Scenario: Identical Actions

Written by DrBea on . Posted in WIAL Talk

As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation: During a Single Problem Action Learning that will last for multiple sessions, the coach reminds all team members a few times that they have to think about the actions they will commit to at the end of the session, in preparation for the follow up session. When the coach asks for the actions at the end of the session, several people have listed the same or nearly identical action.

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

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Comments (5)

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    Nabih Jabr

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    If there is enough time, the coach can ask open ended questions about this, such as: why do you think everyone is listing the same action? Are there alternative actions? Imagine if this action does not yield the desired result, what else could be to done to solve the problem/achieve the goal?

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    Agnieszka Olczak

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    I would ask questions about what other options do we have? What would be the ideal state and what can be done to get closer to it? To what extent have we exhausted the possibilities of action? It is also worth asking the group how they perceive the situation when many people give the same actions?

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    Raul Rodrigo Vega Chavez

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    Given that it is a multi-session problem, I think it is a good idea to try to bring the team to a point of creativity once you visualise the repetition of questions, perhaps by guiding them to: What actions can you take in your role in the organisation? Think about who in the team you would need to take action with to open up some solutions, and how would you do it? Do you think there is something we are not seeing about the problem?

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    Tala Ocampo

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    What: “How are we doing regarding the diversity of our actions?”
    So What: “How could this impact the quality of our solutions?”
    Now What: “What can we do differently?”

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    Barbara Bruska

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    Generally, if a team sees almost identical actions, they see a coherent solution to the problem. However, to be sure and confirm the diversity, I would ask a question “I see that you list similar actions, do you see it too?“, “What consequences does this have for solving our problem?“ and finally “How do we want to deal with this?“

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