SolutionsFocus in Teams
 

A while ago we wrote about the SolutionsFocus - Training: In this training, executives, consultants and coaches learn mostly about how to apply this method in one-to-one conversations. But is it possible to work with this SolutionsFocus tool with teams as well? Of course it is, and that was exactly what happened at a team workshop with a German Westphalian company.

4 steps for solutions that work
The task was to help a team to come to well supported solutions in a 2-day workshop. Here we will describe how went about to find the topics, preceded by steps for “making contact” and followed by the concrete work with the topics.

Step 1: The CEO of the company reported her view of the situation as she sees it right now. After that the team members positioned themselves on a scale from 1 to 10 in the room, where 10 means the ideal future perfect, where everyone is satisfied, likes to go to work and is full of energy….. “Where on this scale from 1 to 10 do you see yourself right now?” was the question then. Each person explained briefly the position, which added to the CEO’s report. The result was quite good a view on the current situation of the team, where commonalities and differences became transparent.

Step2: The whole team then went to position 10 and described how the situation could be there, when everything really would be going fine, what the atmosphere would be, what the stakeholders would say, what the specific successes were…. It took a while until the team members really livened up, but then a constructive and at the same time light atmosphere spread, where a vision was discussed which had a very real base. The function was to describe a commonly shared goal. That’s important, because how would you know where to go when there is no clarity about the direction?

Step 3: The team members went back to their initial position on the scale. They looked back at the position 1 and shared all the accomplishments of the recent past and the strengths and capacities which had brought the team already there.
Often people forget about what they already have accomplished. To remember that, helps to strengthen the readiness and energy to move on and to plan and implement new activities.

Step 4: Again the team members looked at position 10 and reflected about what measures and actions would be useful to help them as a team to move on one step towards ten on the scale. These were then the topics we collected for to be worked on; we put them in clusters and started to work on them during the rest of the workshop.

From my perspective as a consultant and from the team member’s perspective as well, the change was really palpable: there was a discussion about solutions, ideas, chances and ways to accomplish that, which took place in an atmosphere where everyone was keen on implementation.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will gladly answer your call or your e-mail to Kerstin Pille

To read more about the SolutionsFocus-training click here