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‘The client is the expert’.  What?!

17/10/2017

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In our Solutions Focus practice we like to say that our clients and customers are the experts, by which we acknowledge that they know their lives and work better than we ever can, and are therefore best placed to decide how to use their resources to solve their problems.  
 
So, if the client is the expert, how do we let them know that, while still adding value in our job as coach, therapist or workshop leader? How do we empower clients in practice during a workshop or a coaching session? ​
Positively Speaking

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Answer and question sessions

4/9/2017

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​In many forms of coaching and therapy, the practitioner has a plan. The course of the conversation depends relatively little on what the client wants. That makes it predictable and thus easy for the coach. But is the comfort of the coach or the therapist (rather than the client) the goal of the session?

​In taking a solutions-focused approach, you do have to listen to the client, and the questions you ask depend a great deal on what the client has to say.

 
We have a favourite SF training exercise, in which you practice with a partner and your next question must include a significant word or phrase from the previous answer. So the pattern shifts from ‘Question, answer, question’ to ‘Answer, question, answer’.
Positively Speaking The Solutions Focus
In SF coaching sessions, we start by asking what the client wants. That’s the plan, and that’s as far as the plan goes. The rest depends upon the answer you get and whatever is needed to get a more detailed description of what’s wanted, descriptions of resources and descriptions of progress.
 
And the value of that? These questions will produce change. And they will keep you as the coach in the moment and on your toes.
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How can a coach come up with useful questions on the spot?

7/8/2017

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​
​How do you know what to say when a client answers your question? Most of the time you did not know what your client was going to say. That was why you asked the question.

 
Knowing what to do next at that precise moment has a great deal to do with paying attention to language.  And what we say will depend on our assumptions.
The Solutions Focus Positively Speaking

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Is Solutions Focus a science, an art or a craft?

10/7/2017

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At a recent conference, SF practitioner Chris Iveson reminded us that SF is neither a science nor an art, but a craft.
​

It’s a craft that may take practice, but it is basically simple. There are a few things we need to do as coaches or therapists. And it is a good idea to learn to do them well.
 
Then we can easily be tempted to add on various optional extras, which we hope look good. Yes, that is very tempting.
 
Or we may prefer to keep our practice pared down and minimal. And if that is possible, we can do so with an appreciation that the rest is decoration. The pure craft is enough.
The Solutions Focus Book
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5 Top tips for building your resilience | Janine

24/4/2017

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​“A good half of the art of living is resilience.” 
― Alain de Botton

It’s tempting to think that resilience is a fixed personality trait, maybe even something that we are born with. But be reassured, the ability to bounce back from failure and to cope with everyday difficulties is something that can be learned and developed by anyone.

​Here are five top tips that can help you build your resilience.
​
The Solutions Focus Resilience Management Pocketbook

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I hear your pain

27/3/2017

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People sometimes suspect that Solutions Focus practitioners underestimate the seriousness of their clients’ issues. People have problems, dammit, lots of problems. And these problems profoundly affect them. They are troublesome, nasty, frightening. So don’t ignore our complaints or our pain, as you start questing for solutions, they say.

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No need to complain about people complaining | Paul

20/2/2017

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Complaining is natural. For some people I know, it is virtually an art from. And complaining clients is not something that is going to stop a good solutions-focused practitioner in their tracks.
 
Ranting and venting of steam can have their place within an SF conversation. It's OK for people to have feelings (of any type) and to express them. As a webinar participant put it neatly the other day, ‘we all experience the Present Imperfect' .
 
People complaining are mostly going into detail about aspects of their issue that they don't want. If you listen carefully, you can find or deduce a strand in there too about what they do want - and which they are willing to address. 
 
Our task as coaches, therapists or consultants is to discover that strand and amplify that part of the conversation.
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© Simpsoncrazy
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Is your present tense or your future perfect?

9/1/2017

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​Wouldn’t it be nice to know what is going to happen? You could make plans with so much more confidence and feeling of certainty. You’d feel like you were facing the known rather than the unknown. You could move along the scale, away from fear and trepidation, towards excitement and curiosity, perhaps even arriving at comfort and security.
 
But the future, it is said, is difficult to predict. Notoriously so, in fact, and getting more and more difficult with each shocking change in economics, politics and climate.
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Clever people, stupid organisations | Paul

14/3/2016

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​
​A great paradox of leadership is that we seem to have clever people in stupid organisations.
 
Perhaps that’s because we usually view wisdom as a property of the individual. But if we face big collective problems, how about seeking and creating wisdom in a collective approach?
 
An element of wisdom is the ability to see beyond the obvious. Good leaders notice patterns. They discern signals amongst noise and get a sense of what’s going on. They bring the gift of making even complex circumstance more tractable.
 
Leaders working effectively together in an organisation (or society) can use this skill to determine from the myriad of activities and sets of information available what to pay attention to and what to overlook.
 
This guides the practice of colleagues – helping to clarify aims and decide where to apply effort.  In your next meeting, how can you increase clarity with your colleagues and generate collective wisdom?
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First sighting of 'Solutions-Focused Journalism' at the BBC | Paul

15/2/2016

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Well, I went to a fascinating presentation at the BBC, where I used to work as a senior producer. 

​The invitation said, ‘Danish Public broadcasting claims great success with integrating a solutions-focused approach across all their News output.  Please join us for lunch to hear from them about how they did it and learn more about Solutions-Focused Journalism.’
BBC Solutions Focused Journalism

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