It’s always good to identify the goal of a certain conversation. Sometimes, it’s hard to determine as to what is the goal is for a specific discussion, especially if you find that you have very limited time in determining it. In this segment, we make a structured approach to help “frame” the purpose of the interview or the conversation.
Why should there be a goal?
- If you don’t take the time to establish a goal or an outcome, then the conversation or interview wanders with no direction.
- Taking the time to establish the purpose and goal of the interview does not only help focus you, but also the client in the same direction.
- Taking the time to establish the purpose and goal for the interview allows the client to construct a vision or idea of a possible solution or next best step.
This is the central point of the Solution Focused Approach – getting the client to be clear about what they want and where they want to go.
Here is a quick example…
This is the story of Jennifer who approached me after a student session she found it difficult to say what was going on but told me that she wanted to communicate better with the parents.
Rather than asking her “What’s the problem”, I asked:
“How would you like your communication to be with your parents”?
This actually allowed her to open up and talk about what she wanted to achieve.
She didn’t have to speak about the problem and it allowed her to contemplate and reflect on how she would like things to be.
From there we could speak about:
Well, if this is what you want… “What do you think can help make this happen”?
This allows her to think about the solution or the next step to solving her problem. You see, it lets the person think about how to move forward rather than making the person keep talking about the problem, which makes them feel stuck.
To find out which questions would help you set the goal for a person, you can download the template I’ve created by clicking the button below.
In the next video we look at assessing the motivation and desire to make the goal happen. Click here to see that now.