NETWORK NEWSLETTER

The field of psychotherapy has had a continuing influence on thinking and practices of orgnisational learning and development. Here are some stimulating and challenging conceptual nuggets (to switch the metaphor) drawn from ‘Solution-Focused Therapy’.

This therapeutic model or school was created by Steve de Shazer and colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee in the early Eighties. As the name of their centre suggests, they were influenced by family therapy, particularly that which was founded on those systemic approaches which, ultimately, derived from the work of Gregory Bateson and of Milton Erickson. Hopefully, the application to organisational life will be fairly obvious:

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As their name implies, solution-focused therapists consider it more useful to concentrate their attention on solutions than on the problems which bring their clients to therapy. Behind this orientation is the idea that reality follows attention. That is, what you pay most attention to is what is most real to you. Therefore, the more attention you put on the problem, the more its reality increases. It becomes more solid, as it were, in the person’s perception. This makes it harder to resolve dissolve.

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Solutions to the client’s problem are sought in exception. The idea is : Nothing ALWAYS happens. Problems are not continuous. There will be exceptions. Clients fluctuate between bad days and better days. The question to the client becomes, “What are you doing to create the better days?” This is the search for solutions.

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‘ … one of the basic assumptions we hold is adapted from the Buddhist premise that change is constant and that stability is an illusion. Since life is in a constant state of change, the client’s problem is also in constant flux.’

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‘Instead of putting the emphasis on stopping the problematic behaviour, the more effective, economical, and efficient treatment approach is to elicit and enlarge upon the existing successful solutions that the client has generated.’

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Clients are questioned in great detail about these exceptions and what they are doing to bring them about. Typically, the client had never really registered the significance of the exceptions (even if they had noticed them) and certainly never seen these exceptions as due to anything they did. Since the solutions come from the clients they are in control. They are instructed to do more of what works.

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Although, when first questioned, clients are usually not aware of what they did to bring about the exceptions the more they are asked about it the more they have to justify their (useful) behaviour. They have to come up with more and more plausible answers to the questions specifying what they did. The more the client repeats these answers, the more real they become.

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‘ … a concept of solution must be developed before there can even be a concept called “problem”. “Problem” is just one of the many ways such events can be labeled and understood. It is a gestalt with solution being the ground to the figure of the problem. Without that idea that problems can be solved, what are called problems in the psychotherapy world would become just “facts-of-life” or unfortunate occurrences which could not be avoided and/or changed.’

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‘Regardless of “how” problems are maintained and how many different views there are about this, a general statement can be made: problems are problems because they are maintained. Problems are held together simply by their being described as “problems”.’

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‘ … people in our culture have long assumed that the nature of the problem determines what the solution needs to be. It is often believed that understanding the problem is the first step in solving it. This assumption seems logical and, in fact, it seems more than logical. It seems to lie within the nature of the way things are. Within this framework, it seems that any solution to any problem needs to have a logical relationship to the nature of the problem.’

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‘ … we end up searching for explanations believing that without explanation a solution is irrational, not recognizing that the solution itself is its own best explanation.’

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‘Another assumption that people in our culture often hold is that one needs to know the cause of a problem in order to solve it. Once you know the cause, you an do something about it which will solve the problem. Therapists in particular often search for causation in unconscious conflicts, past traumas, marital problems, family problems, and/or work problems.’

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‘Brief therapists are more likely to assume that problems are simply self-maintaining and that is all there is to it. This assumption leads to the idea that any difference in behaviour, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and/or context stands a chance of making a difference such that the complaint is resolved.

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‘In general, solutions simply involve someone’s doing something different or seeing something differently.’

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‘Once any expectation becomes different, any pattern can change.’

Graham Dawes

Barry Lefley arranged for several Inland Revenue members of the Network to attend a presentation by Ricardo Semler during a National Health Conference in Glasgow last year. Semler (author of the book “The Maverick” has recreated his own business (Semco) into a largely self managing organisation, - leaving him free to roam the world and speak at conferences!

Semler, we suspect, had been invited along to add a little spice to the proceedings and certainly challenged the audience, including ourselves.

He illustrated his talk with many witty comments. He questioned whether we are actually saying anything different compared with 300-400 years ago, or whether the main change is merely an acceleration of events - he illustrated this with a paradox, saying that the average speed of a motor car in London 80 years ago was 18mph and now is 17.2mph. He also questioned whether the direction of wheels should be changed to make parking easier.

He looked at the question of problems and asked why they were not solved - suggesting that the reason was mainly because we try to answer the wrong questions. He pointed out that 30% of our lives are spent on irrelevant issues, and suggested that the best questions are asked by children (Why? Why? Why?).

He had also reflected on agenda items - suggesting that the time spent on each topic is inversely in proportion to its importance. For example, in Semco they once spent 3 hours discussing parking! Changing the management structure took 2-3 years but changes to parking took over 9 years!

He wondered why businesses need to grow indefinitely - was the sole object of business to make money and enhance shareholder wealth? He thought not. Semler said that when you make money, you buy or create another business! In his view, Richard Branson is now so successful and earns so much money that he does not have time to spend or enjoy it!

He believed that we need to start trusting people - in his company, the searching of staff on leaving was discontinued and, instead, a sign was erected, - “No Stealing”.

Rather than noting the time that people start and finish work he thought it would be better to prepare a list of what is required. Why be so concerned in the number of hours someone works? He thought it was more important to pay for results and performance.

He wondered why managers should discuss salaries at all.   He thought it was better to ask how much employees wanted to take out of the system. Be open and honest with staff, tell them about costs, profit margins etc., and let them decide.

Semler then made some specific points about the NHS. He said that 1 million people are employed in the NHS but as no-one works with that number of people, he thought that the same work could be done with 75,000 groups of 10 people. He said that you can always make changes if you want to!

There then followed a question and answer session, which covered a lively half hour and ended the session so that Semler could leave for his next engagement in Paris!!

Barry Lefley