(aka) the 60-Second Relationship Check.
This is from the world of psychotherapy, but you don’t need to be a psychotherapist to use this with your clients.
Like most therapists, I allowed a 10-minute gap between clients in which to write notes and reflect on each session.
Every therapist has a supervisor and mine taught me how to evaluate the strength of each relationship in under a minute by checking the Working Alliance. (That left nine minutes for writing key point notes about the last client session, grabbing a coffee, responding to messages or taking a bathroom break.)
I learnt that a strong Working Alliance1 was the foundation for a successful outcome.
A weak Working Alliance would, however, reduce the possibility of an effective outcome or lead to the premature ending of the relationship.
To check the Working Alliance, therapists can ask themselves three questions:
- Is there clarity and agreement about the client’s goals and our different, individual responsibilities?
- Does the client have a basic trust that you are trying to be helpful and constructive most of the time?
- Is there a commitment to staying engaged and in the relationship even when it gets difficult or painful?
As a therapist I might be concerned about the Working Alliance if, for example:
My client started to introduce new and different issues into our sessions – I might begin to feel uncertain about my client’s objectives and wonder if they had changed. Were we really on the same page? Had I understood the importance or nature of an issue?
The client repeatedly questioned or challenged my interventions or suggestions. Had their trust in my skill diminished? Had I made a mistake?
A client who had attended regularly started to attend intermittently; I might question their commitment to the process.
Once I had identified a concern with the Working Alliance, I would reflect on my part in the process and then raise relevant concerns in our next session; in this way relationships would stay as healthy and productive as possible.
The same works for agency relationships. Just reflect for 60 seconds on a key client relationship:
- Is there clarity and agreement about purpose goals and your different responsibilities?
- Have you got consensus about the tasks to be included? Is there scope creep or are the boundaries of work clear?
- To what extent do you agree on what is required and when?
- Does the client understand their role – to support you and your agency to do your best?
- Is the client clear about their agency responsibilities?
- Do you/does your client show up on time for meetings?
- Is there sufficient facetime? Are briefs, timings and budget adequate?
- Is your response adequate and timely?
- Does the client have a basic trust that you’re trying to be helpful and constructive?
- Does your client’s response to your recommendations or work suggest that they believe you are acting in their best interests?
- Do you really challenge your work before you present it?
- Does the client accept your thinking?
- Are you both committed to staying engaged and in the relationship even when it gets difficult or painful?
- Are you able to discuss failure and success equally and openly, in order to learn from the past?
- When time is tight and you haven’t cracked the brief, does the client support you or put you under greater pressure?
Becoming aware of the small indicators of the strength of the Working Alliance can help client-facing teams and agency managers to raise their awareness of issues so that they can be addressed and resolved quickly before problems become debilitating and expensive.
And it only takes 60 seconds.
TOP TIPS
Using Working Alliance requires regular reflection.
To support a strong Working Alliance requires effective communication.
This includes the negotiation of differences, willingness to find agreement or to adopt another position if necessary.
It requires honesty and transparency; owning up to mistakes or naming issues.
REFERENCES
- Joyce, P & Sills, C. (2010) Skills in Gestalt Counselling & Psychotherapy. London Sage.
