Scenario: Consensus
As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:
The team is having trouble reaching consensus on what the real problem is.
Tags: Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Don Chan
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It can comes to the normal dialogue: the team to rate the scale of the team performance, have each participants to write down the problem and ask whether they reach the consensus. If these are not successful finally, I will intervene by asking the process questions below.
Assume all participants are doing their best to clarify the problems. I would ask “what have the team done in order to understand more the presented problem?”, followed by “what should we do more/ less so that we can reach the consensus?”.
If the situation is really worse, I will ask the problem presenter to break the problems into smaller parts, otherwise the team may feel too complex to carry forward.
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Ismady Norsyam Ishak
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As a coach it is important to do quick team check.
• Team in the scale of 1-10 what are we doing well?
• Are we close to the problem? Yes or No?
• What can we do better? Give them some time to progress and getting them to write down the consensus
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Alex Wong
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Depending on the scenario, I would take two approachings.
If the lack of consensus is due largely to ineffective discussion and we have more time, I would ask help the team one or two of the following questions to address:
– Team, how are we doing as a group? How can we do better?
– Team, on a scale of 1-10 how open are we to each others’ opinions and inputs?
– Team, on a scale of 1-10 how close are we to a concensus? What can we do better?
If we are running out of time, I would address how the team would like to proceed. For example, if there’s only 1 out of 8 team members who seem to be consistently disagreeing, I may ask:
– Team, we have 7 out of 8 of you who have agreement, how would you like to proceed?
– Team, we have 10 mins left till the end of the session, how would you like to proceed?
The team could very well decide to extend the time, have more sessions, or agree to proceed based on the agreement of the 7 pax. But ultimately, it is the team who must decide and take responsibility for the decision.
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DrBea
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After the standard 3 questions: “How are we doing as a team on a scale of 1 – 10?”, “What are we doing well?”, and “What can we do better?” and attempting to write it down – if we were still are not in agreement, I would ask “What would help us get to agreement?”
Some potential questions I might ask are:
What do we mean by consensus?
What other tools do we have that would help us get to consensus?
Are we hearing themes? How might we want to process those themes?
Happy Coaching
Bea
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wthimmes
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I would try to reverse their thinking. I would ask them all to write down individually what they feel the problem “isn’t” By changing their perspective I would hope to pull consensus from some commonalities in how their new answers reveal certain trends in how they are scoping the problem statement. Then I would ask them to write a revised statement of what the problem is. Bill,
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Owen Yeung
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If consensus cannot be made on what the real problem is, I’ll ask the team to do a pulse check of 1-10 on how far they feel we’re now from the real problem. From there, invite team members to reflect and come up with the next steps. I’ll also what do they observe with regard to different interpretation of the problem and how does this impact on them? The team may decide whether to continue with the conversation (and for how long?) or they may wish to rephrase the problem statement to achieve better alignment.
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Changguang Zou
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I agree with Alex. Before we lean in, we should find out why the team cannot reach consensus, and how much time remain. Commonly, I prefer to ask the team”‘On a scale of 1-10 how close are we to reach concensus ? What can we do better?” The team will make a decision whether to extend the time and how to improve during next session of discussion.
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Nancy Frazier
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As the Action Learning Coach, I would intervene and address the working group with the following questions:
How are we working as a team? What are we doing well? Are we being concise with our questions? Are we nearing agreement, yes, no or close enough? On a scale of 1-10, how close are we to arriving at consensus? What can we do better? What would help us to reach agreement?
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Stephanie Brown
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I would follow the script-If yes or Close-Okay, let’s continue. And in another _____ minutes…..
If no (one or more no’s) What would help us get to consensus?,,,,,,
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Shelly Gilmore
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I’d follow the standard intervention, followed by the question from the script, “What would help us move towards consensus on the problem?”
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Arnaud van Dijk
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The team must have the opportunity to come to a consencus. As a coach, I would ask the team the following questions: On a scale of 1-10, how close are we to arriving at consensus? What can we do better? What would help us to reach agreement?
After this intervention I will give the team extra time to come to a consensus. If this does not produce the desired result, the session can be stopped and a follow-up session can be planned.
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DENISE DUMAS-KOYLASS
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As Action Learning Coach, I understand that creative and innovative problem solving can be a slow process. I also understand that there must be agreement on the problem before the group can proceed to the next stage. I would therefore intervene by asking a number of questions:
To each participant:
• How are we doing as a team – okay or not okay?
To the group:
• What have we done well thus far?
• What could we do better?
• What is the quality of our questions?
• Are we building on each other’s questions and ideas? Examples?
To the Problem Presenter:
• What questions have been the most helpful?
To each participant:
• What would help us get to consensus?
I would then let the group know in advance time allotment for problem solving and resume the session by asking “Who has the next question?”
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Mongkol Othavorn
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As a coach, I will ask the team the following questions:
– Team how rating team performance is scored between 1-10. please rating
– Have each team member write a problem statement and summarize the keyword
– Have team members read their statements and keyword to all member
– Ask the team from the given keyword, how will the team decide?
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