The OSKAR Framework for Solutions-Focused Business Coaching
OSKAR is an excellent framework for solutions-focused business coaching, outlined by Paul Jackson and Mark KcKergow in their excellent book “The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change SIMPLE”.
The Solutions Focus approaches developed by Paul Jackson and Mark McKergow feature heavily in the techniques and tools we draw upon in the business coaching services and management consultancy we provide to organiations across the private and public sector.
Feel free to experience the power of this framework by working through the process yourself with a specific problem you have currently …
O – Outcome
- What do you want to achieve today?
- What do you want to achieve in the long-term?
- The ‘Future Perfect’: Suppose that the problem vanished overnight – how will you know tomorrow that the transformation has happened? How will others know? What will you be doing?
S – Scaling
- On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 representing the ‘future perfect’ (see above) and 0 representing the worst it has ever been, where are you on that scale today?
- You are at a particular number (‘n’) now. What did you do to get this far on the scale?
- How would you know you had got to ‘your number plus one’ on the scale (‘n’ +1)?
K – Know-How and Resources
- What helps you perform at ‘n’ on the scale, rather than 0?
- When does the outcome already happen for you?
- What did you do to make that happen? How did you do that?
- What did you do differently?
- What would other people say you are doing well?
A – Affirm and Action
- What is already going well?
- What is the next small step? What would you like to do personally, straight away?
- You are at ‘n’ now – what would it take to get you to ‘n’ + 1?
R – Review
- What is better?
- What did you do that made the change happen?
- What effects have the changes had?
- What do you think will change next?
You’ll probably find that working through this process is different in many ways to some of the “problem-centred” frameworks that you will have experienced. The solutions-focused approach is refreshing in many ways … and one of the main reasons for this is that it encourages you to focus on the solution rather the problem.
In other words, it helps you to focus on what works (rather than what doesn’t) and helps you to do more of it. As Gregory Bateson (one of the main influences leading to the development of NLP, and a renowned anthropologist and systems thinker) once said: “Change is happening all the time; our role is to identify useful change and amplify it”.
When you’re working with a business coach who is using this approach, the difference is significant and the experience is often much more positive and energising.
Anyway, have some fun with it and let us know how it works for you.
Tags: Change, Gregory Bateson, Mark McKergow, OSKAR, Paul Jackson, Solutions-Focused Business Coaching, The Solutions Focus
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