…today’s secret…Glass Half-Full.

You are very very very thirsty…you’re handed a glass of water.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Thanks dude.

The size of the container you drank from was irrelevant. It didn’t matter if the water was in a monster Speedway tumbler or a small juice glass from your grandmother.

It also didn’t matter about how much air was above the water line to the container’s lip. It was all about the water IN the container, nothing more.

In the 90s two Johns, Kretzmann and McKnight, published a book based on this principle. Their book, Building Communities from the Inside Out, urged community developers to not to waste time bemoaning what is missing in restoring their community but focus on what is available.

Their Asset-Based Community Development has been followed by open-minded entrepreneurs to successfully rehabilitate blighted neighborhoods by focusing on what’s there, not what’s not.

Unfortunately, this asset-based glass half-full thinking doesn’t permeate the majority of organizations who exist to help individuals realize a rebirth into a new way of being.

Helping organizations interview and give assessments to marginalized people up front so as to identify their individual deficits. Knowing their deficits identifies what specific solution(s) can be targeted to erase the deficits.

Once a solution is applied then, magically, hopefully, the new individual is better able to work and play well with others. “Hey, good to go.”

Question: What if you interviewed and assessed up front to identify an individual’s strengths rather than their deficits? Glass half-full action.

We should have learned by now that we are not born with equal abilities. We all have assets and we all have deficits.

The people you’re helping came to you thirsty and want to drink your water. Your real deal is to help them find their true worth based on their God-given abilities.

It seems more holistic to start where they are and build on what they have rather than give them what they don’t have.

Nah, probably too much to ask. If you are a deficit filler continue doing it your way…but maybe think about identifying their assets?