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What is SF?

Solutions Focus is an exciting and complete approach to change. From origins twenty years ago, it is now being used by major corporations, top business schools and many coaches and consultants as the methodology of choice where efficient, respectful and lasting change is wanted.

The approach is based on simplicity and building on what works. Many people have attempted to sum up the subtleties of SF. Some descriptions which come close to capturing the flavour include:

• Finding what works and doing more of it
• Putting positive difference to work
• Radical simplicity

As people people get to know the approach, they realize that it is:

• A great way to find positive actions
• A subtle skill with language, capable of delicate deployment in the most challenging situations
• A new paradigm in the way we work with and speak about people

Our work has been inspired by the groundbreaking therapeutic developments of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg. Their simple and subtle approach has been applied in many settings, with extraordinary results (see the Research page).

We gratefully acknowledge these foundations and the generosity of Steve and Insoo. In our own turn we are committed to making all the latest developments in SF work available to those who are interested to learn about and use them.

Mark's book The Solutions Focus (co-authored with Paul Z Jackson) describes the approach in terms of six SIMPLE principles and six solutions tools. The SIMPLE principles are:

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

The six solutions tools are:

• Platform - where are we starting from?
• Future Perfect - suppose the problem went away overnight - what would happen instead?
• Scaling - where are we now?
• Counters - whatever helps us forward
• Affirm - what's already going well?
• Small Actions - tiny next steps that make big differences

You can learn to use these Tools, or other tools like our unique coaching model OSKAR, and then even begin to invent new tools for your own situations and organisations.