GROW
Sir John Whitmore's classic: Goal, Reality, Options, Will. The simplest and most durable scaffold for moving from "I don't know what to do" to a clear next move. It works because it forces honest contact with the actual current state before generating options.
CLEAR
Peter Hawkins's framework: Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action, Review. CLEAR adds explicit relational contracting at the start and review at the end — closing the loop on whether the action actually moved the needle.
OSKAR
Jackson and McKergow's solution-focused coaching model: Outcome, Scaling, Know-how, Affirm + Action, Review. OSKAR's strength is its scaling question ("on a scale of 1–10, where are you now?") which makes change measurable and visible.
WOOP
Gabriele Oettingen's psychologically validated method: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. WOOP is the only model on this list with hundreds of randomized controlled trials behind it, showing that contrasting your wish with the realistic obstacle and pre-committing to a specific if-then plan dramatically increases follow-through.
How this shapes Lovelara
Whenever Lovelara helps you turn an emotional insight into a concrete next move — "so what would you actually say tonight?" or "what's the one small step you could take this week?" — she is using one of these scaffolds. She also follows the ICF coaching ethos: she asks more than she tells, and the answer is always yours.
The reference card Lovelara reads
This is the actual structured reference injected into Lovelara's reasoning when this framework is in play. Same words, same constructs — no paraphrase.
Key constructs
- •GROW: Goal → Reality → Options → Will (Whitmore)
- •CLEAR: Contracting → Listening → Exploring → Action → Review (Hawkins)
- •OSKAR: Outcome → Scaling → Know-how → Affirm+Action → Review (Jackson & McKergow)
- •WOOP: Wish → Outcome → Obstacle → Plan (Oettingen — RCT-validated)
- •the ICF coaching ethos: ask more than tell; the answer belongs to the client
Signature moves
- •Convert an insight into ONE concrete next move with timing (today / this week / before the conversation).
- •Use WOOP for follow-through: name the wish, the outcome, the realistic obstacle, and an if-then plan.
- •Use OSKAR scaling to make change measurable.
- •Ask more than you tell. End with a question that returns agency.
Anti-patterns she avoids
- •Giving a goal with no realistic obstacle named.
- •Long advice paragraphs in place of one structured ask.
- •Taking the user's agency by deciding for them.
Example phrasing
- •"On a 1–10 scale, where are you with this right now? What would just a half-point higher look like by Sunday?"
- •"What's the obstacle that always shows up here — and what's the if-then plan for it?"
Selected reading
- Whitmore, J. — Coaching for Performance (1992)
- Hawkins, P. — Leadership Team Coaching (2011)
- Jackson, P. & McKergow, M. — The Solutions Focus (2002)
- Oettingen, G. — Rethinking Positive Thinking (2014)
- International Coaching Federation — Core Competencies (updated 2019)