Reflective Practice Following Trust Interview
Individuals develop micro skills for success
To develop a team language of strengths
Team develops skills and rules of engagement needed for dialogical process
To increase team trust and connection
• Respecting (e.g., eye contact)
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Strength spotting
Background Information for Team Leaders
Why pay attention to Character Strengths? Character Strengths and Resilience?
There is a growing body of research that indicates that character strengths predict success in challenging contexts. For example, Duckworth, et al. (2007) found that “grit” or perseverance was a strong predictor of successful completion of basic training among West point cadets and US Army Special Forces completion (in Cornum et al., 2011). The character strengths of teamwork, courage, optimism, honesty, leadership, persistence and self-regulation are important mediators of success in situations characterized by significant physical, cognitive and emotional challenges (Matthews, 2008). Hope, kindness, social intelligence, self-regulation, and perspective buffer against the negative effects of stress and trauma (Park & Peterson, 2006, 2009). Posttraumatic growth in various dimensions corresponds with particular character strengths: improved relationships with others (kindness, love), openness to new possibilities (curiosity, creativity, love of learning), greater appreciation of life (appreciation of beauty, gratitude, zest), enhanced personal strength (bravery, honesty, perseverance), and spiritual development and religiousness (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995). Persistence, honesty, prudence, and love were inversely related to acts of aggression (Park & Peterson, 2008).
In her review of the US Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) Program, with a sample of over 1.1 million participants, Cornum, et.al. (2011) says “research has linked character strengths to positive adjustment among people who had experienced a significant psychological or physical illness (p.6).” While traditional organizational development measures have focused on repairing weakness, these approaches have little to offer with respect to how to improve the performance and well-being of large numbers of people. The resilience agenda outlined by USAID similarly suggests that they are “doing business differently” to help vulnerable communities emerge from cycles of crisis onto a pathway toward development by connecting humanitarian assistance and development programs more effective “across the common goal of building resilience (http://www.usaid.gov/resilience).” There is a clear and voiced need for “resiliency programming that contributes to a sustainable reduction in vulnerability and more inclusive growth.” This cannot be realized in isolation. If these goals are to be reached within communities, NGO’s will need parallel effective and measurable interventions for resiliency within their own teams and organizations.
The need for a team intervention model
Cooperrider (2011) suggests that for true organizational and community transformation the relevant question is: “How do we take isolated strengths and help take them to a new octave?” In addition to empirically based assessment and analysis, interventions need to have measurable impact. Clifton and Harter (2003) suggest that changes in one’s sense of self helps interpret the situation and context around that person through a different lens and leads to changed behaviors and improved performance at work. Mayerson (2013) suggests that when people think that their organization is attending to optimizing their character strengths they are motivated and feel that they are up to the challenge. “Adequate resources have to do with not only having the right amount of person-power and associated physical resources, but also the degree to which people feel they and their co-workers are deployed to optimize their talents and motivation. In this light it becomes important to not only explore the prevalence of certain VIA character strengths but also the degree to which people feel t