“ If somebody's got a bad life, they think about it every morning when they wake up and every night when they go to sleep. They don't need reminded of it all the time.”

Anthony Morrow flips this around in his work: “You notice what people are capable of and you tell them. It's unapologetically positive. People can mistake it for being a bit too woolly and airy fairy. It's absolutely not. I'm not daft enough to think that there aren't challenges in this community, but if we define people solely by their challenges then we limit their agency. That's not on us to do.”

Taking this Asset Based Community Development approach, Anthony has grown his team from one (himself) to nine, and together they have transformed lives – helping housing association tenants who were struggling, to get themselves back on their feet, pay their rent, avoid eviction and becoming homeless.

This approach – focusing on strengths, on what’s working well – is also at the heart of our Thrivable Scotland podcast. (Anthony was speaking with me in the first episode.)

But does that really make sense when, as Greta Thunberg puts it, “our house is on fire”?

By focussing on strengths, on successes, on the positive, are we at risk of forgetting the reality of the situation?

Especially when the late Joanna Macy in her hugely influential work with activists, always said that instead of repressing our fear, grief, outrage or despair at the state of the world, we should acknowledge and honour our pain. How does that fit with focussing on the positive?

The crucial thing to understand about strength based approaches, like Asset Based Community Development, is that they are not offering some kind of unrealistic, optimistic positive vision of the future, they’re not peddling hopium.

Instead, they focus on people’s strengths, on their individual and collective capacities, despite their challenging situations – whether that’s immediate socioeconomic disadvantage or the unfolding global ecological crisis.

By recognising their strengths, and exploring what’s working and why, people are better able to respond and find ways forward.

And we’re not at risk of forgetting the reality of the situation. As Anthony’s colleague said:

If somebody's got a bad life, they think about it every morning when they wake up and every night when they go to sleep. They don't need reminded of it all the time.

Nor do the overwhelming majority of the population who recognise the climate crisis need to be reminded of it.

But, but, but… How do we have climate action projects, nature regeneration projects etc, if we don’t acknowledge the reality, understand what’s going on and the pain we may feel?

We can’t. That stuff’s essential.

But dwelling on the problems and challenges is rarely the best place to start because it’s overwhelming and disempowering.

Instead, start where people are at and with the issues that matter to them.

Anthony again:

We didn't ever really have any predetermined plans like, we need to be running x number of groups or y number of sessions, it was just “how can we create space where people who care about something can get together and then act on that?”

And so one of the questions that we used to ask people was: “What do you care about? And, “If I can find somebody else who cares about that, are you willing to work with them?”

Share your experience of these kinds of strength based approaches in the comments: What are you doing? What’s working? And why?

If you’ve not tried this, what’s holding you back?

Want to explore these ideas in real life? I’d love you to join us for a walk in Holyrood Park on Thursday 28th May: Netwalking for Changemakers.

All the best

Osbert

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Osbert Lancaster, Director, Realise Earth specialist facilitators