成为一个“两者皆是”的实践者

　　焦点解决的一个重要的主题是，将其他治疗方法看作是单独的、独特的、不可调和的概念，选择和行动连接起来。焦点解决的实践者通常将这个主题看作是对“两者皆是”方法的采用，与他们形成对比的是“非此即彼”方法。这些实践者进一步解释“两者皆是”方法，即在构建解决方案、增强客户的创造力、开始改变等方面允许更大范围的可能性。这一主题在焦点解决实践者的教学和写作方面特别明显，注重交互性技术以帮助客户在生活中采用“两者皆是”方法。　　

然而，“两者皆是”方法的另一个层面很大程度上被焦点解决的实践者忽视了。包括“两者皆是”方法发展以及欣赏社会生活和人际关系的矛盾与不确定性的能力。“两者皆是”方法承认生活在终极意义上来说存在无法解决的矛盾以及未来是不可预知的。尽管如此,我们仍然需要去影响我们生活的方向。“两者皆是”方法鼓励我们学习和欣赏适应生活的矛盾和不确定性。　　

我认为焦点解决顾问忽视“两者皆是”方法的这个方面是很遗憾的。它限制了从业者和组织客户之间的对话未知的可能。例如，我在与取代我作为我们大学部门领导人的对话中注意到了这个限制。这种中层管理职位在所有大学等级结构中都充满了矛盾和不确定性。我们发现我们的谈话技巧和策略不足以满足我们的想法。我们还需要一个理论背景来解释矛盾和不确定的情况。

我意识到许多实践者对于“理论”持怀疑态度，尽管许多人拥护维特根斯坦的理论和社会建构论。在我看来,问题在于焦点解决的实践者是以非常受限制的方式来使用“理论”这个词的。他们用它来描述结构的方法，分析背后的原因和问题的条件，但是这个词同时也适用于共享的理论、语言以及导向。如果这样定义理论，焦点解决的实践是具有理论依据的。

这个定义还指出了焦点解决的实践者如何使用词语理论构建“非此即彼”方法，也就是去选择究竟是焦点解决实践者还是理论家。成为“两者皆是”实践者需要放弃这种社会建构，并用一种新的东西取而代之。这就是为什么其他观点在组织生活中对焦点解决实施者是有用的。对我来说, Ralph Stacey (2001) 及其合作者 (José Fonseca (2002), Douglas Griffin (2002), Patricia Shaw (2002), Philip J. Streatfield (2001))的著作在复杂的反应过程中形成一个有用的开始，以讨论“两者皆是”方法和欣赏矛盾和不确定性的影响。

　——高德明焦点解决高效教练督导团队译编

附：原文　

Gale Miller

Constructing the Roots of Solution-Focused Practices

This essay builds on the metaphor of a tree, which includes a trunk, branches and roots. The trunk is the center of the tree and it connects the tree’s branches with its roots. The trunk and branches are easily observable to passers by, whereas the roots are usually hidden below the ground. We could, of course, observe the roots by digging up the tree but that risks doing damage to the tree. So, most of the time we content ourselves with only imagining what trees’ roots look like and what the roots connect trees to. This essay is such an imaginative project. I discuss some possible connections between solution-focused ideas and practices, and a related approach to organizational change.

I offer no evidence for my claims. How could I? I am writing about connections that I have never seen and that may only exist in my imagination. Nonetheless, I see this exercise as a useful way of moving discussions of solution-focused ideas and practices away from the past and toward the future that will be different than the past and present. I challenge solution-focused practitioners to take seriously their assumption that change is an ever present aspect of life. Just as these practitioners encourage their clients to actively and imaginatively shape the direction of change in the clients’ lives, so I encourage the practitioners to do the same for themselves.

I use this essay to celebrate the accomplishments of Steve de Shazer and other creators of the solution-focused approach, many of whom are members of this organization. I admit that my way of celebrating is different than other approaches that focus on the observable branches of solution-focused practices and ideas. The branches connect with Wittgensteinian philosophy, Ericksonian and strategic therapies and other recognized influences on the work of early solution-focused brief therapists. I treat the solution-focused approach as a social invention occurring within a particular historical environment, one that early solution-focused brief therapists shared with other people working on related projects around the world. The solution-focused approach is a simultaneous invention with the other complementary inventions that also challenged conventional wisdom in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. These inventions are the roots of solution-focused practices for me.

Becoming a both/and practitioner

An important theme within solution-focused discourse involves linking concepts, choices and actions that others treat as separate, distinct and irreconcilable. Solution-focused practitioners often characterize this theme as adopting a “both/and” orientation and they contrast it with an “either/or” approach. These practitioners further explain that the both/and approach allows for a wider range of possibilities in constructing solutions and enhances clients’ creativity in initiating change. This theme is especially evident in the teachings and writings of solution-focused practitioners that focus on interactional techniques intended to help clients adopt both/and orientations to their lives.

But there is another side to the both/and orientation that is largely ignored by solution-focused practitioners. It involves the potential of developing a both/and orientation that takes account and even appreciates the paradoxes and uncertainties of social life and relationships. This side of the both/and orientation acknowledges that life includes contradictions that are not resolvable in any final sense and that the future is unknowable. Nonetheless, we must still try to influence the direction of our lives. This side of the both/and orientation encourages people to become comfortable with the paradoxes and uncertainties of life by learning to live with and appreciate them.

I believe that solution-focused consultants neglect of this aspect of the both/and theme is unfortunate. It limits what is possible in conversations between the practitioners and their organizational clients. For example, I noticed this limitation in my conversations with the person who replaced me as head of my department at my university. This mid-level administrative position is filled with paradox and uncertainties created at all levels of the university hierarchy. We found that our conversations about techniques and strategies were inadequate for our purposes. We also needed a theoretical context for interpreting paradoxical and uncertain situations.

I realize that many solution-focused practitioners are skeptical about theories, even though many embrace Wittgensteinian theory and social constructionism. As I see it, the problem is that solution-focused practitioners tend to use the word theory in a very restricted way. They use it to characterize structural approaches that analyze the hidden underlying causes and conditions of problems. But this word is also used to refer to shared assumptions, shared use of language, and shared orientations. Using this definition of theory, solution-focused practice is informed by theory.

This definition also points to how solution-focused practitioners use the word theory to construct either/or situations in which they must choose between being solution- focused or being theorists. One aspect of becoming a both/and practitioner, then, involves rejecting this social construction and replacing it with something new. This is where other perspectives on organizational life can be useful to solution-focused practitioners. For me, the writings of Ralph Stacey (2001) and his collaborators (Jose Fonseca (2002), Douglas Griffin (2002), Patricia Shaw (2002), Philip J. Streatfield (2001)) on complex responses processes form a useful starting point for talking about the implications of a both/and orientation that takes account of and appreciates paradox and uncertainty.

学习、练习、实践、反思、督导，是一个SF取向工作者的快速成长之路。敬请期待下期分享。