Research Review - Development and Validation of an SF Inventory
by Anthony Grant, Michael Cavanagh, Sabina Kreitman et al. Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sydney
Jun 28, 2021
Annie Bordeleau, anthony-grant, michael-cavanagh and sabina-kreitman
Review by Annie Bordeleau
In SFiO’s search for ways to identify to what extent an organization is solution focused, we discovered this article published by Grant et al. (2012): “Development and validation of the solution focused inventory”.
Their research in inspired by a previous study conducted by Smock et al. (2010) who designed the “Solution Building Inventory” (SBI). Smock’s team was searching a way of measuring the client’s ability to build solutions in Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT).
Grant’s team moved the question from the therapeutic context and developed a measure for practitioners and researchers to assess the solution focused thinking of any individual. They viewed such a tool as potentially helpful when evaluating the outcome of a coaching or leadership intervention.
Their SFI (Solution Focused Inventory) tool comprises three main indicators which measure the person’s capacity to focus:
Towards a desired goal or state. Towards noticing exceptions to the problem and utilizing resources and strengths Away from problem-focused thinking; (their ability to disengage from the problem) In the article below, Anthony Grant et al. present the results of three different studies verifying the reliability of the SFI. These all show preliminary evidence that the tool is indeed useful to assess how much an individual is developing solution focused thinking.
To develop this idea further, our question is: “How could SFiO succeed in developing an inventory tool that not only assesses the individual’s SF thinking but also the extent of an individual’s or organisation’s SF practice?”
Link to article
Annie Bordeleau
Co-President
Board Member
Editor of InterAction
SFiO Contributor
Annie Bordeleau is founder of the I2A Network, collaborating with international organisations and universities for over 20 years. She discovered SF in 2005 and it has fundamentally transformed the way she supports leaders in organisations across all cultures to lead through change with more ease and effectiveness.