Australia

Nic Vidot Introduced by Carey Glass Nic Vidot is a humble leader and a great story-teller. From his belief in continuous improvement, he describes stories of using SF to make life even better in the secondary school he led. SF became just way the school did things, and they used it in many situations, e.g.:

Maria Serafim, Jan Dolstra and Annette Gray Using Solution Focus Strategy Canvas in an Educational Setting Maria Serafim, Director Public Schools NSW in Sydney Australia is the leader of more than 30 school Principals. She has been working with them (rather than “work on them”, as she describes) in a solution-focused way to bring out the best in their leadership and to help them focus on what matters most in their work.

Michele Orr Introduced by Carey Glass What forms of power does a leader need for a remote working team during COVID19? Michele Orr heads up a mental health team in Melbourne, Australia and describes what levers have been necessary for remote working to succeed. Interestingly, from a clinical standpoint, staff have used Solution Focus more with clients and more effectively, when they focus on listening to clients on the telephone, rather than face to face.

Annie Bordeleau Introduced by Carey Glass The paradigm of leadership is shifting. We begin to understand better how to lead in complexity rather than force linearity. What does it mean to sense and adapt to change rather than drive change? Here, Annie Bordeleau shares three Solution Focus listening experiments to train that difference.

Rod Sherwin Introduced by John Teager Rod Sherwin is a self-styled Solution Detective, Change Catalyst and Professional Coach based in Melbourne, Australia. For several years, he has successfully employed SF techniques with a broad spectrum of clients. He also draws on his extensive experience as a qualified business analyst and Agile Change Agent.

A Global Chapter Meeting with Annette Gray and Peter McLean Introduced by Andrew Gibson With this simple premise, lives have been transformed in Australia, thanks to the Can Too Foundation. The Can Too Foundation works with a community of supporters who train their bodies and minds towards a goal event. While they benefit personally from this programme, they also give back to the Foundation through fundraising, and through supporting their fellow trainees. Annette Gray, SFiO Contributor, Australia, presents this workshop, with special guest Peter McLean, CEO of Can Too Foundation.

Stanus Cloete and Annette Gray "Creating one team that respects one another and enjoys coming to work" A review of Annette Gray’s Case Study from InterAction Volume 3 Number 2, November 2011 In this great case study, Annette has done a wonderful series of workshops creating a cultural change in a professional services firm in Australia. Her study focuses on the first workshop with the team. The management team of twelve high achievers was behaving in a “dysfunctional and competitive way” as described by the General Manager of the business unit. Her team was rated lowest across the entire business on the Employee Engagement Survey score at 27% against the average score of 40% across the rest of the business. Three months prior to Annette being contracted the team facilitated their own problem focused workshop without any measurable success. Annette’s approach to the challenge is a great example of excellent Solution Focused work. First of all, she proposed to engage the discouraged General Manager in individual coaching sessions, where she was transparent about the fact that she uses Solution Focused tools and philosophy. She argued that the General Manager had a role to play in the culture change and was the actual expert on what needed to be done. The intent was to co-operate with the General Manager in co-constructing the solution as well as enabling the General Manager to model the approach in continuing the work long after Annette was no longer part of the process. Secondly, Annette engaged the General Manager in setting the stage for the team sessions and sharing her hopes for the future.

Rod Sherwin Introduced by John Brooker Adie Shariff and Alison Abington published a case study about the Solution Focused Strategy Canvassing in 2010 in InterAction. You can find the original article here: https://sfwork.com/resources/interaction/s6-Vol2-1-6.pdf The paper describes the use of SF strategy canvassing as “a way to support managers to develop and implement a strategy in practical and pragmatic ways, so to align people at all levels in the organisation in a collective effort…”.

Haesun Moon & Annette Gray& Julia Mines SFiO - Solution Focus in Organisations · Haesun Moon on Coaching A - Z SFiO Chapter with the Author Introduced by Julia Mines My copy of Haesun Moon’s new book is waterlogged (from soaks in the tub); scribbled in (with notes, stars, and exclamation points); and now, it also has dog-eared pages (the ones I’d like to come back to soon).

Victoria Spashchenko Reviewed by John Teager Victoria Spashchenko is on a mission to realise a dream – that, one day, the whole of her home country of Ukraine will be Solution Focused. And, after Ukraine? The world! In this easy to read and highly practical book, Spashchenko’s passion for her cause and determination to succeed shines through strongly. This endearing little pocket guide, published in Ukrainian and English and deliberately designed to fit in a small bag or the pocket of jeans, conveniently doubles as a personal, ‘on hand’ ready reference as it invites the reader to record Solution Focus thoughts and comments and to respond to the questions posed within each section, either at the time of reading or later. This is not a new concept, but it suits this little book and enhances its purpose – and it works well. Spashchenko’s very first question invites you to imagine the future – a key tenet of the Solution Focused approach.