This document discusses zooming out from an individual focus to a systems-level perspective in psychological and educational work. It advocates taking an ecological approach that considers all levels of a client's environment, including peers, family, school, community and policies. Barriers to this approach include focusing assessments and conversations on individuals rather than systems. The document provides examples of strengths-based, appreciative questions that can help practitioners zoom out to understand how various layers of a client's environment interact. It emphasizes involving all stakeholders in assessment, feedback and intervention to properly address problems at a systems level.

1. ZOOM OUT –
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO
SYSTEMS WORK

2.  What is systems work? What is ecological practice?
 What gets in the way?
 Why we should do it anyway!
 Pivotal opportunities for zooming out:
 Negotiating the referral
 Clarifying your role
*** On a continuum of services to individuals….to services to
systems, where do you place yourself at the moment?
*** Identify one referral you have at the moment, and how it
could look if you ZOOMed out.
IN THIS SESSION:

3. RTLB Intervention sequence
 Referral
 Entry meeting
 Ecological Assessment
 Collaborative Planning
 Implementation
 Monitoring
 Review
“Contexts of…consultation do not
exist as ready -made social realities - they are only
stories about conversations which people tell
themselves. Other people's stories influence the
possibilities which may be made available from
conversations…. Meaning is built up during
a conversation, and the conversation becomes a
context for the meaning which is given both to the
nature of the conversation and to the meaning of the
problem (Macready, 1997, p. 132).”
PIVOTAL POINTS FOR ZOOMING OUT

4.  Every interaction has room for “systems work”
WHAT DO ECOLOGICAL APPROACHES
REALLY LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE?

5. Working at the individual level inevitably focuses on
remediation rather than prevention/early intervention
 “No mass disorder has ever been eliminated by treating those
who have it (Albee, 1999).”
 “It is like waiting for Humpty Dumpty to fall of the wall and
splatter on the ground before any action is taken. Rather
than ‘trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again’ after
the fact, it would make so much more sense to…
 A) prevent Humpty Dumpty from falling off the wall (e.g. wide the
wall, give him balance training)
 B) being ready to catch HD before he hits the ground (e.g. provide a
safety net) or
 C) modify the environment to minimise the damage to HD (e.g.
provide cushions to break his fall. (Gutkin, 2012, p. 4)”
WHY SHIFT TO SYSTEMS WORK?

6.  Individual services often reflect medical model ways of
thinking
 Disempower the people around the child
“Upon hearing that a student is suffering from neurological deficits…it would
be easy for many crucial adults…to ‘check out,’ assuming that they cannot
possibly be of significant assistance (Gutkin, 2009, p. 481).”

7. BARRIERS TO SYSTEMS WORK:
***Think for a minute about the external and internal barriers that
you see.
 External variables for sure –
 Referrals generally come in around one child
 The child, not the system, is generally viewed as “the problem”
 But let’s focus on the internal barriers for a moment –
 We are often more comfortable focusing on one student
 Shifting people’s thinking requires difficult conversations
*** Identify one systems level intervention you love doing!
Identify one that scares the heck out of you!
SO WHAT GETS IN THE WAY?

8.  You do have the skills – the process is the same!!
 Ecological practice reflects our belief that “problems” do not
lie within people, but in the interaction between people and
the layers of their environment.
 Upskilling the people around the child ensures your work will
have flow-on effects for many other children/systems.
 Invariably, there are more resources in any situation than are
currently being used.
WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT ANYWAY!

9.  If we truly believe that “problems” are actually “mismatches”
that lie in the interaction between a person and the layers of
their environment:
 Our language should reflect that
 “Child experiencing difficulties with reading” versus “Dyslexic child”
 Our assessments should reflect that
 Giving equal scrutiny to each layer of the environment
 The child’s own strengths, needs, dispositions
 Peers, home, school, community
 The interaction between home and school and aspects of the community
 Broader policies that influence our contexts

10.  Although we believe in ecological approaches, our
conversations still tend to Zoom In.
 Have those difficult conversations!
 You do not need to know the right answers. You need to know the
right questions.
“One of the most impactful things a change agent or practitioner does
is to articulate questions. Instinctively, intuitively and tacitly we all
know that research of any kind can, in a flash, profoundly alter the way
we see ourselves, view reality, and conduct our lives (Cooperrider &
Whitney, n.d. p. 7).”
HOW TO ZOOM OUT

11. Follow this link to watch Cooperrider’s 4-minute introduction to
Appreciative Inquiry
http://youtu.be/3JDfr6KGV-k
“Leading change is all about strengths – it has nothing to do
with weaknesses (Cooperrider)”
“The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in
ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant (Drucker)”
DAVID COOPERRIDER

12. “Inquiry and change are a simultaneous moment; the questions
we ask set the stage for what we ‘find’…(Cooperrider & Whitney,
n.d. p. 5)”
 Power of topic choice
*** With one or two others, develop questions that zoom out to
each layer of the ecology.
QUESTIONS THAT ZOOM OUT

13. PREVENT TEACH RESPOND
To positive?
To negative?
(Hedeen, 2001 workshop)

14. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating mindless happy
talk….We can’t ignore problems – we just need to approach
them from the other side (executive in Cooperrider & Whitney,
n.d., p. 7)”
STRENGTHS-BASED QUESTIONS

15.  In content:
 Be transparent that we will be looking at every layer
 Veer away from “can’t”
 Assess as a way to identify opportunity for systems work
 Observe for other students who may also benefit
 In process:
 Identify the questions we will be asking as a group
 Identify who will do what to gather information on the answers
 Be creative in getting everyone involved:
 I’ll teach, you sit in the back and look for X…
 I’ll teach, you notice X…
ASSESSMENT THAT ZOOMS OUT

16. “When managers ask us how many people should be
interviewed, or who should do the interviews, we increasingly
find ourselves saying ‘everyone’….People themselves, not
consultants, generate the…analysis...(Cooperrider & Whitney,
n.d., p. 8).”
Everyone brings their data to the table
FEEDBACK MEETINGS THAT ZOOM OUT

17.  Take one “A-Ha” that you’ve had in this session and apply it to
one of your cases!
CHALLENGE: