As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
Just prior to the beginning of the meeting, the group is informed that a member has been asked by her boss to handle an emergency, and will not be able to join the group for the first 2 hours of the session.
If an emergency requires a team-member to skip a meeting or rejoin at a later time I would ask the group: “One team-member will join as soon as the emergency is resolved. (1) How will we deal with situations when a team-member is absent and or joins at a later time? (2) How can we assist an absent team-member to learn what the group did during the missed time?”
I think Philip’s approach makes a lot of sense. In any organisation, this situation is likely to arise so every meeting can’t be postponed or delayed as a result. It is also useful for the group to learn from this situation, and to build the group’s ability to cope with these situations effectively.
As an action learning coach, like Philipp, I will ask the team:
Team, as one of our members cannot join us for the moment, how should we proceed from here? How can we bring the member up to speed when he/she is back to join us?
This might be a perfect opportunity to have a double loop learning on effective communication. These are real situations and it can happen on a daily basis for some of us. Whether in meetings or debriefs, there are bound to be people who are not able to attend.
What is the consequence of someone joining later if we do not bring the person up to speed? What then can we learn about the importance of communication?
I agree with all comments that Philipp, Catherine and June have made. Other questions I would add are: What is the meaning of emergency in our organization? How to deal with the demands coming from people saying it is an emergency? What are the priorities for our team working with Action Learning sessions?
what I appreciated in Philipp’s questions is that we will be concerned with the situation but also with the solutions about how to integrate the team member again. Great!
Since the AL session has not started and the group has been informed that a member will not be able to join the group for the first 2 hours of the session, I will rather check with the group if they can afford to postpone the session to a later time or another day.
The assumption I made here is that everyone invited to attend the session will have a crucial part to play in terms of providing perspectives and their inputs for the session, and it would not be good for the group members to miss any of those perspectives or inputs which can help the group gain clarify on the problem. In addition, 2 hours is a lot to miss and it is not easy for group members to summarise what was asked and said during the 2 hours to level up the missing member to continue with the session.
Considering that missing member will not get to hear the PP’s problem presentation and the questions that were asked by group members, the body language or behaviours that the missing member could pick up if he/she is present at the session; the possibility of having group members feel that they become “tape recorder” having to update the missing member, I’m likely to highlight these issues to the group members and propose that they defer the session.
Great comments from everyone! They all seem right on the money to me. My experience has been that this scenario happens quite frequently. Processing this with the group through the questions already mentioned, such as: How will we deal with situations when a team-member is absent and or joins at a later time?
How can we assist an absent team-member to learn what the group did during the missed time? How should we proceed from here? – are all excellent.
Depending on the make-up of the group (i.e., are they all internal to a particular company?) I also like Cleo’s suggestion of asking what “emergency” means in the organization.
If the team made any additional ground rules when their team was formed, and participation was included in those ground rules, it might also be good to revisit those.
If having a particular team member was critical, for the team to be able to obtain useful outcomes to the problem, I would not start the session. If this is not the case I would suggest that the team works on the problem and the missing team member is included only if a follow up session is necessary. My reasoning would be that having a team member come in at a later stage is just as bad as a team member wanting to leave early. It has the same disruptive factor. I have coached a session were a potential team member indicated that they would have to leave early and as he was not critical to the team, I asked him to exclude himself from the session.
I definitely agree with all the comments that lead us to trust the team to decide how to handle the absence and re-integration of the team member. Also, I like the questions that focus attention on how we define an emergency as a group.
I would also ask some future oriented questions about what our guidelines should be in the future when a crisis pulls a team member away. What norms will the team agree to with regard to cancellations? Would it be appropriate for the missing person to send an appointed replacement for one session? How does a missing member impact our progress? How will absent members be informed of session outcomes? How can we inform our supervisors about the importance of being fully committed to the Action Learning process? and so on.
Good answers. We just need to be careful not to cross the line into telling them how to fix it. Many folks indicated they would ask how the team would get the late comer caught up. I’ve worked with teams that they realized the team member was not a vital part of the team and ask them to step off the team. I’ve worked with other teams that they have decided that the person could listen quietly until they caught up on their own. And I’ve worked with other teams where the decided a 5 minute recap would be good for the entire team. Each team needs to determine what will work best for them.
As coach my questions would be: We have a team member that will be 2 hours late – what is the impact on the team? How do we want to handle it? Based on what they say – my next question would be something along the lines – How will you make that happen?
I agree with fast all comments above. I will also ask the team : What is the meaning of emergency in our organization? How can we deal with this sitution under emergency?
As an Action Learning Team Coach, I will ask the team: “What’s the impact on our team performance when a team member is absent and or joins at a later time?”, then “What should we do, as a team, to continue the session without the attendant of this member?” and the last one about team learning: “What can we learn about with this situation under emergency?”
Philipp Werenfels
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If an emergency requires a team-member to skip a meeting or rejoin at a later time I would ask the group: “One team-member will join as soon as the emergency is resolved. (1) How will we deal with situations when a team-member is absent and or joins at a later time? (2) How can we assist an absent team-member to learn what the group did during the missed time?”
Reply
Catherine Breathnach
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I think Philip’s approach makes a lot of sense. In any organisation, this situation is likely to arise so every meeting can’t be postponed or delayed as a result. It is also useful for the group to learn from this situation, and to build the group’s ability to cope with these situations effectively.
Reply
June Ngan
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As an action learning coach, like Philipp, I will ask the team:
Team, as one of our members cannot join us for the moment, how should we proceed from here? How can we bring the member up to speed when he/she is back to join us?
This might be a perfect opportunity to have a double loop learning on effective communication. These are real situations and it can happen on a daily basis for some of us. Whether in meetings or debriefs, there are bound to be people who are not able to attend.
What is the consequence of someone joining later if we do not bring the person up to speed? What then can we learn about the importance of communication?
Reply
Cleo Wolff
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I agree with all comments that Philipp, Catherine and June have made. Other questions I would add are: What is the meaning of emergency in our organization? How to deal with the demands coming from people saying it is an emergency? What are the priorities for our team working with Action Learning sessions?
what I appreciated in Philipp’s questions is that we will be concerned with the situation but also with the solutions about how to integrate the team member again. Great!
Cleo
Reply
Jerlyn Tang
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Since the AL session has not started and the group has been informed that a member will not be able to join the group for the first 2 hours of the session, I will rather check with the group if they can afford to postpone the session to a later time or another day.
The assumption I made here is that everyone invited to attend the session will have a crucial part to play in terms of providing perspectives and their inputs for the session, and it would not be good for the group members to miss any of those perspectives or inputs which can help the group gain clarify on the problem. In addition, 2 hours is a lot to miss and it is not easy for group members to summarise what was asked and said during the 2 hours to level up the missing member to continue with the session.
Considering that missing member will not get to hear the PP’s problem presentation and the questions that were asked by group members, the body language or behaviours that the missing member could pick up if he/she is present at the session; the possibility of having group members feel that they become “tape recorder” having to update the missing member, I’m likely to highlight these issues to the group members and propose that they defer the session.
Reply
Gail Finger
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Great comments from everyone! They all seem right on the money to me. My experience has been that this scenario happens quite frequently. Processing this with the group through the questions already mentioned, such as: How will we deal with situations when a team-member is absent and or joins at a later time?
How can we assist an absent team-member to learn what the group did during the missed time? How should we proceed from here? – are all excellent.
Depending on the make-up of the group (i.e., are they all internal to a particular company?) I also like Cleo’s suggestion of asking what “emergency” means in the organization.
If the team made any additional ground rules when their team was formed, and participation was included in those ground rules, it might also be good to revisit those.
Reply
Bruce Graham
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If having a particular team member was critical, for the team to be able to obtain useful outcomes to the problem, I would not start the session. If this is not the case I would suggest that the team works on the problem and the missing team member is included only if a follow up session is necessary. My reasoning would be that having a team member come in at a later stage is just as bad as a team member wanting to leave early. It has the same disruptive factor. I have coached a session were a potential team member indicated that they would have to leave early and as he was not critical to the team, I asked him to exclude himself from the session.
Reply
Donna Christophersen
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I definitely agree with all the comments that lead us to trust the team to decide how to handle the absence and re-integration of the team member. Also, I like the questions that focus attention on how we define an emergency as a group.
I would also ask some future oriented questions about what our guidelines should be in the future when a crisis pulls a team member away. What norms will the team agree to with regard to cancellations? Would it be appropriate for the missing person to send an appointed replacement for one session? How does a missing member impact our progress? How will absent members be informed of session outcomes? How can we inform our supervisors about the importance of being fully committed to the Action Learning process? and so on.
Reply
DrBea
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Good answers. We just need to be careful not to cross the line into telling them how to fix it. Many folks indicated they would ask how the team would get the late comer caught up. I’ve worked with teams that they realized the team member was not a vital part of the team and ask them to step off the team. I’ve worked with other teams that they have decided that the person could listen quietly until they caught up on their own. And I’ve worked with other teams where the decided a 5 minute recap would be good for the entire team. Each team needs to determine what will work best for them.
As coach my questions would be: We have a team member that will be 2 hours late – what is the impact on the team? How do we want to handle it? Based on what they say – my next question would be something along the lines – How will you make that happen?
Happy Coaching
Bea
Reply
YANGBAODONG
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I agree with fast all comments above. I will also ask the team : What is the meaning of emergency in our organization? How can we deal with this sitution under emergency?
Reply
Vo Huu Loc
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As an Action Learning Team Coach, I will ask the team: “What’s the impact on our team performance when a team member is absent and or joins at a later time?”, then “What should we do, as a team, to continue the session without the attendant of this member?” and the last one about team learning: “What can we learn about with this situation under emergency?”
Reply