, you will somehow know HOW! to solve these stressors in the facility? Let me prove to you why asking "why?" keeps you off balance and stressed, rather than centered and sailing towards a solution. Think about the problem you described in track 1.

Ask yourself, “Why did this happen?” and write it down. When you hear the tone turn the CD player off for ten seconds, and contemplate why this woeful, awful thing happened to you. Why did he or she act that way? Why, why, why??? Now your turn. Either write, or if you are in your car, think about why this awful thing happened at the facility.

I'm going to be magic now and tell you what I think happened in your mind. When you ask why, it takes you back in your mind on a historical journey into the past. To reconstruct, in painfully vivid detail, for example, the minute that you once again realized that Helen was not attending crafts! But because you missed the building up of the problem the first time through,. you may need to delve further back and think of how much Helen likes crafts and how disappoint she will be, or the Care Plan Conference is which Helen goals were discussed, which the Speech Therapist attended. Do you see how by asking why, you create a marvelous opportunity to wallow! in even more self-pity and create anguish of untold heights?! What a benefit! Isn't this grand! You get to feel like a martyr!!! The more you ask why, why, why, the more you can glo-o-o-rify! in all the gory details. Do you see how by asking why, you may be just keeping yourself off balance and stressed, and not really resolving anything?

Let's go to the third question in problem, rather than solution, focused thinking, after you over analyze what is the problem and perhaps feel a total martyr by asking “Why do I have this problem?” The third question is, and those blamers in the group are really going to LOVE this one, ask ”Who-o-ose fault is it?!! Whose fault is it?” Turn the CD player off in a minute, and write down all!! of the people you can blame. In my case, of course, the answer to “Whose fault is it?” was the gosh-awful Speech Therapists who did not move Helen’s scheduled speech session to a different day or time when she was in the facility. Whose fault is it regarding your problem. MUSIC

While it is wonderful to have someone else to blame, in actual fact, whether you identify someone else or yourself as the cause, this blaming pattern still does not bring you any closer to a solution, because you are still focusing on the problem!! Get it?? Do you see that?

The fourth question is, what other difficulties has or will this problem cause? This thought pattern of asking “What other difficulties has or will this problem cause?” effectively amplifies any problem or stressor, giving it qualities of greatness. "Oh my gosh, the Speech Therapist truly does not respect me as a professional!"

So look for the ripple effect now. Let your imagination go absolutely wild. What are any and all far-reaching ramifications of this problem? Turn your CD player off in a minute and list them or if you are in your car, think about them. What other difficulties has or will this problem cause? The more wild you can be with this step, the more you will be able to clear your mind for the next track, which switches you from stressful problem-focused thinking to solution focused thinking. MUSIC

The above four mental patterns focused on the problem. Do you see by asking, "what's the problem over and over again, why do I have this problem, who is at fault, and what are other difficulties caused by this problem" your energy is spent focusing on the problem?

These patterns, of course, can be helpful. You have to define what the problem is, right? But the key is your focus. Are you locked in and stuck in this problem-focused line of thinking, and stopping there? All of these four questions in problem-focused thinking may not be true for you all of the time with every stressor in your facility. But which ones are true for you today?! Is it possible for you to be truly self-honest and not play Polly Perfect and say "I don't do any of these!!"

Do you see that you are increasing your stress if you can't admit your flaws?! You can't change what you don't recognize or own or admit. I am trying to wake you up here! Look at yourself, admit your faults, and then you will be ready for Track 3. No one is perfect… not me… and not you. See if you agree with this statement (read slowly) "It is a high probability that whenever you are feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, and emotionally upset at the facility, it is because you are probably focusing your attention in some combination of the four problem-focused thought patterns.

The next track contains… you guessed it solution-focused thinking patterns.

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