Reframing Adversity
By Wendy Shepherd, ALFAB Services
Optimism at work is an important skill, and one often cited as essential for leaders navigating change. The ability to negotiate changing priorities and realities and shift your mood—and that of those around you—requires leadership and skill. Optimism will improve your outlook on your own performance, allow you to provide safe places for your employees to grow, and help with healing in times of trouble.
Sigmund Freud believed that our “default position” is unhappiness, and so it’s no wonder that it can be easier to look at the darker, negative side of situations. The good news is that optimism is a trait that you can develop, learn, and pass on to others.
In his book Learned Optimism, Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., a leader in the field of positive psychology, provides an excellent model for shifting our perspective, examining our interpretation of events, and choosing an optimistic approach to challenges.
Seligman’s model, known as ABCDE, can seem complex and time-consuming—especially in the midst of hectic workdays and pressing concerns. But taking a streamlined approach that follows the key principles of the model can help you quickly reframe a situation and give you and your team a mindset that is constructive and productive rather than negative or destructive.
For the sake of discussion, let’s look at a common workplace change and how to apply a streamlined approach to the ABCDE model.
A—ADVERSITY: A major, department-wide process improvement effort is being planned. People on your team have heard rumors about it, and you’re getting negative feedback about the process improvement effort and about not having told them about it.
The key principle with this first step is that when faced with adversity, stop and think about what has actually transpired. Focus on what has happened, who was involved, who said or did what, when did it happen, etc. Do not interpret—only stop to collect your thoughts about what actually has happened.
For example, in the above situation: What, exactly, has the negative feedback you’ve received looked like? How many team members have actually said something to you or written you an email? And what were their comments?
B—BELIEF: In this step you begin interpreting what happened. Don’t think about your feelings; instead, analyze. The key here is to identify what you believe about your or others’ behavior.
I believe that someone prematurely let the cat out of the bag about the process improvement effort, and then rumors started flying. My team members heard about the process improvement effort before I knew all the details and before I had a chance to meet with my team. But from some people’s perspective, it seemed like I was withholding information, and this made some people upset or angry with me.
C—CONSEQUENCES: This step is all about the consequences, so this is where your feelings come into play. What did you feel in response to the adversity or someone’s actions after it, and what did you do about it? Let it all out—mentally, anyway—so that you’ll be able to clear your head and move on.
Initially, I felt excited about the process improvement effort. I could see real potential for me and my team members to participate in it, and I was eager to learn more and then be able to share it with my team. Once I started hearing negative things from my team, I felt disappointed that something I was excited about—and that something I hoped my team would be excited about—was being viewed negatively by some. I was angry that communicating about this had been taken out of my hands. I felt defeated and defensive about the reaction of some people on my team, and I let them know I wasn’t happy with their complaints. To be honest, the whole thing made me feel like throwing in the towel before this effort had even begun.
D - DISPUTATION: If you didn’t adequately clear your head with the previous step, you may need to take a break before moving on to disputation. The key here is to dispute your beliefs by debating with yourself, decatastrophizing the situation, and playing devil’s advocate.
This step may seem to be the most difficult because this is where the change occurs. But this step can also be the most freeing. This is where you prevent you or your team from getting derailed and de-escalate your feelings and emotions. Use evidence, not feelings, to defend (or reject) the actions/feelings that have occurred. Look at contributing and alternative causes, focusing on what is changeable and specific, not on what’s personal.
In truth, I only heard about this from three of my team members—and one of those wasn’t complaining to me; he told me that a couple of people on the team seemed upset. Those people could have been the other two people I heard from directly. So, in reality, it’s likely that only a small portion of my team has heard the rumors or that only a small portion is upset. And the two people that I heard from have undergone tremendous changes with their jobs due to staffing cuts over the past few years. It’s not like those two people are troublemakers. Considering all the changes they’ve been faced with, it’s not surprising they’d be alarmed by the possibility of even more change.
E—ENERGIZATION: The principle here is to energize yourself by putting together everything from the previous steps. Based on the ABCD steps you’ve taken—adversity/actuality; belief/behaviors; consequence/clearing; disputation/debate/decatastrophizing—what have you learned? And what will you do next time?
All is not lost with the process improvement effort. It’s likely that people—and only a few people at that—were more upset about the perceived lack of communication than about the effort itself. Given all the change and adversity my team has gone through over the past few years, I should have been more sensitive about people’s need to know what’s going on. Next time I will communicate with my team quickly and openly—even if I don’t feel I have all the details.
You have probably been faced with an adverse situation like the above, and maybe you regretted your response or let yourself or your team get derailed. Perhaps you allowed gossip to take over by not providing a safe place for your staff to talk about their fears, or perhaps you were defensive because you were caught off-guard without enough information. In any event, applying the streamlined ABCDE model described above can help you reframe a situation and take a more positive and constructive approach.
It’s up to you to make the choice to be optimistic, and to bring the power of optimism to your work and your team. As it’s said, there’s no time like the present. The sooner you start to practice the habits of optimism, the more quickly and effortlessly you’ll be able to reframe adversity, shift people’s outlook (including your own), and refocus energies and priorities.
