Reframing 🔄 How We Approach Challenges
Reframing the Problem: Start With What’s Strong
Scarcity mindset and deficit-based problem-solving run rampant in our society.
When a challenge comes up at your nonprofit, you might hear someone ask:
“What’s going wrong?”
“Why isn’t this working?”
“What are we missing?”
“Who or what is causing the problem?”
“How do we fix it?”
To survive, humans have always needed to notice trouble and address it, but this explicit process of viewing challenges as inherent deficits to be diagnosed and fixed is relatively recent.
During the Industrial Revolution, society was focused on making workflows more efficient. This diagnose-and-fix mindset worked well for machines and processes, and over time it became the default lens we use for solving problems of all kinds, including problems that involve people.
But a deficit-based approach doesn’t work as well with humans. People don’t like to be treated like machines. We’re all incredibly complex and need a more nuanced approach to change.
And nonprofits are especially human organizations. Our work depends on relationships: between staff and leadership, boards and volunteers, donors and organizations, and nonprofits and the communities they serve. When people are at the center, the way we approach challenges matters.
Putting Humans First
Enter: a strengths-based approach.
Instead of managing weaknesses, let’s focus on our strengths. Management guru Peter Drucker said, “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make our weaknesses irrelevant.”
What if nonprofits followed that advice?
Appreciative Inquiry offers a constructionist-based approach that affirms people, invites creativity, and lets teams co-create. This approach also leans into trauma-informed principles, minimizing the risk of further deflating or injuring staff, leadership, and volunteers.
A strengths-based approach doesn’t mean ignoring challenges or pretending everything is going perfectly. Nonprofit leaders still need to address a fundraising goal that isn’t being met, a board that isn’t fully engaged, a team stretched beyond capacity, or a program that isn’t having the intended impact.
The difference is where we start.
Reframing the Question
Consider a nonprofit struggling with board engagement. A deficit-based approach might ask: “Why aren’t our board members more engaged? What are they failing to do?”
A strengths-based approach asks: “When have our board members been most engaged? What made that possible? How can we create more of those conditions?”
The challenge hasn’t changed, but the starting point has.
This same shift can happen across a nonprofit. If fundraising has stalled, we can look at the donors who are deeply engaged and ask what strengthened those relationships. If staff members are feeling stretched, we can identify where the team is thriving and what conditions make that possible. If volunteer participation has declined, we can explore the experiences that have made volunteers feel connected to the mission and eager to return.
It might mean moving from “What’s going wrong?” to “What’s already working that we can build on?”
Instead of focusing only on why something isn’t working, we can look for times when it has worked and explore what made those moments successful. Rather than starting with what we’re missing, we can identify the strengths, resources, relationships, and experiences we already have.
Even “How do we fix this?” can become a different kind of question: “What do we want to create, and what strengths can help us get there?”
The challenge hasn’t disappeared. We’ve simply changed the lens through which we approach it.
Start With What’s Strong
Nonprofits spend a lot of time thinking about needs. It’s inherent in our work. We identify unmet needs in our communities, funding gaps, challenges our communities face, and problems our organizations exist to address.
That work matters.
But when a deficit mindset becomes our default, it can shape how we see not only the challenges around us, but also our organizations, our teams, and the people and communities at the heart of our missions.
Reframing gives us another starting point.
It allows us to acknowledge what isn’t working while also recognizing what is. It makes room for the strengths, experiences, relationships, and possibilities that already exist within our organizations and communities.
The next time a challenge surfaces at your nonprofit, before asking “What’s wrong and how do we fix it?”, consider asking: “What’s strong, and how can we build on it?”
Changing the question may just change what’s possible.
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