Resource Orientation

Comment l'animer

1. 1

   Name the shift explicitly at the start: 'We've diagnosed the problem. Now I want to spend equal time on our resources — what's already working. This will help us build on strengths rather than just fixing gaps.'

2. 2

   Ask the core exception-finding question: 'Think about a time — recently or in the past — when this worked well, even partially. What was different then? What were you doing?'

3. 3

   Give participants 3–5 minutes to write examples individually before sharing.

4. 4

   Collect examples on the flipchart. For each example, probe further: 'What made that possible? Who contributed? What conditions were in place?'

5. 5

   Identify the resources and strengths embedded in the examples: skills, relationships, habits, structures, attitudes.

6. 6

   Ask: 'How much of this is still available to us? What would it take to activate it again?'

7. 7

   Close by converting the identified resources into a positive foundation for action planning: 'Given these strengths, what can we build on in our next steps?'

Conseils

• Resist the pull back to problem focus — groups habitually return to 'but the real issue is…'. Gently redirect: 'We'll come back to that — first let's fully explore what works.'

• The exception question is the core tool: 'When is the problem NOT present? What is different then?' Even small exceptions are valuable data.

• Combine with Scaling Questions for a complete picture: first scale the current situation, then resource-orient toward what makes the number non-zero.

• In team settings, explicitly name strengths you observe as facilitator — teams often can't see their own capabilities clearly.

• Avoid toxic positivity: resource orientation is not about pretending problems don't exist. It's about deliberately creating a complete picture.

Variantes

Team strengths gallery: each participant writes 3 resources they see in the team on sticky notes — post all of them on a wall, cluster, and review together. Strength interview: pairs interview each other about a recent success using appreciative questions, then report back to the group what they heard. Exception mapping: draw a timeline and mark moments when things worked well — look for patterns in the conditions.

Méthodes associées