the strengths cafe
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The Scaling Kit
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| The Strengths Cafe is an online publishing project sponsored by Innovative Resources. find out more:
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In 2007, Innovative Resources is delighted to introduce our new Scaling Kit featuring the best-loved pad designs from our original publications, Scales I and II. |
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The simplicity of the images, the colour and format of the pads had great appeal to many people, especially those with a visual learning style. The Scales pads were readily adopted as a tool by counsellors, therapists, children and family workers, youth workers, teachers, supervisors and others in diverse professional roles because they can be used to plot change very easily and thereby create new possibilities for change.
Scales was followed in 1999 by an additional set of eight pads with new images. Again, the feedback was that this enhanced range of visual prompts gave users more choice in finding a suitable graphic metaphor, thus making scaling accessible to a wider range of people.
As Howard Gardner has consistently argued in his theory of multiple intelligences, many people do not think, learn or interact with the world just through language. While linguistic and mathematical intelligences have traditionally been valued most in western societies, for countless people living both inside and outside these societies there are other learning and thinking preferences.
Gardner 's theory made sense of our experience that creative arts in general, and visual imagery in particular, contained profound transformational possibilities.
While acknowledging that the drawings printed on the pads are incredibly minimalist in their application of creative arts ideas to human services, we became convinced of the efficacy of people creating and using their own art and artifacts to help describe the challenges, joys, struggles and successes in their journeys.
These visual metaphors are very simple ways of ‘doing' art and creating artifacts that will probably never appear on the walls of art galleries. But they can and do appear on kitchen fridges, on notice boards, in client files, in journals, in reflective notes and in many other places.
By mid 2006 the scaling pads had well and truly proved themselves and continued to be popular. Yet the team at Innovative Resources also felt that the time had come for change to the change-recording tool itself! And so began the search for more versatile formats.
The Scaling Kit: visual metaphors for noticing change includes 10 scaling pads, each with 25 tear-off sheets. We selected eight of the most popular and versatile visual metaphors from Scales and Scales II. These have been redrawn and the pads redesigned to enhance their appeal and usability. In addition, two brand new visual metaphors (Ups and Downs and the rating Wheel) have been added. Finally, the user's guide has been extended and enhanced to include a greater array of suggested uses. Some of the suggestions have grown out of St Luke's practice and some have been offered by creative and inventive colleagues from around the world.
For those new to scaling, we hope you find something in The Scaling Kit that gives you the confidence to try scaling in your work with others. For those who have used the images from Scales and Scales II in the past, we hope you rediscover old friends, make new ones and find fresh ways of working with both the old and the new. |
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Scaly Tales: the Scales in Action
Scales in the Classroom
St. Luke's Innovative Resources' products are used by many people in many different ways. Helen Nash is Assistance Principal and a grade 5/6 teacher at Camp Hill Primary School. Camp Hill is a school of some 300 children in central Bendigo. The school pays a good deal of attention to teaching the students about self-esteem and positive problem-solving. Helen thinks St. Luke's products are “fantastic” and she particularly enjoys using Scales and Strength Cards for Kids in the classroom. She says Scales is a great tool for kids to use when setting long- and short-term goals.
“The kids select their own scale, mark it themselves and are then able to return to it to mark their own improvement. The beauty of this is that they can see their progress towards goals which they have set as important to them. They also like the power and individuality of being able to choose their own measure—the road, the ladder, etc.”
“Scales can be also be used with the School Code of Conduct as it represents a non-threatening and solution-focused way of looking at behavioural change. Again the visual representation and the control kids have in making their own assessments is great. The kids can also stand back a bit from their behaviour and look at it in a more symbolic or objective way. Again they can see their own progress. The message is that you will move forward and if you do slip back you can still see how far you have come.”
Helen also talked about the Strength Cards for Kids. “They're visually appealing, and nice and big, allowing the kids to get a good grip on them. They're friendly, not value-laden. There are no comparisons to be made between them. Each card is as positive as another.”
Helen finds the cards useful for students who find it hard to verbalise positive qualities in themselves or others. “There's a safety in the characters not being people. Sometimes the kids make their own cards or we might go round the circle using them for discussion about the qualities we like or value. We might use them to celebrate the wealth of strengths in the classroom. Sometimes I just leave them around the kids play with them.”
One of Helen's students wrote this story of his experiences using Scales.
H's Story:
“I thought that the paths and measuring things were very helpful for my development in my behaviour and has actually helped me because now I am way more well-behaved. Even my parents thought that it was good for me. This is a rating of what I thought of the paths and many other different ways to measure as well.” [picture unavailable]
On Camp with ‘Smart Normal Adolescent People'
Josephine Highland and Darryn Skipper have created a service for adolescents called ‘Supporting Smart Normal Adolescent People' (SSNAP). The focus of this service is the offering of four-day camps at Lake Galverston, which is located between Finley and Deniliquin in Victoria.
Four times a year Josephine and Darryn (and other adults, depending on numbers) take a group of 10 to 16 adolescents aged from 11 to 17 years to a lake-side camp where they are accommodated back-packer style—complete with bunks and dormitories. Ninety per cent of the young people have been in foster care at some point in their lives and many need support to develop social skills and self-esteem.
Throughout the camp there are 4 workshops: Trust Building, Self-Esteem, Assertiveness, and Conflict and Resolution Skills. And of course, there are all the essential elements of a great camp including canoeing, swimming, and a variety of games emphasising teamwork. A movie and dinner out at a local restaurant are also in the schedule, but electronic games and computers are no where to be seen. (Generator power makes keeping this rule easy!)
Josephine and Darryn use a range of resources to assist them in their facilitation of the workshops, including videos, butchers' paper and St Luke's card packs such as The Bears, Reflexions, Strength Cards and the Scales tools.
‘We use the resources at different times during the workshops. The ‘accelerator' scale can be a good gauge of change over the four days,' said Josephine. ‘We ask the young people to mark where they feel they are at with their self-esteem at the beginning of the camp and then at the end we look at this again. There is often quite a difference in how they are feeling about themselves.'
‘Many of the kids have used the cards in one-on-one counselling situations but I think there is a real difference in how they work in a group setting. At the beginning of our last camp we asked the kids to go off in pairs for five minutes and get to know to each other a little. Then they came back and each person selected a card from The Bears that they thought best described how their partner was feeling. We did this again at the end of the camp and each person was given a sticker of “their” card to keep.' Josephine commented that one of the most valuable aspects of the camp is the opportunity that these young people get to express their own feelings and to hear that others too, have felt very bad at times. And some of the young people are experiencing their first ever holiday or restaurant meal. Josephine and Darryn try to offer an environment where it is fun and safe for adolescents to open up and develop the skills to move forward in their lives.
Strengths Rule in Mildura
The East End Community Project is being developed in the Ambleside Crescent area of Mildura, Victoria and aims to strengthen families by enhancing the well being and safety of the community. This project recognises that parenting is hard work and that building child safety is a community responsibility. Importantly, it recognises that for children to be safe in their community, the adults of the community need to feel safe and respected.
Focus on Strengths Recently we caught up with Donna Gardner, who is the St Luke's worker with the project. ‘The Ambleside Crescent area is made up of about 150 houses and there is an unemployment rate of about 80 percent. The large number of child protection notifications, racial disharmony and criminal activity in the area have resulted in residents feeling devalued. Media attention focusing on the deficits of the area has increased the community's sense of isolation,' Donna said. ‘But rather than focusing on deficiencies,' Donna added, ‘these circumstances can also be approached from the point of their strengths. For example, because many people are unemployed, they have considerable free time that they can offer as a resource to the community.'
In the last two years, staff from the St Luke's Mildura office have provided a direct casework service to a number of the families in the area, and as a result, made contacts with a core group of residents who were keen to become involved in improving their neighbourhood. In 1999, staff asked this group of residents the tried and true ‘miracle' question: If you could wave your magic wand so that things are as you have always dreamed, how would they be?' The vision created by residents at this first meeting included developing a safe and welcoming physical environment, as well as opportunities to share ideas, explore new skills and socialise.
Residents' Action Group The Group started out with two volunteers and now has eight. ‘We meet every Monday in the park, whatever the weather,' says Donna. ‘The commitment of these people is amazing. Sometimes we lean on our cars and chat or we sit in the park. We really need a Community House!' In fact, the current search for a Community House is one of the broad areas that the Group has now decided to focus upon.
‘We began very informally,' Donna explained, ‘but now we are becoming a little more structured in response to the need for management of the projects and the numbers of volunteers. We recently introduced an agenda for the meetings and we have also begun to break up into smaller focus groups.'
Inspirational Achievements ‘This Group is inspirational,' Donna said. ‘Their achievements have included working with the Council to redevelop the park which was a brown patch and is now a green patch with the new irrigation system that has been installed! The Group has joined Neighbourhood Watch and is working with a crime prevention officer from Mildura to reduce crime. The Group also publishes a monthly newsletter.'
Strength Cards Over her time of working with the Group, Donna has used several of the tools produced here at Innovative Resources, including the Strength Cards. She began by letting people play with the cards and simply enjoy the images, then she asked each person to pick out a strength that they believe they have and to give an example of when they have used that strength. From there she asked each person to discuss how they thought their particular strength could be used in the project.
After a period of time, Donna noticed that everyone tended to select the same strength, so she now uses the cards like a game of ‘Memory.' Donna randomly selects a card and asks each participant to speak about how they may have used that particular strength in the past. She also asks them about the strengths they see in others.
Scales When the Group decided to break into smaller teams of two or three to focus on specific tasks, Donna found the Scales very useful. With each topic, such as the newsletter, the Scales were used to map answers to such questions as:
‘I like the fact that people can write what they want on the Scales', said Donna. ‘After our sessions with the Scales, we all found that we came away with a renewed sense of focus.'
Donna says that by focusing on strengths, the participants in the group are noticing and commenting on the strengths displayed by each other more and more. Donna values this noticing of others' strengths very highly as it builds the goodwill and the effectiveness of the group by moving towards team values.
‘People are even starting to tell me what my strengths are as well, which is very nice!' Donna added.
Using the Tools to Build Mental Health By Jenny Mitchell
One of St. Luke's workers has used the Strength Cards in a group for women who are dealing with mental illness. The cards were dealt out randomly during a session on self-esteem. Group members then chose one of their cards to give to someone in the group who they felt had that strength. Everyone received 3 cards. Participants responded to the cards they had been given and spoke particularly about the strengths which surprised them. Members also talked about the strengths they had given out and why they thought the other person had that particular strength.
The women chose the sticker for the strength they were most surprised by and wore it for the rest of the session. The worker finds that the cards allow for differing levels of literacy as people can use the pictures rather than the words if they prefer.
The cards were also used to evaluate sessions. Participants were encouraged to choose a strength, which they had discovered during the session, and to take it home with them.
The worker commented that the cards are handy to carry around and pull out when a ‘teachable moment' arises or when conversation gets stuck. People often find that the pictures and the simplicity of the language enable them to express what is difficult to say in words alone.
Another worker likes the stickers and often uses them without necessarily using the cards as well. She was facilitating a group for women who were dealing with anxiety and depression. She would arrive wearing a strength sticker and would invite the women to choose one for themselves and, if they felt comfortable, to talk about how they used that strength in their lives. Over time everyone was able to contribute to the discussion, and sometimes if a group member was having trouble choosing a strength, the group would choose one for her and remind her of how they had seen her using that strength.
Scales can be a useful tool in goal-setting for Individual Service Plans. Clients choose the Scale which most appeals to them and the worker matches his or her language to the picture. For example ‘journey' language works well with the road/river Scale. The Scales allow for simple, straightforward goal-setting and evaluation and can be photocopied; with the original going to the client and the worker keeping a copy.
Similarly, group goals can be set using Scales. The group can decide which Scale to use and progress towards group goals can be recorded on it.
The graph Scale was helpful for a worker who was working with a person experiencing high levels of anxiety. She asked the client to use the graph to record his anxiety levels (both high and low) on a regular basis over a few days. He was also to record what was happening at the time. The client and worker then looked at what was happening when the points on the graph indicated that anxiety had been lower. They were able to develop an understanding of what strategies solutions and strengths the client used to move from high anxiety to low anxiety. The graph enabled the man to see what was happening when his anxiety was lower and also to see what he did to create the situation. This further enabled him to take ongoing action to reduce his anxiety. |
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Using the Scales, I and II
Scaling is such a simple but powerful tool for change that it deserves to be in the repertoire of every human service worker, irrespective of their role or theoretical frameworks.
Essentially scaling provides a way of thinking about change not as an all-or-nothing event that occurs out of the blue but rather as an activity that can be:
It does this in two ways. Firstly, it breaks any change down into small, manageable components or ‘bite-sized' bits. Secondly, it provides a metaphor or a symbol that helps make the change understandable and acts as a reminder of all the components.
Scaling can be done verbally by using words to create mental pictures, for example:
Some people are great at creating word pictures in their minds but others prefer to actually see or draw a picture. For this reason scaling is often constructed around a simple sketch or diagram created by the teacher/worker or the student/client themselves.
These simple illustrations make the scaling concept more concrete and accessible, particularly for people who have a preference for visual styles of learning. In addition, the act of creating these images on the spot gives them an immediacy and an idiosyncratic style that can help people engage with the process—it can help people really become involved in the change process. It is true that a picture, however simple, can have more power than words alone.
Certainly there are advantages when people create and draw their own metaphors. But there are also many times when it is useful to offer people a choice of ready-made visual metaphors.
There are no rules or instructions to follow when using the scales in this kit; their use depends entirely on the curiosity, creativity, purpose, passion, respect and imagination of the user. However, a strengths-based approach would suggest that scaling should only be introduced where there is:
As with the use of any tool, there is always an element of risk; the conversations that emerge or the feelings that are uncovered can be unforeseen and highly charged. The principle of respect suggests that scaling should be used with an awareness of the impact that the discoveries might make.
The visual images in this kit are purposefully minimalist. Their intent is to celebrate the skills, strengths and creativity of the learner/client. It is the learning, awareness and enhanced understanding of the learner/client that is to be celebrated, not the cleverness of the teacher/worker or the design of the tool itself.
The black line masters of the Scales can be reproduced in a variety of ways for use with individuals and groups, provided prior permission is sought from Innovative Resources. They can be photocopied and enlarged or reduced as required. They can be copied onto coloured paper or turned into overhead transparencies. They can be incorporated into other recording formats for clients or turned into posters for classroom use, provided that the copyright permission statements as they appear on the masters are preserved on all reproductions.
Most importantly, please note that these materials cannot be reproduced for sale or incorporated or adapted into any item that is for sale.
The Thermometer
Each of the Scales pads features a distinctive image that can prompt a variety of different questions, and be used for a variety of activities. Below is an example of some of the ways in which you might make use of the Scales pad of the thermometer. The other pads in Scales I and Scales II lend themselves to being used in similar ways. As with all our tools, Innovative Resources encourages workers to draw on their creativity when deciding how they might make use of the Scales.
The thermometer was one of the first visual scales St Luke's social workers were introduced to. The thermometer was one of the tools used by ‘Homebuilders'—a pioneering model of intensive family services. Homebuilders used the thermometer scale essentially as a stress management tool in their work with struggling families.
Metaphorically, there is a nice fit between the idea of a fluctuating temperature and the fluctuations in the emotions we all experience—anger, happiness, tension, calmness, anxiety, contentment, etc.
The thermometer scale has a whole range of applications for reflecting upon, and taking control of, any number of feelings. For example, it can be used as an anger management tool:
Because anger is often relational it can be reactive to our perceptions of other people and, of course, our demonstrated feelings will affect others. It can be useful therefore if each person in a significant relationship (a couple or a family for example) has an anger thermometer.
The thermometer scale has a wide variety of applications and can be used to notice, describe and manage a wide range of feelings depending upon the creativity and curiosity of the user. For example, calmness, enthusiasm, passion or self-control might be identified as the aim, and placed at the top of the scale. |
In
1996 St Luke's Innovative Resources published Scales:Tools
for Change as a set of six pads with tear-off
sheets. Each pad featured
a simple line
drawing that could be used as a visual metaphor to record parts of the
change process. 
