How to Lead a Horse to Drink Water

That old saying, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." That is true...but you can put salt in his oats. That makes him thirsty. We have billions of dollars of programs, services for people. Why do some "drink" and others continue to die of thirst? Yes, some of it will be the horses own self-will, stubbornness, allegiance to socialism, etc. How can we as community workers tweak our approach to better engaging the community in which we serve?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• not a PhD in humanity
• willingness to be creative
• expanding your tackle box (fishing term)

1. Listen to the person.
   Learn motivational interviewing skills.
   Ask key questions to determine what makes your "client"; the person - tick. What is it that motivates them?
   There are plenty of web sites with these skills listed.
   Some programs and people, only want to reach a grant required "number" and provide information for a service, without a commitment to offering a real change for the client. That's where our workers motivation and reason for being in the field they are in come to play. That's another topic to be written about (See restoring the passion on my web site).
2. Form open ended questions that lead the person to make basic, procedural steps.
   If you're fishing for bass, you don't use catfish stink bait. If the perch are not hitting crickets, you don't keep fishing with crickets.
   You should try a variety of questions, approaches to engage the client into a buy in and self described steps for change.
   Telling a person what to do, doesn't hardly work. Getting the person to see choices, consequences, steps, decisions to make, etc. creates "buy in" the their process.
   Some kids I work with, scare tactics concerning drug use won't work. Giving them listings of facts, ineffective. A lecture on legal consequences, doesn't motivate them. Even seeing the negative results in their home or own lives, may not even get their attention. So what do you do?
   (see my website)
3. Social, community, counselors, whoever it is that engages people in the services profession, need to remember what their whole objective involves.
   Sad, but true, many people and even the workers who are employed to be a benefit to others, don't want freedom from social programs. They don't care to break the cycle of poverty or risky behaviors. They don't want to be self-sufficient and live a beneficial life in our society.
   Can you image if the zillion dollar war on poverty really started to have winning advances?
   A whole political party's power would be diminished.
   Some programs would have worker lay-offs.
   Some organizations would cease to exist.
   Are you still reading this?
   My job is to make my job extinct. I work every day for that.

Tips & Warnings

• listen
• be creative
• obtain the client's "buy-in"
• follow up with a letter detailing the agreed procedures, deadlines
• hold the person accountable
• assisting others become self-sufficient may be a danger to your job security
• failure to getting the horse to drink may lead to his/her siblings following the same pattern