What SF is NOT...

" Some Students drink at the fountain of Knowledge, others just gargle " RK Bergethon






More Reflections from last weeks SF Coach Training Workshop by Dr. Mark McKergow & Jenny Clarke " SOLUTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE " I would like to share the common misconceptions about Solution Focused Approach be it in Therapy or Coaching.

SF is Not Culturally Biased towards American/Western priorities

Someone once commented to me that SF may only be applicable to Caucasian Expariates' needs....it not applicable to our local context " our Ah Lians, Ah Huays, Ah Bengs & Ah Sengs " ( Challenging Adolescents ) on the onset I did think that too...How to lead them into the Miracle Question when we in the first place don't talk their lingo. It is also difficult if they are not a " Customer for Change " when they don't want to help themselves.

" When you INSIST, I RESIST " Anon

There is no problem unless someone is :-

• Doing something they don't want to do
• Not doing something they want to do
• doing something they want to do differently

Humility - the Art of Not Knowing coupled with your genuine empathetic ear will often win over even the most disgruntled individuals. The hardest skill in SF of them all, when you have accumulated years of scholastic achievement ( B. Sc, MA, PhD, ....)

The solution on which the focus is placed is not " the thing to be done is ...." , but rather " the difference that is sought ". Change is really not something that is extremely difficult: The problem vanishes, overwhelmed by the sign of the solution rather than anybody actively solving it.

Dr McKergow shared with us that after one of the SF Coaching training session he had with an Established Japanese MNC, an executive comment that he enjoyed the training because " SF is very Japanese ! " " SF is very respectful of the client, not talked down to, but bring up from..."

Not only do loads of Asians ( Japanese, Koreans & Chinese ) taken up the SF Approach because of it's effectiveness, but because they see in SF, their own cultural alignments - Face-saving, making people look good, being respectful, not intent on assigning blame.

" Many of us don't have to turn out the lights to be in the dark. "
Ethical Outlook

SF is not Positive Thinking

SF approach is often hastily characterized as Positive Thinking by those " trigger happy labellers. It's far from that, it's about finding what works, often at difficult & stressful times, ( like a breavement, how to look on the bright side of things when a loved is gone forever )

SF is not about wanting to make the client think that their life is better than it really is to them. It more like identifying what could work during these difficult times. We do this by first finding out what the client really want & to scrutinized for what is already working in their life, no matter how insignificantly small it may seem to them.

" Your ability to learn depends partly on your ability to relinguish what you've held " Milton Hall

SF is not Formula Dependent

Whilst SF Approach does appear to have a clear set of guidelines, they are there to help to set the stage for the Miracle Question, an interactive conversational tool to be used in order to achieve the expectant self-discovery of finding what work for themselves & doing more of it.

Yes sometimes by chance, that's all it takes to open the door of possibilities, however more often than not it take the skill of a Grand Master to ask the right question at the right time in order to open the floodgate of thoughts that will lead the client to formulate themselves the crucial steps of intenting to achieve what's better ( more what works & what they really want ).

Steve de Shazer, one of the co-founder of SF, is often quoted as saying " I only know what question to asked when I hear the answer that I get " a whole lot of improvisation is required, rather than following a fixed format to the letter.

To put in another way, even if you managed somehow to get hold an ancient secret recipe past down from generation to generation, from your Great Great Grand-mother, to make the famous " super-delicious Beef Rendang or whatever " it would be useless, unless coupled with the knowledge of what a pinch of salt actually means, and a dash of that ...."

" It's not good to know more unless we do more with what we already know " RK Bergethon

One more passing shot...

One super powerful analogy, yet ordinary it's an everyday living example about a Shopping List that was pointed out by Dr. McKergow. When you go to a supermarket, do you go with a list of what you don't want ? Of course not right! Generally, most of us would have a list what we need to get, either in our mind or written down. And as we proceed alongside the rows & rows of possiblities, we often end getting more than we bargained for !