John Brooker, Carey Glass and Annie Bordeleau
Welcome to the first edition of the new online journal InterAction, made possible by you, the financial contributors to SFiO, our journal writers, the reviewers and editors and the web development skills of David Griffiths of DJI Systems. A huge thanks to all who took the small step to help launch this edition.
The Roots of This Journal The Association for the Quality Development of Solution Focus Consulting and Training (SFCT) published a high quality, printed, academic journal called, “InterAction – the Journal of Solution Focus in Organisations”. SFCT published this in 16 editions over an 8 year period, a tremendous feat on behalf of the main editors, Kirsten Dierolf, Carey Glass, Mark McKergow and Anton Stellamans, and the editorial advisory Board. With the closure of SFCT, the printed publication ceased in November 2016.
Mark McKergow , Kirsten Dierolf , Anton Stellamans & Carey Glass
Volume 3.1 - May 2011 How can we learn from each other to make SF trainings more effective? That’s the key question to be addressed at the forthcoming SFCT Trainers Conference on 28–29 October 2011. This will be the first meeting anywhere to focus expli- citly on SF training for around five years, and it’s about time this issue was readdressed. Having focused on the review process and supporting consultants, SFCT is now moving to engage the ‘T’ in its name by working with trainers.
Mark McKergow , Kirsten Dierolf , Anton Stellamans & Carey Glass
Volume 4.1 - May 2012 SFCT hosted a very successful and inspiring trainers conference in October 2011. There were around 70 participants from 15 countries and 4 continents. We are very happy that most of the institutes which offer trainings for SF in organisations were represented and contributed to our discus sions. This issue of InterAction focuses on the results of the trainers’ conference and aims to continue the discussion on these emerging topics.
John Brooker, Carey Glass and Annie Bordeleau
Staying Connected As much as we all long for more human contact, life is letting us wait a little longer. It is a wonderful time to open our heart to all the possibilities ahead, to connect in the moment and see what emerges.
In this year’s 2021 edition, we will continue to enrich the InterAction Collection by publishing two to three innovative SF features in print, audio and video format, every month. We replaced the twice a year format as we consider the new format to be more digestible, enabling you to regularly learn more about new trends and practices of Solution Focus work in organisations.
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.: