If you would like to promote Solution Focused thinking look at 51 ways of promoting SF – this is a list that was generated in Malmö where SF practitioners from organizational work, education, and therapy met to think about “the future of SF” in a workshop led by the clues team (Eva and Björn) with Mark McKergow, Harry Korman and Gale Miller.
51 Things anybody can do right now to promote SF:
1. Join or support SF organizations financially (EBTA, SFCT, SFBTA)
2. Go to SF conferences (SOLworld, EBTA, SFBTA conference, SFCT annual general meeting)
3. Write to encourage SF organizations – your attention, feedback, appreciation is very valuable.
4. Share the professional knowledge that you have with each other and with the existing communities (legal, PR, web design, photography, games, etc.) and help by asking your questions
5. Have local meetings with other Sfers or support your local group
6. Write your success stories to the mailing lists and ning groups
7. Be generous with your knowledge, share!
Use social media:
8. Also support SF practitioners with feedback, questions and discussions on blogs, facebook, twitter, linked-in, ning group, listserve, internations …
9. Put videos on youtube
10. Link your website to other SF websites
11. Link SF websites in other forums
12. Become fans of SF on facebook / twitter etc.
13. Contribute to wikipedia articles
14. Produce a list of SF books and publish on amazon
Support or conduct research:
15. Become aware of the SF research that exists
16. Share your ideas for research (even if you cannot do it, somebody else might)
17. Help find money for research (e.g. help write grant proposals, talk to corporate clients for sponsorship etc.)
18. Do the research that you can do (e.g. study your own work, ask your clients, write a doctoral thesis …)
19. Talk about your research it / present it and try to publicize
Continuously develop your SF expertise:
20. Know what SF is and what it is not
21. Go to conferences and workshops
22. Talk to other experienced practitioners
23. Read and buy SF books
Connect to others and other networks:
24. Seek out places where you would not go normally but where you can meet decision makers (golf club, rotary meeting …)
25. Make friends with politicians and other decision makers
26. If you know public people (celebrities, officials, press, opinion leaders, politicians …) talk to them about what might interest these people in SF
27. Deliver inputs (presentations, workshops, …) in non-SF environments (conferences etc.)
28. Give talks at other organizations (rotary, lions, women`s clubs, sports clubs ….)
29. Publish in many different places (womans magazine, economic magazines …)
30. Tell your success stories to your colleagues – be up to date with your own learning and talk about it
31. Make allies. Be cooperative. Build bridges
32. Be generous with your knowledge, share!
33. Ask people about their success stories of the day (and connect to SF)
34. Discuss respectfully about the differences of SF to other approaches with people from other approaches
35. Find ways of showing an SF alternative to other traditions approaches while still being careful not to be offensive or argumentative but still clear
36. Talk about successful SF stories at ordinary meetings (like dinners, cocktail parties …)
37. Put together fax numbers and email addresses of local news reporters and radio personalities. Send them relevant, topical information they can use . Don`t spam them.
38. Submit book reviews of SF books to press or write them on amazon
39. Provide support for local schools or other social organizations (eg setting up peer coaching or mediation for the schools) and let the press know about it
40. Donate SF books to libraries
41. Give your friends SF books for their birthday
42. Have genuine conversations
43. Contribute to non-SF forums and social media (e.g. entrepreneurs, social workers, self-help groups)
Learn effective communication:
44. learn what makes professional marketing and communication effective (e.g. good strategies for persuading people to listen to you, correct spelling, polite and friendly assertiveness …) – use your SF communication and listening skills but don’t forget that you also have a message
Connect to media:
45. Talk to your local press about your SF events
46. Connect to local radio and TV stations and let them know you are available for interviews on any number of topics that you can offer an SF perspective on
47. Do visible pro-bono work (for your school, community, etc.)
48. Write letters to the newspapers
Last but not least:
49. Translate and circulate this list
50. Add to this list (mail to kirsten@kirsten-dierolf.de)
51. Be the SF you want to see in the world
