Scenario: Multiple Responses
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
Lots of statements are made in response to a question that was posed to everyone.
Tags: Action Leaning, Action Learning Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Kimberly Johnson
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As long as everyone is addressing the question that was posed I would let the team go forward. No need to intervene.
If they are not all in response to the question, I would ask, “What question are you answering?”
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Rachel Wang
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There could be different scenarios:
1. If the question is raised during problem framing phase, and there are comments may impact the consensus, I will intervene after everyone gets chance to response to confirm the progress on problem statement.
2. If the team continues posting comments instead of asking new question, I will intervene to let them know my observation and ask about impacting if stopping question.
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Gurpreet Bhatia
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As long as the statements are concise, relevant to the question and people are not over-talking each other, I will not intervene.
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Misbah Maqsood
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As far as the statements are in response to the question posed, i will not intervene. If the statements made are not in response to the question posed, i will intervene and ask “What question are you answering to?”
Also if the statements to the question posed, are being made for a significant amount of time, i will intervene and ask,” Now who has the next question?”
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Romila Chopra
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As an action learning coach I need to be mindful of the ground rules. As long as the statements being made are in response to the question being asked , I will not intervene. However , if the statements being made are not on point , I would intervene with the the question ” What question are you answering? “. If the statement is bringing in a different perspective , i would intervene with ” That’s a great idea , Could you put that in form of question ? ”
If I think that similar statements are being made , I would intervene with ” Who has the next question ? “
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Christophe GARS
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If the multiples statements are all focused on the question, I won’t say anything.
If the statements refer to different things out of the question topic, I would intervene by asking” What is your question ?” to the poser and “What is your answer to this question ? ” to the members who answered something which was not linked with the question.
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Alexandra Shevchenko
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If participants provide answers one by one moving the problem solving process forward, I won’ interfere and continue to observe. If I notice that there are active and passive participants, I will ask:
• How are we doing as a team?
• Why do you think it is important to get answers from each participant?
• What are we going to do about it?
• Who will ask the next question?
If answers to the problem holder’s questions sidetrack from problem solving process, I will ask:
• What do you think, whether you really answering the question asked?
If they say “No”, I will ask (both team and a problem holder)
• What further team’s actions would be most productive?
In addition, if team members provide multiple simultaneous answers in a spontaneous way, I will ask:
• How would you describe the effectiveness of a process?
• What are you going to do about it?
• Who will ask the next question?
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Mark Kookushkin
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• I would find a solution for this case based on the AL Ground Rules: “Statements can only be made in response to questions and anyone can ask and answer questions”.
• If participants’ answers are in line with the questions asked, I will continue to observe
• If answers sidetrack from the questions asked, I’ll ask: “What question are you answering right now?”
• If participants speak out at once, I’ll ask: “How are we doing as a team?” and then (if situation doesn’t change) – express my observations about what’s going on.
• If answers appear to be multidirectional, which makes team disoriented, I’ll ask: “How are we doing as a team?” and after short discussion: “What actions could be most productive for the team?” One of the probable options for this case is (based on my AL coach experience) – minimize number of questions “all to all” by focusing on targeted (to particular person) questions.
• After any action (decision) of a team, I ask a question: “Who will ask the next question?”
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Alexander Belov
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I would ask a question: “Colleagues! What question are you answering right now?” If team members clearly repeat initial question, I’ll ask: “How does it help the team?” If I get responses like “We are exploring an issue and we do have something to say”, I will proceed with observations.
If team members can’t recall initial question (despite many answers made before), I’ll remind a rule: “Statements can only be made in response to questions”. Then I will invite the team to start asking questions.
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Puja Vijay
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I think for concise helpful statements for the particular question, there shouldnt be a need to intervene. However, if the statements arent helpful in solving the problem, I would intervene by asking . What impact are the statements having? What can we do about it? Who has the next question?
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