You are here: Articles : Articles Archive :

Articles Archive

By Mark McKergow

We’re all familiar with the idea of taking responsibility – being the one who organises things, takes charge and is accountable for what happens. But do you find that, despite all your efforts, you aren’t getting the most out of your people – employees, colleagues, suppliers, contacts? Then it’s time to shift your focus from responsibility to Response-ability.

SF: Another Copernican revolution?

By Jenny Clarke

In this article produced for the EBTA 2012 conference, Jenny Clarke looks at how SF turns our thinking upside down.
first published in Upside Down: Soltion Focused Paradigms - Revolutions and Evolutions edited by A Lewinski, J Szczepkowski and T Switek. Published by Wydawnictwo Edukacyjne AKAPIT, Torun 2012.
ISBN 978-83-89163-47-0

Solution-focused Management

By Mark McKergow

An landmark review of the research and writings about applications of SF to management. Published as a chapter in 'Solution-Focused Brief Therapy', Cynthia Franklin, Terry Trepper, Eric McCollum & Wallace Gingerich, eds, Oxford University Press, 2011.

The Keys To Unlock Leadership

By Steve Onyett, Mark McKergow and Justine Faulkner (AWP NHS Trust)

How SF coaching has helped increase leadership capacity in the NHS (published in Health Service Journal 17 September 2009 p 24).

Solutions Focus - How to change everything by changing as little as possible

By Dr Mark McKergow

An excellent introduction to the wonderful world of Solutions Focus (SF). Would it surprise you to know that a new approach to change is gathering momentum fast in the business and organisational world? SF comes originally from the world of mental health and psychological change, where it is transforming our understanding of people and how they work.

No More Heroes

Mike Brent and Mark McKergow report
Leaders are finding that a traditional directive approach no longer gets the job done. Could solution-focused coaching be the answer in these more ambiguous times?
(published in Coaching At Work, Vol 4, Issue 5, pp 44 - 48 (September 2009)

A Comparison of Appreciative Inquiry and Solutions Focus

by Kendy Rossi, Tricia Lustig & Mark McKergow
This overview presents key aspects of Solutions Focus and Appreciative Inquiry side by side. The similarities and differences are clearly visible, and the authors' collective experience of both fields makes this as definitive a document as could be desired. To read comments on the differences from an SF perspective by Jenny Clarke, click here.

The Solutions Focus: Keeping It SIMPLE In The Learning Organisation

by Mark McKergow
Mark McKergow compares and contracts Solutions Focus with other systemic change methodologies, including systems thinking and Appreciative Inquiry.Published in a German translation by Mag. Sonja Radetz as 'Der Lösungfokus in der Beratung - Keep it simple", Lernende Organisation (Vienna) No 10 (Nov/Dec 2002), pp 28-33.

Harry Enfield, Hamlet and the Solutions Focus

by Paul Z Jackson and Mark McKergow
The Solutions Focus offers a refreshing method of change. Derived largely from an innovative strand of psychotherapy, it is increasingly applied within organisations. It is deceptively simple, yet by no means easy, as Paul Z Jackson and Mark McKergow explain.
Organisations and People 8, No 1 pp 26 - 31 (2001)

SF Coaching for coaches and managers

Ripple Effect

Coaching to leadership to clinical practice: Solution-Focused Coaching at AWP
By Mark McKergow & Antoinette Oglethorpe, sfwork, and Justine Faulkner, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

How did a single coaching initiative at the NHS, with only modest support, lead to shifts in management thinking, enhanced leadership capability and a reassessment of customer-facing practices?
(Published in Coaching At Work Vol7, Issue 2, pp 42-44, March 2012)

Coaching with OSKAR
A solutions-focused approach to effective and sustainable change
By Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke

Looking to enhance the effectiveness of coaching in your workplace? Read on to discover the growing popularity of solutions-focused coaching and OSKAR.

Avoiding the opposite of what's wrong

by Mark McKergow
Coaching at Work Vol 5 No 6 p 52
As a manager, I get to hear a lot about what's wrong - with our customers, our offices, our printer, our mailing service and even sometimes our people. And, of course, it's my job to get something done about it. As a manager/coach, I often use a coaching style to start addressing these issues. Here's an idea which could save lots of time and stress.

Coaching through a wave of redundancies

by Mark McKergow
Published in Coaching At Work, Vol 4 No 6 p 54 (2009)
One unfortunate aspect of the current recession is that organisations, public and private alike, are having to make hard decisions. Sometimes that means redundancies. This can bring pitfalls and opportunities for the far-sighted manager-coach.

Handling poor performance - by looking at what's working

by Mark McKergow
One of the most frequent questions I am asked when introducing Solutions Focused coaching is about how to handle poor performers. "This idea of building on what's working is all very well when things are OK - but what about when their work is simply not acceptable?"

Manager-as-coach: Introducing the Coach's Know-how

by Mark McKergow

Published in Coaching At Work, Vol 4 No 4 p 52 (2009)

Manager-as-coach: Gathering Know-How for improved performance

by Mark McKergow

Published in Coaching At Work Vol 4 No 3 p 52 (2009)

Manager-as-coach: Boosting your review conversations

by Mark McKergow

Coaching At Work Vol 4 Issue 2 p 52 (2009)

Manager-as-coach: Building on success

by Mark McKergow

Coaching At Work Vol 4 Issue 1 p 50 (2009)

The Art of Asking Great Questions

by Jenny Clarke and Dr Sabine Demkowski
Published in The International Journal of Coaching and Mentoring,
vol IV issue 2 pp 78-85, Setpebmer 2006
As questioning is so crucial to the outcome and the results we achieve as coaches, this article aims to reflect on the art of asking questions. In this article we will contrast questions from a 'problem' perspective with questions from a 'solutions' perspective. We will also share with readers an approach we use called the Solutions Focus Methodology, and offer our insights into how the methodology might help coaches of any genre to enhance their own coaching practice and achieve a greater impact with their clients.

Turning clients into customers for change - the art of platform building

Published in Solution Focused Management, Lueger G and Korn H-P (eds), Rainer Hampp Verlag, 2006, pp 357 - 362
This article explores the art of platform building - an essential, if unglamorous, part of the SF toolkit.

The relationship between GROW and SF approaches
for performance coaching

by Debra Knox
Solutions in Action (New Zealand)

Exploring SF philosophy and practice

From Wittgenstein, complexity and narrative emergence: Discourse and solution-focused brief therapy

by Gale Miller and Mark McKergow

Published as Wittgenstein, Complexity, and NarrativeEmergence: Discourse and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (in A. Lock and T. Strong, eds Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp 163-183

This chaper connects Wittgensteinian thinking and complexity perspectives with discourse in the therapy room and elsewhere. We propose that this connection, termed 'narrative emergence''. While the future is unknowable, it is an ever present possibility in the present. We continuously create and discover the future by engaging in self-organizing activities (particularly social interactions) that are, at least partly, improvised, and potentially transformative. Thus, the narratives emergent in our everyday lives are always under construction. They exist in our ongoing ‘work’ to make sense of and manage the exigencies of life. These narratives emerge step-by-step in discourse.

Language, complexity and narrative emergence: Lessons from Solution Focused practice

by Dr Mark McKergow

Published as a chapter in Tait, A. and Richardson, K.A. (2011). Moving Forwards With Complexity: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Complex Systems Thinking and Real World Applications Litchfield Park AZ: Emergent Publications, ISBN 978-0-9842165-9-8

This paper examines the case for viewing conversations as emergent phenomena, and the practical consequences for complexity practitioners and others engaged in 'talking cures'. Post-structural thinking from Wittgenstein onwards is connected to the school of Solution-Focused practice, which has made explicit use of these ideas in a practical, pragmatic and effective form of psychotherapy and coaching. These fields can be connected by the idea of 'narrative emergence', which casts light on the ways in which new narratives are formed within apparently everyday conversations.

The Evolution of SF Theory: Discussion group at the EBTA conference 2011, Dresden, Germany.
Saturday 24 September 2011

Main participants: Mark McKergow, Gale Miller, Kirsten Dierolf, Rayya Ghul

Also contributing: Michael Hjerth, Carey Glass, Jenny Clarke, Bertil Andersson, Wolfgang Gaiswinkler, Klaus Schenck, Aviva Suskin-Holmqvist.

Inbetween - neither inside nor outside

Mark McKergow PhD MBA and Harry Korman MD

Published as McKergow MW and Korman H (2009), Journal of Systemic Therapies Vol 28 No 2 pp 34 - 49
In this paper we attempt to set out some crucial ways in which we see the practice of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) as differing from other forms of therapy. Chief amongst the differences are the ways in which we act as if humans are neither driven from the inside by some kind of mentalistic or molecular framework, nor are they driven from the outside by systems or social forces.

Constructing the Future - Different dialogues about solution-focused work

a discussion document by Mark McKergow, Gale Miller and the Karlstad Group

We believe that the solution-focused world is at a potential tipping point. The issue at hand involves the next steps that participants in the solution-focused world might take to construct the future. We believe that an important next step for the solution-focused movement involves widening the horizons of the movement to connect it with other-complementary-orientations to social thought and practice. This move promises to increase popular awareness and influence of solution-focused principles and practices.

This proposal outlines one future direction for solution-focused thought and practice. It discusses the usefulness of complexity theory for understanding how change happens within social interaction and how solution-focused practices facilitate change. We encourage others to respond to the proposal and to offer their own proposals for advancing the solution-focused movement.

Conveying Simplicity
Learning how to act simply in complex situations

Mark McKergow (sfwork) and Michael Hjerth
Published in Solution Focused Management, edited by Günter Lueger and Hans-Peter Korn, Rainer Haupp Verlag (Vienna) 2006, pages 75-82.

Simplicity is a key aspect of both the work of Steve de Shazer and the SF approach. However, conveying this simplicity to managers is not easy. Mark McKergow and Michael Hjerth explore the role of simplicity in SF work, to help participants to think more simply about their own practice and how to help convey these ideas to managers learning SF.

Beyond the Brain:
The Solutions Focus and the Second Cognitive Revolution

by Mark McKergow
A 'revolution' is running through the world of psychology and people. Around the world, consultants, educators and trainer are discovering the power and the pragmatic benefits of taking a solutions focus. What happens when, instead of analysing the problem, you analyse the solution instead?

SEAL Conference, 20 - 22 June 2003, Keele, UK

Steve de Shazer

Steve de Shazer - a different kind of cleverness

By Mark McKergow (sfwork)
Published in Solution Focused Management, edited by Günter Lueger and Hans-Peter Korn, Rainer Haupp Verlag (Vienna) 2006, pages 17-18.

Mark recalls Steve de Shazer as a man with a deep and unspoken commitment to simplicity.

Obituary: Steve de Shazer

(25 June 1940 - 11 September 2005)

Paradox is a Muddle: An Interview with Steve de Shazer

by Harry Norman, Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke
Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the fathers of NLP, include Milton Erickson and Gregory Bateson among their own progenitors. The same ancestry is ascribed to the work of the solution focused school of therapy, as described in the works of Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, Scott Miller, Bill O'Hanlon, Michele Wiener-Davis et al.
Rapport 34, pp 41 - 49

Other SF applications

Riding the storm - SF strategic planning with BBC Performing Groups

Published in Classical Music magazine April 2009

sfwork's Bruce Woodings works with BBC senior managers to build a strategy to help ride the economic downturn. "The question in today's world is about how we positively deal with the complexities of an uncertain future." Read the article to discover how sfwork anbd the power of small steps helped this part of the BBC to deliver results well beyond their expectations. (7MB pdf)

Meanings affect the heart - SF questions and heart coherence

Kees Blase (HeartMath Netherlands) and Mark McKergow (sfwork - The Centre for Solutions Focus at Work)
Published in Solution Focused Management, edited by Günter Lueger and Hans-Peter Korn, Rainer Haupp Verlag (Vienna) 2006, pages 111-119.

In Solution Focused work we do not talk about emotions, but we are bringing clients in a process directly affecting emotion. Clients often experience the process of moving from a state of some frustration to appreciation. In this paper we discuss the view of emotions as personal experiences for the client, which may be correlated with Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV is easily measurable using sensors and computer software. During the conference session related to this paper we conducted an experiment to measure HRV during a solutions focused coaching interview, to investigate the nature of any correlation between 'solution talk' and HRV. We hypothesise that solution talk may enhance HRV, as compared with problem talk. The results from a live experiment at the SOL 2006 conference in Vienna are presented, which show significant increases in heart coherence during an SF coaching session.

Solution Focused Education

by Kerstin Mahlberg, Maud Sjoblom and Mark McKergow
From Teaching Expertise magazine, December 2005.
This article describes the basics of the SF Education approach in use at the FKC
special school near Stockholm, Sweden.

SF and NLP

NLP, Science and Intersubjectivity

The relationship between NLP and science is in interesting one, with potential for misunderstandings on both sides. As a one-time professional scientist myself (with a physics PhD to show for it) I will address some of the points raised by Jaap Hollander, and hope to outline a number of possible alternative ways for improving the relationship. I will start off by examining the question as to what scientists believe, which in my view turns out to be more NLP-friendly than Hollander might suppose. We will follow this with the ways in which science could investigate NLP, and finally look at how similar processes are being used to investigate other psycho-social processes.
NLP World 7, No 1 pp 51 - 60 (2000)

Occam's Razor in the NLP Toolbox

Philosophers since recorded time began have been struggling with the concept of "reality" and whether it exists, either in objective form or indeed anywhere outside the thinker's thoughts. William of Occam lived from 1290 to 1349, a period when philosophy was dominated by the Scholastics, whose aim was to integrate knowledge derived from human reason with the understanding granted by divine (Christian) revelation. His lasting contribution to philosophical thought is the principle that "it is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer" - in other words, one should cut away assumptions as if with a razor (hence Occam's Razor) and strive for simplicity.
What has Occam to say to a modern student of NLP? Like Occam, NLP makes a virtue of distinguishing between what we can detect with our own senses and what we deduce from a variety of sources - experience, reading, generalising, rationalising etc (as well as the twentieth century equivalents of divine revelation, which add the theories of the myriad schools of psychology to the older theological traditions).