To say that much has changed since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 would be a colossal understatement. Our lives have been fundamentally changed in ways that we may not even fully understand yet. The need for change may continue for some time to come as we search for ways to run our lives and businesses in the best way possible. Organizational leaders will need to brace for resistance, fatigue, and other side effects related to the immeasurable ways that COVID-19 has impacted people.
To move forward in an uncertain world, organizations will need to access various support tools to meet individuals' and teams' varying needs. Non-directive professional coaching can undoubtedly play a role in helping individuals and teams navigate the ever-evolving landscape of a peri-pandemic world towards goal attainment. But where to begin when so much seems challenging and woeful?
In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard[1], Chip and Dan Heath discuss the importance of searching for "bright spots" when introducing change and problem solving under tough circumstances. They reference the story of Jerry Sternin, the US country director for the non-profit Save the Children, who was sent to Vietnam in 1991 to help fight childhood malnutrition. Instead of identifying all the causes of malnourishment affecting children in Vietnam villages, Sternin instead focused on a handful of children who were seemingly well-nourished and healthy despite living under the same conditions. After speaking to these children's mothers, Sternin discovered that these women were doing a few things differently. For example, even though they were feeding their children the same amount of food as all other families, they were spreading it out across four meals a day instead of three, adding a few small shrimp and sweet-potato greens to their rice, and supervising mealtime to make sure they ate all their food even if it meant hand-feeding it to them.
Discovering these outliers allowed Sternin to educate other families on these best practices, resulting in improved health for thousands of Vietnamese children. Using this approach, Sternin was able to zoom in on what the Heath brothers call bright spots: Finding evidence that something is working, despite numerous challenges, and replicating it. Brights-spots-thinking in many ways is anchored in optimism, the practice of focusing on what is present rather than what is absent, and to some degree, hope.
For leaders and coaches, using a bright spot approach could help to uncover hidden gems that are contributing to successful outcomes in the otherwise challenging environment we are currently operating in. Even identifying a few areas of sustained success could lead to new thinking on introducing change for things that are not working well. A coaching question that could be asked is quite directly, "What is working well for you now?". Another bright spot question could be, "What have you done differently that recently led to a surprisingly good outcome?"
“For leaders and coaches, using a bright spot approach could help to uncover hidden gems that are contributing to successful outcomes in the otherwise challenging environment we are currently operating in. ”
You may be thinking: Optimism? Hope? Michelle, it's 2020. There is a fine line between optimism and delusion. There is no doubt that focusing on what is working rather than what is not can be tricky, even counter-intuitive in the reality that is 2020. This is especially true within high-stress environments or for people who orient towards a more negative outlook in situations. It would be entirely impossible to overlook the immense feelings of loss and sadness that we are currently feeling on a global scale. It may feel natural to gravitate towards a deficit-based lens when discussing a situation. But centring conversations around bright spots does not mean ignoring these feelings, nor does it mean that we must fail to acknowledge issues that need to be addressed.
Leaders will always be confronted with urgent matters that require immediate intervention. However, as the story of Jerry Sternin points out, being solutions-focused does not necessarily mean concentrating solely on what is going wrong. In our quest to find a way forward, beyond the anxiety-inducing headlines and sobering reality of our lives in a pandemic world, it may be worthwhile to let the bright spots lead the way.
- Michelle W.
[1] Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch : how to change things when change is hard . Random House Canada.