The Solving Circle

The Solving Circle

William Glasser’s Solving Circle has many applications and can be adapted for use with students in schools.  It is a valuable tool in the toolbox of the Lead Manager.

This example explains a process that was used in a primary school in Queensland Australia with great success and with long-lasting results.

The Story

Every person who joins a group changes the dynamics.  A new year six student arrived at Arundel State School during the year.  She was a vivacious, attractive girl from South Africa of Indian descent. The ‘in-group’ of year six girls immediately included her in their group.

 After a time,  the relationship began to deteriorate and  turned quite nasty and it descended into name-calling and general put-downs, ending up a catfight and the girls scratching of each other.  Parents became involved. 

The classroom teacher and I were both Glasser advocates and decided this would be an excellent opportunity to use the Solving Circle.  I knew the classroom teacher had tried a few interventions and we were now willing to see if the Solving Circle could make a difference.

There was never an investigation into who did what, or who started the fights and this fresh approach proved a game-changer for the girls.

The process is heavily dependent on trust and if this not present there is little chance for this to work.  Blaming, complaining, criticising could well be used to try and control others.  The individuals on the Solving Circle must have a level of trust with others to share information.  A school culture that focuses on lead management driven by internal motivation and control is crucial for this process to work.

Adapting the process to a large primary school setting was easily done. I met with each of the girls involved and interviewed each one alone, outside the classroom and away from my office.   

They each answered the first of two self-evaluation questions.

“Are you happy with the way things are?” Each response to this question was a resounding ‘no’. 

“Do you want to work things out?” Each girl in turn replied that yes she wanted to solve the problem. The last question echoed a bit of a mantra around the school. “ In this school we work things out”, was a big part of how we did things at the school.

On the day  as a group I went to the staff room with the classroom teacher, five year six girls and a friend who had joined the new girl. 

A length of ribbon was laid out in the form of a circle which enabled us to all sit inside the circle.  In the circle, we added an index card on which was written in large letters THE FRIENDSHIP.  This is the third entity in the solving circle, and this becomes the focus of the questioning that follows

I explained that everyone had agreed that they were not happy with the way things were and that they wanted to work things out. We agreed that the friendship was important to us all.

The steps of the process

1. Before holding the Solving Circle seek agreement from each of the participants that they are not happy with what has been happening and that  they want to work it out.
2. Set up a physical space with a circle of rope or ribbon deliniating the circle.
3. Outline what will be happening in the circle.  State that while were are in the circle we will choose to do and say things that will help, not harm the relationship. We can always step out of and back into the Solving Circle when we are ready to work it out.
4.  Ask each individual to briefly explain their perception of what the problem with the relationship was.
5.  Ask the question of each participant “Whose behaviour can you control ?”
6.  Ask each participant in the Solving Circle “What is one good thing about the relationship as it exists right now?”
7.  Ask “What you one thing are willing to do to bring everyone closer together?”
8.  Ask “What is an additional thing you will do this week to improve the relationship?
9. Ask “How will you let your teacher know if this is working?” 

The steps of the process are as follows.

1.  Later in the day, I had a visit from one of the girls involved. She asked if she could have the index card. She came back with the signatures of all the girls and the classroom teacher and asked me to sign it as well. 

      At my farewell from Arundel State School, the Solving Circle was mentioned in the poem written and read out by the senior students.

Further follow

 Further follow up to this story took place in a Master of Education tutorial where the mother of the  ‘new girl’ was my student. As I always shared this story when teaching about Lead Management,  I asked her if she was happy for me to share it with the other students in the tutorial.  She agreed

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After I shared the use of the Solving Circle, the mother added more information telling us that  all of the girls were still friends, several years after they had left school.

Originally the process Dr Glasser envisaged was created for use when marriage relationships were in trouble. This example shows it has many other applications.

 Ken Larsen who made a video of the process suggested that nations use the concept.  I have always wondered what it would be like to get a student and teacher together to work out a relationship that would be needs satisfying for both parties. The possibilities are endless. http://mentalhealthandhappiness.com/the-solving-circle/

This is a real nugget of gold that William Glasser has left us.  Let us use it in our schools for creating a place where working out things is just what we do around here.