Jenny Clarke's articles on Solutions Focus

Jenny Clarke's articles on Solutions Focus

It's high time we collected Jenny's many and varied articles on Solutions Focus into one place. So here they are:

Clarke, J. (2024). Women's Perspectives on the Solution Focused Approach by Anne-Marie Wulf & Jacqui Von Cziffra-Bergs (Editors). Journal of Solution Focused Practices, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.59874/001c.123148

Abstract
What an interesting project: ask 19 female Solution Focused (SF) practitioners eight questions about how they work and how their gender influences their SF practice. In summary, the eight questions were about how gender influences their SF work, how others might see SF in what they do, how the approach has been adapted to become their own, why they stay with the SF approach and what advice they would give to other female SF practitioners.

SF in a small business (2014), Jenny Clarke, in Brief And Simple: Solution Focus in Organisations (N Polgar and K Hanvovszky, editors)

This is the story of how the SF approach was introduced to a small business – a company making and selling glass giftware.

Introducing SF to your organisation (2013)
Jenny Clarke and Shakya Kumara, InterAction volume 5 no 1 pp 26-33

Abstract
To help with the successful and smooth introduction of Solutions Focus (SF) to organisations, we offer a "Stimulus Spectrum" of possible interventions. Drawing on our own experience, we caution the SF enthusiast with the words of Insoo Kim Berg: "if you want to be fast, go slow."

SF: Another Copernican revolution?
By Jenny Clarke

In this article produced for the EBTA 2012 conference, Jenny Clarke looks at how SF turns our thinking upside down. First published in Upside Down: Solution Focused Paradigms - Revolutions and Evolutions edited by A Lewinski, J Szczepkowski and T Switek. Published by Wydawnictwo Edukacyjne AKAPIT, Torun 2012. ISBN 978-83-89163-47-0

Memorable workshops: Adding variety to our sessions (2012), Jenny Clarke, InterAction volume 4 no 1, pp 28-40

Abstract
This article presents many ways of engaging participants in workshops based on the work of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, physical (kinaesthetic), musical, inter-personal and intra personal. The article provides useful suggestions on how to prepare, design and deliver inspiring and useful workshops.

Power: It Takes Two (at least!) (2011), Jenny Clarke for Café of Ideas

I question the notion that power resides in individuals, proposing instead that it is an interactional product, emerging from the ways that two or more individuals interact. (When we talk of having power over ourselves, we hold the belief that there are different, competing parts of ourselves. So even in this case, the concept is an interactional one – for example, exercising power over our own emotions and desires.)

Quality Management with SF Inside (2008), Jenny Clarke with Trevor Durnford & Marlon Heilbrunn

At the SOLWorld Conference in 2008, Jenny Clarke discussed the work of the sfwork Quality Forum. Here's a summary of how they added SF to Quality tools.

Change is in the eye of the beholder: Improving job satisfaction in Sweden (2007)
Björn Johansson, Eve Persson, Mark McKergow & Jenny Clarke

This chapter from Solutions Focus Working tells the story of how four employment offices in the Lund area enhanced their performance. It also includes the MOP-scaling process for working with multiple topics in the same room.

Solution Focused Performance Enhancement (2007), Jenny Clarke for CIPD

Would you be surprised if I told you that performance appraisal process leaves most people less motivated and less satisfied with their jobs after their appraisal than before it and that the majority of these people have little or no idea how to improve? Probably not! Luckily, a methodology known as Solutions Focus is at hand to help managers have useful conversations which lead to improved performance rather than poorer morale.

The Art of Asking Great Questions
by Jenny Clarke and Dr Sabine Demkowski
Published in The International Journal of Coaching and Mentoring,vol IV issue 2 pp 78-85, September 2006

As questioning is so crucial to the outcome and the results we achieve as coaches, this article aims to reflect on the art of asking questions. In this article we will contrast questions from a 'problem' perspective with questions from a 'solutions' perspective. We will also share with readers an approach we use called the Solutions Focus Methodology, and offer our insights into how the methodology might help coaches of any genre to enhance their own coaching practice and achieve a greater impact with their clients.

Turning clients into customers for change - the art of platform building
By Jenny Clarke
Published in Solution Focused Management, Lueger G and Korn H-P (eds), Rainer Hampp Verlag, 2006, pp 357 – 362
This article explores the art of platform building - an essential, if unglamorous, part of the SF toolkit.

Jenny also co-authored/co-edited:

Positive Approaches to Change: Applications of Solutions Focus and Appreciative Inquiry at work (with Mark McKergow, 2005)

Solutions Focus Working: 80 real-life lessons for successful organisational change with Mark McKergow, 2007)

57 SF Activities for Facilitators and Consultants: Putting Solutions Focus into action (with Peter Röhrig, 2008)