Last week, we learned about the CPS (Collaborative and Proactive Solutions) model and how it is used as a tool by teachers for dealing with difficult behaviours in the classroom. We explored the first steps of the model, which included creating an Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (ALSUP), and then began to use the model through a Christian lens to deal with difficulties or sins in our personal lives. If you haven’t read that post yet, you can find it by clicking here, and I would recommend you check it out as it will be foundational to this post, as today begins the fun part of applying the CPS model to addressing sin in our personal lives; the “Plan B”.

In CPS, “Plan B” is the name for the problem-solving layout used to address the issues that arise in the ALSUP. I complete Plan B’s with students all the time. They sometimes take 15 minutes to complete and sometimes can take an hour. A Plan B is the step in the model where a specific difficulty is addressed and solved. There are three steps involved in a Plan B.

Step One

This is the empathy step. This is where the individual who is having difficulty has an opportunity to state all of the things that are getting in the way of them meeting specific expectations. Students sometimes struggle with stating the things that make meeting specific difficulties hard, while other times they can rattle off the reasons without hesitation. Because of this, those who are trained in the CPS model are given “drilling strategies” to help pull more information from the students during this step.

Typically, a list is generated from the empathy step of five or more reasons why an individual is having difficulty meeting an expectation placed on them. 

Here is an actual example of an empathy step from a student who had, “difficulty throwing her pencil shavings in the garbage after sharpening her pencil in math class.” 

• I sometimes forget to take them to the garbage can

• The garbage can is too far away, I don’t want to walk that far

• I don’t want to take a break from my math assignment and lose my train of thought

• I have to walk past a different student on the way to the garbage can and they always made a comment as I walk by

• I might drop the pencil shavings on the floor while carrying them to the garbage anyway

Once this list is completed, the last part of the empathy step is to ask the student which of the items from the list make it the most difficult to meet the expectation. What is the single biggest hindrance to successfully throwing the pencil shavings into the garbage can? That will become the focus in working toward the solution.

In this case, the student said, “the garbage can is too far away, I don’t want to walk that far.”

Step Two

The next step of a Plan B is to gather the concerns of the individual who holds the expectations. The adult explains how it affects the student in question, as well as others around them when they are having difficulty meeting the expectation. In this example, the adult concerns were:

“When you are having difficulty placing your pencil shavings in the garbage can”:

• It leaves a mess under your desk, which creates additional work for the custodians

• It leaves an unclean work area for your table partner, which is not respectful of their workspace

Just like the empathy step, the adult will state what their greatest concern is.

In this case, it was “leaving a mess that creates additional work for the custodian.”

Step Three

Finally, we arrive at the solution step. Now a question is phrased in a way that both individuals, the student and the expectation holder’s, top concerns are addressed. 

In this situation, that question was worded like this. “I wonder if there is a way that we can ensure that the garbage can is not too far away, AND there is no extra work for the custodian because of a mess being under your desk?”

The student was then given the first opportunity to come up with a solution that was realistic, implementable, and that addressed both of those top concerns. In my experience, most of the solutions come directly from the student, but some do require the adult’s help to formulate.

In this particular example, the student came up with the idea of taping a brown paper bag to their desk to place their pencil shavings in. This addressed their concern of having to walk so far to the garbage can while also addressing the other concern of leaving a mess under the desk that the custodian had to clean up. And so a paper bag was taped to the student’s desk that very day, and the problem never came up again. It was solved!

Now comes the part I have been looking forward to the most. Applying this three-step process of writing a Plan B to that issue I was having with swearing while playing online chess that I explored in part one of this post last week. As you will recall, the issue that I was having specifically was a “Difficult using positive language after losing a game of chess”.

And so, taking this difficulty, let’s begin to form a Plan B.

Step 1 - The Empathy Step

 What are the things that make it difficult for me to use positive language after losing a game of chess?

• I am usually alone in a room when I play chess. There is no one around me, so I don’t feel I have to watch my words for fear of someone hearing me.

• I don’t think of my opponent as a real person playing against me. Because the game changes on my phone and I don’t see my opponent, I forget that there is an actual individual created in the image of God making the moves and decisions. 

• I get frustrated at myself for making careless moves.

Of these reasons, the biggest I recognize to be that, “I don’t think of my opponent as a real person playing against me.“

Step 2 - The Adult Concerns

We now need to stray from the model just a touch, as we also get to play the part of the “adult” in this scenario. I am also, after all, the one who holds the expectation of how I should behave. But when it comes to addressing sin in our own lives, this expectation should be one that is formed according to God’s word. And so, these are the expectations I have, informed by my faith and scripture, that are causing this difficulty to be an issue in my life.

• When I swear, I know I am sinning because I feel it causing me to grow separate from God and dehumanize my opponent further

• Swearing reinforces its implementation in my vocabulary, making it easier to repeat those words. 

• Swearing when my kids are present can lead to them getting more comfortable using that kind of language

Of these expectations, the biggest I recognize to be that, “when I swear, I know I am sinning because I feel it causing me to grow separate from God and dehumanize my opponent further”.

Step 3 - Solution

And finally, let us combine these two steps to make a question that I can work to answer in my own life.

“I wonder if there is a way that I can think of my opponent as a real person, created in the image of God AND keep from swearing, which separates me from God?”

Thinking of my own life, if I were to answer this question, what I would need to do is to try to say a quick pray for my opponent at the start of each game. Then I might be reminded that they are, in fact, real people and not just a username on a screen. Ths might even lead me to appreciate the skill that they have displayed and acknowledge their gameplay rather than focusing on my own mistakes. And so what I will try to do to address this difficulty in my life, is I will say a quick prayer for my opponent at the start of each new game. 

Now some who are reading this might be thinking that a solution like this is easy to find and that it doesn’t require going through all of these steps every time. But I want those people to remember that CPS was created for people who have lagging skills and who cannot simply drum up a solution to a problem all on their own. I suspect in all of our lives this can often be the case. We Christians often know what is expected of us but nevertheless, we still struggle repeatedly with the same sin. We lack the means to simply, “stop sinning.”

In the student’s example from above, I knew right from the get-go that the problem could be easily solved in a wide variety of ways. It seemed so easy for me to arrive at a solution, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t difficult for her. My strengths don’t invalidate someone else’s struggles. The same is true with the sins that I struggle with. They very well might not be the sins that you struggle with, but that doesn’t mean they are not a struggle for me.

I could have simply told this student how to solve the problem so that she would stop leaving her pencil shaving on the floor, but there are three big benefits to using this model that I know will benefit the student far more than if I would have just solved the problem for her:

1. Sometimes we adults think we know the root cause of difficulty when in reality we are way off target. By completing the empathy step, we can get to what the root of a problem actually is, instead of just what we imagine it to be.

2. By running through these steps, the child can build their problem-solving skills and in doing so will often be able to use these same problem-solving strategies and solutions to solve similar problems in the future.

3. Sometimes solving one problem in a more thorough and thought-through way has the added benefit of taking care of other problems as well. 

Saying all of this, I also must say that while the CPS approach can certainly help address problems in our own lives, it must always be used alongside prayer. Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” And the apostle Paul knew well what he was talking about when he wrote down those words. Being constantly in prayer would probably eliminate most of the sin in my own life before it began and as we learned last week, prevention is always easier than trying to tackle difficulties once they have fully taken root. But nevertheless, with prayer and by working through this process that we have discussed, and then arriving at the solution that I did, I know that I now have a way to measure whether or not this will be an effective solution. 

However, there is in this fallen world always the possibility that this approach will not work. While I love it when a Plan B is a one-and-done experience, the honest truth is that the first, and sometimes even the second or third solutions you come up with are not always effective. And that is okay. You are still further ahead having done the work and attempting the solutions. After all, you now know a little more about what doesn’t work for you. And in the classroom, students often learn that what they perceive as their greatest challenge to meeting an expectation isn’t always what their biggest challenge actually is. The model is meant to be refined and fine-tuned.

I think the same goes for us applying it to our Christian walk. We often get discouraged when we fall into habitual sin time and again. It can be disheartening when you are actively trying to overcome a problem only to stumble. However, in prayer and truthful self-reflection, using the CPS model as a way of eliminating the behaviours associated with your sin allows you to understand better what the triggers are that lead to those behaviours and as such it can be a tool that will help you cut that sin out of your life. 

I said in last week’s post that I do not believe that CPS is the model to end all models when it comes to problem-solving, and I certainly do not make that claim as we apply it to the behaviours that affect our Christian walks with God, but after spending as much time as I have thinking about this model and applying it to my own life, I do believe it is worth exploring in this way. I intend to give you updates down the road on my chess games, and I will let you know how my life has been shaping up since making a point to begin each game praying for my opponents.

I hope you are willing to consider the CPS model as a tool that can be used in your own life to help be proactive about the behaviours that cause you to sin. 

Until next time.