OSKAR Coaching Model

OSKAR Coaching Model
[Top]

The OSKAR Coaching Model is a solutions-focused coaching model. It was invented by Paul Z Jackson. Managers and coaches likes it because it’s easy and useful. The acronym OSKAR stands for

• Outcome — establish a “platform” (the current problem/situation) for change from which to coach.
• Scaling — establish where the coachee is already in relation to the platform.
• Kow How — establish what positives have given the coachee that rating.
• Affirm and Action — positive reinforcement of the keys strengths and attributes the coachee has revealed.
• Review — review progress against actions (this takes place at the beginning of the next coaching session.)

Outcome
[Top]

At this initial stage of the model the coach establishes a “platform” from which to coach: the coachee accepts her situation and her committment to change. This confirms that the coachee really wants to change. At the outset you are also clarifying:

• What the coachee wants to achieve in the future — this may be in the long, medium and short term.
• What they want to achieve from the session itself and how they will know it has been useful to them
• The Future Perfect: “Suppose that the problem vanished overnight – how will you know tomorrow that the transformation has happened? — How will others know? What will you be doing?”
  In other words the perfect scenario desired by the coachee is established. At this point the coach might ask miracle questions. Miracle questions really help the coachee strongly to visualise and in detail the desired outcome.
• What the coachee wants to achieve today.

Scaling
[Top]

Once coach and coachee have a common clear picture of the desired outcome of the coaching the coach establishs where the coachee is already in relation to this. Scaling Techniques (e.g. Scaling Dance, Scaling Highlights) which are also used in Agile Retrospectives are very useful to quantify this relation on a scale of 1 to 10.

• “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents the Future Perfect  and 0 represents the worst it has ever been: where are you on that scale today?”
• “You are at a particular number n on the scale now. What did you do to achieve this?”
• “How would you know you would have achieved your  next number n+1 on the scale ?”

Know How
[Top]

In the Know How stage the coach uncovers  the positives motivating the coachee to her rating by linking to the Scaling stage – what skills, knowledge and attributes caused her to say a 4 or 5 rather than a 0.

This stage is all about building up the coachee’s awareness and developing her confidence on the own strengths. At this stage the coach might ask s0 called systemic questions like:

• “What skills/knowledge/attributes do you currently have that will help you?”
• “When have you done this/something similar before?”
• “What would others say is working for you?”
• “What helps you to perform at level n on the scale, rather than at 0?”
• “When does the outcome already happen for you?”
• “What did you do to make that happen? — How did you do that?”
• “What did you do differently?”
• “What would other people say you are doing well?”

The Know How stage is really like “digging for gold”. — Plenty of time should be taken to establish the resources the coachee has available to her.

Affirm and Action
[Top]

In the Affirming stage the coach provides a positive reinforcement of what she  had heard. The coach reflects back positive comments about some of the keys strengths and attributes the coachee has revealed, e.g. “I am impressed with the knowledge you have in this are.” or “It’s evident from what you have just said that this is working for you.”

Action — this is about helping the coachee to determine what small action or actions she will now take.

• “What is already going well?”
• “What is the next small step?”
• “What would you like to do personally, straight away?”
• “You are at scale n now – what would it take to get you to n+1?”

Review
[Top]

This final stage of the OSKAR coaching model is for reviewing progress against actions and is therefore most likely to take place at the beginning of the next coaching session. The emphasis is on reviewing the positives:

• “What is (now) better?”
• “What did you do that made change successful?”
• “What do you think will change next?”
• “What effects have the changes had?”

Further Readings and Weblinks
[Top]