Over several sessions, one of the members has disappeared for long periods of time and/or is frequently on his blackberry. During a standard intervention (what are we doing well /what could we be doing better), he was vocal in stating that he wasn’t convinced about the AL approach. He said “We’re all professionals here and are used to solving problems. I’m aware of the deadline for our presentation and we could make more progress without this approach if we could just all freely state our thoughts.” Others in the group stated that they felt the approach was helping the team and that the organization had failed to solve this problem three times in the past. Other team members also thought the team could do better coming to consensus more quickly and they agreed on an approach to experiment with. However, the “disgruntled” team member’s behavior continues. After a recent session, just as she is leaving the room, the coach overhears a few members who have remained behind talking about how upset they are with this team member’s behavior.
The members were enthusiastic to help the problem presenter and asked many good questions. However, the problem presenter commented it’s confidential info. and would not answer some of the questions. Members felt they were not able to help the problem presenter much if their questions were not answered and they could not see the value of action learning in this instance. But the problem presenter felt the session was useful to him in addressing his problem. In this case, what should the coach do to help the team to move on…?
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
The group has been processing particularly well, but it has been more than 30 minutes since the last intervention.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
You have two problem owners for your project. You assume that the problem owners have coordinated the presentation of the problem for the kickoff session. As soon as one starts to present the problem the other interrupts with a very different view of the problem.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
A team member asks if you have any suggestions on how to solve the problem.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
Listening to the team you realize an obvious question they are missing. If they would just ask “blah blah blah” the true nature of the problem would become clear to everyone.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
During an intervention you ask “How are we doing taping all the knowledge in the room?” A participant says “We are asking questions and (s)he is answering them – isn’t that the rule?”
hi all
I am wondering how you might determine if there is a point in a group, particularly a 1st time group, where the number, frequency or duration of interventions for learning opportunites become counter-productive to the groups performance? That is, the coach must decide to let some learning opportunities slide rather than pick them up straight away. I look forward to your insight or experiences.
Ross
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
A participant asks the problem presenter a question that starts “Do you ….” The response is “no blah blah blah blah blah blah blah ….”
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
At the start of the session you ask everyone “if they are ok with the rules” instead of “if they understand the rules” – someone says “no”.
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.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
The team is attempting to analyze the problem situation in a search to identify the one key variable that they can influence or change to create movement in the direction of their established goal or end result. They are debating the relevance of only a few factors and seem to be ignoring the probability that the problem situation was caused or is perpetuated by multiple factors.
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
Every time the team seems close to getting to consensus a question is asked that takes them someplace else. You realize there are two levels that are being looked at – some participants are focused at a single group level (How do I address this with my group?), others at a corporate level (How do I address this with all groups?).
As an Action Learning Team Coach how would you handle the following situation:
The team is involved in generating a number of alternative perceptions, ideas, opinions, facts, etc. The team focuses on only one (e.g., debating their merits or validity) and omits other items from explicit consideration.