Solution Based Approach: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Solution Based Approach, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations. - Concept fan: map the solution space before picking a direction
Expand from specific solutions to the broader concept behind them, then generate alternatives at the concept level.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Exception Finding: When Is the Problem Already Less Severe?
Identify times when the problem was absent or less severe — these are evidence that solutions already exist.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works - Transform the relationship, not just the issue
Use each conflict as an opportunity to raise the quality of the relationship itself.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical - Move to problem-solving only after understanding is mutual
Problem-solving before mutual understanding produces solutions neither party owns.
Looping for Understanding (Difficult Conversations) - Define — frame the right problem
Synthesize your research into a single, sharp problem statement before solving.
Design Thinking, Step by Step - Define what success looks like together, before proposing solutions
Agree on the criteria a good solution must meet before either side proposes anything.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical - Evaluate solutions for durability: realistic, mutually satisfying, safe
A collaborative solution that fails one of three tests — realistic, mutually satisfying, safe — will not hold.
Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene) - Model synergy: ask "what would a solution have to look like to address both?"
Use the agreed criteria as a design brief and generate solutions that meet all of them.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical - Separate the person from the problem
Treat the conflict as a problem you face together, not a contest you fight each other.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep generating "alternatives" but they’re all just minor variations of the same basic approach
- It feels like this is just how I am
- We solve the immediate thing but the same ugly dynamic underneath stays exactly the same, so the next disagreement plays out identically
- I rush to fix it the moment a problem surfaces, and the solutions we land on never seem to hold
- The problem I’m chasing is still this big blurry "make it better" cloud, and every time I try to start I spin out because I’ve never pinned down the one sharp thing I’m actually trying to solve for whom.
Related concerns
- Solutions Focussed
Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations.
- Bring Solutions Not Problems
Identify times when the problem was absent or less severe — these are evidence that solutions already exist.
Exception Finding: When Is the Problem Already Less Severe?
- Mutual Understanding Before Solution
Problem-solving before mutual understanding produces solutions neither party owns.
Move to problem-solving only after understanding is mutual
- Collaborative Problem Solving Steps
A collaborative solution that fails one of three tests — realistic, mutually satisfying, safe — will not hold.
Evaluate solutions for durability: realistic, mutually satisfying, safe
- Focus On Solutions Not Problems
Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations.
- Focus On The Solution Not The Problem Meaning
Identify times when the problem was absent or less severe — these are evidence that solutions already exist.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.