Scenario: Missing Action
A team member did not complete the tasks that she had agreed to do at the session held last month.
Tags: Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning
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Andre Phillip
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I will ask the team the following questions: “What is the impact on the group, when members fail to complete previously agreed task?” followed-up by “What measures does the team wish to institute to prevent future occurrences of this situation by members?” and “Is the completion of the task critical to the teams progress (i.e. no work can be done without its completion)?” I will then allow the team to decide the way forward by asking “How would the team like to proceed, given its critical/ non critical nature to the team’s progress?”
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Gilda Salud
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I will tell the team:
1) “Team, a month ago, there were agreed deliverables that seemed to have not been accomplished.” I will ask the members: “Is this the situation where we are now?” I will wait for one or two members to confirm the current scenario.
2) If they say yes, my next question will be: “Team, how important is this task to us?” I will wait for members of the team to respond (i.e. the task assigned is really important/not important to the next steps of our action plans)
3) Then I will elevate the learning of the team by asking: “Team, what do you suggest we do if the task involved is very important/not so important to the next steps in achieving our targets?”
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Gretchen Smith
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I would ask the group “How does not having these tasks impact the group for today’s session?” How would the group like to proceed without the tasks being completed?” I would let the group decide, if there are areas that can still be discussed or worked on without these tasks completed, or if that session would need to be cancelled and rescheduled. I would ask to consider establishing a norm for dealing with incomplete tasks in the future.
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Isha Frank
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Firstly I would ask the group “How does this impact the group that one team member did not complete the task for this follow up session from last month?”, ” Would the group like to implement clear norms given the level of commitment of each team member in completing the problem or task?”. I will then give the opportunity for the group to respond and ask “If they are willing to continue the tasks without the information or if the group would like to postpone this session until everyone have the relevant information?”.
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Cheryl Chua
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I will intervene to ask the following questions:
1) How does this impact today’s session?
2) Team, how would the group like to proceed with the task not completed?
3) (Let the team decide) If they want to proceed without the completed task, “I will ask how they want it to proceed without the task completed”
4) If they will not want to proceed with the completed task, then I will ask when they want to conduct the session?”
5) How can we prevent this to occur again for the next session?
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John Nguyen
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As AL Coach, I will ask the team member:
From 1-10, what’s your rate for the level of commitment to your actions?
From 1-10, what’s your rate for the level of ability to complete your actions?
Base on the number of rating, I can realize where is the area of concern of the team member, whether she is lack of commitment or ability to complete the actions.
Then I can go deeply by asking what you need to do/or to receive to make it become 10?
How you can do it? and when you want to make it happen?
I hope these questions will help her to share the reasons insight that prevent her to take action.
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Irene Chia
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I will ask the team:
1) What are you noticing about the level of involvement in the programme?
2) How did this (whatever is surfaced) impact the team?
3) What can you do to optimise involvement as a team?
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annemartinc
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I agree with Gretchen and Cheryl. I would ask questions of the team and find out how they would like to proceed, rather than ask questions to or about the team member who didn’t complete the tasks. The team should be responsible for holding each other accountable, rather than the coach. I would also ask early in the session what they are doing well as a group and what can be better.
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lpwooten
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I would use this incident as a learning opportunity for the team and conduct an intervention for this “teachable moment”. The focus would be on the commitment to action learning and accountability for actions. During this intervention, I would use questions to address this issue, such as:
What is the quality of the team’s work?
How committed is the team to this action learning project?
What are the consequences of the team’s level of commitment?
How can the team move forward to be generative and productive?
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Havan Amin
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First of all, I would ask the team to ask the team member why she did not complete her task.
Secondly, I would ask the team if they are willing to give their team member some time to explain herself.
This is very important for team building. This will give all the team members a sense of humility. Like C.S. Lewis once said; “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”
Right after her explanation, I will ask the team members to let her know what they think of her reaction. In this way, future discussion and irritation on this subject will be minimal.
The last questions to the whole team will be: How did this impact the team process and how can you help each other in the future to prevent these things?
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Havan Amin
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***NEW, IMPROVED VERSION:
First of all, I would ask the team to ask the team member why she did not complete her task.
Secondly, I would ask the team if they are willing to give their team member some time to explain herself.
This is very important for teambuilding. This will give all the team members a sense of humility. Like C.S. Lewis once said; “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”
Immediately after her explanation, I will ask the team members to let her know what they think of her response. In this way, future discussions about and irritation over this subject will be minimal.
The last questions to the whole team will be: How did this impact the team process, and how can you help each other in the future to prevent these things?
Reply