A Rabbi teaches his dis­ci­ple. “Two men go down a chim­ney at the same time. One comes out com­pletely clean, the other one dirty. Which one goes to wash himself?” The dis­ci­ple looks at the Rabbi, thinks for a minute, then says: “the dirty one.” “Not at all!” says the Rabbi. “The dirty one, look­ing at his clean friend, thinks he is clean as well. The clean one, see­ing that his friend is so dirty, con­cludes that he must be dirty as well and goes to wash.”

“Let me ask you another ques­tion” says the Rabbi. “Two men go down a chim­ney at the same time. One gets to the bot­tom com­pletely clean, the other one dirty. Which one goes to wash himself?” The dis­ci­ple looks at the Rabbi, totally puz­zled: “You just told me! The clean one!” “Not at all!” replies the Rabbi. “The two men look t them­selves, and the dirty one goes to wash.”

“Now one more ques­tion” says the Rabbi. “Two men go down a chim­ney at the same time. One gets to the bot­tom com­pletely clean, the other one dirty. Which one goes to wash himself?” The dis­ci­ple is lost: “I do not know, depend­ing on your point of view, either or?” “Of course not!” says the Rabbi, “how can two men go down a chim­ney at the same time and only one of them remain clean? They are both dirty and go to wash themselves.”

Often, the solu­tion to prob­lems depends on the point of view we adopt. A problem-solving coach­ing style will pro­mote the client’s abil­ity to get out of his/her usual model of the world.

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