Scenario: Butting in

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation: Someone answers a question that was asked of someone else.

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

Trackback from your site.

Comments (9)

  • Avatar

    Kwan Leong Lee

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, I will let the person answer the question and see whether the person who was originally being asked will answer the question next.

    If not, I will intervene and ask, “Since this question is directed to you, would you like to answer it as well?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Saravanan Palaniappan

    |

    As an AL coach, I would observe the response following this situation. Will allow the question be answered and later intervene to ask if the person directed to would like to answer. Would ask the group if there’s any learning in this and would they be comfortable with such situation.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Ngoc Phuong Ngan Nguyen

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach, I will handle this situation as follows:
    – If this is the first time that someone answers a question that was asked of someone else: I will let that person answer first then observe the person who was originally being asked (called as A), if A tends to answer, I will follow the flow, if A skips that question then I will intervene to ask “Hello Team, I heard a question for A but I observed that A has not given the answer, could you please to let team know your opinion?”.
    – If this is the second time that someone answers the question of someone else, I will intervene before that person answers, I will ask “Hello Team, I heard a question but I am concerned that this question is for a specific member or is for any members in our team? Can team let me know?” then I will direct the question to the assigned member.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Monika Pawłowska

    |

    I’d intervene to organize the discussion.‎
    Team, how would you assess cooperation in the team using scale ‎from 1 to 10? How would you assess participation of all of you in the ‎discussion from 1 to 10 and why? If the team doesn’t come to ‎conclusion that there should be an order in taking voice in the ‎discussion and allowing to answer the question by the person it is ‎directed, I’d ask:”: how would you assess taking voice in the ‎discussion by all of you? What could we do to organize the discussion ‎even better? What could we do to organize giving voice in the ‎discussion even better? What rules of taking voice do you want to put ‎in life? What learnings could we take out of this situation?‎

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Monika Pawłowska

    |

    As an Action Learning trainer
    I would intervene to organize the discussion. I would ask a few questions, for example:
    1) How do you assess cooperation in the team on a scale? Please rate the cooperation on a scale from 1 to 10?
    2) How do you see all of you participating in the discussion?

    If the team does not generate a solution on how to organize speaking, interrupting or interfering, I would ask about:

    1) What can you do better to strengthen cooperation?

    2) What conclusions can we draw from this situation?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Magdalena Lemanek

    |

    I will let this person (butting in) to share the response and observe what will happen next. Maybe the person asked will take their turn and respond. If not, I will ask about the situation by intervention: “Look, the question was asked to Person X, Person Y responded and Person X not at all. Neither of you reacted to it. How does it influence our work?” And Then: “What would you like to do about it?” “How will it influence our futre work?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Danel Trisi

    |

    In the moment, if this is the first time it happens I may let it slide but make a note of to bring it up during the next intervention. If I notice that the person jumping in was intentional to ensure that the person who was actually supposed to answer cannot, then I would interrupt quickly and ask the question asker, “Who that question was directed to?” If I wait until the intervention, then I would ask the following questions. “How well are we doing directing questions to specific persons or the group at large?” “Why is it important that we are clear in stating who the question is directed to? “What can we do as a team to ensure we are clear in directing our questions to individuals or the group at large?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Zhang xinlei

    |

    I would ask, “How would you evaluate the level of our team cooperation? Based on a scale of 1-10 points, what would be your point?” … “In terms of team cooperation, what did we do well? For the following discussion, what can we do better?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Dr Debra Clary

    |

    I would do a check in with the team asking them, “How would you evaluate the level of our team cooperation? Based on a scale of 1-5 points, what is your rating?” … “In terms of balanced discussion , what did we do well? Then, what can we do better?”

    Reply

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.