Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change S.I.M.P.L.E. [Paperback]

Paul Z. Jackson (Author), Mark McKergow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1904838065 | ISBN-13: 978-1904838067 | Edition: 2nd Edition

When you need to discover what works in the workplace, The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change SIMPLE offers a powerful yet subtle way to foster positive change. With this revolutionary and practical alternative to traditional problem solving, you can learn how to envision your desired future and move swiftly toward it. The Solutions Focus details the SIMPLE plan and a unique way of working that fosters customized and organization-specific solutions for every problem. Radically pragmatic and proven in many fields, this method goes to the heart of what works for people, teams, and organizations.This second updated and extended edition provides an enhanced focus on coaching and offers fascinating and wide-ranging new case studies that illustrate how these ideas are being applied in organizations worldwide, from television companies to government agencies to individual teams. The authors show you how to identify what is working in your organization and how to amplify it by focusing on what is possible rather than what isn't. The basic principles are simple: identify what works and do more of it, and stop doing what doesn't work and try something different. Packed with field-tested tools, exercises, and case examples, The Solutions Focus will interest anyone who wants practical, innovative workplace solutions for doing more with less. Visit the Solutions Focus website at www.thesolutionsfocus.com.All good coaches focus on potential, affirmation, and solutions. This book is a must. It is simple, easy to read, and filled with illustrative examples. -Sir John Whitmore, author of Coaching for Performance A focus on solution construction is the core of great coaching. This is a beautifully crafted, elegantly simple approach to applying the power of solutions to organizations-a must-read for coaches and consultants looking for truly effective tools. -Anthony M. Grant, Director, Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sydney A classic: the most exciting and applicable approach since Fisher and Ury's Getting to Yes. The logic and ethics of the approach are refreshing and unfortunately all too rare in the corporate world where I do most of my work. It makes so much sense to identify and work with what works. -Nancy Caldwell, negotiation consultant, USA If we can learn to adopt this solutions-focused way of approaching everyday situations we will transform our work and our lives in elegant and powerful ways. The book is packed with thought-provoking case studies. I love it. -Sue Knight, author of NLP at Work CONTENTS 1 Small Changes— and a Big Idea2 Staying SIMPLE3 Solutions not Problems4 Inbetween—The Action Is in the Interaction5 Make Use of What's There6 Possibilities— Past, Present and Future7 Language— Simply Said8 Every Case Is Different9 The Complete Toolkit10 Coaching Solutions11 Managers Coach Their People to Solutions12 Team Coaching13 Organized Solutions14 The Solutions Artist and Scientist15 How We Reached Here

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All good coaches focus on potential, affirmation and solutions. This book is a must. It is simple, easy to read and filled with illustrative examples" Sir John Whitmore, author of Coaching for Performance

From the Inside Flap

The trouble with traditional approaches to people problems is that they assume a straight forward relationship between cause and effect, between a problem and its solution. Now there is revolutionary yet radical alternative - the solutions-focused approach - which sidesteps the causes of trouble and heads straight for the solution, showing you how to envisage your desired future and move swiftly toward it.

When you need to discover what works at work, The Solutions Focus offers a powerful yet subtle way to positive change.

This second, updated and extended edition of The Solutions Focus provides an enhanced focus on coaching and offers fascinating and wide-ranging new case studies illustrating how the ideas are being applied in organizations worldwide, from television companies to government agencies to individual teams.

The authors show you how to identify what is working in your team or organization and amplify it to make useful changes; to focus on what is possible rather than what is intractable; and how to be solutions-focused, not solutions-forced. While the method and scope are comprehensive, the basic principles are simple:

* Identify what woks and do more of it
* Stop doing what doesn't work and do something different

The Solutions Focus details a unique SIMPLE way of working that allows bespoke solutions to be invented every time, according to what actually fits the organization:

Solutions, not problems
Inbetween: the action is in the interaction
Make use of what's there - not what isn't
Possibilities: past, present and future
Language: simply said
Every case is different

Radically pragmatic and proven in many fields, this `theory of no theory' goes to the heart of what works for people, teams, and organizations. Packed with field-tested tools, exercises, and case examples, THE SOLUTIONS FOCUS will benefit everyone who is interested in practical, innovative workplace solutions - and in doing more with less.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 2nd Edition edition (December 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904838065
• ISBN-13: 978-1904838067
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Test of Time, February 5, 2007

By 

Caldwell Nancy "An American in Paris" (Paris France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change S.I.M.P.L.E. (Paperback)

When I read the first edition of The Solutions Focus, I compared it to Getting To Yes, a classic that changes the way you see the world and act in it. Well, I can now say that SF has more than survived the test of time. It has become part of "the way I do things" both as a consultant and in my personal life.

So I was curious to see what a second edition would bring.

And the answer: It brought some fantastic "Aha" moments, such as the story of James, a manager who feels his second-in-command is out to get him. Using the OSKAR coaching model, James successfully resolves their differences. WOW, of course, what a brilliant and fresh approach to conflict management! The O in OSKAR stands for Outcome, starting with the desired result and moving toward it...

As a corporate negotiation consultant and trainer with more than a penchant for creativity, let me say bravo and thanks..

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book for coaches and organisational change agents, July 26, 2007

By 

Andy Smith "Change specialist - coachingleade... (Manchester, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change S.I.M.P.L.E. (Paperback)

The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change SIMPLE (Second Edition) by Paul Z Jackson and Mark McKergow (Nicholas Brealey International, 2007) ISBN 1-904838-06-5

When the first edition of The Solutions Focus came out in 2002 it marked a genuine step forward in thinking about organisational change. It brought the insights of Solution Focused Therapy (developed in the late seventies by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg) into the workplace. The second edition, published in 2007, broadens its usefulness to coaches with the addition of new chapters outlining Jackson and McKergow's OSKAR coaching model, manager as coach, team coaching and solution-focused approaches to management consulting.

The beauty of the solution-focused approach is twofold; firstly, like the compatible Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach, it focuses on what is working and what is desired rather than on problems and trying to solve them, so it tends to have a heartening and morale-raising effect on individuals, teams and organisations that experience it.

Secondly, and rather unlike AI (or my own background discipline of NLP for that matter), it emphasises the need for simplicity and is refreshingly free from academic or humanistic psychology jargon and what many people in organisations, desparate for practical ways of dealing with ever-increasing demands, may view as "tree-hugging hippy crap" (as one participant at a recent AI event I helped facilitate put it recently).

The book's writing style does justice to its subject. I knew from taking an accelerated learning course with them about 10 years ago that Jackson and McKergow would present the material in an intelligent and brain-friendly way (the "reformed physicist" McKergow in particular is possessed of the proverbial "brain the size of a planet", while Jackson's background in improvisational comedy adds immediacy and lightness of touch) - and so it proves, with each chapter divided into short, easily digestible sub-headings, and plenty of illustrations and practical examples.

The book gives us six principles of what they refer to as `The Solutions Focus', organised under the acronym SIMPLE:

Solutions not problems

Inbetween - the action is in the interaction (between people)

Make use of what's there (the parts of the solution that are already happening in the current situation)

Possibilities - the resources and possibilities that will take us towards the solution

Every case is different

Something like the "Inbetween" principle (the idea that some aspects of the solution exist in the interaction between people or as emergent qualities of the system, rather than being owned by any one individual) must have been present in solution-focused therapy as it applied to families. It was a new one on this reader though, as I had previously only used solution-focus in therapy and coaching with individuals. By emphasising the principle here, Jackson and McKergow build a very useful bridge between using solution focus with individuals and applying it to teams and organisations.

We are also given a clear description of the various tools of the Solutions Focus approach. The present situation, the starting point for change, is described as the `Platform' (with its connotations of somewhere to depart or lift off from). The desired outcome - what it would be like if the problem disappeared completely - is the `Future Perfect'. Resources, things that are already working, and times when parts of the solution are happening already are called `Counters'. This metaphor didn't work quite as well for me. I suppose in some kind of board game analogy. The other tools are Affirming whatever is helping, taking Small Actions (which can make a big difference, and in any case add up), and the extremely useful Scaling (of progress towards a solution, confidence in a chosen option working, or commitment to a course of action) on a scale of 0 to 10.

The part of the book from which I got the most value is the new material added for the second edition. The authors give many practical examples of how to use the Solutions Focus approach in coaching individuals, team coaching, and organisational consultancy. There is also a useful chapter on coaching as a manager.

One of the most helpful insights (no news to experienced managment consultants, I'm sure, but very helpful to someone like me with a background in individual coaching who is increasingly moving into organisational changework) is about the need to find a `customer for change'. This is someone in an organisation who is aware that it is time for a change, and prepared to do something about it. If the consultant can't find one, their change interventions are unlikely to get very far.

Also new to the second edition is the OSKAR coaching model. The acronym stands for Outcome, Scaling, Know-How, Affirm and action, and Review. In some ways this seems to have been bolted on to the rest of the book; looked at from one angle, it seems merely a relabelling of some of the tools described earlier. `Know-How', for example, seems to be much the same as the resources and abilities described as `Counters' earlier in the book.

My other quibble with the model is that it is more a description of tools than a process model; although the authors say it can be used as a process ,the Scaling, Know-How, and the `Affirm' part of `Affirm and action' might be used both when eliciting what is working in the current situation (the `Platform'), and when deciding what to do to get closer to the `Future Perfect'. Also, the authors say that the `Outcome' stage would include both establishing the Platform and envisioning the `Future Perfect', while the sample questions they give are exclusively about the future, which might lead the careless reader to skimp on exploring the current situation. These are however minor caveats, which I hope a third edition will eventually resolve.

The book finishes up with a short history tracing the evolution and intellectual roots of the Solutions Focus model, placing it in a lineage which includes Bateson's work on paradox and levels of abstraction, Erickson's concept of utilisation, and complexity theory.

All in all, The Solutions Focus is an eye-opening book for anyone looking for greater simplicity and effectiveness in coaching, team-building, or organisational change.