TABLE OF CONTENTS Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% on problems.
Anthony D Angelo
Having built the case for coaching and encouraged you to consider what you bring to the conversation, which will influence how you approach helping others, it s time to define the approach to coaching that will shape the rest of this book. This will give you tools to effectively manage conversations to meaningful outcomes.
The approach is called Solution Focused. It is drawn from what has been learnt in a number of therapeutic disciplines where the helpers are looking to effect change quickly, [1], [2], [ 3] and the principles it uses are directly relevant to working in organizational settings. In writing the word therapy , it is important to state clearly that nothing that follows is about making you a therapist. There are key differences between coaching and therapy.
[1]de Shazer, S. (1988) Clues Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy. Norton.
[2]de Shazer, S. (1994) Words Were Originally Magic. Norton.
[ 3]de Jong, P. and Berg, I.K. (2002) Interviewing for Solutions. Thomson Learning.
One way of separating the two is to understand that therapy is appropriate where a person is experiencing a difficulty that is significantly impacting on their own lives (and others), to the degree that the best way of helping them to resolve it is to give forensic attention to the problem. It is a telescopic process that involves looking at the past as the means...
