rutenso – The art of thriving in times of constant change

Everyone knows that working in a Solutions Focus way involved focusing on solutions, right?  That’s the part that everyone gets.  Focus on the solution, not on the problem.  Well, that’s right, of course.  And… there is so much more to SF than this.  I have been thinking about how to convey all the other wonderful elements of what makes SF so different, and so effective in situations where other approaches don’t seem to gain traction.  So, here is my latest thinking on this – rutenso.

rutenso comes from the Japanese word ruten, which means ‘constant and ceaseless change’.  It seems that the Japanese have many different words for different kinds of change (the same is said of Eskimos and snow).  Perhaps it’s connected with an Eastern way of looking at things – witness the amazing responses of the people of Japan to the recent tsunami disaster.  There is definitely a way of accepting and responding which has been shown to the upset and confusion created by the huge wave of water, with thousands dead and millions affected. 

So, ruten means constant change.  When the suffix ‘-so’ is added, this means ‘phases of’ or more poetically ‘working with’.  So ruten-so is about working with constant change.  Those who have heard me speak about SF will know that I always start my talks with the one-line definition of SF: ‘Change is happening all the time: therefore the simple way is to find USEFUL change and amplify it’. 

rutenso can be written as three kanji characters, as in the picture on the right.  The same character set is used for Chinese too.  In Chinese, these three characters mean ‘flow-turn-image’.  It also has overtones of good fortune through change.   

rutenso is a new word, and I will be writing about it over the coming weeks and months.  I hope to show how the idea of working with constant change gives a great framework to think about SF practice in a much wider way that focusing on solutions – to give a name and some substance to the ‘SF paradigm’, the framework of thinking, that SF brings.  Please SHARE THIS post via all the channels you can, and get people talking about it! 

And by the way, if you are in the Los Angeles area I am giving the 2nd BNI Lecture on the subject of rutenso at La Verne University, Tuesday 12 April at 7.30pm in the Ann & Steve Morgan Auditorium.  Free tickets available to the public at http://markmckergowlaverne.eventbrite.com/.

SFCT Trainers Conference 28-29 October 2011

We are delighted to be involved with organising the first SF trainers conference in six years.  The event will be held at Bad Soden, Germany (near Frankfurt) on 28-29 October 2011.  SFCT (www.asfct.org) is inviting trainers from all fields of SF to gather and share methods, ideas and perspectives.  We already know that many of the most innovative SF trainers will be there: Liselotte Baiejeart, Jenny Clarke, Louis Cauffman,  Kirsten Dierolf , Ben Furman, Kati Hankovszky, Björn Johansson,  Alan Kay ,Mark McKergow, Eva Persson, Peter Röhrig, Peter Szabo…

 More details on the SFCT website at http://www.asfct.org/trainer.php, and you can download a pdf of information from http://www.asfct.org/documents/sfcttrainersconference.pdf.  The event is also very well priced – just €300 for SFCT members and €350 for non-members.  So why not join SFCT, get all the membership benefits AND get a great discount too?

SF for multicultural virtual teams – 5-6 May 2011, Budapest

We have an exciting new venture starting later this year.  sfwork, in partnership with leading London-based cross-cultural specialists Coghill Beery, will be offering a new workshop – Solutions Focus for Cultural Diversity.  The event is promoted by the Society for Organisational Learning Hungary, and we hope to attract participants from across Europe to Budapest for the workshop on 5-6 May 2011. 

Research shows that while poorly-managed multicultural teams fare worse than average, similar but well-managed teams do much better.  This confirms the idea that the diversity present in a multi-cultural team can be used to advantage, as long as the manager has the tools to do so.  SF offers a wonderful set of practical tools to achieve this end.  We will also be looking at the impact of virtual working with multi-cultural teams – a huge and growing issue for many businesses. 

Full details are on the SoL Hungary website at http://solhungary.hu/2011/02/28/solutions-focus-for-cultural-diversity/ , or use the short link  http://tinyurl.com/sfmulti .  There you can find details, a pdf and a booking form.