TCU "Under Construction": an activity to explore and assess personal strengths

“Under Construction” was designed as a series of three interconnected activities to help clients:

	explore and assess their personal strengths (“The Tower of Strengths”),
	choose motivational quotes to focus their strengths (“Building Block Quotes"),
	practice applying these to personal problems or goals (“Putting It Together”).

1. “The Tower of Strengths” is a way to take inventory of personal strengths and desired strengths. It is a card sorting task that asks an individual to sort through a deck of 60 strengths to select 10 strengths that person already possesses (existing strengths) and 5 desired (yet to be achieved) strengths. Based on these choices the individual fills out the “Tower” map, and processes the chosen strengths more fully by considering what “Parts of You” the strengths came from and when in the past the strengths were useful. See a sample of a filled-in “Tower of Strengths” map.

2. Clients read the “Building Block Quotes" and choose those motivational quotes that will remind them to use their existing strengths or gain ideal strengths. See a sample of the “Building Block” Quotes.

3. Clients practice using the quotes and strengths they have selected to focus on solving personal problems or attaining goals in the “Putting It Together” activity. See a sample of a filled-in “Putting It Together” Map.

Research Principles

“The Tower of Strengths” and the “Building Block Quotes" were designed to be fun, mood enhancing, and self-esteem "calibrating" activities. Since both poor self-esteem and inappropriately high self-esteem have been shown to be problematic (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996), the activities aim at increasing self-esteem by making an assessment of personal resources and selecting areas of desired improvements (Sia, Czuchry & Dansereau, 1999). “Putting It Together” provides a practical way for people to apply their strengths and quotes to a problem or goal.

College students who did “The Tower of Strengths” reported increases in mood, and more confidence in their specific abilities (Sia, Czuchry, & Dansereau, 1999). When the activities have been used with other treatment enhancing activities like “The Downward Spiral” game, probationers rated themselves as “working the program” more than did probationers who received standard treatment (Sia, Dansereau, & Czuchry, 2000).

Implementation/uses

“Under Construction” has been used primarily as a part of a set of activities to motivate clients in a mandated substance abuse treatment facility (Sia, Dansereau, & Czuchry, 2000). “Under Construction” would be appropriate in any setting where it is necessary to calibrate self-esteem and encourage people to use their strengths to make positive personal changes. This includes a wide diversity of treatment, academic, and business settings. Although it was designed as an adjunct to substance abuse treatment, “Under Construction” would also be useful in other clinical areas such as the treatment of eating disorders. The activity could also be used with career counseling, team building, and other applications in a business setting.

Although “Under Construction” was designed as a set of activities, the three components can be used separately. “The Tower of Strengths” would be an appropriate mood enhancing and self-esteem booster. The “Building Blocks Quotes" are also an enjoyable activity that blends nicely with the idea of positive affirmations. “Putting It Together” gives participants the opportunity to practice using strengths and quotes on problems or goals. It can be used separately from the other activities, if participants have done some other type of strength and quote-based activity. Because of this requirement, it is the most difficult to implement by itself.

Limitations

There are few problems with implementing "The Tower of Strengths" and the "Building Block Quotes." "Putting It All Together" takes more explanation and demonstration. Participants must truly think to do this activity, but it can be done with anything from very concrete to highly abstract thinking once the instructions are successfully communicated.

Links

A manual for creating “The Tower of Strength” and a related quote activity, The Weekly Planner may be purchased from www.chestnut.org.

Another version of the inventory of personal strengths is offered at the Thinkerer site. See Your Head Teams.