Some of you may be wondering: How practical and effective is R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ in solving real-world problems?  

It’s a fair question.

So let me share a true story with you and show you how R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ helps solve real world problems.

This happened over a year ago.

It was a typical Sunday morning.

I woke up to a message on WhatsApp from someone whom I’ve known for over 20 years.

Let’s call this friend Andy.

Here’s the message I woke up to:

Morning Steven. Wondering if you have time for tea/coffee this morning. Mentally I am in a bad shape and need some positive encouragement.

I was quite surprised to receive this message from Andy.

I’ll explain later why I was surprised.

We agreed on a place and time to meet later that day.

And then he sent me the following message:

I am feeling depressed.

I suspect I am going through this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_nest_syndrome

I replied to him saying that we will talk about it when we meet up.

So I met Andy later that day.

I made my way to where he was seated and sat down opposite him.

 And the moment I sat down, Andy broke down and cried!

Now I was totally stunned!

To see Andy sobbing uncontrollably – in a food court – was something I wasn’t expecting at all!

Now let me explain why I was initially stunned.

I’ve known Andy since late 1990s.

For the past 20+ years, I’ve known Andy to be a no-nonsense guy.

For those who meet him for the first time, most would think that he is a very stoic, unexpressive person.

An individual who is very analytical, logical, and very evidence based.

You can say that Andy is the type of person who doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeves – in other words, a person who doesn’t show his emotions and feelings readily.

And so I sat there.

In total silence.

All I did at that point, was give Andy as much space as he needed while he processed his own emotions and feelings.

5 minutes later, he managed to compose himself and said:

“I’m in bad shape. I can’t function at all. I’ve not been sleeping well, and I’ve not been eating well. I’ve lost weight. And I can’t stay at home by myself. Every time I’m by myself, I will break down and cry. It has become so bad that I even asked a friend to come to my place, just to sit there, while I went about doing my own stuff. I had to move out of my own home back to my parent’s place to stay so that I don’t have to be alone by myself.”

He talked about the stress he was facing at work, and the major changes happening in his organisation.

He talked about those times when he was gripped by anxiety and felt so paralysed that could not function at all.

Now Andy is a very senior leader in that organisation.

Just so you know, he is part of the C-suite in his organisation.

So for almost 2 hours, he poured out his fears, frustrations, and futile attempts at trying out different interventions.

He shared about approaching a few friends and family members for help, but none seemed to be able to help.

Some suggested he did more exercise, e.g. going for long walks and runs, but unfortunately none of these so-called interventions and suggestions worked. He still felt terrible and lonely. Some even suggested he join a church group – which he was very reluctant to do so at that time.

So I just listened.

It wasn’t until I felt he was ready that I decided to ask him what he really wanted for himself.

And I asked him this question:  

What are your Best Hopes for yourself?

To that question, he said that he hoped that I would be able to help him come up with a few strategies – a few action items – so that he can try to move forward and hopefully improve his situation. He said he wanted to get to a stage where he would be able to function normally again.

Some of the action items on his list included:

• To take a step back from work – he has been working very long hours and he felt it may be taking a toll on him and his family
• To find his tribe – he had been focusing on work for the past 20+ years and neglected to build good relationships, and so he wanted to find his “tribe”
• To find an anchor point – something stable to hold on to that will provide some level of certainty and stability for him

There were a couple more action items on his list, but I will leave those out because they are too personal for me to mention here.

And so our conversation ended after about 2 hours that day before we parted ways.

That was the initial conversation I had with Andy when I met him at the food court.

Fast forward 15 days after our initial conversation at the food court and 2 rounds of WhatsApp messaging, Andy sent me this message…

“I am now 95% convinced that my mood swings are linked to my gastric problem.  So long as I can manage my diet and control the gastric pain, I am functioning well.”

So how did he do it?

How did Andy get from a state of feeling depressed and anxious to a state where he was functioning well in just 2 weeks?

What actually happened during our conversations?

What was the magic sauce?

Allow me to explain what happened using our framework:

The R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ Framework.

First I’ll briefly explain the R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ framework, and then I will use it to demonstrate how I used the framework to scaffold my conversations with Andy.

The R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ framework consists of four key elements, namely:

• Resources,
• Insights,
• Solutions, and
• Experiences

Resources

The Resources stage is about appreciative listening to develop capability.

It is about appreciating and identifying all the resources that we have – both Internal and External resources.

Insights

The Insights Stage is about goal setting.

Here we actively guide the individual through strategic questions to gain insights on what is important and meaningful to aspire towards, to determine their desired future.

Solutions

The Solutions Exploration stage is about scaffolding potential solutions towards the desired future.

Here we get our clients to explore small changes that they could make might spark massive positive effects towards their desired future.

Experiences

The Experiences stage is about recognising positive moments to develop capacity for progress. 

Here we explore the experiences with a focus on discovering exceptions or moments where times were better, such as incidences, small achievements, or times when the problem was less evident, and brings about a more positive and balanced overall perspective.

 The framework creates a virtuous cycle that continuously fosters resilience and empowers one to discover more strengths and generate hope with each new experience. 

When Andy first sent me the WhatsApp message, he said he was feeling depressed, and believed he was suffering from the Empty Nest Syndrome.

And when I met him at the food court, he said he was in bad shape, he couldn’t function at all, he wasn’t sleeping well, not eating well, had to move out to his parent’s place and couldn’t be alone by himself.

Most of the time during this initial conversation, I was just listening – giving Andy all the space and time he needed to process his emotions and share his thoughts and feelings.

It wasn’t until I felt he was ready that I asked Andy the Best Hopes question.

What we were doing at this point was finding out what Andy really wanted out of this conversation we were having, to gain insights into what was important and meaningful for Andy to aspire towards, and to determine his desired future and outcomes.

And so I asked Andy: “What are your Best Hopes for yourself?”

And to that question, Andy replied that he wanted to come up with a few strategies – a few action items – to move forward and hopefully improve his situation, and to get to a stage where he would be able to function normally again.

So that was the initial conversation I had with Andy at the food court.

A few days later, Andy sent me a message on WhatsApp saying:

“Feeling this low intensity anxiety this whole morning. 

Maybe need pills from psychiatrist to control it”

Now at this point, before I reveal what I asked Andy in response to his message, I would like to highlight that most people’s default reaction is probably to ask: “What’s causing this low intensity anxiety?” and attempt to find out the root causes of why this is happening.

However, instead of asking what’s causing the low intensity anxiety, I asked Andy this question:

‘So what’s helping you keep it at a low level?”

Andy’s initial response was:

“I don’t know”

Now, this is a very normal response from most people.

This is because most of us are so used to looking at problems and challenges from a negative point of view that intuitively we tend to dig into the problem in an attempt to find the root causes.

So when they hear a question like this, they will usually respond with “I don’t know”. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know. It just means they need time to re-think their situation.

I then followed up with the next question:

“What went well for you yesterday and this morning?”

I asked this question because the Resources stage is about appreciative listening to develop capability, and to raise the awareness of the help-seeker. This is part of the mindset-shift we call “Deposit Thinking™” .

And to that question, Andy responded:

“Slept better, got a psychologist, met friends”

“Two consecutive nights of sleeping better.”

“Friend suggested I see TCM for gastric problems”

Now at this stage, Andy’s goals and outcomes he mentioned during our last conversation have not changed. They remained the same – namely to come up with some strategies and action items so that he can move forward and get to a stage where he would be able to function normally again.

So I went on to ask Andy: “What is a small change you will make?”

And there was a pause…

and then Andy responded:

“Going to see TCM this afternoon for my gastric”

So why did I ask Andy what small change he would make?

Here we were helping Andy discover solutions that leverage on existing resources and strengths to enable a first small step in progressing towards the desired outcome. And in this case, seeing a TCM was a resource suggested by a friend previously, and Andy felt this was important enough for him to pursue as part of his solution discovery process.

This solution discovery phase is the essence of R.I.S.E. Emergent Solutioning™ framework – where we will experiment and try out small changes to find out what might become a catalyst that would spark massive positive effects towards our desired outcomes and future.

8 days after our initial conversation at the food court, I followed-up with Andy.

I asked: “How are you coping so far?”

And Andy responded:

“had the best uninterrupted sleep last night for many weeks, without help of any medicine.

TCM had asked me to change my diet”

He continued:

“Reduced the symptoms

Mood improved tremendously

The anxiety I felt may not be linked to depression from my son but a general discomfort from chronic gastric.”

And then Andy continued:

“Next step is to sort out my gastric problem and work stress.”

Isn’t it interesting that Andy actually came up with his own “next step” which then became his new goal and outcome that he wanted to pursue – in this case – to sort out his “gastric problem and work stress”?

At this point, it was apparent that it became very clear to Andy what he needed to do in order to resolve his “anxiety and depression”.

And then 15 days after our initial conversation at the food court, he sent me this message:

“I am now 95% convinced that my mood swings are linked to my gastric problem. So long as I can manage my diet and control the gastric pain, I am functioning well.”

Now isn’t this interesting?

What Andy initially thought was the root cause of his anxiety and depression turned out to be something else completely!

Initially he believed that it was the Empty Nest Syndrome that was causing the anxiety and depression he was experiencing. But in the end, it turned out that his diet and gastric problems were the cause of his anxiety!

Something completely unrelated to the Empty Nest Syndrome!!

So imagine if we had taken the traditional approach of “diagnosing” Andy’s problems – digging and exploring into the root causes of his loneliness and “empty nest syndrome” – we might have ended up digging into the wrong problems right from the beginning! 

And who knows what might have happened if we did that?

So this underscores the importance not to jump to conclusions or make assumptions about the root causes of someone’s situation – because if you focus too hard on the problem, the solution can often evade you!

So in summary, this is what actually happened during my conversations with Andy:

• We clarified Andy’s goal and desired future by asking him what he really wanted to achieve.
• We explored Andy’s resources – both internal and external. We paid attention to events that have gone well for Andy and celebrated progress amidst the adversity he was experiencing.
• And then we helped Andy recognise, collect, and build up tools, strengths, resources he already possessed, so as to help him become stronger and more resilient in the midst of his challenges.
• Then we moved on to supporting Andy in discovering catalysts that would potentially spark off massive positive effects towards his aspirations and desired future.
• Last but not least, Andy was able to generate his own pathways and build a sense of motivation, confidence, and ability to move towards his desired future.

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PS: Names and some details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individual(s).

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