Scenario: Taking Notes
As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:
During the session you realize no one is taking notes.
Tags: Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Joi
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Remind the group that you will be asking the problem presenter on what actions he/she would take and it would be good that he should note them down.
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Linette
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I would ask the group – “I notice that no one is taking notes. What would be the impact to future follow-up sessions for action taking if no one is taking notes?”
I could also ask the problem presenter if he is alright with no one taking notes since the Action Learning Coach is there to help the group learn and not to dictate whether notes be taken at all.
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bkknox
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As the AL coach I would say, I noticed that no one is taking notes. How might the group like to keep track of the ideas being discussed?
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Hans van Buijten
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I would remind the group that learning is one of the main goals of Action Learning. I would ask the group who wants to take notes so that new insights and perspectives are recorded. Suggest that the observers could do this, especially the singular and new learnings.
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AlexWalker
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I would wait to see how having no notes impacts the group – see what they say and ask about it. If they need notes, someone in the group will ask about them and the group can determine if they want a note take/set of notes. I’ve not had to intervene with a question, the group has felt the need and addressed it.
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Hans van Buijten
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I would remind the group that learning is one of the main goals of Action Learning. I would ask the group who wants to take notes so that new insights and perspectives are recorded. Suggest that the observers could do this, especially the singular and new learnings.
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DrBea
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Remember as Action Learning Coaches we only ask questions. We want to raise the situation to awareness, ask about the impact, and ask how the team wants to handle it. After first giving the team a chance to self identify the behavior.
It is by adding the impact and know what questions that we see significant change in teams.
After asking the 3 standard questions – How are we doing as a team on a scale of 1 to 10? What are we doing well? What can we do better?
If the lack of note taking wasn’t mentioned, I’d follow with –
I’m hearing some great ideas here – How are we doing capturing them?
Why is it important that we capture the ideas the team is generating?
How do we want to capture these ideas?
Happy Coaching
Bea
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Heather-Jane Gray
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Couldn’t improve on this Bea (thank you!) – especially the reminder that as AL Coaches we should only ask questions. I’d also be observing the presenter, who may be jotting down potential actions to take or asking another member of the group to capture them. After all, it is the presenter who needs to take accountability for action towards the solution.
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Tiffany Maurycy
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Bea – said with ease in a positive tone, open to possibilities lead by the team.
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wthimmes
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I would state, “I notice that no one is taking notes of the meeting. Why is it important to docuemnt your discusion, reflection, and decisions as a team? How does the team want to proceed?”
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Guntoro
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I will remind Team about our goal, to solve a problem, by asking question, “Team, do you think that our discussion is going to right direction which is to find a solution?” If Team say yes, then I will ask, “How do we measure wether one question has already been discussed satisfactorily?”
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Owen Yeung
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This is an interesting one. If there are a number of issues being discussed, this would usually lead to a lack of focus. Team members will be dragging from here and there and tend to lose directions easily. Last time when I encountered this, I asked the team during an intervention what are some of the key issues we just identified? Then some members found that they get lost. And then I asked the team what will be a more effective way of capturing the key issues so as to ensure we won’t miss anything.
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Sophie Bryan
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I would first off remind the team the purpose of the session- to help XX with their problem. I’d then ask them, “what do you think is important in terms of helping XX come up with some actions?” If they don’t respond with note taking, I’d ask a further questions- “do you think it’s important that ideas and notes and captured?”- hopefully they’d say yes, and i would then ask the group how they would like to proceed. If they respond no, I’d probe deeper, asking “why might it be important to take notes?”or “how could XX be helped by capturing the discussion?”
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Denise Locke
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If I observed that the lack of note taking was during a point in the problem solving where lots of ideas were coming up I would intervene and say to the group that I am observing lots of ideas are being put forward and ask if they want to capture them in some way? If they said yes I would ask them how they wanted to capture them. I have prepared the rooms in the sessions I have done so far with a flip chart and markers, pens & papers so materials are available. If the group are not ready to start capturing ideas then In would leave them on this point and take them back to the next question. I would consider intervening again if lots of solutions started coming out again that seem like they may be valuable to the group and ask again if they want to start capturing them. I think it’s up to the coach to identify that they may want to start note taking but it’s up to the group to decide if they actually want to do that.
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Justin Li
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i shall evaluate the impact to the energy of team first, and if i feel the impact will be negative, i would like to interven, “team, i observe that on one is taking notes, what’s the impact to the team if we continue?”, if they aware that take notes is necessary, ask them how would we improve it?
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Eric Yang
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Since taking notes in paper is not a must ,it’s free to take or not.
if coach realized that the team looked like not so structured ,may ask:
What can we do to support our ideas into action plan?
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Cynthia Kitagawa
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I would do an intervention and ask the team “How clear is our collective understanding of the situation?” Assuming they recognize that they lack clarity and common focus, I would ask, “How might we capture our ideas to move toward common understanding?”
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Chongli Tian
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我会先进行观察以确定不记笔记是否对团队讨论造成不良的影响，比如重要信息的遗漏，过往共识的忽略，需要反复澄清等低效行为表现。如果出现了，我会进行干预，向团队提问说，大家对研讨的效率和进展是否满意并请每个人打分。从而让团队自己发现问题，并提出改进行动。改进行动中，可能会包括要记笔记。
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Nanda Oomen
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The trick is to bring the learning needs of the team to the consciousness of the group as a coach. You always do this by asking a question. The question that can be asked here is: How do you think it goes with the recording of agreements? But you can also say, for example: I see that nobody makes notes. Do you see that too? What matters is that you, as a coach, turn your observations into a theme and turn it into a question that activates awareness in the group. Awareness that is about: “How do we do it as a group now? Do we want to keep it that way or adapt? In your question formulation you choose words and a style that fits the group at that moment. What is important in this case is that it is not very clear whether or not the group chooses to take notes. The point is that in their learning process they jointly make conscious choices for setting up their cooperation and start experimenting with what works and what does not. The ALC’s questions should stimulate this. The answer to the question of what has to be done in the case is up to the group. Not to the coach.
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Delia Peixoto
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The process of action learning has only 2 ground rules and any other must be decided from the group. If the group did not agreed previously that they would take notes of what is being discussed, probably i would not make any intervention. But, if i have the “feeling” that it is a lack of dispersion at the team, and not taking notes is like the symptom, i could ask: “From 1 to 10, how we are behaving as a team? What we are doing great? what we can do better?”
If the team does not mention the “taking note”, i would continue the process and keep making intervention related to the process and targeting learning opportunities.
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Allen Tillman
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As an Action Learning Coach, I would intervene with the following questions:
– A major aspect of Action Learning is finding innovative solutions to complex problems, as a group how are we capturing those solutions?
– I’ve heard great questions and statements, as a group how are we capturing this information?
– Question to the group, how are we doing documenting our observations? (okay or not okay)
(Okay, who has the next question?)
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Min Zhao
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I agree on the standard 3 questions first. If no one mentions the note-taking, I would intervene by asking the questions that you have listed. I like the part that you mentioned the benefit first such as “A major aspect of action learning is finding innovative solutions to complex problems.” to set the stage for common ground. I would also like to add after “I’ve heard great questions and statements”, what is the best way to capture these ideas so that we can build on them for our next discussions? Happy coaching!
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Mackenzie Farrell
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I’ve observed that a lot of group members assume the coach will be the one taking the lead and therefore taking notes. On the contrary, it is important to ensure the coach is intervening with opportunities for learning, while the group members are responsible for working through the problem. As the coach, I would ask the group, “there are some great points being made and some good learning taking place, how are we going to make sure we don’t lose them?” and turn it over to the group members to take responsibility.
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Aleksandra Lemanska
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I would refer to giving feedback at the end of the session regarding training leadership skills and ask:
– how are we doing in memorizing examples of training chosen leadership skills?
– why is it important to give feedback using specific examples?
– what can we do to make sure that we don’t miss anything important regarding giving supporting feedback at the end of the session?
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Renata Czajkowska
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During the intervention I would ask:
– how can we enhance the learning process?
– how can we capture the ideas generated in our session?
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Michelle Gagui
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I will call their attention (intervene learning opportunity and apply SID). And I would ask question to all team members (including the problem presenter) to ensure that they need to realize taking notes – especially on the action steps are important.
I like the question – posted by Renata Czajkowska “how can we capture the ideas generated in our session?”
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Joanna Lee
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I’ve observed such a scenario happen because everyone was so excited to talk about a common problem they faced. Reflecting on this, I would have intervened earlier than later (after many opportunities for the team to document great questions and insights flew by).
I would remind the team: Team, let me remind you that at the end of the session, I will be asking you to share how you demonstrated your leadership competency and to encourage one another with feedback on how they practised theirs. What would you do to help yourselves share effectively/meaningfully later?
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Erna van Ophem
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That’s up to the members. More important is they are active listeners who ask questions which go beyond, to deepen out and to get to the so called ‘understream’ (emotions).
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Vicky Glanville
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I would ask the team how they think they are performing as a team – rate it 1-10. If they don’t identify that they are not taking notes, I say ‘i notice that no one is taking notes, how do you think this is affecting the performance of the team and how this may impact the problem resolution’
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Debora Pelegrino
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First of all, I would remind the group that learning is one goals of Action Learning. After that, I will do an observation like “I notice that no one is taking notes. ” And a question: ”Who notice that? ”
And then I will do a question like: “What, as a group, we gain if we take notes?”
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Cherry Ge
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I will let team confirm whether they already had the alignment what the problem is. If they don’t have the alignment, I will ask, how can we do better? This is a learning moment, l will catch it and to show the impact without taking notes.
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Yen Le Thi Hai
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As an AL coach, I will observe the team and their work first. If the discussion is going to be dis-structured, I will intervene with questions, depending of the context:
– Team, how are we working now? How did we progress during the last 10 minutes?
– How are key ideas captured? What will we do for even better?
If the team feels comfortable to working without taking notes and progress anyway, I will step back. However, in case that they go again to another dis-structured discussion, I will intervene by the different way:
– I notice that nobody do the notes taking, who else notices that? How did it impact to our work now? And how does taking notes can support to the performance/ discussion of our team in next step?
When the team can stop and find this as a learning opportunity, they will successfully focus back to the main streamline. The role of AL coach is to facilitate such learning opportunity when occurred.
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Tran Le Quynh Nga
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As a coach, I would like to help our team members to realize they dont takes notes and would forget all at the end.
I will intervene the team as follow:
“Hi team, at the end of this session, each of you will have the action plan as well as share the feedback on how we as well as our team member’s demonstrated our leadership capability. How are we memorizing these to share at the moment?”
Then: “What will happen if at the end, we do not remember any at all?
and finally “What are the ways to help us remember all the important points of our action plan and capability demonstration detailed?”
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Rohini Chopra
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I would ask the team how they feel they are progressing as a group? I would ask how they are tracking their ideas and learnings. Would end the intervention with at the end of the session I will ask the problem presenter to read out the action points to be implemented.
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SUNISA PHUMPAKA
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I will intervene them “Let me remind everyone of your leadership competency , remember to practice it , Do everyone take note of example sentence that you practice you Leadership skill ? Yes ? or No? I remind that at the end of session, I will ask each of you to share how you have been practice our leadership competencies .
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Kathy Zou
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As AL coach, I will observe and let the team to work on their for a while. I may bring this up in the pulse-check session, asking the team a specific question like “how do you think the ideas were captured in past 10 min? “, especially if the team is working on an organization problem. For an organization problem, the problem is supposed to be owned by the whole team not only problem presenter so the ideas and actions come up in the session need to be clear to all. So I would intervene such a situation more specifically. However, if the session is on individual topic, I might take more lighter approach and just ask the general pulse-check questions such as “how do you think you did in past XX minutes? ” “what might be done differently” etc. I thought it’s up to coach to notice the need for note-taking and bring this up to team’s awareness that no one is taking the notes. I will leave the team to decide if they will take the notes or not.
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xu li
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I would find a proper chance to get involved. In order to find out whether the team need to take a note or to make decision by the Coach himself, I would the ask the team what topics were mentioned in last stage. If the team recall it clearly, we continue; if they couldn’t, we can have discussion about the necessary of take note and what needs to be written down.
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Surawut Dudsdeemaytha
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Usually, in the session I always prepare pen and paper in the room because team members may forget to bring it with them. However, if this happen I will intervene them using these questions
“Team how are we doing now?”
“What will happen if we can’t remember what PP was said?”
“Do we agree that it would be better if we take note?”
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Joop van Nierop
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I have read all contributions so far with great interest. Thank you for this.
I am in favor of the participants not taking notes during the AL session. I believe that distracts attention from the question raised and disrupts the concentration for asking the right questions. The participants of my team no longer use paper for taking notes in their daily activities. They use a tablet or (larger) smartphone instead. If messages arrive on their tablet or smartphone, it is highly distracting. So better not to take notes during the session. But formulate a problem statement at the end of the session in order to give the problem presenter the right start for tackling the problem. At that time, the tablet or smartphone can be used for this.
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Phi Angelina
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I would like to help our team to realize they don’t take notes and would forget all at the end, and I will ask the group:
– There are some great questions being done, and some good learning is going on, how can we be sure we don’t lose them without taking notes?
– What will affect the team if we constantly give out ideas from answering questions?
– If taking notes is necessary to document solutions for personal learning, how to improve it?
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Delong Chai
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Intervene: Team, what is the impact to the effectiveness of our learning if we just listen? What should we do to increase the effectiveness of our learning?
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Prasad Natarajan
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My intervention will be
1. I notice that none of the team members are taking notes.
2. What is the impact of that on remembering and reflecting on all learning points at the end of the session and thereafter?
3. What would the team like to do about it?
4. Who has the next question?
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Thao Vo
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Coach will help intervene and remind the team to realize that taking notes is essential for feedback on the performance of each member at the end of the session. Coach intervenes by asking questions. In the question, Coach will give out what each member needs to do at the end of the session and ask the team what to do to best do it
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Maria Moro
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I am observing the team movement and no one is taking notes. Is that a problem for you?
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Calixto Salud Jr
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As part of the learning component of Action Learning, I will remind the group members that they have to demonstrate the competencies that they have chosen and they they will give feedback to others as well on how each has manifested their respective chosen competencies. I will likewise throw this question to them, “What will they do to help them remember how each member has shown their competencies?”
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Krist Kroopasa
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I will intervene:
1. Team! How better we take notes while doing action learning?
2. Why we need to take notes?
3. What will happen to the learning if we have good notes?
4. How do we take better notes?
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Sharifah Azizah Haron
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Inspired by Bea’s spot on but neutral and positive tone in her intervention approach, I would choose to ask the following questions “Team, let me remind you that I will be asking each of you for feedbacks on how you have been practicing your leadership competencies and actions going to taken by the problem presenter after this session. How are we doing in capturing ideas for our feedback? If no one mention note taking, I would pose a question proposed by Bea {Thank you], that is “I am hearing great ideas here – how are we doing in capturing them?” and nudging them for their commitment by asking this follow up question, “Team, What can we do better?”
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Justyna M
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I would do an intervention and start directly with my observation:
“I noticed that there is a lot od discussion happening and ideas presented. How are we capturing them?”
The team might just notice at that point that they should note sth or someone could say that they are already noting the necessary stuff.
If no one thought of capturing anything so far I would ask a follow up question:
“do you think it’s worth noting what is being discussed?”
I think this kind of situation does not need a long discussion, point out my observation and see what the team wants to do about it.
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SITI AMIRA SHUKOR
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As a coach, I will asked – Does everyone agree with the problem statement? How about the participation so far? Is there a way for us to capture the ideas from the team?
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Anna Burda
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I would wait until the moment where we ask questions: “how are we doing as a group?”, “what are we doing well?”, “and what could we do better”? perhaps they would have figured out that the notes would make the job easier. And if they did not work out such a solution, I would ask the problem presenter a question: “from what I hear you already have a lot of information collected – Kasia, would it be easier for you if someone would take notes?”
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Rosie Dao Hanh Giang
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Intervention:
– Hello team, I notice that no one of us taking note. Has anyone observed that?
(Team answer)
– What is the impact of this on the team?
(Team answer)
– How do we want to handle it?
(Team answer)
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Mike Mustafa
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As the coach I would ask for a pause and ask why participants are not taking notes. How might the group like to keep track of the ideas being discussed?
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