How a Brief Solution Focused Approach Unlocks the Real Potential of Management Standards & Work Positive
The UK HSE Management Standards, alongside Work Positive in Ireland and Scotland, represent one of the most robust, accessible and under-used approaches to workplace wellbeing currently available.
They are:
Free to use
Grounded in decades of accepted occupational health psychology research
Legally and ethically aligned with employers’ duty of care
Benchmarkable across sectors and industries
Designed to give voice to those closest to the work
And yet, in practice, they are frequently applied in ways that dilute their impact or undermine their intent.
This raises a more useful question than “Why don’t organisations use these tools?”
Why do organisations so often use them in ways that reduce their effectiveness?
A Tool Designed for Participation — Often Used for Diagnosis
At its core, the Management Standards approach is participatory. It relies on the lived experience of employees to identify psychosocial risks and protective factors within the system of work.
This aligns remarkably well with a Brief Solution Focused (BSF) philosophy:
People are experts in their own experience
Understanding the problem is less useful than understanding what already works
Change happens through small, observable steps
Progress is amplified by noticing exceptions and successes
Yet organisations frequently approach the Standards through a problem-saturated lens:
Where are the red flags?
What’s broken?
How do we fix people or teams?
This diagnostic mindset may feel responsible, but it is rarely generative.
From Deficits to Exceptions: A Solution Focused Reframe
A Brief Solution Focused approach asks different questions of the same data.
Instead of:
“Why is workload so high here?”
We ask:
“Where is workload currently manageable — and what’s different there?”
Instead of:
“Why don’t staff feel supported?”
We ask:
“When do people feel most supported, even briefly?”
The Management Standards data already contains this information — it is simply overlooked when attention is fixed solely on deficits.
By identifying exceptions, organisations begin to surface:
Local practices that buffer stress
Informal leadership behaviours that work
Structural conditions that enable autonomy or clarity
These insights are immediately usable because they already exist within the system.
Trusting the Process Without Collapsing Authority
One of the unspoken anxieties about participatory approaches is the perceived loss of control.
Handy’s Greek Temple model reminds us that many organisations are still built to protect power at the centre. When Management Standards are implemented without a clear process for dialogue, they can feel threatening:
What if staff name things we can’t change?
What if expectations escalate?
What if authority is undermined?
A Brief Solution Focused approach offers a way through this tension.
Rather than dismantling authority, it:
Distributes agency without removing accountability
Keeps conversations grounded in what is already possible
Focuses on next useful steps, not wholesale redesign
Anchors change in observable behaviour rather than ideology
Participation becomes safer — for leaders and staff alike.
From Benchmarking to Direction of Travel
Benchmarking is one of the strengths of Management Standards and Work Positive. It is also one of the most commonly misused aspects.
Too often it becomes:
Reassurance (“we’re not as bad as others”)
Justification for inaction
A compliance exercise
A Solution Focused lens reframes benchmarking as a directional indicator, not a verdict.
The key question becomes:
“What would ‘slightly better’ look like here — and how would we notice?”
Progress is then measured not just against national norms, but against:
Previous best functioning
Emerging patterns of improvement
Increased confidence in local problem-solving
This sustains momentum in complex systems where rapid transformation is unrealistic.
Empowering Street-Level Change — Without Naivety
One of the most powerful — and least trusted — aspects of the Management Standards approach is its belief that those doing the work can improve the work.
Brief Solution Focused practice strengthens this by:
Avoiding blame
Making success visible
Encouraging experimentation rather than perfection
Treating resistance as information, not opposition
Importantly, BSF does not deny power, politics or constraint. It simply asks:
“Given the reality you are in, what is the smallest useful change that would make work better?”
That question is both realistic and ethical.
From Adequate Risk Assessment to Meaningful Action
The Management Standards were always intended to be good enough, not perfect. They provide a defensible and evidence-informed baseline.
What a Brief Solution Focused approach adds is:
Precision in action
Speed without recklessness
Engagement without overload
Hope without denial
Together, they shift the conversation from:
“Are we compliant?”
to:
“What’s working here — and how do we get more of it?”
A Final Reflection
The Management Standards and Work Positive frameworks are not failing.
They are often asking better questions than organisations are prepared to answer.
A Brief Solution Focused approach makes those questions safer, more practical and more human — without losing rigour or accountability.
Working With This Approach
If your organisation is using — or considering using — the Management Standards or Work Positive, the difference between paper compliance and meaningful change lies in how the conversations are facilitated.
My work supports organisations to:
Apply the Management Standards through a Brief Solution Focused lens
Design participatory processes that build trust rather than resistance
Move from survey results to practical, locally-owned action
Strengthen leadership capability without reverting to command-and-control
Create measurable improvement without overwhelming systems or people
This work draws on:
Occupational Health Psychology
Brief Solution Focused practice
Organisational coaching
Real-world experience of what helps change stick