1. The NOAM 7 steps approach (Visser & Schlundt Bodien,
2013) is our simple way to describe some of the basic
elements of the progress-focused approach. The order
of the steps often works well but is flexible, depending
on the unique characteristics of the conversation.
The seven steps are:
The seven steps are useful in contexts such as
coaching, self-coaching and team coaching.
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2. 1. Desired usefulness
2. Desire for progress
3. Better future
4. The platform
5. Earlier success
6. Small step forward
7. Experienced usefulness
Here are some examples of questions for each step:
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3. 1. Desired usefulness
 How can we best use our time for you?
 How would you notice afterwards that
that our conversation was useful to
you?
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4. 2. Desire for progress
 What would you like to become better?
 What is bothering you?
 How does it bother you?
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5. 3. Better future
 What would you like instead of your current
situation?
 How will you notice that your situation will
have become better?
 What will be better when your problem is
solved?
 Imagine, it is x months later and you are
satisfied with your situation. What is better in
that situation? What will you be able to do in
that situation?
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6. 4. The platform (establishing what is already there)
 Imagine a scale from 0 to 10, on which 10
stands for the situation as you want it to
become and 0 for the situation in which you
not accomplished anything yet. Where are
you now on that scale?
 What is already there between 0 and your
current position?
 How did you manage to get to where you
are now on the scale? What worked well?
What else helped?
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7. 5. Earlier success
 When have you experienced that what you
want to achieve has already happened to
some extent? How did you accomplish that?
 When were you already higher on the scale
than your current position? What is the
highest position you have been at? What
was better? How did you manage to do that?
 Was it useful to talk about this?
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8. 6. Small step forward
 What small step forward can you think of?
 What small step could you take tomorrow?
 How will other people notice you will have
taken that small step?
 How can you build on what has worked
before?
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9. 7. Experienced usefulness
 Has our conversation been useful to you?
 What was most useful?
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10. © 2013
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omMusic: Coert Visser & Dirk-Jan Smid