As BCBA’s, we are often called to help someone solve a problem. Frequently, after a brief time of analysis, the problem seems quite obvious. At that point, we are eager to start telling people how we plan to fix the problem. But when you start to describe the plan of action, you may run into tremendous resistance. This resistance can take many forms, but today I’d like to discuss “we tried that, and it didn’t work.” People who say that expect you to move on and give them a different idea on how to solve the problem. This can lead to friction when you continue to promote your plan instead.
Why is this so common? When things aren’t working, people become desperate for an answer, and try anything that seems plausible to see if it works. This is a strategy I call “Throwing Spaghetti,” and it rarely has long-term benefits. Even worse, when people resort to throwing spaghetti, they often think they have tried science-based interventions like functional communication training, applied behavior analysis, performance management, or verbal behavior, and conclude that those procedures just don’t work for him. But when people try these interventions, there are often a variety of errors in implementation. And even small mistakes in the implementation of these interventions can lead to very poor results. Understandably, it’s very hard to convince someone of this. Why would they buy into your plan if they believe they have already been “doing that for years?”
To move past “we tried that, but it didn’t work” resistance, you must first realize that from the other person’s perspective, your intervention has been tried and found to be lacking. They are looking for something new and different. I think this phenomenon can partially explain all the different branding we see in ABA. But I don’t think calling the same old interventions by a new name is really an answer.
The biggest mistake that we make here is telling people how to solve the problem too soon. As soon as we think we’ve done enough analysis, we are very tempted to jump right into how to solve the problem. But that’s almost always the wrong approach. It can lead to instant resistance as people think they have tried that approach already, or have another idea as to how the problem should be solved.
In my experience, the right approach is to first get agreement on the problem. Start by having a conversation with all the relevant stakeholders; parents, teachers, or administrators. Then discuss what is causing the current problem. Keep discussing until everyone is enthusiastically agreeing that you understand the problem. Once you reach that point, and not a minute sooner, you are ready to present the solution of how to solve the problem.
Being understood is a potent reinforcer for just about everybody. If people think you don’t understand them, they will keep arguing. I believe this is what leads to discussions where people are saying the same thing over and over again.
Sometimes even this isn’t enough, and there is more to learn about how to present solutions to problems in high resistance situations. But if you master this one thing, it will make a huge difference. I learned this a long time ago, by reading this novel. I don’t follow the procedures exactly like it is done in the novel, but I am convinced the general idea is an important social skill for most professionals.