ECCAY RESOURCES

The ECCAY resources can help professionals to use in practice the solution focused knowledge they have just acquired.

Exercise nr. 32

OBJECTIVES TREE

Minimum number of participants	Average time length	Individual setting	Group setting	Special Equipment	Unit	Online	Challenges/ competition
3	2-3 hours	no	yes	no	1,3,4	no	no

This exercise for small groups helps to explore and understand how things or situations came to be and how they are a complex reality.

An Objective Tree is a Challenges Tree that is transformed into a set of future solutions to the problems. Each negative problem is converted into an objective by rewriting it as a positive future statement (see Johns Hopkins University (2013), Groenendijk, (2003)).

It is an adapted version of the Challenges Tree, included also in the ECCAY Exercises. The Challenge tree is a methodology of three steps for identifying main challenges and issues, along with their causes and effects.

An Objective Tree aims to
·        Provide a clear overview of the desired future situation once problems have been identified and reformulate into objectives;
·        Verify the hierarchy of objectives;
·        Illustrate the means-ends relationships in a diagram.

Once complete, the objective tree provides a summary picture of a desired future situation, including the indicative means by which ends could be achieved. As with the Challenge Tree, the Objective Tree can provide a simplified summary of reality. It can help and support analysis and presentation of ideas/objectives.

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Aim / Benefits

The main benefit is that it allows participants to analyse the causes and effects of a particular challenge or issue.

In the challenge tree the issue or challenge is broken down into manageable and definable parts. This allows the prioritisation of factors and helps to focus the objectives, and define them better.

It allows to generate more and a more profound understanding of the issue or challenge at hand, and its causes, which are often interconnected and on occasions even contradictory. This also helps to establish who are the actors involved and what processes are at play.

Working on a challenge tree in a group helps to create a shared sense of understanding and create a basis for a common purpose and action to solve the related causes. It also creates and generates (meaningful) conversations around a particular challenge, both during the discussions in the groups as well as during the final steps and debrief of the activity.

UNIT(s) related

Objective trees are designed to identify the potential solutions for issue or challenge as such it is at the core of the ECCAY Solution Focussed Approach and horizontal across all units.

However, as they take as starting point the Challenge Tree, they are logically more related to the units which relate to the use of the Challenge Tree and thus to those that focus on the identification and definition of problems, issues and challenges. Therefore the main unit related is Unit 4: Solution focussed group, as it identifies and contextualises the issues and problems participants face.

However the discussions taking place contribute to a better common understanding of others’ perspectives and experiences, and views on means and ends to a particular issue, problem or challenge, and as such it could also be valuable for Unit 3: Building the relationship.

How to do the exercise

Step 1 / Preparation:
(MANDATORY to explain how to prepare and introduce the exercise to the participant)

As the starting point for the Objective Tree is a Challenges Tree, the present exercise is a follow-up one. The first step and preparation for the exercise is thus to use the Challenges Tree with the participants.

As first step of the present exercise the professional explains to the participants the difference between the Challenges Tree and the Objective Tree, by highlighting that:
- The statements in the Challenge Tree are negative, in the Objective Tree the formulations are positive;
- A Challenge Tree helps to understand the causes of key challenges; the Objective Tree helps to find solutions.

Step 2
The participants are requested to take the Challenges Tree they worked as the starting point. The professional asks them to reformulate all negative statements of the problem analysis into positive statements that are desirable and/or realistically achievable.

The Objective Tree template has the same format as the Challenges Tree template, the challenge identified in the trunk remains the same, but by reformulating the causes (i.e. the “roots”) of the Challenge Tree in positive statements, these now represent “Means”. The participants proceed in the same manner with the effects (i.e. the “branches”) of the Challenge Tree, which are through the reformulation transformed into ends or objectives.

The exercise proceeds in the same way as the Challenges Tree. The reformulation can be done first individually with the participants using sticky notes, and then group the notes and discuss with their peers, or start the discussion and reach an agreement between the members of the group.

Again here, heart of the exercise is the discussion, debate and dialogue that is generated by the re-formulation of the items included in the roots and branches

Final step / Conclusion:
(MANDATORY to explain what to do in order to conclude the exercise)
Participants then review the flow of thought and the logic and reasons behind the means and ends they have established between the roots and the branches. These relationships ensure the validity and completeness of the defined connections. In short that the cause-effect relationships in the Challenge Tree are turned into means-ends linkages in the Objective Tree.

If needed, participants can revise objective statements; Add new objectives if these seem to be relevant and necessary to achieve the objective at the next higher level or delete objectives which are not apparently suitable or necessary.

Debrief

In case of a breakdown in smaller groups, each group explains their Objective Tree and highlights how the discussion occurred, explaining the main points and ideas that lead to the content of the Tree (and as indicated are recorded separately). First the participants from the other groups are asked to provide feedback. The professional then summarises the exercise, emphasising the commonalities between the diagrams and highlighting any significant differences.

When working with one single group the professional summarises the result, and focuses also on the discussion that has taken place during the exercise, using the main ideas and points as recollected in the separate sheet as guideline.

The professional should be aware of the risks of prejudices, judgements, blaming, etc., that are reflected, being it explicitly or implicitly, and/or that might have come up during the discussions. In these cases, the professional can use these to start a conversation on these matter and ask participants on when did these came up during the discussion and what happened when they did, how do they feel about them, how do they relate to their context, etc. For more examples on how to elaborate these questions, please refer to Unit 2, where you can find many examples.

The professional also should ask participants
●       What happened during the exercise (with special attention to discussion points and analysing the causes for not reaching an agreement);
●       Asking each participant to give feedback on the activity (how did they feel before, and after about the problem, about their fellow group members, etc), and ask them to highlight one “take-away” or lesson learned.
●       Summarising the main conclusions and “take-aways” based upon the tree.

Specific materials

You will need to have

Flip chart, whiteboard or large paper;
Sticky notes or cards
Tape or pins
Pens, pencils, etc…

Tips and Tricks

●       Be aware that conducting a problem tree analysis calls for facilitation as well as sufficient time (discussion in the groups might take quite long so make sure to have sufficient time planned for it).
●       It is important that everyone feels comfortable in putting their ideas forward. In some cases it may be beneficial to break into smaller groups, each producing a separate tree and then compare results. This could be advisable, for example, where o the group taking part in the exercise is large, or when there are participants who may be less vocal in front of others (e.g. native speakers versus non-native; minorities, etc.).
●       Reformulating the problems into objectives has to be done very carefully. If a statement makes no sense after rewording, write a replacement objective, or delete it, or leave the problem unchanged. It is important to review the formulated objectives and the resulting objective tree.

Example of objective tree template

On-line version

The exercise is not easily adaptable to an online context, although discussions can take place in an online setting using video-conferencing, this will not generate the same benefits as in an face-to-face setting, as on-line communication is less rich in non-verbal communication elements and their transmission . In any case, if needed, it should be done only with one single group moderated by the professional (and not using smaller groups).