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Abstract
How Solution Focus (SF) can be used to effectively lead a corporate retreat. Having executives fully engage in the process using SF group activities, the facilitators can quickly make themselves irrelevant and witness the experienced partic- ipants actively shaping their own future and their own team dynamics.
Context
The client, an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, originally hired me in my capacity of executive coach. It turned out one SF session was all he needed. He contacted me again after a few weeks. I assumed he would be requesting a follow-up. He surprised me by asking instead if I could help with an organisational issue. He was wondering if I would be interested in facilitating a corporate retreat using the same "style" (his words) I used during the successful SF coaching session he experienced. I accepted.
Background
The client is a senior vice-president in charge of clinical devel- opment for an international pharmaceutical company. As such, he has a group of managers reporting directly to him, a team of twelve people. They are located mainly in the US and Europe while managing worldwide operations. The corporate retreat is a recently established tradition that takes place annually. It consists of two days of work. The first day is usually focused on numbers and indicators: business results, business goals, market trends, strategic opportunities. The second day is usually about the team and its dynamics. The objective of the second day is to develop the cohesiveness of the team.
Request
The client asked me to help facilitate the one day of the retreat dedicated to the team's reflections on its own dynamics. The client did that on his own the previous year by using a SWOT format to structure conversations, and he was unhappy with the results. The client's main concern regarding his team was its slow pace in implementing changes once it was decided a change was needed.
Contract and objectives
The contract was negotiated with the client over a half-hour Skype session and follow-up emails. The title of the one-day event was set as: "Productive Change Now ... and Tomorrow". The objective was worded as:
"within a safe and constructive framework provided by the facilitator, help participants shift their conversations about change from...