In this video blog post we look at question 2 of this 4 question process – assessing motivation and desire to change.
Assessing Desire For Change
In this segment, we look at assessing motivation for the goal the client has set in the previous question in this Solution Focused Formula. After we establish the goal, now, we look for WHY the goal is important to them.
Not being able to help the client identify this “why” can make you easily miss an important detail – does the client really want to achieve this goal? They may have doubts that they can’t do it or maybe are not that motivated to achieve it for some reason.
When you take a little time, even if it may seem obvious, to help connect the client to their goal, it allows the client to access their inner motivation and reasons for making it happen.
This is really important because the research says that finding reasons, including personal reasons, to make the changes we are seeking increases our ability to take action on those goals.
To do this you can ask these questions, and then find a scale:
How much would you like this to change?
What would happen if nothing changes?
Why is achieving this goal important to you?
Take note: The SCALE is important. A scale that is equal to 0 indicate a low motivation, while a 10 scale indicates absolute motivation.
Here is an example:
If a student says, “I’ll focus more in class”, rather than saying “That’s a great idea…”
It would be much better to ask “Why is that important to you?”
Or you could ask “How ready are you to focus in class?”
And scale that is 0 is not ready at all and 10 means that you’re 100 percent ready.
You see all of these types of questions POINT TO ONE THING – THEIR WHY, THEIR REASON FOR ACTION and this helps them align to their inner motivation and desire and that helps them take ACTION.
In the next video we look at the Exception Questions.