The Solutions Focus
+44 (0) 1727 843 820
  • Home
  • Services
    • Training >
      • Getting The Best From Feedback
      • Effective Conversations
      • Solutions-Focused Conversations for the Workplace
      • Bite Sized Sessions
      • Introduction to SF Coaching
      • Team Building
      • Leadership Development
      • Manager as Coach
      • Masterclasses
      • Productive Meetings
      • Leading Change through Powerful Conversations
      • Difficult to Constructive Conversations
      • Building Resilience
      • Increasing Engagement
      • Raising Performance
      • What Works Well
      • Positively Speaking The Course
    • Coaching >
      • Executive and Business Coaching
      • Team Coaching
      • Online Coaching
      • Coaching Conundrums
      • Supervision
    • Consulting >
      • Change Projects
      • Strategy Workshops
      • Appraisal Design
      • 360 Degrees Feedback
      • SF Professional Development Programme
      • Licensing
    • Speaking >
      • The Book
      • Keynotes and Presentations
      • Conferences
  • About Us
    • Our Approach
    • OSKAR Coaching Model
    • Six SIMPLE Principles
    • Solutions TOOLS
    • Our Clients
    • Accessibility
  • Resources
    • Articles
    • Blog
    • Books
    • Coaching Cards
    • The SF Community
    • Inspiring Quotes
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • Social Media
  • Link Page

Let's get the conversation going | Paul

15/1/2020

0 Comments

 
We’ve been at a conference in Leuven, Belgium, and our European colleagues tell us that more and more organisations are turning to Solutions Focus as their preferred method of change - for individuals, teams and even the organisational culture as a whole.
 
They like the focus on what’s wanted (rather than endless analysis of problems), the harnessing of resources (which is fast and economical) and the rapid progress with small, experimental steps (rather than a cumbersome three-year plan that’s daunting to implement and out of date before the ink is dry).
 
If you think you might be a suitable client to work along those lines with us, here are three good questions to decide which project will most benefit from our collaboration:
 
  • What burning issues do you have, that you suspect a solutions-focused approach might well help with?
  • Is this an issue really worth working on, so that the benefits of progress will outweigh the effort it’s going to take?
  • Who do we need to get involved to make an engaging start?
 
Let us know your answers, and we’ll get the conversation going...
Picture
0 Comments

Hard problems, easy solutions

13/11/2017

0 Comments

 
The problem might be hard, but the solution can be easy. That’s a central insight of a solutions-focused approach. If we get too tangled up in thinking about the problem, analysing it and talking about it, we might miss the simplicity of doing something different – which may well be unrelated to the problem in any obvious way, yet improve things quickly. A nice example here, in this Guardian Weekend column by Oliver Burkeman.
​
Picture
0 Comments

What’s the best question to start with in a workshop or coaching session?

30/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Our opening words inevitably contain assumptions, destiny-filled assumptions which can shape the rest of the conversation.
 
What if we start with ’What’s the problem?'. That assumes a problem, which we’ll now have to talk about and then try to solve.

​Bulgarian solution-focused practitioner Plamen Panayotov proposes, ‘What question brought you here today?’ 
The Solutions Focus Book

Read More
0 Comments

What’s the impact of visualisation on motivation?

24/7/2017

0 Comments

 
​A participant on a recent webinar cited a study he’d heard about, saying that visualising a goal can be counter-productive to one’s motivation. Apparently, there’s a danger of feeling that you’ve already accomplished your objective, so you put less effort into doing it ‘again’ for real.

For a solutions-focused practitioner, this seems more about the danger of extrapolating too much from a single research project than about the value of visualisation. There’s obvious value for an individual or a team in the clarity gained by visualising the goal. The depiction of the Future Perfect in detail also provides useful signs by which to measure progress. And it encourages reflecting on the benefits of the various aspects of the goal – which again will provoke and boost motivation. I’m not sure how you would gain those benefits without somehow visualising what’s wanted in glorious detail.

Nor is the Future Perfect visualisation the end of the typical coaching process. First, in a detailed articulation of a vision, we not only see it, we speak it, unearthing more and more detail.  And then we also explore resources and consider the next small steps. Those additional elements should be more than enough to avoid any loss of motivation.
The Solutions Focus Future Perfect
Have a look at all of our SF TOOLS on one page.
0 Comments

I’d love to take a solutions focus, but I can’t let go of the problem

12/6/2017

0 Comments

 
​Many clients have difficulty in letting go of their problem. It’s not surprising. They have lived with the problem for a while; the problem is giving them trouble and it’s worthy of respect. Yet the solution-focused practitioner pops up to say the problem may have nothing to do with the solution – and remind them that it’s the solution that the client wants. That may make sense logically, but from the client’s perspective that can be tough to accept emotionally.

Solution focused conversations

Read More
0 Comments

The logical thread of better conversations

5/6/2017

0 Comments

 
We are all familiar with tricky conversations in our organisations - the ones you put off for as long as possible or perhaps never have at all. But suppose you could handle these conversations in the best way imaginable, what difference would that make?
 
What difference would it make it to you, to your team and to your organisation? Each conversation has an impact on your ultimate results, as there is an inevitable logical thread between you, your team and your organisation’s performance.
Difficult Conversations

Read More
0 Comments

5 Top tips for building your resilience | Janine

24/4/2017

0 Comments

 
​“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

Read More
0 Comments

I hear your pain

27/3/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture

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.

Read More
0 Comments

No need to complain about people complaining | Paul

20/2/2017

0 Comments

 
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.
Picture
© Simpsoncrazy
0 Comments

Sleeping with President Trump

16/2/2017

0 Comments

 
One of the most important ideas in Solutions Focus is that the problem is not necessarily related to the solution. And this notion seems odd to many people. They wonder how can you get to a solution if you don't start with a problem. 
 
A first step may be to imagine various issues where there is no problem.

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Book
    Care
    Change
    Coaching
    Comedy
    Complexity
    Conference
    Constructivism
    Consulting
    Conversation
    Decision Making
    Education
    Engagement
    Facilitation
    Feedback
    Future
    Goals
    HR
    Improvisation
    Interview
    Journalism
    Leadership
    Learning
    Management
    Marketing
    Meetings
    Mistakes
    Monday
    Neuroscience
    Organisation
    Organisational Development
    OSKAR
    Performance
    Philosophy
    Police
    Politics
    Problems
    Project Management
    Psychology
    Questions
    Resilience
    Scale
    SFBT
    SIMPLE
    Sport
    Stress
    Supervision
    TOOLS
    Top Tips
    Training
    Video

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    September 2010
    August 2010

Home
Services
Training
Coaching
Consultancy
Speaking


About Us
Our Approach
OSKAR
​SF Tools
Our Clients
Resources
Blog
Books 
Conferences
SF Community
Shop
Contact Us
The Solutions Focus
Tel +44 (0)1727 843 820
      
Email: contact@thesolutionsfocus.co.uk

     The Solutions Focus © 2014   All Rights Reserved
  Terms of Use   Privacy