Sweden

Niklas-Tiger & Shakya Kumara Introduction to audio by Shakya Kumara Hi5 is an exciting, innovative IT Consultancy, based in Umeå, in the north of Sweden. In 2012, I had the privilege of training everyone at Hi5 in Solution Focus. I was delighted by the way they ran with it, adding a twist of SF to almost everything they do, and getting some great results. But initial enthusiasm can easily wane, life can intervene, and today’s hot new innovation can easily become last years’ management fad.

Jonas Wells, Sussan Öster & Paut Struik ↗ Introduction A great workshop from Paut Struik, Jonas Wells, and Sussan Öster! In this workshop, the trio explores the question: What does it really take for someone to gain the confidence to step into the role of a Solution Focused (SF) trainer?

Niklas-Tiger SFiO - Solution Focus in Organisations · Niklas Tiger - Taking Solution Focus Into A Larger Organisation Introduced by John Brooker Niklas Tiger was the MD of Hi5, an IT services company in which he embedded a culture of using the Solution Focus approach, a process he started in 2011. When he implemented SF in Hi5, he did not expect that one of the most successful outcomes would be the use they made of it with customers. They used it to obtain information from customers that enabled them to improve the outcomes of projects and increase customer satisfaction while adding very little time to the project. They used it internally too - as he says, it became part of the company DNA, - including in systems development, where SF matches well with Agile development methods.

Sofie Geisler and Jonas Wells Unusually we have not written an introduction or commissioned a review for the following article. The introduction to the article introduces it perfectly, and the editorial team thought we would experiment with a new idea: to let you the contributors discuss and review the ideas in the article on the [LinkedIn group].(https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13507275/)↗. We would like to give grateful thanks to Jonas Wells from Sweden, for kindly contributing and reviewing in the article, the description of his work within the Swedish context. The article has been changed and extended from the original version.

Jonas Wells Recording Listen to the recording on YouTube↗ How might understanding where Solution Focus came from help us consider where we go next? This recording began with a conversation after an SFiO Fika. Jonas Wells was sharing some of his research into SF’s history, and the conversation was so interesting that I asked whether he would bring it to our Global Online Chapter. I am delighted he said yes.

Tara Gretton Katalin Hankovszky Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash Introduced by Tara Gretton Whether you work in schools or not, reading this interview will fill your heart and mind with joy, hope and possibilities! Also, I presuppose you will deeply respect Karstorpskolan Norra’s State School Principal, Cornelia Malm! How wonderful for a leader to tell her colleagues when she first joins the school, “I don’t want to change things here. You are the professionals. I will immerse myself in meetings and conversations to figure out what is important to you here”.

This article is a summary of ideas for stimulating the quality of training that we have collected from personal experiences, from our colleagues and associates and especially from all the skilful trainers at the SFCT trainers conference in Frankfurt in October 2011. We were fascinated by the rich variety of peda- gogical and ingenious activities!

John Teager Listen to A Chapter With the Author - Jan Marklund in Conversation with John Teager SFiO - Solution Focus in Organisations · A Chapter With the Author - In Conversation with Jan Marklund Lead Like a Swede - Jan Marklund's book reviewed by John Teager A guiding principle of Solution Focus (SF) is to find what works and do more of it. In the 2024 World Happiness Report , the Nordic countries are the happiest in the world (Finland 1st; Denmark 2nd; Iceland 3rd; Sweden 4th and Norway 7th) and they have maintained these high positions for many years. Each year, Nordic leaders appear to be doing more of what works. Notably though, change is happening, as it always does. In all these countries except Iceland and particularly in Norway and Sweden, the old are now much happier than the young, which is a concern. So, what needs to happen?

Björn Johansson (1966-2014). Founding member of SFCT and member of SOLWorld steering group since 2003, founder of SolutionCLUES, www.clues.se↗, trainer for Solutionsurfers, ICF accredited coach trainings in Sweden. A dear colleague who will always be with us and remain a great source of inspiration.

Jan Marklund is a Swedish leadership developer, author, and facilitator with more than 35 years of experience supporting leaders in new roles and changing environments. He is the author of Lead Like a Swede – Navigating New Terrain with Solution-Focused Leadership (Routledge, 2025), where he explores Swedish leadership principles through interviews with senior executives. Jan works with leaders and organizations, combining solution-focused practice with Scandinavian perspectives on trust, collaboration, and sustainable performance. His approach is practical, reflective, and action-oriented — helping leaders move from insight to meaningful change.