On the Trails

    Do you believe that your body has an
innate intelligence that can help heal oneself?  My clients, Rob M. and
Colleen G., owners of Discover Chiropractic, certainly do.  This
husband and wife chiropractor and nutritional counselor are betting
their professional lives that the human body can heal itself if given
the opportunity.  Their contention is that the body needs a little bit
of help, in the form of chiropractic adjustments and food supplements.
The couple is moving into a new office building and their challenge was
to figure out a way to promote the transition from just a chiropractic
business into a holistic healing center encompassing chiropractic care,
nutrition, emotional healing…as well as educational workshops and
other classes.
    Rob has been a chiropractor for over 15 years
and is located in Hamburg, NY. His wife Colleen is a nutritionist who
has recently started using muscle-stress testing to locate areas of the
body that are weak and to prescribe food supplements to strengthen
those areas. Rob also practices Emotional Freedom Technique therapy to
help patients with anxiety/nervousness disorders.
    In the
beginning of the client interview, their first challenge was to find a
new name for their new practice.  They wanted a name that reflected the
holistic care they are providing without sounding to “cliche”.  As the
interview progressed, they realized that the name was not as much of an
issue as was trying to figure out how to promote their new health
clinic.  Without asking the right questions, they might have been going
down a path that was not as important.
    The resource group that
was assembled was a mixture of my friends, Mike and Nicole and a few of
their patients, Gary and Sue.  Rob and Colleen were both acting as the
co-client; this made a total of 6 people. My two friends experienced an
online facilitation with me the week before, so they were very familiar
with the CPS process. Rob and Colleen’s patients had never heard of
creative problem solving, but were very eager to learn.  Mike and
Nicole were not at all familiar with the holistic type of care that Rob
and Colleen provide which is contrary to Rob and Colleen’s patients.
   
We began the session with the proper protocol: agenda, overview of CPS,
warm-up, client dissemination of background information and then the
CPS process. We were able to complete the whole process.  I let the
resource group go home when Rob and Colleen were setting their plan of
action.  Even though, the group may have added a few suggestions, it
was well past the 5th hour of our experience and I could tell that
their minds were “toast.” The session ended with Rob and Colleen having
a plan of action and with smiles on their faces, they even invited me
out for a refreshment.
    When to say when.  That is a common
phrase for a beer commercial, but it was also true during my
facilitation. As we were working toward clarifying the problem using
stick-em-up brainstorming, the group stopped responding after about 20
ideas. Instead of being satisfied with that amount I suggested we try a
new approach, brainwriting.  One of the members of the group looked up
at me and said, “you are crazy, we don’t have any more ideas to give.” 
I knew that was not true, so I said, let us try a new approach. you are
not doing awful, but the research states that the more ideas that we
can generate, the better off our client will be.  So, we went forth and
quadrupled our efforts.  The looks on their faces was priceless. They
were stunned and I just took it in stride, I already knew the CPS
process was “magic.” The lesson, I learned: if at first you don’t
succeed, try, try again.
    Rob and Colleen did an interesting
thing when they converged.  Instead of clustering ideas that they
wanted to use and leaving the rest, they marked the ideas with an “N”
for now and an “L” for later.  They both stated that they wanted to use
all the ideas, they loved them; but some ideas were worth putting into
action now (within in the next few months) and some were for later. The
lesson learned: allow the client to feel comfortable, let them converge
on their own terms.
    There were many pluses during my
facilitation.  The one that comes to mind first, was my feelings about
switching idea generating strategies.  I was very pleased that I could
“feel” the thoughts of the group and could transition them to a better
strategy.  After we completed the brainwriting, and the resource group
and client saw the ideas, it was not hard to convince them that this
process was going to be successful.  This was my first facilitation
that went from Exploring the Challenge to Planning for Action; it was
also my first with a real client.  I felt very comfortable, as if I
have been doing this for years.  Nothing seemed forced and I believe we
all had a wonderful experience.
     As the Assistant Technology
Coordinator at my school, I am responsible for coordinating the
technology plan, among other things.  Because of my positive experience
with the CPS process, I felt very comfortable using it with people who
have never been exposed to it.  This process has such power and I feel
that I can institute it for our tech plan and for future technology
issues.  As I grow as a facilitator, I am finding ways to fit the CPS
process into my home life.  I have exposed my family to the process and
can see my son thinking of many ways to solve a problem – that makes me
so happy as a dad. I also created a way to do an online facilitation
with Skype and Google Documents. There is a tremendous potential for
people to collaborate and generate ideas across vast distances.  This
concept needs more exploration and research.
    This was my only concern: How to get research into my presentation to provide more credibility

• re-read my CPS books
• ask Dr. Firestien to give me the research
• find the research on the web
• put in a few hours a week building my presentation with research
• ask Dr. Firestien what the main bodies of research to focus on
• don’t worry about the research, the process speaks for itself
• go through the handouts
• try to find summarized research on the web
• interview CPS professors
• visit the Buffalo State library
• talk to other professors at the ICSC
• do more facilitations and perform my own action research
• call my classmates
• email my classmates
• post a plea for research on my blog
• attend the expert – to – expert conference to get information
• attend a CPS session conducted by Dr. Firestien
• review my notes from the last two classes
• use the Source Book
• take mental breaks each day
• meditate on the idea – to help focus on a plan of attack
• read a little each day
• create a podcast with Dr. Firestien