1. Solution focused skills An introduction Worcester 16 October 2017
Guy Shennan
@GuyShennan

2. Getting started
People think better throughout the meeting if the very first thing they do is to say something true and positive about their work or about how the work of the group is going
Nancy Kline (1999) Time To Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind, London: Cassell.

3. So...
What have you been pleased to notice about how you’ve been working in the past week or so?
What else have you been pleased to notice?
Keep going round!

4. Appreciation
One thing I appreciated hearing about your work recently was...

5. Reflection
One thing I found interesting about that exercise was...

6. Discovering SF - the process
The tape that you are about to see is of the first few minutes of a solution-focused session. It is my second meeting with D, the first having been two weeks previously.
After watching this clip, I’ll invite you to discuss what it has helped you to discover about the solution-focused process with your colleagues.

7. 10 3 Hoped for 1 outcome Detailed description of the realisation 2
of these hopes 2
Good enough? 4?
Progress
towards this
‘preferred future’ 3 3

8. “Listening with a constructive ear” (Eve Lipchik)
Listening for
Exceptions to problems
Coping abilities
What the person wants
Instances of the preferred future
Achievements
Progress
Strengths, skills, resources

9. Listening exercise (1) A
Talk about a piece of work you have been finding difficult, describing both the difficulties and your responses in this situation, uninterrupted, for 4 minutes (if A ‘dries up’ at all, B, ask them a brief prompt question to help them restart). B
Take 2+ minutes to let A know what you heard in terms of their strengths, skills, resources
Reflect on the exercise together

10. Listening exercise (2) Swap roles
This time, make it an interview, so A can be an asker of questions as well as a listener
A, begin with ‘Can you tell me about a piece of work that’s interesting you at the moment?’ then continue to be curious about B’s piece of work, for 5 minutes
Then A, let B know what you heard in terms of their strengths, skills and resources
Reflect together on the exercise
A, did knowing you would have to give that feedback at the end affect the questions you asked, and if so, how?

11. C meet D
C ask D
What have you been pleased to notice about yourself so far today
What else...?
D ask C
Suppose you are at your best this afternoon, how would you notice?
What else would you notice...?

13. Describing a ‘preferred future’
Choose a quality you would like a bit more of
Imagine that you wake up tomorrow and find that you do have a bit more of this quality
How would this start to show itself?
What might be the next small sign of this quality having grown?
Keep going through the day, asking about all the tiny concrete signs of change associated with this quality having increased. A useful way to do this is to find out all the things that your colleague will be doing tomorrow, from waking up onwards, and ask how the increased quality would show itself in each of those contexts.

14. While you were doing that, how would you know that you had more ...?
What would you notice about yourself?
What else?
Who else would notice you had more...?
How would they notice?
What would they see you doing?
What would they notice about how you did that?
What else would they notice about you?
What’s the next thing you would do tomorrow? ...

15. From stuckness to movement
Think of a (current) piece of work that has been stuck or difficult in some way, and where there has been some progress
Interviewer - ask about
i) the progress - what’s better
(use your journalistic skills!)
ii) how it came about, paying particular attention to your partner’s own part in this
iii) how your partner would know that there was a bit more progress still...

16. A solution-focused scale10
Hoped for outcome Y
good enough
X+1
small signs of further progress X
DESCRIPTION - What tells you there & not at 0?...
STRATEGY QUESTIONS - What have you done to get there?
How did you do that?...
IDENTITY QUESTIONS - What did that take?
What does that say about you?...
Opposite of 10

17. Project yourself
On a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 representing your project confidently achieved and 0 standing for the moment when you first thought of doing it, where do you see yourself at present?
What is it that tells you that you are at that point on the scale and not at 0? What else? What else? ++++
What have you done to get to this point?
What else? What else? What else?
What has it taken? (Strengths, skills, resources)
How would you know that you have moved one point up on your scale? How else? How else?
Who else would notice?
What would they notice?
Who else?...

18. The practice educator you aspire to be
10 = you are the PE you aspire to be
0 = opposite
Where would you put yourself?
(INTERESTING ASIDE!)
What puts you up there and not lower? ++++
DWELL ON THIS
What are you doing differently than when you were lower? What else? ++++
Who else might have noticed differences in you, and what do you think they’ll have noticed? What else? ++++
What would you notice different about yourself if you were a point higher?
What would you be doing differently?
What would others notice? (ask about specific others)

19. Scaling for learning - ‘the last piece of work you did’
Interviewee - bring to mind the last piece of work you did eg a supervision session, home visit, running a team meeting, etc
Interviewer - ask the interviewee to rate how they performed, between 0 and 10, where 10 is at their best and 0 worst
Invite them to consider all that they did that leads them to rate it at that point and not lower, and help them to elaborate on this in detail
Then invite them to consider what would have been different for them to have been able to rate their work one point higher
Based on an idea of Arsene Wenger’s

20. Ending reflections
What have you found most interesting about what you have learned here?
Where in your work could you imagine beginning to apply what you have learned today?
Where and how could you use it with your students?

21. “To teach is to learn twice”
Consider, all you have learned about social work since being a practice educator or supervisor
How might you explain solution-focused practice to a student social worker now? (in 2-3 minutes)

22. Back-up Consultation is available
me at
I’ll respond to any and all of your questions!