Why Solution-Focus is an important tool for all coaches to have .

2-minute video by yours truly, on Youtube –> Why Solution-Focus

Enjoy!

Tags: executive coaching, money is a concern, presentation, quick results, Solution Focus, Solution Focus for coaches, time to outcome, Video, video presentation, why solution focus

Rockefeller Plaza, NYC, March the 27th

I am very grateful to Peter Szabo for inviting me to co-facilitate the Executive Coaching Conference Pre-conference Workshop, on the 26th of March in NYC.

It was an amazing experience to see Peter in action – and it was awesome to see the response of the audience, all seasoned coaches or HR professionals!

It is definitely the time for Solution-Focus.

The point was driven home further by David Peterson’s keynote presentation the following day.

David Peterson, after 25 years of being at the forefront of the coaching industry, is now working at Google as Director of Learning & Development.

In his presentation, he shared what he learned  at Google and how, based on that, successful Executive Coaching would look like in the future.

I was blown away – Solution-Focus is the way forward!

Even though he did not mention SF explicitly, it was implied in his presentation – as a matter of fact we were honored to have him at  the pre-conference workshop, and he gave a shout-out to Peter Szabo during the keynote address.

Here are some of  the key points of Peterson’s presentation:

- Executive Coaching should have a strong “user focus” (like Google has). The key question any executive coach should ask his or her clients is: “what would be most useful for YOU?”. Not what would be useful (many things can be), but what can be most useful. Not what would be useful for the client’s boss, organization, spouse… but most useful to the client. Sounds familiar, SF practitoners out there? ;)

- To stress the point above, Peterson mentioned “self-directed learning” and the fact his goal is to get his clients “out of there [his office] ASAP” – a vindication of Solution-Focused practice, which is predicated on seeing clients just a few times, ideally just once

- Executive Coaching should have “velocity / speed / impact” (like Google has). David Peterson stated that his personal challenges in this regard are: “how can I make my coaching faster and better? How can I do this in half the time? How fast can I get clients to say “wow, this is totally worth my time”?“.  I, and other members of the Solution-Focused community, have been trying to get these very same questions asked in the coaching industry for so long! It was mind-blowing so see someone of the stature of David Peterson asking himself those very same questions! The answer, of course, is: Solution-Focus! Solution-Focused coaching is designed to deliver value in as little as a single 30 minute session.

- Even though it is not strictly Solution-Focus, I loved another main point Peterson made: Executive Coaching practice should have a focus on innovation (like Google does). Coaches should experiment all the time, do pilots or run betas all the time, they should do something new every time, in a systematic way. This is definitely in the spirit of Solution-Focus, because this is how it came to be – via experimentation. And I talked about the importance of testing things out in coaching when sharing my comments about the book Little Bets in a previous post, here.

- Peterson challenged many assumptions shared by Coaches, including one dear to Solution-Focused practitioners: “never give advice”. As he pointed out, “why would you restrain from giving advice if it is helpful?”. Excellent point. Peterson then added that the question is not whether it is right or wrong to give advice, but rather when and how giving advice can be be helpful. The criteria he embraced to guide his coaching is the essence of Solution-Focus: “what is most useful to this client right now?”. For more on how, ultimately, the essence of Solution-Focus is its key assumption that the client is the expert, see this post of mine –> here.

What cutting-edge Executive Coaching should look like in the future is pretty clear – thanks to David Peterson’s presentation.
How to get there is pretty clear, at least to me: Solution-Focused practitioners have the know-how, the experience and the business model to make that happen. Today.

Since it ties so well with the content of this post, shameless promotional plug: f you are interested in acquiring the Coaching Skills of the Future today, check out our training programs in the US! —> here

Tags: being brief, client centered, David Peterson, executive coaching, Executive Coaching Conference, experimentation, future of coaching, Google, impact, keynote presentation, New York, NYC, small steps, Solution Focus, Solution Focus know how, testing things out, the client is the expert, user centered, velocity, Westin, what is most useful to you

I just got back from Basel, where I had the privilege to co-facilitate with Peter Szabó the “Live Coaching Days”.

That would be module 4 of Solutionsurfers‘ PURE Brief-Coach Training Program.
It is so called because in those 3 days participants have a chance to coach “real” clients, i.e. not other participants – and to do so in front of other coaches.

It is a unique opportunity for trainees to put their coaching skills to the test – with clients who, unlike the participants, do not know how the process is supposed to work. Clients walk in with a real-life topic they want to work on, a topic unknown beforehand to trainees and facilitators alike.

It is also a unique opportunity for coaches to perform in front of their peers and get specific and detailed feedback on their coaching – something very hard to do in a profession where most of the interactions are one on one, and governed by strict confidentiality. As coaches, we might have some form of feedback in terms of outcome (did it work for the client? was he / she happy?) but not about the process (how did I do that?).

I was blessed to witness many amazing coaching conversations.

I am sharing one below, in a format that protects the identity of client and coach.

Just to give you an idea of how cool Solution-Focused Coaches are :-)

Once upon a time, there was a coach and a client.

The client wanted to align her team so they would work better together.
As she elaborated on that, it became clear she was talking about an “inner” team.
Everything sounded so abstract and sterile – as if it were a management problem in an organization far, far away.
The coach did not flinch, and started working with the metaphor and the words offered by the client.

After some exploration, a big step forward occurred when the client was offered a Skaleboard to play with.
By positioning pieces on the board, the undifferentiated inner team  started to break down into individual “members”, each one with “very good reasons” and a specific concern – the part of the coachee that was worried about health, the part that was excited about her work, and so on and so forth.

With only 5 minutes left in the coaching session, the client became clear it was a matter of deciding between two alternatives, or a composition thereof.
The client mentioned she liked exploration and movement.
The coach was quick to seize that opportunity: he had the client stand up and have a glimpse of the two different scenarios (and a combination of the two), by leading her to different windows and skillfully depicting the two different outcomes, using the client’s words.

Once given a chance to see what the different choices would lead to, the client was very quick and very confident in making a decision – it was clear to everyone in the room that she was definitely very attracted to one of the two scenarios.

I was very impressed by the ability of the coach to think on his feet, to work with what the client brought and to brilliantly get to a resolution by performing a complete “decision coaching process” in 5 minutes.

I was also very impressed by the client.
It was amazing to see the level of integration she achieved in just thirty minutes.
What started with an abstract description of a fragmented self made up of undifferentiated inner voices and devoid of emotions, evolved during the session into one person, speaking with one heart, one mind and one soul.

The outcome  went well beyond the best hopes of the client: her goal for the session was to get some elements so she could “work on a team alignment plan” on the train ride back home – she did not expect to solve the issue right there and then, with a “team” that became one in thirty minutes!

Tags: Basel, coach training, coaching, coaching practice, decision coaching, live coaching days, Peter Szabo, PURE, Solution Focused, solutionsurfers

The registration is now open for the 2012 California edition of Solutionsurfers‘ Brief Coach Training.

Here is the link with all the information about the program: http://www.briefcoachingsolutions.com/solsurfers2012/

To sign up, please send an email to: briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com

If you want to find out more about the training program and how it can benefit you,

you are invited to attend one  of the following conference calls:

- Friday, January the 27th, at 12 noon PST (3 PM EST)

- Tuesday, February the 14th, at 9 AM PST (12 noon EST)

- Wednesday, March the 14th, 9 AM PST (12 noon EST) ***please note that the early bird rate is available only until March 1.

Please RSVP with Ms. Corey Godzwa at cgodzwa@gmail.com and you will be sent the information to access the conference call.

Tags: Accredited Coaching Training Program in California, ACTP, Brief Coach Training, Coaching School California, Conference Calls, ICF, International Coach Federation, PURE, Solution Focus, Solution-Focused Coach Training, solutionsurfers, Yorba Linda

In case you missed it, HERE is the 2012 Solution-Focused Coach Training Program!

See you in Orange County, California! :)

Tags: 2012, Accredited Coach Training Program, ACTP, Appreciative Inquiry, Business Coaching, David Chow, executive coaching, Life Coaching, Orange County, Organizational Development, Paolo Terni, Peter Szabo, PURE, Solution Focus, solutionsurfers, training

This year I had again the opportunity and the privilege to attend the SFBTA Conference, which was held in Bakersfield, California.

I had a great time re-connecting with old friends and making new ones.

Some of the highlights of the program for me:

- the workshop A Micro-Analysis of Opportunities, led by Joel Simon, Lance Taylor & Janet Bavelas. A neat application of Micro-Analysis

- the workshop “Solution-Focused Dragon Boat” – Building a Community of Leaders, led by Brenda Zalter-Minden & Robin Hornstein. It was highly interactive and fun, fun, fun. Re-creating the challenges and team-building opportunities of working as a rowing team

- the workshop Diagramming Solution-Focused Practice: Tools for Teaching led by Robert Blundo. A very engaging presentation on how to introduce students to Solution-Focus practice and its unique mindset

- the workshop Can We Really See Co-construction Happening?, led by Janet Bavelas, Peter De Jong & Sara Smock. So interesting to see grounding sequences in conversations and how they put understanding in place. Wisdom nugget by Peter De Jong: “All therapists [from different schools of therapy] co-construct. But they do it in different directions”

- the workshop Value of Evaluation: Creating Powerful Performance led by Haesun Moon. Brilliantly led in a pure solution-focused way, we all learned from each other and ourselves how to do more of what works to make evaluation processes solution-focused

And there were many, many other interesting workshops going on, but unfortunately one has to choose…

thanks to everyone, staff, presenters and attendees, who made this event such a wonderful learning experience!

… and here (photo below) is what happens when you have a bunch of Solution-Focused therapists doing line dancing at the Association Banquet :)

Tags: 2011, Bakersfield, co-construction, conference, evaluation, Haesun Moon, Janet Bavelas, micro-analysis, performance, Robert Blundo, SFBTA, solution-focused team building, teaching solution-focused practice