Scenario: Finally

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation: A team member finally asks the question that you knew would bring the whole situation to light. The rest of the team responds but is confident that’s not where the real problem lies.

Tags: Action Leaning, Action Learning Coach, WIAL, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk

Trackback from your site.

Comments (13)

  • Avatar

    Ray Liu

    |

    As an action learning coach, I would say “I observe that some team members’ perspectives are not considered carefully enough. Did someone observe that?” If yes, then I would further ask “Why this happened? What’s the result? What we can do better?”.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Patrícia Ansarah

    |

    As an Action Learning Coach I would hold my judgment and would trust the process and the group’s ability to deal with that question at that moment.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Maria Teresa Guanzon

    |

    This happened to me in a 2-part AL engagement. In Session 1 (S1), after a few more Q&S (Questions & Statements), I intervened and asked “what do we notice about all the responses, thus far” secretly alluding to group-think which, members upon reflection realized on their own. While the right track was not completely pursued for the rest of S1, I left it at that. One week later/after days of reflection and action-taking from S1 + my having consolidated in 1 sheet of paper each member’s stated problem statement from S1, the right track jumped right out at them. For the rest of the S2, they pursued the track yet were comfortable enough to question and seek clarification from each other while allowing themselves to also reflect and then build on what others have put forward.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Savin Oeun

    |

    Let the team decide by asking question “what is our situation right now, and how can we do better?

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Savin Oeun

    |

    Being as a coach, I would intervene by questioning “Hi Team, what if your that your question will bring the whole situation to light? Then how can we do better?”

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Hua(Grace) Pan

    |

    As action learning coach, I only intervene when there’s an opportunity for the group to learn. If the group chose to easily disregard the minority voice, I may intervene in their reflection ” I noticed A’s question is easily disregarded by majority of you, what happened” “what could be the impact”… On the other hand, if the group thoroughly discussed and chose that way, I would believe the process would work. I have one client case where similar situation happened, and the group formed a relatively shallow problem definition in one session. And then in the next session, they found their way back and reconsidered the question raised.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Arlene McComie

    |

    As the AL Coach, I would seek the appropriate time to intervene and seek consensus from the team. I will ask each member of the team to take a minute and write down, concisely their understanding of the problem, and then ask each one to read what they had written without explanation. Given the responses, I would ask the team if they were of the view that they had moved closer to understanding the real problem and how they wanted to capture it. I would give them five minutes to do so. Once consensus had been reached on the real problem…….I would then ask “who has the next question” and continue the session.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Kamila Sobel

    |

    According to this rule
    “Action Learning Team Coaches demonstrate and model their belief in the ability of the Action Learning Team to solve the problem(s) without the involvement of the coach.”
    I would believe that the solution that they have worked out is the best possible at this moment.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Jiang Jie

    |

    First of all, I will first put away my judgment.
    Then ask: “I have observed that the team has not reached an agreement, have you observed it?”, “How do we resolve inconsistencies?”, “What is the impact of this solution? “, and “What are we going to do?”.
    Finally, I can also ask questions: “What do you find about our team in this situation?”, “How do we do better?”, and “How do we know that we have done it?” These questions give the team a deeper reflection and awareness.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Karan Kathuria

    |

    As the Action Learning coach I would not make a judgement. My role as a coach is to make sure that the process of Action Learning is followed the right way. I trust the process and will let the group proceed with the discussion. The group might not instantly realise it but I’m the confident that process of Action Learning will bring the best solutions to light.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Jessica McWade

    |

    I would not introduce my personal opinion into the proceedings even though I may believe that, finally, this was the right question to ask. On the other hand, I want to be attentive to the fact that the group seemed to disregard the question and move in other directions. I’d want to observe body language, too, to understand whether the questioner is being ostracized for some reason and see if this patterns continues.

    I would not ask any questions at the moment and as others have said here, I’d trust the process. If there is a continuing pattern of moving past questions and perspectives without due consideration, however, I’d ask the group that I’m observing that some questions and perspectives are not being fully considered, whether others are seeing this and, if so, what the group wants to do about it.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Lai Yin Yong

    |

    As a AL coach, I will not introduce my personal opinion but to intervene to promote learning opportunity. Hence I would ask the team ” Team, how are we doing? did we reach a consensus on a real problem? If the answer is no then I would further ask” Team, I observed that there is a question asked by one of our team members that is much different from the rest, do you recall the question?’ ” Would you like to review again since it is unique to the group?’ I will leave the decison to the team if thwy wish to continue or to review again the question.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Kim Nguyen

    |

    In this scenario, as an action learning coach, here is how I would handle this situation:

    1. I could ask team members to rate the usefulness of the question on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 represents poor and 10 represents excellent.
    “We have 20 minutes left. How should we utilize this time based on the answers provided?”
    “What other factors could be contributing to the situation that we haven’t considered?”
    2. If the team identifies potential underlying problems, guide them in making decisions. I can inquire:
    “Which of these problems do we want to prioritize and address first?”
    3. Reflect on Learning: Conclude the session by facilitating a reflection on the learning process itself. Pose questions to the team, such as:
    “What did we learn about the situation?”
    “What strategies or techniques were helpful in exploring the problem?”

    Reply

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.