USING FUTURE QUESTIONS TO MOVE CLIENTS TO ACTION,
A ONE DAY WORKSHOP TO DEVELOP QUESTIONING SKILLS

A recent research study* among senior HR Managers has shown that career development initiatives can significantly increase the retention of high calibre staff. Outplacement services have clearly given many managers leaving their employers the support, guidance and personal insight, which have enabled them to find roles that suit them far better. The irony is that had career planning and development programmes been offered before they left they may have become winners in their old organisation.
*Corporate Insights Ltd London, October 2000

CCS professional skills development workshops are designed to build the quality of the career management programmes you are offering. They include:

  • reports of best practice
  • consultations to develop the quality of your programmes
  • discussion and professional supervision of current cases
  • opportunity for practice and feedback of key skills beyond the 'core' level

This one day workshop will refine and develop your skills to challenge your clients to move forward in their thinking and visioning, and thus any action they consequently take. The skills will be relevant in any of the following situations:

  • individual career counselling
  • coaching
  • development planning
  • mentoring
  • career development workshops

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a 'what now?' phase with clients? In spite of taking stock (ie completing the "who am I?" and "what do I want?" stages of the career counselling model), the client seems unable to move onto action, decision making or resolution.

Future Questioning is based on a number of principles:

  1. It is our image of the future which guides current behaviour
  2. The questions we ask set the stage for what we find
  3. Such questions link to an appreciation of what is or has been good in the client's present or past.

Objectives of theWorkshop

  • To appreciate the value of future questioning
  • To feel confident to use 'future questioning' appropriately with clients
  • To be aware of different kinds of future questioning approaches
  • To know the PAGODA© principles of future questioning
  • To receive practical supervision and guidance on career counselling situations you are finding difficult or challenging
  • To know more about other unblocking techniques drawn from 'solution focussed' approaches.

What can future questions achieve?

  • They can empower clients to imagine their own future and create possibilities for future 'contexts' to be attained
  • They bring the best of the past and the present into the future
  • They enable clients to gain more clarity and precision about what they want for the future and how to get it
  • They get clients to describe their future in behavioural terms
  • They can prepare clients to make the changes they want more realisable

Programme

The day will include case study discussions, and tutor guided feedback on the use of future questions and other relevant techniques. Demonstrations will be given by tutors and you will have the opportunity to address real issues in the practice sessions.

Who for?

The workshop is open to graduates of the CCS Core Skills Career Counselling Couse, and others with equivlalent experience and/or qualifications. If you would like to clarify whether the workshop is suitable for you, please contact us at CCS.

Tutors

Tutors will include Robert Nathan, Eric Decker and Gilly Freedman, all career counsellors with CCS and tutors on the CCS Core Skills Career Counselling Course. The tutor-to-participant ratio will be 1:4 to ensure that you receive sufficient attention and feedback.

Career Development Programmes Making them work

Please complete the separate Application form if you wish to attend.