Scenario: Action refusal

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation: A participant is asked to take an action and declines because they know they do not have time to complete it.

Tags: Action Learning, ActionLearning Coach, Team Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk

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Comments (11)

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    Prasad Natarajan

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    I will ask, what is the impact of this action to make sure that we have achieved what we wanted to in this session?
    What can we all do to ensure that we do take the actions we agreed to take?

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    Maria Fachado

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    If this is the first time is happening I would acknowledge the participant for being honest upfront and then ask to the group: What is the impact for this action not being completed? if this is a critical action for the group to be able to move ahead, I would then ask: What can be done to ensure this action is completed prior the next meeting? (maybe it is a matter of allocating additional time between the sessions or maybe is something that can be done by another team member, the group would need to decide what is the best way to move ahead)
    However, if this is a recurrent pattern, and I perceive low commitment with the process, I would ask the group – How are we doing as a team on following up with our actions? and What is the impact of this for the group? and finally, what can we do better as a team on this regard?

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    Thanh Nguyen Thi Hai

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    As the Action Learning Coach, I will use the SID intervention Model and ask the member by following questions:
    1. On a scale of 1-10 how do you feel we are doing as a team ?
    2. What are we doing well ?
    3. What we could do better?
    4. What is the impact of this on the team ?
    5. How do we want to handle it ?

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    Ethan Sanders

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    I would ask the participant “what do you think will be the consequences of not taking this action?” After they respond I would ask the group “are there smaller, less time-consuming actions that the problem owner could take that will help reduce the impact of not implementing the entire action?” I’d probably then follow-up with “what resources could the problem owner leverage so that he/she could potentially accomplish the action without dedicated too much of their own time?” If all of this failed, then I agree I would ask the group “what impact does it have on us as a team when we agree on actions for addressing the problem, but we can’t implement the suggestion?” and then “what could we do better next time to ensure our solutions are practical and can get implemented?”

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  • Avatar

    Thanh Nguyen Thi Hai

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    As the Action Learning Coach, I will use the SID intervention Model and ask the member by following questions:

    1. What made this member decide to refuse to act ?
    2. How much time does this member specifically need to take to take action?
    it is a matter of allocating additional time between the sessions or maybe is something that can be done by another team member, the group would need to decide what is the best way to move ahead.
    Then I would continue to ask whole team:
    3. What is the impact of this on the team if one member refuse to participate ?
    and finally I would ask team
    4. What can we do better as a team on this regard?

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    Kant Srithundorn

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    I will recap team in the purpose of Action Learning session, and ask team what beneficial for individual, team and organization that will take from Action Learning.

    Then, I will ask each person again in what he/ she will take an action after the session (I will ask other person who surely has action as I heard in the session before). Then I will ask the person who said they do not have time.

    If he insist that he does not have time, I will ask him specifically, what is your next task or work you are going to do. And ask the person do you want team to support for creating action you will take? To let team support for the solutions.

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    Kant Srithundorn

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    I will ask the participant “How do you make sure you can apply the competencies that you have chosen in your lives or works?” If the participant still refuses to answer, I will turn to ask questions to other team members “ From the Action Learning Session today, how they can apply those competencies to their lives or work?” as a standard sequence.

    Then, I will ask the team “What will be the impact if we do not take action after the session?”

    In the end, I will ask a question,
    “What do you think that we could do better in the reflection part?”
    “What thing we could do differently?”

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    Anna Czarna

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    I would ask what the group would say? What opportunities do they see in this situation for the task to be completed by the next meeting? Then I would ask how do they see the balance in the distribution of individual tasks among the team members?

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    Pamela Shea

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    As the Action Learning Coach, I would ask the group:
    How they felt the solution was ? What was good about it?
    What are the barriers? It may lead into another action learning event related to a new problem of time management or time allocation. Ask the team if they want to take a break and begin a new session.

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    Ngoc Phuong Ngan Nguyen

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    As an Action Learning Coach, I will intervene by asking a couple of question to that members as follows:
    1) Could you please let our team know some of the specific reasons that you decline the tasks?
    2) If you can handle the time at your best, how many percent of assigned tasks you can handle?
    Then I would continue to ask whole team:
    3) What will affect the whole team performance if one member cannot complete their assigned tasks?
    4) What should our team do to solve that problem? Can we discuss and find out the solution?

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  • Avatar

    YI-CHEN WU

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    I will intervene by asking
    “How does this action impact to your team goal?”
    “What did you learn based on this decision?”

    Reply

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