viernes, 19 de agosto de 2016

Turning Problems into Solutions

'Turning Problems into Solutions' is an animation that looks at the Solutions Focus approach to coaching and mentoring.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 How can we repair a car?
2 Why can’t Alex get a better position in his company?
3 What happened to Alex in his childhood?
4 What would Alex be doing differently if he was confident enough?
5 What is the solutions focus?
6 What resources do people have to make their solutions happen?

Atom Wave presents turning problems into solutions.
If people were cars, fixing people problems would be easy: check the engine, find the cause of the trouble, replace the faulty part and move on. But people are not machines. Focusing on problems and their causes is a great way to get of getting cars back on the road, but it's not much use when you're trying to help people move forward.
Take Alex. He wants to step up to a higher management role but he lacks confidence. Some people might try to help Alex by asking why he feels this way. Perhaps the answer lies in his past.
When I was a child, a teacher humiliated me in front of the class.
Or:
The other kids teased me.
But concentrating on the causes of his problem soon leaves Alex buried under an avalanche of painful memories. He knows why he lacks confidence but nothing in his life has changed. He’s still feels just the same.
Focusing on problems turns you into an expert in what's wrong. To become an expert in what's right, you have to start thinking about solutions. A helpful question to Alex would be, let's just suppose that something happened and you had all the confidence you needed, what would you be doing differently?
I’d have the courage to be honest with my team when giving appraisals. I’d be able to say what I really think in meetings. I’d be speaking at conferences and enjoying it.
Now that Alex has a picture of how he'd like to be, he has something to work towards. This novel way of turning things upside down is called the solutions focus. Instead of emphasizing what's wrong -why didn't you meet this month's sales target?-, solutions talk encourages people to think about what's right - well done for selling five insurance policies last month, how did you manage that? What did you do?
People have all the resources they need to make their solutions happen. Some of those resources are inside them like previous experiences and others lie within easy reach like support from other people. It's all about building on success. If something works, do more of it and if something isn't working, do something different.
Contact us at Atom Wave to find out how our solutions-focused approach to coaching and mentoring could benefit your business.

Key:
1 By checking the engine, finding the cause of the trouble and replacing the faulty part.
2 Because he lacks confidence.
3 A teacher humiliated him and other children made fun of him.
4 He would be honest with his team, h’d be able to say what he really thinks in meetings, he’d be speaking at conferences and enjoying it.
5 A way of thinking that focuses on what is right.
6 Previous experiences and the support of other people.