SFiO is an international network of solution-focused practitioners which promotes, supports and develops research and applications of Solution Focus in Organisations.
This website accompanies you in your discovery of SF by offering you an overview of SF events worldwide, access to the SF Clues, to the InterAction Collection, and much more. Enjoy staying curious.
We are group of international Solution-Focused Practitioners who are learning how to effectively apply SF in organisations. The practice of Solution Focus (co-founded by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg) continues to grow internationally as does the number of people using the approach in coaching and in organisations. We look forward to discovering how it works best with you.
Solution Focus in Organisations Fikas 2025. An opportunity to learn while enjoying time with Solution Focused friends and they take place every third Sunday of the month.
Inspired by stories of people getting together silently to read, write and think while learning, Anton Stellamans (Belgium) and Jonas Wells (Sweden) are offering spaces for engaging with the most important resource available to us – you and your resources.
Catch up on events from SF24
The SOLWorld list is a dynamic email group for professionals interested in applying Solution Focus in organisational settings. It’s a place to share insights, questions, and experiences about SF in organisations. Connect with a vibrant community passionate about leveraging SF principles for growth and transformation. Keep up-to-date with what is happening in the SF in organisations community.
We will host a post-conference from the evening of May 17th to 19th, 2025, for two nights in Land aan Zee, Netherlands.The intent of the retreat is to unwind together after the Conference in a different setting, allowing people to connect more deeply. This calm setting provides an opportunity to discuss topics of interest from the Conference in more depth as well as a chance to connect with members of the community for those who travel a long way to the conference.
We are thrilled to announce the dates for the next SF24 conference! Please save the date 2-3 May and find more information here soon.
We are thrilled to announce the dates for the next SOLWorld conference! Mark your calendars for May 15-17, 2025, and prepare to join us in the picturesque and historical town of Mechelen, Belgium. Nestled between Brussels and Antwerp, Mechelen is easily accessible by train or plane. Our conference will take place in a 17th century monastery, recently transformed into a beautiful library and conference center.
On the SOLWorld website we can read:
SOLWorld stands for Solutions in Organisations Link-up. The strap line is “Sharing and Building Solutions Focused practice in organisations”.
For us, sharing is the key word. The originators of the approach, Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, have not trade marked their work. Indeed, the SF approach itself is based on collaboration.
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.
Who better to bear witness to the value of SF than the client? In this video, we hear a powerful testimony from four clients of Family Based Solutions (FBS), an organisation based in Enfield, London, who works collaboratively with families using the solution focused approach. They share what their journey with FBS has meant to them, their families, and their wider communities.
Veronika Jungwirth and Ralph Miarka
In this edited recording of an SFiO Global Chapter meeting, Veronika Jungwirth and Ralph Miarka summarise the topic of Solution Focus Coaching for Agile Teams, with many valuable tips on using SF to coach teams that wish to adopt agile practices. Role modelling SF from the very beginning, Veronika and Ralph relate how they came to write their book after much experience of coaching teams, mainly in IT, to adopt agile ways of working. This story is important because it explains the inspiration for linking SF with agile processes and how they have evolved their outlook over time.
Will Reed & Katalin Hankovszky
In this podcast, we hear Will Reed, a 19-year-old solution-focused practitioner, in conversation with Katalin (Kati) Hankovszky.
Mark McKergow,Chris Iveson & Susanne Burgstaller
To bring about profound transformations in organisations, leaders and coaches need to apply state-of-the-art “social technologies”. Solution Focus provides such an effective “social technology”. Leaders and coaches must apply state-of-the-art “social technologies” to effect profound organisational transformations. Solution Focus (SF)provides such an effective “social technology”.
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…”.
“An unrecognized difference (since it goes by unnoticed) will not receive the amplification needed and will remain a difference that does not make a difference. A simple difference, often just some doubt, can be enough to begin changing a lifelong pattern or way of thinking.” (de Shazer, 1986).
The Mindsetter Game© is an innovative solution-focused intervention Gesa Doringer has developed to apply the SF approach in therapy or coaching and teach it in workshops and training. Due to its size of 2x2m and being played on the floor, The Mindsetter literally holds space for clients and their desired future. It has also proven effective in setting the stage for new ideas and first steps towards the client’s desired outcome. There are two versions of The Mindsetter available. The FIRST version is for teaching SF. This version facilitates an active knowledge acquisition of students or practitioners learning SF or in team supervision. Practitioners invite participants to reflect on four of the basic tenets of this approach and discuss the implications of these tenets in the context of their professional environment. They do this in an SF manner:
Left unattended, order decays by itself (states the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). On the other hand, in nature and organisations, life reverses that decay, creates “order from noise”, and “surfs on the edge of chaos”. The “Cynefin” framework, which Chris Corrigan introduces in this webinar, adds three more options or “domains”, beyond order and chaos, to its map of the world.
Haesun Moon & Annette Gray& 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).
Sofie Geisler and Anton Stellamans
In this captivating fifty-minute audio conversation, Anton Stellamans interviews Sofie Geisler about her work with large scale processes and political and social movements in Mexico. Sofie describes very well what is different when practitioners take Solution Focus into the political and social change field and such a controversial theme as justice; justice as it is officially distributed and also what people think justice is.
Alex Steele on the piano and Dom on the saxophone take us through an entrancing journey. A journey where you can truly stretch your SF beliefs as never before, as they work with what is there and fully accept the offerings of others to move forward.
Tomas Horak, Christophe Bourgon
On reading ‘Reinventing Organisations’, by Frederik Laloux, (available on Amazon), it struck me how ‘reinvented’ organisations could use Solution Focus to help achieve each breakthrough that Laloux describes:
By coincidence, after I read the book, Tomas Horak contacted myself and my colleague Annie Bordeleau to ask how SFiO might enable an experiment on establishing self-organising teams. The result was an SFiO online Global Chapter, led by Tomas Horak and Christophe Bourgon from Switzerland, and attended by a very international group. You can see the results in this video with a summary below.
Sirkkaliisa Heimonen & John Brooker
Practitioners use Solution Focus in different disciplines, including (but not limited to therapy, counselling, individual coaching, team coaching, organisational and supra organisational development. This article serves as a reminder that these disciplines often overlap and that it is important to keep cross-pollinating knowledge between them.
Sirkkaliisa Heimonen and her colleagues have been researching the impact on individuals with mild cognitive impairment and early-onset dementia while at work. Their work forms part of an international study into this issue, and they studied 11 people in total in Finland.
Leaders need advanced leadership skills and support on how to deal with their daily leadership challenges. Still, they also need to develop higher levels of leadership awareness and consciousness along the way. These levels are often not developed alone or in isolation, involving a much longer term professional and personal learning journey that can extend over many years.
This little gem of a book comes from Asia. Simon Lee, the author, is a well-seasoned trainer, coach and SF practitioner, who has put together a book to introduce people in organisations - leaders, managers and coaches - to the ‘solution focused’ way.
This book provides practical suggestions of how leaders can apply SF techniques to coaching their team members. A ‘how to’ illustrated guide, the book will help those who work with and in organisations to showcase the strengths and maximise the potential of people. A coach or manager can transform conversations using the applications and questions that Simon provides. These conversations enable their client or team member to develop solutions themselves, rather than look to the coach or manager for solutions. Simon includes a good number of examples and ideas.
Mark McKergow,Susanne Burgstaller,Jesper Hankovszky Christiansen,Anton Stellamans,Marika Tammeaid & Jonas Wells
What do SF practitioners that are involved in large-scale change projects do that works?
The Macroanalysis Study Group has studied this question for the last two years. They have examined case stories together and identified some distinctive features of SF organisational development (OD) processes.
Jesper Hankovszky Christiansen
Clients asked Jesper H Christiansen to merge two teams that were in deep conflict with each other. The management had concluded that due to the team’s overlapping activities, it was essential they work together, once and for all. The management had tried this in the past, without success.
Paul Z Jackson & Janine Waldman
When sharing feedback, we want to provide opportunities for learning and growth. Done well, it can strengthen our relationships and raise performance. Done poorly, it can be uncomfortable and even devastating for the recipient.
Victoria Spashchenko & Carey Glass
In Peter de Jong and Insoo Kim Berg’s Interviewing for Solutions, we read the story of Rosie:
For Victoria Spashchenko, Kyiv is home, and she has remained there ever since putin’s invasion. For many, she is a tangible expression of hope and reality. Every day on social media, she regularly and determinedly shares her hopes and the reality she chooses to create. This article is one of the realities she has chosen to develop for us amid awful circumstances. In it, you will find yourself delighted, educated and sharing her humanity and humour.
Terre des Hommes Switzerland is a development aid agency. The organisation supports the economic, political and social self-determination of people in developing countries. It works with local partner organisations in ten countries in Africa and Latin America and primarily supports young people.
Laughing together is essential for creating trust among employees, boosting morale, and increasing retention rates. Additionally, it can be a powerful tool for reducing stress and sparking creativity.
Bea Bincze and Kornél Csajtai, from Hungary, provide coaching sessions for organisations and strive to create a safe and humorous environment, that helps their clients achieve their goals in a fun and efficient manner.
Dr. Rachel Gillibrand & Dr. Adam S. Froerer & Mia Lunde
As enthusiasts of the solution-focused approach, therapy or otherwise, we know it works. Our clients often tell us it works. But do we understand how it works; really understand?
We know quite a bit about what works; we constantly look for that adage, ‘When something works, do more of it.’ And we know quite a bit about with whom it works; that is, with almost anyone and in virtually any situation - though people unfamiliar with Solution Focus (SF) often find that hard to grasp. But hard evidence about the how is tougher to find. Especially about what happens in the brain as people answer questions in a solution-focused session.
Dr. Rachel Gillibrand & Dr. Adam S. Froerer & Mia Lunde
As enthusiasts of the solution-focused approach, therapy or otherwise, we know it works. Our clients often tell us it works. But do we understand how it works; really understand?
We know quite a bit about what works; we constantly look for that adage, ‘When something works, do more of it.’ And we know quite a bit about with whom it works; that is, with almost anyone and in virtually any situation - though people unfamiliar with Solution Focus (SF) often find that hard to grasp. But hard evidence about the how is tougher to find. Especially about what happens in the brain as people answer questions in a solution-focused session.
Vonneke Beeker & Anton Stellamans
How theatre principles help to understand our work.
We are taught to believe that change happens when we effectively do something about the situation we are confronted with. That’s why we tend to look for the next steps and solutions to fix our old problems. Solution Focus, however, takes a different route to change. Instead of following the classic cause-effect logic, we rely on the power of imagination to make change flow more naturally.
Susanne has 30 years of experience in change consulting; however, she believes her last 20 years were the most productive ones, as she was using the Solution-Focused approach.
Luckily for us, Susanne’s new mission is to teach what she has learned about making change impactful and fast. So sit back and prepare to propel through a well-honed and accessible array of tools and ideas to help empower people for successful change.
A welcome sign on an easel in the entryway near the door reads, Welcome to Masterclass, with Class of Masters below that in smaller print
In this video (and audio below) of the keynote talk at SOLWorld 2023 in Vienna, Victoria Spashchenko shares her personal and professional experience of applying the Solution Focus Approach during the war in Ukraine.
She considers what worked and what was difficult; tries to summarise the resilient strategies of Ukrainians; highlights (once again) the power of a single question, and speculates if there are naturally SF people and countries.
Panel: Jenny Clarke & Peter Röhrig & Katalin Hankovszky & Petra Mueller-Demary & Daniel Meier Host: Veronika Jungwirth
Hosted by Veronika Jungwirth, join the panel of Jenny Clarke, Kati Hankovszky, Petra Müller-Demary, Daniel Meier Peter Röhrig, with a spontaneous appearance by Paul Z Jackson, as they share stories of 20 years of SOLWorld.
elvira-kalmer
Elvira Kalmar presents an inspiring Case Study session on how, as an Organisational Development consultant, she worked in a Solution Focus way with her client Invitech to bring about an agile transformation fast and with incredible lightness.
Elvira engaged me as she described her approach (or lack of process as she explained), allowing the client to be the expert in their world, helping them define what agile transformation would look like and co-creating the steps along the way.
When I discovered Klaus Schenck’s work in 2013, he was already fascinated with metaphors and how they ubiquitously spice up our language and colour our stories.
In this presentation, Klaus chose the metaphor of ‘Bottlenecks’ to explore the sustainable flow of solutions. He highlights how heightened awareness of constraints and changing circumstances can propel us into our creativity.
Loredana Grigore, Steve Marshall & Luke Goldie-McSorley
Soundcloud photo by Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 on Unsplash
Listening to this discussion about D-BIT’s drop in service was a joy. My route into solution-focused practice was via social work, and I have always felt that this approach offers a way for social workers to practise that adheres to our values. This is by no means easy in the contemporary social care context. This is borne out here by the D-BIT workers and two of the young people who made use of their drop in.
Who better to bear witness to the value of SF than the client? In this video, we hear a powerful testimony from four clients of Family Based Solutions (FBS), an organisation based in Enfield, London, who works collaboratively with families using the solution focused approach. They share what their journey with FBS has meant to them, their families, and their wider communities.
Enikö Tegyi has long experience working with teams. In this article, she shares her know-how, answering that often asked question, “What if some people don’t seem to join in?” Here she gives us a lovely example of how to fully engage and involve everyone in a meeting or project, eliciting Best Hopes to give the work a firm platform. The case that Enikö shares perfectly illustrates the value of taking time before what practitioners may see as “the work” really starts. Indeed, this time is an important part of the work itself. Her (very SF) premise is that every voice counts; therefore, we must hear it. Using Post-it Notes to gather “best hopes” is a great idea. It allows everyone to have a say, even those who hesitate to speak in group situations. When the Post-its are displayed, everyone can quickly see what others think. However, in this case, not everyone added to the Post-it display. We learn here how Enikö’s gentle persistence, drawing on the self-organising ability of the other team members, saved the day.
The Next Generation of Solution Focused Practice is Mark McKergow’s magnum opus. Since discovering SF’s world-changing paradigm shift in practice and thought, Mark has maintained his steadfast determination, insatiable curiosity and exceptional single-minded focus to explore and unearth understandings of what makes SF so powerful and how that happens so uniquely. His new book brings the fruits of this exploration into print. You can feel the years of thought in its pages.
Julia Kalenberg is a Swiss based coach and trainer who predominately works in organisations. Less known about Julia, however is that she also has a long track record as a coach of many succesful professional or semi professional sailors. And that is precisely the focus of this interview: How she uses Solution Focus in sports coaching.
In this talk, Morgan Lewis shares his SF journey to support young athletes in finding their confidence and connecting to their excellence.
Using solution focus questions when coaching the athletes, he engages in a quest to gather evidence of competence, to nurture their self-confidence and self-belief.
In Singapore, some parents have such high expectations of their children’s education that they often unfairly place the responsibility on teachers for their children’s well-being at school. In this parent-teacher bonding workshop, the goal is to help facilitate a bond between parents and teachers so that they work together collaboratively to foster a nurturing environment for their children at home and school.
Do you, like me, long for more of a community feel in your local area? Like Mark McKergow, I spent much time travelling before COVID came along and, when home, created connections locally as best I could, e.g. as a dad meeting parents at the school gates, as Chair of my local scouts. Sadly that connection ended when no longer involved in school or Scouts. Being part of these communities felt good, and while there is much to love about our SFiO communal Zoom activities, I long to catch up in person over a coffee and a hug!
Wendy Van den Bulck, Cédric Broux & John Brooker
Deliberately or otherwise, we all use them all of the time. So how do metaphors open minds and enrich perspective? How do they enhance, amplify and explore a core message by subtly taking a perhaps occasionally closed mind on a wonderful involuntary journey of emerging ideas? Well, allow yourself just an hour of well-earned quiet time to watch this video, and you’ll be amazed at how powerful and thought provoking the use of metaphor can be.
De Chapter of the Lowlands verenigt alle Nederlandstalige SFiO Contributors. We komen 2 keer per jaar samen, om beurten in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Er is ruimte voor netwerking, intervisie én we laten ons stimuleren door een interessante spreker. We wisselen af tussen een theoretische bijdrage, een praktische toepassing van SF en inspiratie uit een ander domein.
欢迎参加“组织中的焦点解决（SFiO）”中国社群的活动！走出心理咨询和治疗室之外，焦点解决还可以在普通人的工作、生活各方面发挥作用，培育并滋养个体、团队、企事业单位及各类组织、社区乃至整个社会的健康运行、和谐与美好。焦点解决与东方智慧有着天然的联结。我们希望在这里汇聚全中国的焦点解决实践者，彼此交流、共同分享、相互支持、互相赋能。我们希望SFiO中国社群：1）成为连结东西方焦点解决实践交流的桥梁；2）搭建在在中国本土组织中实践SF的有用资源库；3）从理论、技术、人才等各方面支持实践者在组织中应用SF的尝试；4）凝聚实践者，彼此支持与赋能，大道不孤，天下一家。
l “chapter” italiano della SFIO nasce con l’intento di condividere e divulgare l’Approccio focalizzato alle soluzioni nelle organizzazioni. Durante gli incontri che organizziamo diamo spazio a scambio di pratiche, intervisione, contaminazioni da altri approcci, condivisione di articoli e libri, networking.
Les réunions par le Chapiter français SFiO sont destinées à l’échange de pratiques, à l’intervision, au partage d’articles et de livres, au réseautage. La structure et le déroulement de ces réunions incarnent elles-mêmes les principes Solution Focus.
Ideea de a pune bazele unui chapter Solution Focus in Organizations a apărut în cadrul conferinței SOL World CEE 2018. Ca și organizatori ai acestei conferințe și ca și practicieni solution focus, ne-a plăcut mult să lucrăm împreună și am dorit să continuăm să o facem, să ne dezvoltăm și să oferim valoare comunității.
The UK SFiO Chapter holds three meetings each year in London and/or in Leeds. We currently focus our meetings around a workshop of around 1.5 to 2 hours in length with some great speakers.
Herzlich Willkommen bei der deutschsprachigen Sektion (Chapter) von SFiO. Seit 2011 bieten wir einen Raum für persönliche Begegnungen und den Erfahrungsaustausch auf Deutsch.
The SFiO Downunder Chapter was launched in 2020 and offers great opportunities to connect to SF practioners in Australia and New Zealand!
The Global Online Chapters are a great occasion to connect to SF practioners from all around the world. We host 1-2 online zoom meetings every month, featuring case studies, applications and the now traditional online Fika (coffee break).
To all SF Practitioners in Malaysia and Asia: Welcome to SFiO Malaysia. Here is where we share and engage with others to create new possibilities as we learn together.
Welcome aboard to our group of solution focused organisation developers. In SFiO Suomi Finland we have live meetings few times a year and a active Facebook group. Connect, share and learn together.
