Progress-focused

The scaling question is the most popular question which emerged out of the solution-focused approach. This article describes step by step how you can use the scalling question. Here is a video example . Some time ago, when I was talking with a client an interesting varation of the scaling question emerged between the two of us, which I call the Optimal Zone Scale. The woman I was coaching wanted to learn to be more assertive so that she could defend her personal boundaries and speak her mind on issues that mattered to her. This would help her to feel better at work and to keep her work load within acceptable limits. It would also help her colleagues. By being more assertive she would be clearer to her colleagues who would know then exactly what they could and could not expect from her. Also, she had noticed that colleagues tended to respect and value her more when she acted more assertively. However, my client was also aware that she shouldn't go too far in speaking her mind. Sh...

Scaling questions belong to the simplest, most appealing and accessible tools that have emerged within the practise of the solution-focused approach to change management. Scales are very easy to use and have many applications ( read this article if you'd like to learn how). Many people who are not familiar with the solution-focused approach (or hardly) still use scales in their conversations. I have been wondering for quite some who the first person was who deliberately started using scales in conversations. My hunch was it must have been Steve de Shazer . And this indeed seems to be case ( although, as with other techniques, other members of the SFBT team will most likely have helped refine it ). The article I mentioned yesterday says this about the invention of the scale-technique: "The “scale question” similarly arose by chance. De Shazer tells of a client who had come to his second session. The therapist asked how he was doing or what was better now. The client had ...