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Ignore the basics at your peril!
My purpose in writing this paper is to share with coaches the absolutely critical first
steps that must be followed in establishing a successful coaching business. Not
addressing these essential basics practically guarantees failure, as many potentially
great coaches have unfortunately experienced.
Read More
Ignore the basics at your peril!
My purpose in writing this paper is to share with coaches the absolutely critical first
steps that must be followed in establishing a successful coaching business. Not
addressing these essential basics practically guarantees failure, as many potentially
great coaches have unfortunately experienced.
Read More
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
A member stands during a session continuing to stay engaged with the problem solving.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The session has been going for a long stretch and participants start stepping out to use the bathroom.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The team in a single problem action learning set asks questions to the sponsor (the boss). In addition to answering the question, the sponsor talks about the context, history, options, ideas for solutions, etc., etc. As coach, you’ve asked the boss – “what question are you answering?” The boss indignantly says that one. You ask what was it? He says – “I don’t know.” This happens with each question regardless of whether it is closed or open. The team members are uncomfortably aware of this high power distance (respect for authority) and say it’s ok.
I would ask the problem presenter if they agree that what the team is saying is actually the problem. I would then ask that the group focus during the next segment on asking questions related to that problem. I would give them a decent amount of time so that they don’t rush, and by asking questions I think they will uncover underlying issues.
Time for an intervention! If the team is going around in circles, the questions they have been asking aren’t getting answered to anyone’s satisfaction. I would ask the team what they think they are doing well and what needs improvement, and I would myself answer the latter (after they have had a chance) by saying I think they are asking the same questions over and over. I would note these questions and ask the group why they think no one has been able to answer these completely as yet, prompting them to think about these questions from a new perspective. Then I would ask them to see if they have agreement on the problem, and we would move on to the next segment.
This poses an interesting problem. This shows me that the group’s suggested actions were not clear enough, and the group needs to come back together again to further refine and clarify the actions. I would call a quick session for the group to do this — maybe 45 minutes. We would start with the actions that we finished the last session with, and show that the new problem is that the problem presenter does not feel they can take these actions on their own. This would hopefully lead to teamwork and delegation, or it would lead to a simplification of the actions.
One of the keys to Action Learning is the diversity of thought that the group brings to problem-solving. If one person does not want to participate, I would first try to talk to this person individually and find out why, and see if, as a coach, I can find a way to help this person see the value in their participation. If this does not work, I would look at the size of my group — if the group is big enough to move ahead without this person, I would do so, and ask this person to stay and observe so that they might better understand Action Learning and hopefully participate in a different session. If we do not have enough people to go ahead, I would have to cancel and find another willing participant.
This shows me the group is working really well together. I would let them work for a few minutes longer, and then intervene, asking them what they think the group is doing well and what the group can work on. This would allow them to focus on their building questions, followed by a clear look at what everyone thinks the problem is. Hopefully the build of questions is getting everyone on the same page about the problem and this intervention will help them see that.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
A member of the team does not want to participate.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The participants have asked some very powerful questions and are clearly building on each others questions.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
After the actions are defined the problem presenter asks for help implementing them.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
A participant is convinced of the true nature of the problem and repeats the same questions over and over in an effort to persuade the others, even after others have made it clear that they do not believe that is the real problem is. They believe that what this particular participant is advocating is just another symptom.
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The team members are starting to ask the same questions over and over again.
Ground Rule #1
If there’s anything a WIAL Action Learning coach remembers from their certification program, it is the power of WIAL’s Ground Rule #1: Statements can only be made in response to questions (and anyone can ask a question to anyone else). This ground rule is what makes WIAL Action Learning so powerful, and so different from other forms of Action Learning. A coach starts each session with a reminder of both ground rules, to ensure the team members are aligned with the rules necessary for a successful Action Learning session. And then, off we go !Who has the next question ?
For sure the session starts off with a few questions (and sometimes a bit of hesitation) followed by some answers. All is good: Ground Rule #1 in full swing! Yet very often, and very quickly, questions tend to get longer. Some questions are preceded by an “introduction” or explanation about the question that is about to follow. “John, it seems that there is a bit of something going on and also maybe something else, so my question is, how do you feel about this ?” Or a question is followed by some sort of elaboration, as if the question needs to be put in perspective, clarified or expanded upon. When “because” slips into a question, the person asking is in fact about to answer their own question. “So Susan, how do you feel about this situation, because it seems from what you said earlier that something but maybe it could also be that there is something else ?”. At some point, I used to intervene about “long questions”. “Team, are we asking more short questions or more long questions ? What is the impact if we ask this or that kind of question …?”. It took me a while to realize that there are no long questions.