Tag Archives: solution focussed

Solution Focused Gorillas

Posted on by
Reply

In 2006 Cadburys poisoned 37 people with Salmonella and the treasured British company was brought to it knees. Fined millions, reputation in the trash, hostile take over talk, how could it ever recover…………….

Cadbury’s response was marketing genius they ran one of the most famous adverts of the past twenty years.

[You really should watch it (below) –  it’s amazing! It’s 4 and half minutes long (this link is a shorter version – but if you have the time watch the long one – it is sooooo worth it!]


The advert features no humans (Phil Collins excepted) and no chocolate, it just creates a warm positive enjoyable feeling exactly the feeling that Cadburys wants associated to their brand.

By honing down to base psychology Cadburys have distanced themselves from their Salmonella existential crisis.  The advert was entirely positive, feel good and very importantly simple. Cadburys chocolate will make you feel like the advert does.

The next video….. well…. watch it then I’ll tell you….


It features the very same gorilla as in the Cadbury advert (honest!) in the now famous experiment by Simon and Chabris (2009). In the experiment the focus of the viewer is requested to be entirely on the white team passing the ball, the human brain squarely focuses on its target to the deletion of everything else.

Nearly all test subjects fail to spot the gorilla but can count accurately the number of passes of the ball, as soon as you are told of the gorilla it is 100% obvious, as gorillas always are.

Before the gorilla starred in adverts and experiments, he used to live in the jungle where he met famous primatologist (monkey expert) Diane Fosse.

The male gorilla before Fosse (and others Sigourney Weaver etc) had always been considered to be totally dominant in sexual situations with the female subservient and vulnerable.

As Matthew Syed points out in his excellent Rebel Ideas (2019) however, primatology was full of stuffy bearded men in the Charles Darwin mould who had a massive blind spot about female activity. They accepted the dominant view and importantly had no interest in challenging it creating a jaundiced perceived wisdom. Syed observes that it was not until a critical mass of female scientists entered the field that the frame of reference shifted and female gorillas were found to have agency and power, and, could select a range of sexual partners.

The story of this gorilla I feel is useful to solution focused work as it makes clear a very important point.

“You see what you aim at”

This quote by, at times controversial, psychologist Jordan Peterson I feel holds a lot of weight for social care. The power, and indeed ‘blindness’, that can be achieved by a clear focus is both useful and dangerous.

Here are some examples –

The social worker whose main focus is the assessment rather than supporting lasting and client led change, or the family whose only focus is to seek the end to the intervention never questioning or considering possible future directions or opportunities.

Conversely the focus on one particular issue for a period of time can yield results as nobody can deal with many problems all at the same time (I’m sure many of us have all been to child protection or adult safeguarding meetings where the list of identified issues is long).

To balance this I feel as social workers we need a wide lens to be open to risky ideas that will reverse challenging situations (Cadburys),  we must be brave not to fall under the cloak of perceived and dominant thinking (Dianne Fosse) and to be focused on the detail but not to miss the gorilla in the room (Simon and Chabris).

George Bull

George is a Social Worker at the Connected Carers Team South Tyneside. He has been a social worker for 10 years working mainly in child protection and Early Help. He has lectured with Jamie Scorer at New College Durham, University of Sunderland and University of Northumbria in solution focused practice.

References:

Simon and Chabris (2009) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/p281059

Rebel Ideas, Syed (2019) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebel-Ideas-Power-Diverse-Thinking/dp/1473613914

Dr Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain

Posted on by
Reply

George Bull, Social Worker at the Connected Carers Team South Tyneside, explores Dr. Dan Siegal’s hand model of the brain and its use in social work practice.

In the Solution Focussed Therapy model of social work practice the core goal is to nurture the innate self-capacity for change and repair in individuals and families.  I strongly believe unless this is achieved the people we support are vulnerable to our repeat involvement as they perceive that their problems (which often perhaps inevitably recur in some way) can only be solved alongside the practitioner.

I’ll give you an analogy. Think of a car owner who does not know how to change a windscreen wiper blade. They will either struggle on with a wiper blade that leaves the screen murky or go to a garage and professionals will entirely repair and replace the wiper blade. They will do this for every car they own.  The other option is that at some point the car owner tries themselves to change the blade or is shown how to do it by another car owner who knows how to do it. They can then do it themselves forever!

The DIY job we seek to do as social workers is supporting people to change the patterns of behaviour that have led to the issue becoming fixed and other wise immovable.  Quite simply patterns of behaviour are cemented by the human brain that seeks to develop the best strategy available for survival. The optimal option being to seek to replay past successful strategies over and over.

A previously traumatized child or adult’s brain will recognize that it survived the traumatic experience and that the behaviours of shutting down, running away, or fighting worked. Survival is so paramount the brain cares not if the lifestyle and relationships for the person are severely impaired due to this strategy.

How can this hard-wiring be addressed?

Daniel Siegel the author of Mind Sight and the Child Brian has developed a simple and massively accessible model to support this “The Hand Brian Model”. (video at the bottom of the article)

This model offers social workers a very tactile and easy way to demonstrate to children and adults why and how their brain is responding with negative automatic behaviours like hitting out, shutting down, and addiction.

Siegal explains that the two competing areas are the downstairs (limbic system) and the upstairs (frontal cortex). By explaining this to an individual the social worker has lifted the bonnet of the car and is letting the person look beneath it perhaps for the first time.   This is the opposite of dumbing down. This is explaining neuroscience to children and adults to increase their understanding of their own bodies and behaviours.

This specific point of looking under the bonnet or inside their brain is where a small important change can happen, looking at your behaviours from the lens of being one step removed creates a transformative perspective namely meta cognition which is highly linked to healthy attachment and positive mental health and lifestyle.

The key point to stress is that limbic system fires first automatically and leads the person to damaging behaviours that will continue the issues they are struggling with. This is represented in the model by the thumb (see the video below). Only by slowing down and engaging the fingers, which represent the frontal cortex, by wrapping them around the thumb, can this powerful part of the brain be challenged and potential for change created.

By demonstrating the functions of the brain and by the using the body an instant and memorable connection is made increasing the chances of the model being used again after the session.   Just like a joke or an anecdote it is immediately accessible, social and totally memorable.

This I feel sets this model apart from many others I have seen. Children and carers remember and continue to use this over extended periods, and indeed explain and teach others about the model.

Social care professionals rarely use any brain science in their work as they feel they are not expert enough.  By keeping it simple and being confident in the basics social workers should aim to build this knowledge with children and families. After all its about their brains.

So, give it a try watch the video, put the model in your practice locker and I bet in the next few weeks of practice the opportunity will arise where it will be relevant.  At this point just remember don’t be like the garage! Do better by building knowledge, building capacity and revealing what is going on under the bonnet.

George Bull

George is Social Worker at the Connected Carers Team South Tyneside. He has been a social worker for 10 years working mainly in child protection and Early Help. He has lectured with Jamie Scorer at New College Durham, University of Sunderland and University of Northumbria in solution focused practice.