Interaction

John Brooker, Carey Glass and Annie Bordeleau The continuing development of InterAction SFiO and SFCT before us, have produced InterAction uninterrupted, from print to online, since 2008. Twelve years’ worth of high-quality Solution Focus organisational content in one place is a valuable contribution to the Solution Focus community. It is a global collaborative effort and to be part of this is exciting for us. Enabled by our new website design, we start the next transformation with this edition, towards The InterAction Collection of Solution Focus Practice in Organisations.

John Brooker, Carey Glass and Annie Bordeleau A special edition featuring the SOLWorld 2019 Conference! This year, we met in Budapest from the 23-24 May to explore “Signs of Progress”. It was a beautiful setting for the international SF community to reconnect, share ideas, talk about developments and work on common projects. SFiO collaborated closely with the SOLworld organisation team to record workshops and SOLTalks and to conduct interviews to share here in this edition of InterAction.

Tara Gretton Introduced by Anna-Julia Szabo In this interview, we see how the Solution Focus approach has changed the culture of a school. There is a focus on enabling students and staff to have meaningful conversations, concentrating on possibilities and solutions and what is already working.

Liselotte-Baeijaert Celebration Introduced by Julia Kalenberg This story is of SF practitioner Liselotte-Baeijaert bringing SF to students of a school for hotel workers on the beautiful island of Sumba/Indonesia. A tale of how SF can work even when language first seems to be a barrier. It is a story of mutual learning, of working with what is there and of combining SF practice creatively with bodywork. Liselotte came across SF when she attended an SF training course for general practitioners by Luc Isebaert from the Korzybski Institute in Belgium. Back then, she worked as an HR expert in a bank. This first experience with SF inspired her to look for more SF training. She trained with Louis Cauffman, Insoo Kim Berg, Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke, Peter Szabo, Ben Furman and many more.

Tara Gretton and Katrin Berger Introduced by Katalin Hankovszky On the SF World Day 2020, Tara Gretton (UK) and Katrin Berger (D) started a network, Solution Focus in Schools (Click link for Facebook page). The invitation goes to all interested Solution Focus practitioners linked to schools: Teachers Counsellors Headmasters Parents and pupils too! Online gatherings (every month on the 3rd of the month) keep to a pre-set focus (such as ‘WOWW’ or ‘student-driven’). They allow everyone who signs up to bring in their thoughts and experiences.

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.:

Annie Bordeleau Introduced by Carey Glass “Our experience facilitating and connecting online during the lockdown showed that virtual formats not only reduce cost and CO2 emissions, they can also enhance work-life balance, create more human organisations and build a stronger sense of community”. With these themes in mind, Annie presents SF ideas for non-work related get-togethers online that bring people together and leave people uplifted. She next provides well-needed tricks and tips to enhance your use of Zoom at work, so that you feel at ease using online platforms. When we look back one day at the environmental sustainability that has been helped by on-line working, and ask how that happened, ease of working online will have been an important step.

Andrew Gibson Reviewed by Wendy Van den Bulck Just as the whole world is overwhelmed by complexity, here’s Andrew’s latest book, ‘Make Life Simple’. I’d say, brilliant timing… I met Andrew on two occasions; the SOL World Conference in Frankfurt in 2017 and the SFiO Unconference ‘SF use in Large Scale Contexts’ in 2019, long before he wrote this book. Having read his book, I realise now that in our conversations at these events, Andrew did a lot of what he describes. He is a great explorer of desired outcomes, is authentically interested in peoples’ stories and is always thinking about opportunities that make a difference. That, to me, is one of the purest things that I can say about the book; he writes from within, and you can read that in every word.

Biba Rebolj Introduced by Lilian Ing I love experiencing and working with people from different cultures, and this is what attracted me to this online workshop. I was not disappointed: 22 cultures were present at the meeting, bringing not only their wealth of diversity but also the common ground of being SF Practitioners. SF group learning is always fun, vibey, collaborative and light, and this session was no exception!

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.