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Solution-focused coaching (OSKAR)

How can solution-focused coaching (oskar) support strategic choice or positioning?

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Contents

A strengths-based coaching sequence that defines the desired outcome, recognises existing progress and builds practical next actions.

Solution-focused coaching helps a coachee define a preferred future, recognise strengths already in use and build on what is working. OSKAR is a prominent structure within this tradition. Mark McKergow and Paul Z. Jackson adapted solution-focused ideas from the brief-therapy work of psychotherapists Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg for coaching and organisational change.

When to use it

Use OSKAR for developmental coaching, particularly when the coachee has a reasonably clear goal and already possesses some experience or ideas that can support progress.

Origins

McKergow and Jackson developed solution-focused coaching by translating principles from de Shazer and Berg’s brief therapy into workplace conversations. The approach shifts attention from prolonged diagnosis of a problem toward the desired outcome, existing exceptions and small actions that the coachee can own.

What it is

OSKAR stands for:

Outcome
Scale
Know-how
Affirm and Action
Review

The stages create a constructive conversation without implying that the coach supplies the answer. The coachee identifies the destination, notices current capability and chooses the next experiment.

How to use it

Outcome: establish the difference that the coachee wants to see and consider what relevant colleagues or stakeholders would notice. Looking beyond personal preference helps connect development with the working context.
Scale: ask the coachee to rate current progress toward the outcome on a 0–10 scale. A score above 0 recognises that useful movement may already have occurred. Coaching does not need to recreate a beginning when the person has already started.
Know-how: if the coachee places themselves at 3 or higher, explore what they have done to reach that point. Identify behaviours, resources, relationships and exceptions that can be repeated. Starting from evidence of progress is often easier than facing a blank page, even if later rework is needed.
Affirm and Action: acknowledge specific strengths or effective choices that the coach genuinely observes. Then help the coachee choose small actions that extend what has already worked. Because the underlying ideas come from the coachee, the action is more likely to feel credible and owned.
Review: discuss what is better and what has changed, rather than treating progress as a simple pass-or-fail outcome. Reuse the scale where useful, identify what produced movement and decide what to continue or adjust. Recognition of progress can strengthen motivation toward the larger result.

Final analysis.

OSKAR differs from more traditional structures such as GROW and CLEAR by placing the preferred future, strengths and existing exceptions at the centre of the conversation. It draws on established solution-focused therapeutic practice while remaining a developmental coaching model rather than a substitute for clinical care. Its positive emphasis can create energy and agency, provided the coach does not ignore material constraints, risk or harm that requires direct attention.

Top practical tip

Ask what is already working and what made it possible before designing the next action. Existing success provides evidence the coachee can use.

Top pitfall

Do not force positivity or bypass a serious obstacle. Solution focus should expand agency, not silence evidence of risk, structural constraint or a need for specialist support.