Reviewed Piece of SF work: Aakusti Oksanen

iCreate - Creativity in Work Life.

An individual solution-focused coaching process, enhanced by experiential learning techniques (emerging programme)

The client’s goal was to find, address and develop creativity in his daily working life. A big challenge for the coach, Aakusti, was the client’s interest in experiential learning tools, African drums, which Aakusti had previously only used with groups in a coaching context.

They met three times, each time for a three-hour session. Aakusti found it worked to open the sessions in the usual SF way by asking the client about his situation or what was relevant at the moment. Aakusti loves this simplicity in SF; it always brings up meaningful things to work with. Interestingly, the reviewers praised the clear and visible structure of the process, while Aakusti just went with the flow picking up things and connecting the dots along the way. Aakusti found that there was always a natural place to use drumming and drawing, his main experiential learning tools, and everything blended well together. Once drumming helped the client find the most important insight, things started to roll. From then on, the social dimension behind creativity started to emerge even more, and they followed it. See results in quotes.

Client Quotes:

“As a trainer, you can congratulate yourself, you trusted your process! I give this coaching nine or ten on the scale of ten, it’s in there somewhere right on the top. You succeeded in awakening that trust and security but also that curiosity… this was a chance to find something… to go and see… and the end result was good, really good…” “I’ve realised what the concept of creativity means to me: relaxation, openness together. The way my strengths and ways of working take me in that direction relaxes me even more.” Juha Turpeinen, Solution Focused Coach, Management Support Unit at Kela, (Social Insurance Institution of Finland)

Candidate’s Summary:

The review process gave me a great opportunity to develop a new programme and gain many more insights into the work done and my coaching. Super useful! For me, also as a percussionist, the concept of relaxation has been very important for years. I found that in my coaching I build a relaxed, focused and dialogical atmosphere in many ways. As this received interest and support from the reviewers, I will continue developing this underlying aspect in my sessions.

One of the most surprising results of the process was the confidence I gained in my ability NOT to take concrete small steps every time. Trusting the client’s own process during breaks. After the first session with the client, I wasn’t sure if I could have done more, leaving him to ponder the matter alone, as he said he would. The excellent feedback I received from the reviewers clarified the issue and gave me very valuable support to act on my instincts. Every case and every moment is different, just like for a free jazz musician playing his improvisation.

I also better understood the deep human core that SF has. It is gratifying to help a client by listening carefully and picking up valuable side notes, while throwing yourself into the flow of coaching with all-round sensitivity and the best possible intelligence I can provide.

Lead Reviewer’s Summary:

I was impressed by Aakusti’s great reflective and creative way of working. He prepared the whole process and the individual sessions very well, at the same time, sensitively recognising the needs of the client. He appreciated the agenda and goal of the client. Aakusti used his opportunity well to develop a new coaching programme. He showed strong confidence in working with experiential learning techniques and combined it skilfully with the Solution-Focus approach.

Aakusti used a wide range of SF tools and approaches, skilfully. He was able to create a safe environment for the client. He was respectfully present and listened carefully. He trusted the process according to the client. He asked for feedback and was aware if the process was proceeding to the right direction. His piece of work shows the strength of a solution-focused approach. Katja Kiiski

Second Reviewer’s summary:

I was very impressed with the Solution Focused project that Aakusti presented. His understanding and application of the Solution Focused clues was very comprehensive. The whole process was professionally executed and well-documented.

I was most impressed by the creative execution, which perfectly illustrated the client’s agenda. It was joyful to see how skilfully Aakusti led the process by constantly focusing on the client’s agenda.

Videos and documentation showed that presence and use of the client’s language were realised throughout the process. Aakusti also skilfully worked from the answer to a question during all processes. He helped the client to build his preferred future in many ways and had patience and faith in the process.

Aakusti is particularly skilled at following the client’s agenda creatively, and he has the ability to build a trusting atmosphere. Sari Nousiainen

• Lead reviewer: Katja Kiiski
• Second reviewer: Sari Nousiainen

About The Candidate:

Aakusti Oksanen (MA) is a self-employed entrepreneur and artist dedicated to bringing forward the ingenuity of West African rhythm. He co-created a method combining solution focus approach, experiential learning, art and drumming in 2015. Talking Drum method for leaders and teams has been widely used in the Finnish public sector development programmes with over 400 top executives. Aakusti has also successfully delivered for Accenture, ECHA, European Commission, European Parliament, City of Helsinki, Microsoft, Roche and others.

He has won several awards, including work as a cultural researcher and percussion artist. His extended apprenticeship, fieldwork and collaboration with a griot master drummer has brought him to an exceptional understanding of West African rhythm.

As a fan of combining different approaches, Aakusti is on the verge of founding yet another innovative company, Drum Vision. This certification process is part of that story.