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SOLUTION-FOCUSED MANAGEMENT:
BACKGROUND AND ADVANTAGES

J. Kingston Cowart, M.S.

ABSTRACT

The new field of Solution-Focused Management (SFM) is both conceptually simple and relatively easy to master. By its very designation alone, solution-focused, this newcomer to management practice has a naturally intuitive appeal for managers in today's accelerated business milieu. Problem analysis is time consuming. Solution discovery is far briefer.

The problem-focused approaches invite the importation — and occasional implantation — of experts who have experience with the identified problem (and therefore, actually, a subtle vested interest in it). A focus on solutions is completely different. Singularly brief and practical, SFM specifically bypasses problem analysis in order to move as rapidly as possible to effective solutions. It also emphasizes the swift identification and utilization of personnel who can serve as solutions resources already at hand within any organization. As a result, the SFM model is exceptionally cost-efficient in its application.

Moreover, it is neither ideological nor particularly theoretical. Its small set of basic interventions are simple, remarkably powerful, and surprisingly effective. They are therefore both very easy to learn and highly useful to know.

All of these features taken together make SFM especially well-suited for management practice under business conditions prevalent at the onset of the twenty-first century. The author offers an initial orientation to SFM by: a) outlining the background from which it has arisen while positioning it with respect to other important influences upon management with which it may be contrasted; and b) describing the benefits of the model for CEOs, executives, and managers.

The article opens with a review of the forces which have called SFM forth into the turbulent world of contemporary management practice. It closes with four predictions regarding SFM's future prospects — and the prospects of those who learn to use it well.

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