SF, humanity and effectiveness: Why is Solution Focused work important as well as useful?

We are all here because we like working in a Solution Focused (SF) way. But what is at stake here? Is SF just a way of being nice? Is it about the comfort of not-knowing? Or does it tell us something about how working with people can be both humane AND effective? Join Mark McKergow In the workshop to briefly look back at how SF came into being, how it is now and what its evolution might tell us about the way that people and the world work.

Format: Workshop
Level: Introductory/Intermediate/Advanced
Maximum number of attendees: 25

Micro-Skills in a Macro-World: A Progress Report from the Macroanalysis Study Group

What do SF practitioners involved in large-scale change projects do that works?

The Macroanalysis Study Group has been studying this question for the last two years. We have looked at case stories together and managed to identify some distinctive features of SF organisational development processes.

In the first part of our workshop we would like to share these insights with you and get your ideas and feedback on them.

During the second part of our workshop we will hear a short presentation of an OD case. We will form reflecting teams to collect “wow-moments”, ideas and insights – both for ourselves as well as for our case-owner.

We will conclude with a harvest of new insights and possibly further questions leading to more learning in the future.

If you

• are already working in OD and make it even more SF or
• want to expand your skills from individuals and teams to working with whole-scale organisational or inter-organisational change this workshop should provide you with ideas, skills and inspirations.

Come prepared to share your experiences and gain new insights!

Format: Workshop/Practitioner
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
No maximum number of attendees

The SF Art Gallery: A Metaphor for the SF OD Process

In a VUCA world, organisations are challenged to significantly increase their pace of change. To bring about profound transformations in organisations, leaders and coaches need to apply state-of-the-art “social technologies”. Solution Focus provides such an effective "social technology".

Solution Focused Organisational Development (OD) is a pragmatic and powerful approach to organizational change that combines three benefits that can rarely be achieved in concert: greater speed (fast), more agility (fluid) and stronger stakeholder engagement (fun).

What do Solution Focused change coaches and leaders need to do to reap these benefits and trigger a profound transformation? They may allow themselves to be guided by the Solution Focused OD process, which is vividly illustrated in this contribution by using the metaphor of the "Solution Focused gallery walk".

Chris Iveson at the leading BRIEF Institute in London introduced the metaphor of the "art gallery" as an orientation for Solution Focused conversations in 1999. It was taken up by other SF practitioners, most cogently by Mark McKergow in 2021. I use the 'art gallery' metaphor for the Solution Focused transformational dialogue with an organisation.

Participants will

• Hear from Chris Iveson about what prompted him to invent this metaphor to describe and teach the SF process of change.
• Learn from Mark McKergow how he elaborated the art gallery in his book “The Next Generation of Solution Focused Practice”.
• Explore together with Susanne Burgstaller how the “SF Art Gallery” can provide orientation for the SF OD process.

Together we will walk through the rooms of the gallery and address the following questions:

• Foundation: What assumptions do SF change leaders hold about organisations, change and people?
• At the Ticket Office: How is a “joint project”, i.e. the intention and purpose of the transformation, effectively formulated?
• In the Resource Room: When and how do we gather resources, building blocks of the preferred future, and signs of progress?
• In the Future Gallery: How do change leaders elicit details about the Preferred Future from many different stakeholders?
• In the Progress Gallery: How best to make progress visible, reinforce positive outcomes, and keep change in motion?
• In the Gift Shop: The secret to how change leaders finish (most of) their work without finishing the transformation!

Format: Workshop/Practitioner Report
Level: Introductory and Intermediate/Advanced
No maximum number of attendees