“What would you do next in this situation?

You are facilitating a meeting with a team that is transforming how it provides its services.

You ask the people to describe their preferred future when everything is working well. What will be happening? What will people be doing, saying, thinking, feeling etc? How will the processes and systems be operating? They do it.

What happens next? Typically, the next step in organisations is to describe what is stopping the team from achieving the preferred future. They list what is wrong, things they have been discussing for ever that never seem to get resolved.

People become dispirited and defensive as they sense people are blaming them or their department for what is wrong. The positive energy drains away and resistance to change develops. Friction occurs, or worse, apathy. Actions aren’t followed up.

Is this recognisable to you?  It’s noticeable in transformation programmes, especially when the initial euphoria has ebbed away.

An alternative approach for creative leaders is to identify what is working.

Where can we see clues that the preferred future is happening already, examples of good practice? The purpose is to encourage people to sense that much is going well and they can build on it.” Read more here.

Abstract

The solution-focused approach contributed a great deal to the organisational development of a Swiss company. Techniques such as ‘solution talk’, awareness of resources, abilities and possible next steps – as well as finding out what works – helped the company to move from a problem-oriented, stuck situation in October 2009 to a dynamic organisation with a culture of appreciation by July 2010.
This case study is about a Swiss company with around 200 employees that merged with another in 2009. When I first met the CEO in October 2009, he explained they were in the middle of this merger and facing numerous problems. Together, these problems had led to a near standstill and the employees were under constant pressure. They had worked with different organisational developers in the past, but were not satisfied, because their expert models didn’t fit the company’s needs. The CEO invited me to help him solve these problems.

read the article here

51 Things anybody can do right now to promote SF:

1. Join or support SF organizations financially (EBTA, SFCT, SFBTA)
2. Go to SF conferences (SOLworld, EBTA, SFBTA conference, SFCT annual general meeting)
3. Write to encourage SF organizations – your attention, feedback, appreciation is very valuable.
4. Share the professional knowledge that you have with each other and with the existing communities (legal, PR, web design, photography, games, etc.) and help by asking your questions
5. Have local meetings with other Sfers or support your local group
6. Write your success stories to the mailing lists and ning groups
7. Be generous with your knowledge, share!

Use social media:
8. Also support SF practitioners with feedback, questions and discussions on blogs, facebook, twitter, linked-in, ning group, listserve, internations …
9. Put videos on youtube
10. Link your website to other SF websites
11. Link SF websites in other forums
12. Become fans of SF on facebook / twitter etc.
13. Contribute to wikipedia articles
14. Produce a list of SF books and publish on amazon
Support or conduct research:
15. Become aware of the SF research that exists
16. Share your ideas for research (even if you cannot do it, somebody else might)
17. Help find money for research (e.g. help write grant proposals, talk to corporate clients for sponsorship etc.)
18. Do the research that you can do (e.g. study your own work, ask your clients, write a doctoral thesis …)
19. Talk about your research it / present it and try to publicize

Continuously develop your SF expertise:
20. Know what SF is and what it is not
21. Go to conferences and workshops
22. Talk to other experienced practitioners
23. Read and buy SF books

Connect to others and other networks:
24. Seek out places where you would not go normally but where you can meet decision makers (golf club, rotary meeting …)
25. Make friends with politicians and other decision makers
26. If you know public people (celebrities, officials, press, opinion leaders, politicians …) talk to them about what might interest these people in SF
27. Deliver inputs (presentations, workshops, …) in non-SF environments (conferences etc.)
28. Give talks at other organizations (rotary, lions, women`s clubs, sports clubs ….)
29. Publish in many different places (womans magazine, economic magazines …)
30. Tell your success stories to your colleagues – be up to date with your own learning and talk about it
31. Make allies. Be cooperative. Build bridges
32. Be generous with your knowledge, share!
33. Ask people about their success stories of the day (and connect to SF)
34. Discuss respectfully about the differences of SF to other approaches with people from other approaches
35. Find ways of showing an SF alternative to other traditions approaches while still being careful not to be offensive or argumentative but still clear
36. Talk about successful SF stories at ordinary meetings (like dinners, cocktail parties …)
37. Put together fax numbers and email addresses of local news reporters and radio personalities. Send them relevant, topical information they can use . Don`t spam them.
38. Submit book reviews of SF books to press or write them on amazon
39. Provide support for local schools or other social organizations (eg setting up peer coaching or mediation for the schools) and let the press know about it
40. Donate SF books to libraries
41. Give your friends SF books for their birthday
42. Have genuine conversations
43. Contribute to non-SF forums and social media (e.g. entrepreneurs, social workers, self-help groups)
Learn effective communication:
44. learn what makes professional marketing and communication effective (e.g. good strategies for persuading people to listen to you, correct spelling, polite and friendly assertiveness …) – use your SF communication and listening skills but don’t forget that you also have a message

Connect to media:
45. Talk to your local press about your SF events
46. Connect to local radio and TV stations and let them know you are available for interviews on any number of topics that you can offer an SF perspective on
47. Do visible pro-bono work (for your school, community, etc.)
48. Write letters to the newspapers

Last but not least:
49. Translate and circulate this list
50. Add to this list (mail to kirsten@kirsten-dierolf.de)
51. Be the SF you want to see in the world

“Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules…repeated without end” Benoit Mandelbrot

Reminds me of a lot of things we do (e.g. simple questions over and over again, If it works do more of it) and talked about in the last few years (e.g. swarm intellingence).

With repeated simplicity to miracles! If it works do more of it – simple and true. Sometimes I forget and try to do complex things

Book Review - Time to think: Listening to ignite the human mind

Nancy Kline
Cassell Illustrated, 2001, reprinted in 2009, 256pp, £9.99 paperback

Review by Dominik Godat

“Most people think they listen well, but they rarely do – not at this level. Listening this way is a radical act. (…)

Whether you want to have more productive meetings, solve business problems, create bold strategies or build stronger relationships, this book offers you a new world of possibilities.”

This quote from the book jacket is, for once, a promo blurb that under states the content of this book, especially the usefulness for solution focused practitioners. Although this book is neither written with the aim to be solution focused nor especially for coaches or facilitators, many of the findings are perfectly in line with the solution focused approach and have the potential to complement the way you coach or facilitate in the future.
“Are you listening well enough to your clients? Are you really listening in a way that ignites their minds? Are you creating a thinking environment for your clients?” Before Ernst Bechinie, a fellow solution focused coach asked me these three questions, I thought that I was a good listener. But the more I reflected on this, I realized that in my coachings my focus is more on asking the right questions than on the listening. I have seen how solution focused questions can ignite the minds of my clients, but how could it be possible to reach this only by listening? And what is a thinking environment? To find out, I knew that I had to read this book.
In “Time to think” Nancy Kline builds on the well known assumption that the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution. To seek out the solution, the thing that this person needs the most is time to think in a special environment that enhances thinking. In the first section she, therefore, sets out the ten components that lead to the Thinking Environment. Although many of those might sound familiar, like giving attention, appreciation, encouragement, or ease, Kline manages to highlight small, but very important details on the one hand. On the other hand she points out the importance of creating an environment where thinking can take place in its full beauty. It might be as important to listen the right way, as to ask the right questions. Have you lately, for example, asked the next solution focused question while your client was quiet? Did you really know if her thinking process was finished? Or did your question interrupt her solution thinking? … read the full review

These people have normally had an exceptional career and a satisfying personal life. Out of the blue things start to change for them. Things are not as they used to be before. They suddenly are surprised by a combination of professional and/or private challenges. It might be a new business opportunity, a sudden promotion offer or being completely unexpected released from a position.
They ask themselves: What is this? Why me? How do I handle this? Where do I go from here?

How did you encounter this topic for yourself?

I have gone through this myself. Growing up and studying in Austria. Leaving my original home country I worked in Germany; later building up and managing my own consulting business there and selling it. Than I came to Switzerland where I live since a number of years – growing new roots and working in my passion called coaching.

From that experience and my working with many people in situations as described above – I accompany executives and professionals in walking successfully and with confidence their path of change.

What are you exactly doing with your clients?

We are doing a special journey together. This is a journey that involves body, mind and heart. It is a special travelling that means at least two things: I as a coach am in completely foreign country and I have no idea where my client is at the moment and where or how he wants to go. The client on the other hand is in a country she knows very well because it is herself. She might not be completely aware of what she knows but she is “at home” with all her resources, experiences, and creativity. And usually she will have the ability and a strong longing for learning.
Let me show this on an example. I am presently working with a business lady: American, living in Switzerland, end thirties, divorced and educating her two school aged children.
In the last 10 years she has built up and successfully managed a training business here in this country. Now her father has asked her to take over a family business in the US. This is a big business challenge and at the same times a strong emotional issue – helping the father and going back to her American roots.
In our work we started out with a business strategy for her Swiss enterprise. We developed various options: selling the whole thing, finding a manager, developing a successor from inside or even managing the company at a distance from the States by all kind of internet conferences.
Since I have been an entrepreneur over 30 years, this seemed to be a fairly safe ground for me in the beginning. Then it turned out that her life partner was also working as an employee in her company and the relationship was difficult for her. The question was what is the stability of this relationship and what will be when she leaves Switzerland?
Than there was the question of the children. Should they go to school in the US or stay with the grandmother here in Switzerland.
That meant that amidst this “technical” business strategy work we were and still are confronted with a number of relationship issues. On top of this we are dealing with her feelings of leaving Switzerland, which has become a second home for her with all the connections she had built up here.
In our coaching all these issues are connected with each other. From one session to the other or even during a session a different challenge comes into the foreground. And only the client herself can solve all of them.

I am there as a supporting partner. My job is just to ask a few questions to built trust in our relationship and increase her awareness. By awareness I mean for instance where are we now, where does she want to go, what obstacles does she see or feel on the way and how she can overcome them? What does her body say and how does she feel?
Important for me is to stay in the position “I don’t know” and “I am not responsible for solutions”. I am responsible to get the process going and stay on track.

How does this differ from a normal coaching?

Well, I think I have described my „normal“ coaching. How it differs from others I really don’t know.
I can tell you what is important for me.
A first question thereby is: Can I be “real”, can I stay authentic, reachable and transparent for my client. That means for me bringing in my own feelings and personality without imposing anything.
The second point is, am I able to understand the inner world of my client? Can I feel her from the inside and enter her world as visitor on a basis of respect? Can I fully trust that he or she will find all the solutions from his or her own resources?
Thirdly it is very important for me to build on previous successes and strengths of my client. What has worked before and lets do more of it.
Here it is important to give support by genuinely caring and praising; accepting what there is.

Now, what coaching is this: business strategy coaching, relationship coaching, leadership coaching?
It is all three and maybe more. I call it: being a partner for people on a cross-road and walking with them for a while.

Have a look at this collection of texts that ensure a step by step introduction and further literature: http://solworld.ning.com/notes/Jumpstart_into_Solution_Focus

Or have a look at Mark McKergow’s video on how to get from A to B:

SolutionSurfers launches the UK’s only Brief accredited coaching programme: They are offering a new 9 day Brief Coach Training course that covers a comprehensive agenda of solution-focused coaching tools and techniques and fully interactive hands-on coaching sessions with some of the UK’s top coaching professionals.

The course is being held in Brighton in May, July and September 2010 for new and existing coaches in HR, Learning and Development, Leadership and Management that want to be more effective and explore the possibilities of solutions-focused Brief Coaching, and is being delivered by a substantial line-up of coaching professionals with proven track records and outstanding results. 

The line-up of coaches include a PPC ICF (International Coaching Federation) coach Rob Rave, Ian Paterson an internal coach from a top 4  global accountancy practice and co- Author of “The Solution Focus” and pioneer Paul Z Jackson as well as Inner Game and other faculty coaches. See http://solutionsurfers.co.uk/index.php/people/ 

I am very pleased to be part of the faculty, too. I will be running two webinars.

Solution focused leadership, where I will explore the specifics and effects of coaching as a leadership competence and iscuss tools that have been used successfully by solution focused leaders. 

In the second webinar, Solution focused HR, I will cover how to talk with your line managers more effectively, develop more effective performance appraisals, enrich your diversity management or develop your employees more efficiently. I will also share practical “HR micro tools” that will be very useful with employees, especially when time is limited.  These sessions will also be recorded.

Free introductory sessions to the Brief Coach Training approach are scheduled for 18, 23 March and 14 April 2010 at The Gestalt Centre, near Old Street tube between 6.30 and 8.30pm. Further sessions are being held in Brighton on 15 and 27 April. To sign up or for further information, phone Kate Bacon on 01273 719398, email rob@solutionsurfers.co.uk or visit www.solutionsurfers.co.uk

About Brief Coaching

Brief Coaching is a solutions-focused approach that is accelerating progress and delivering business change faster than mainstream coaching. The free introductory sessions will focus on Becoming an Effective Coach and delegates will receive free coaching and materials to get started immediately. As coaching has become more embedded into business culture, SolutionSurfers has seen a shift towards a more solutions-focused approach to coaching for achieving more immediate results. Brief Coaching is being successfully implemented into companies worldwide, including a top 4 UK accountancy firm who comment:  

“Brief Coaching is a solutions-focused approach that has proved to be very effective with our team. Traditionally we are problem focused and look for gaps. However, Brief Coach Training has shown us that by taking an outcome or solutions focus approach and looking for what’s already working is a simple, quick and fast way of delivering the desired change. Like any organisation time is critical, so we have adopted this approach to our coaching and find it very powerful in getting results faster than before. It is the next step in the evolution of business coaching.”

About SolutionSurfers

SolutionSurfers is part of an international training organisation based in Lucerne, Switzerland, that has a network of solution-focused trainers and coaches all over the world.  It created the Brief Coaching philosophy- a proven alternative to mainstream coaching, enabling both experienced coaches and newcomers to change from the more commonly-used problem-solving paradigm to the brief and effective solutions-focused paradigm. Courses are available worldwide through a mix of face-to-face and virtual courses leading to certification by the International Coach Federation (ICF).  Brief Coaching clients include: Credit Suisse, IBM, Siemens, Rothschild and Nestle.

Contact Rob Rave: rob@solutionsurfers.co.uk

Course administrator: Kate Bacon on 01273 719398

www.solutionsurfers.co.uk

“This is a very interesting alternative leadership concept and fits in well with developing ideas regarding the need for leadership qualities throughout an organisation. It is a great concept that will stimulate much thought.”
Frederick Psyk, Non-Executive Director on the board of the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, UK 

“Mark McKergow presents a different, exciting perspective for those of us seeking meaning in a world of colossal complexity and unbounded possibilities.”
Prof Beverly Alimo-Metcalf

“The key role of the host – who receives and entertains guests – is deeply embedded in human society worldwide. In recent times we may have started to think of ‘hosts’ as either waiters or cheesy gameshow comperes. However, the act of inviting someone, of welcoming them, of responding to their needs whilst taking responsibility for their safety is a lens through which many dimensions of leadership can be viewed.

This is a very rich metaphor. It is a role which we all have first hand experience – who has not been invited into someone’s home, or invited others? And yet this role lies at the heart of many cultural and spiritual traditions. It builds and expands on the ideas of servant leadership, while making quite clear the responsive and interactional nature of leadership in a complex and changing world.

Host leadership can be seen alongside Mark McKergow’s previous work in pioneering the Solutions Focus (SF) approach in organisational change. The two ideas meld very well – an SF leader would be an excellent host.

Host leadership can be seen alongside Mark McKergow’s previous work in pioneering the Solutions Focus (SF) approach in organisational change. The two ideas meld very well – an SF leader would be an excellent host.” (found at www.hostleadership.com)

Download Mark’s article about host leadership or read more here.