What is solutions-based work? How do you define a problem?
In this post I am going to answer both of these questions using the example of organizing a room in a house but any situation that requires making choices will work. :)
End the cycles of crisis. This is the whole point of solutions-based work. As opposed to problem-focused work, solutions-based work asks some version of this question: "What do I (or the vested parties) want to have happen here?" Most of the time, we don't know what we want. We say we'll know what we want when we see it. This is where defining the problem comes in. There are many doors to ending a cycle of crisis, you only need one.
To define a problem, pick one thing that hit your shit. Something hitting your shit occurs when you feel a wave (or tsunami) of emotion-fueled thoughts and body sensations that take you over for a bit or forever, repeatedly. There is a general sense of out-of-control and a reactive grabbing or aversion (often a combo of the two) underlying action if any taking place. It's the opposite of a quiet calm, peaceful satisfaction, that we imagine we could be--that we are--if only we didn't have so much shit. Now that's the truth. Who are you without your shit? Perfect, actually. Who are you when your shit isn't a problem anymore? The most highly evolved human.
I digress.
Take responsibility in this step of defining a problem, no blaming allowed. What's one thing that rubs you the wrong way about the room? "I don't like the shape of this sofa" is fair game while "The people in this house don't pick-up their stuff" however valid, is not a helpful line of reasoning in this exercise and serves only to distract you from actually realizing a solution to a general dissatisfaction, with the room in the house.
It's possible to change the shape of a sofa in a room if you move it. Yes, the shape of the sofa is not actually changed but that doesn't matter. The problem is only ever with perception and, so, a sofa may be pulled out from the wall it was crowding, and a suave throw blanket cascaded down the front, and a lamp hitched over it's back haunch--and now that sofa is perceptively, absolutely, different.
The second part of the question What do I want to have happen here is: "What's getting in the way of that?" There is only one answer to this question and it is: Willingness. The only thing that gets in the way of the shape of your sofa bugging you is your willingness to change it's shape (in your minds eye) or get rid of it altogether. Done. It is really that simple. All the other narratives, while elaborate and often logical, don't get at a living solution because they don't deal with the perception disposition. It's never a matter of material first, it's always a matter of perception first. Perception creates material. We cannot ignore material--that isn't necessary--but we must play with what we see first.
Let's try moving the furniture before we try moving the people. How might the furniture rearranged, inspire the people to rearrange also?
The only time people don't want to engage in solutions-based work is when they're stuck in control-freakdom or fear, which is perfectly legitimate. Problem-focused work is about surface-level, don't like my sofa get a new one approach (or don't have a sofa, get one). This is what our present post-industrial consumer culture/complex is based upon, trillions of dollars and exponential energy goes into this way of thinking and being in the world--individually, in small groups, private and public systems, whole nations--it is no small feat to question let alone act to the contrary. It is not a wrong way to organize a room, by any means, if it's working for you, continue. My bet is that it doesn't work for anybody for long. Only the most weary will be game to shrug it continually, to allow something else to occur. The most weary.
What's nice about being miserable in an unorganized room in a house is the only place to go is up, if you're so willing.
Yours,
-mp