From Traditional Direction to Solutions Focused Coaching

Life after Solutions Focused (SF) Coaching Retreat

Now I've been back to work for two weeks after my Solutions Focused (SF)- coaching retreat  in beautiful Switzerland.

Elfie, Katri and Dominic in Switzerland

I'm still so fascinated meeting of Elfie and Dominic and their SF- Hearty- "home sweet home" van. What a wonderful SF on Tour- trip they have done Global and are still doing around the Europe. The passion of thinking, living,  developing and sharing of solutions focused mindset in the land of possibilities is amazing. Can't wait to see them again. Perhaps next time in Helsinki, Finland.

My Trip from Director to Solutions Focused Coach

I have also started to develop my SF- coaching skills.  I've been writing a diary since I came back to home. I've been writing everyday around 15 minutes of my working (coaching) experiences after my work day. This thinking and writing process has led to the situation that my cerebellum has also started to work around the SF- issue. 

One morning last week, when I woke up,  "a miracle had happened", 😉, I noticed that I have found my first idea, what is the difference between traditional direction and SF- coaching relationship. I had to draw a picture to remember my "Heureka"- realization afterwards. Here is the picture of "from traditional direction to solutions focused coaching".

The first picture of SF-coaching mindset

Next  I'd like to explain my first Heureka- idea of SF- coaching. As a SF-coach, I'll try to act like "the keep it simple "- SF-coach and keep everything clear and practical.

Director as a Leader
In this picture you can see two drawings. The both drawings have vertical dimension, which describes the amount of knowledge and skills. The horizontal dimension is the timeline. On the left drawing, in the begin of process a client has zero knowledge/skills and a director has the highest amount of knowledge/skills. When the time runs and the process is in the end, the client's knowledge and skills are increased. There is no need for guidance from a director, who has given all her/his knowledge/skills to the client.   

Solution Focused Coaching
On the right side drawing, both the client and coach have the highest amount of knowledge and skills in the begin and in the end of the process. The difference in these two processes is that SF- coach is working and acting with "not knowing attitude" . This means, that SF-coach's mindset of the client is that she/he has all resources and knowledge/skills. During the coaching process they both are acting equal and the process is a dialog, where both are learners from begin to the end.

WOW- feeling
After drawing that picture, I got the "WOW- feeling". I could also call it a meaningful learning experience , which is the subject I've studied in my doctoral thesis (Sorry only the abstract page 5 in English).  As a conclusion of my Heureka- realization,  I think that the solutions focused coaching is kind of  mutual learning process between the client and the coach. I would be more than happy if readers of this blog had time to share their views. What do you think of solutions focused coaching as a learning process? 

I look forward to receiving feedback from this blog, either on this blog page or on social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, where I share this blog as well.



 

Development and Evaluation for Solutions Focused Leadership Style

How to Develope My Solutions Focused Leadership (SFL) Style and Evaluate It?

With that question in my mind  I went to Switzerland to the 10th SOL World (Solutions Focused Leadership's) Summer Retreat. The event (5.8-10.8.2019) was held in a beautiful Möschberg seminarhotel South from Bern. 

I was the one and only, but not lonely Finn among the group of wonderful solutions focused leadership coaches from 10 countries (Greece, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Sweden and Finland). 

I have followed almost three years, how solutions focused therapy methods have been applied to  leadership in many countries.  If you are interested in how solutions focused methods can be used in leadership/management, then the following two sources might be useful for you:

1) Solution Focus in Organisations 

 and
Elfie and Dominic on Their Solution Focused Tour 

This was my first summer retreat, but now I know, it wasn't my last. I think that my mind set has been kind of "solutions focused" as far as I can remember. But during my psychotherapist training (2011-2014) in Helsinki Bried Therapy Institute, I have also learned methods/tools for solutions focused communication. Nowadays I am a Director of Lifelong Learning Services in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. Now I'd like to learn more, how to act as solutions focused leader (SF-leader).  By the way SF-abbreviation means also the same as my home country's name Suomi Finland (SF). Oh, what a nice coincidence with these two SFs. Can you believe that miracles happens? Yes you can.  Finland is again the worlds happiest country this year.  Maybe we Finns (SF) are SO happy because we are SO solutions focused (SF), who knows, :0)?

In this blog I will share my experiences, how I could become a better leader by using solutions focused methods and also, how could I evaluate my solutions focused leadership style. One aim for this blog could be that I share to my readers, how I am going to develope a Katri's Quick Solutions Focused Leadership Test (:0)-KQSFLT) for evaluating my SF leadership style.

As a conclusion of my blog, I 'd like to thank my Guardian Angel Julia from Switzerland. She helped me to run my open session by using OASIS- framework, which was very useful (picture below). 

OASIS- framework

Likewise Julia, I'd like to also thank Sam, Melissa and Carmen. Thank you for sharing your thoughts of my issue and the nice feedback you gave me. I will come back to them in my future blogs.

Sam, Julia, Katri, Melissa and Carmen