Match Made in Heaven - African Rhythm and Solution Focused Coaching

Text by Aakusti Oksanen and Marika Tammeaid 
Ratkes magazine 1/2024

 

Best combinations are at the same time similar enough and different enough. When the pieces fit together and create a new dimension, something is created that did not exist before.

This builds the famous equation 1+1=3.

 

This article reflects on how the social action of the traditional African rhythm and the human basis of solution-focused coaching combine to empower and develop organisations.

We can think of African rhythm as a social reality builder and solution-focused coaching as working towards exactly the same goal - individual and community growth. They operate, as it were, in different registers, but towards the same goal. 

While rhythm coaching, which draws on the African tradition, uses music and sound through art and non-verbal communication, solution-focused coaching puts the tools of more traditional facilitation in a new perspective, emphasising people's own strengths and working towards a desired future.

African rhythm, as it works in the hands of griots (more on griots below), brings people into the same rhythm, and thus heightens the shared experience and can act as an effective stimulant to bring people genuinely present to the same theme. Solution Focused Coaching aims to ensure concrete outputs, results and small steps towards a better future for all. 

Both operate on the basis of daring and trust.

Without trust, there is no the common good and not the other objectives that combine the two: to be seen and heard, to look in the same direction and to build a common future.

Simultaneity and the Space for Renewal

In solution-focused coaching the 100% wakefulness of the coach is important, as he or she will have to follow and lead with questions up to 3-5 different topics at the same time.

Themes are simultaneous and partly overlapping and may be scattered in client's the mind and appear and combine in unexpected ways. Themes may also cease to be very relevant as a new larger theme or narrative emerges during the process. The coach can never know in advance with absolute certainty how the process will unfold. The best thing is to let go and listen to the themes that emerge - let the client's story carry the process forward.

Similarly, in building a common African-based rhythm it is important that everyone, especially the coach, is present and awake as many issues become intertwined as the process unfolds.

As we alternate between doing and reflecting, themes emerge and find a voice in new situations and registers, bypassing the established patterns of the work community. The coach is carried and carries along like in an Agatha Christie type detective novel, where failure and fumbling in the dark are allowed.

Often the biggest insights and breakthroughs take place through silent voices, asides and small remarks, with different people taking turns to speak. As with solution-focused coaching, we can never predetermine which comments will be important to the team or community as a whole.

Therefore, the best advice is: listen, listen, listen.

The starting point for coaching is the participation of all trainees. We are interested in people's OWN world, the hidden potentials and desired directions of growth that the process seeks to achieve, with a positive and supportive approach that brings participants into a safe atmosphere.

However, a safe atmosphere is not a familiar, everyday and already seen situation, because then growth and learning would not actually take place.

Daring to take a leap into the unknown and challenge oneself - to understand the role of one's own actions in creating a shared future - is crucial. Open interaction and building trust are also key to a successful session.

You never know at the beginning of a session how events in coaching - whether purely solution-focused or based on simulating a common rhythm - will unfold.

As human beings are often challenging complex entities in their own right, these community development tools, honed over time, aim to provide an understandable framework for the process.

In a state of renewal, impressive openings and maximum variation are allowed.

Simple Speech and Music as a Vehicle for the Word

Because both solution-focused coaching and training that draws on the social ingenuity of the African rhythm seek a genuine sense of empowerment and visibility, the language must be as simple as possible.

We avoid fancy fashion terms and speak directly from person to person.

Trust must be achieved in support, in working together and in involving everyone, so lecturing and dumping information on the participants is not part of a solution-focused and connection-oriented approach.

On the contrary, one must somehow be able to drop the preconceived definitions and the coach's own expertise almost completely and just - or rather "just" - listen and see what the participants have to say about their world. This avoidance of outside definitions also applies to leadership development and, in fact, especially to leadership development.

Modern leadership and management is not about asserting your own position and dumping decisions on your subordinates, but more about interaction, communication, presence, listening, helping, enabling and thus unleashing potential in the organisation. It should be noted that this does not exclude making difficult decisions and taking responsibility.

It's more about creating meaning through good interaction, even at difficult times.

West African community supporters, griots, do much the same as a modern leader.

Griots act as a social glue between people, helping the community to stay together, grow and look forward together. For them, music is a vehicle for the word. Music carries the words and meaning of a song, propels stories and tells of the past. One of the most fundamental sayings of the Griots' work is "Ambe Kelen" is djoula language and means "we are one".

In addition to being musicians, griots also act as mediators between disputing parties and as experts in rituals to improve bonds and connections between people. In Western terms, identity work is an essential part of the griot's way of working. They value the individual and his or her background, and say: 'if you don't know where you came from, you can't know where you are going'. The work of the griots is social, development-oriented and it brings people together. 

For the griots, African rhythm is a multi-purpose tool to call people together or to reinforce the identity of a professional group. The griots themselves as well as blacksmiths, shoemakers, farmers and many other professions have their own dances and rhythms. It is through these rhythms and dances that the professions distinguish themselves and create their own identity over and over again. The tradition is alive, growing, changing and renewing itself in the celebrations and rituals in which the griot's rhythms and music bring people together.

Although the West African cultural milieu is very different than our own, the griot, from a deeper perspective, is doing the same job as an HR professional, work-life and leadership developer, trainer and coach. By helping individuals and team members, the community or organisation is strengthened. When connections between people are improved, work becomes more meaningful and a shared identity, a sense of 'we', is strengthened. 

In the same way that a solution-focused coach is constantly looking for new good questions, griots, known for their outspokenness, are craftsmen of words and music, endlessly adapting their tools to the social situation. In this case, simplicity of words and rhythm serve to build rapport.

Simplicity is power both in assimilating the message and in co-constructing the message. The power and future of a community is always built on people. 

The Common Rhythm

In our common executions during the years, the African rhythm and solution-focused shake hands in a way that create a new surface of presence and encounter for people, themes and issues.

Experiential learning is an effective way to experiment, learn and adapt new together. It creates common ground for collaboration and shared growth. 

Common rhythm involves many processes occurring at the same time and in different ways, which can be exploited by allowing diversity and different perspectives. When people dare to be genuinely present, express themselves and share their experience of working together, both during a coaching simulation and in relation to their everyday work experience, a place and a position is reached where positive change can take place. In this way, individuals themselves look at the situation and issues through different eyes and when a basis of trust for sharing is achieved, the community, team and organisation can move forward in a meaningful direction.

A combination of African rhythm and solution-focused coaching provides more tools to deal with difficult issues in a meaningful way - together and effectively at the same time. They help leaders solve "devilish problems" because bringing understanding and connection between people moves organisations and people forward.

A modern and permissive village philosophy is enjoyed by all – and leading renewal requires finding a common rhythm. 

 

Aakusti Oksanen
Award-winning cultural researcher FM, SFiO certified solution focused coach, solution focused leadership coach HY+, speaker-trainer, Non Violent Communication trainer NVC, chief trainer of Paukepiiri drum circle leaders in Finland, award-winning percussion artist, entrepreneur in Drum Vision Ltd, and Talking Drum trademark holder
aakusti@drumvision.fi

 

Marika Tammeaid
HTT, resource and solution-focused long-term trainer-coach, learning designer, leadership and organisational developer
marika.tammeaid@finsight.fi