I’ve been reviewing solution-focused literature to accomplish the following:

1. more confidence to co-create a community of support with leadership professionals
2. pragmatic concepts of ‘leadership’ within broad boundaries; which will have contextual meaning added to the class
3. prepare then un-prepare the opening retreat in Niagara Falls, New York
4. awareness of differences that matter
5. how to amplify what works while muffling what doesn’t when I am with the class

Solution-Focused (SF) is a pragmatic tool for identifying progress clues. The idea seems antithetical to most consulting, coaching, and process improvement models.

• You do not need to know what the problem is to solve it
• The problem or complaint is not necessarily related to the solution
• The solution is not necessarily related to the problem

Looking for the difference and what is different when progress or the solution is happening moves learning from the manager, coach or consultant to the person … their solution is theirs, my solution will not work for you.

Areas I’m Thinking About Application to Leadership Development

1. Problems maintain themselves when we depict the problem as always happening.
2. The problem is often seen as primary, and exceptions, if seen at all, are seen as secondary. While solution-focused, the exceptions are primary; [Leadership Development] is meant to help create a similar inversion, which will lead to the development of a solution/progress.
3. From the start, ask, ‘What are you already doing that works?’ … When constructed this way, my task (as a facilitator, coach, and supporter) allows us to co-develop clues or differences that fit since the person is asked to continue doing something.

Knowing and respecting that you are the expert in your work, life, and self, helps to discover the capacity, resources, what’s working, what’s not working, and skills you possess. Identifying what progress looks like, a vision of how you will know when you make sufficient progress happens.