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? ​

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.

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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​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?